All AP Psych Terms

Psychology

The science of behavior and mental processes.

Structuralism

An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind.

Functionalism

School of Psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish.

Nature-Nurture Issue

Longstanding controversy over if genes and experience relate to the development of psychological traits and behavior - interaction of nature nurture.

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic

How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts.

Behavioral Perspective

How we learn observable responses.

Biological Perspective

Branch of psychology that studies links between biological and psychological processes.

Evolutionary Perspective

How evolution influences behavior tendencies.

Cognitive Perspective

The scientific study of all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating information.

Socio-Cultural Perspective

The study of how situations and cultures affect our behavior and thinking.

Humanistic Psychology

How we meet our needs for love and acceptance and achieve self-fulfillment.

Biopsychosocial Perspective

An integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis.

Clinical Psychologist

A psychologist who studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.

Psychiatrist

A medical doctor that provides medicine dealing with psychological disorders; often providing medical treatments as well as psychological therapy.

Industrial-organizational Psychology

The application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces.

Human Factors Psychology

The study of how people and machines interact and design of safe and easily used machines and environments.

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. Also known as the 'I-knew-it-all-along' phenomenon.

Critical Thinking

Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions, yet discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

Theory

An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.

Operational Definition

A statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables. Ex. human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures.

Replication

Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic findings extend to other participants and circumstances.

Case Study

An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in hope of revealing universal principles.

Survey

A technique for asserting the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group.

Population

All the cases in a group being study, from which samples may be drawn.

Random Sample

A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.

Naturalistic Observation

Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.

Correlation

A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus, of how well either factor predicts the other; detects relationships between variables; does not say that one variable causes the other.

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical index of the relationship between two things (from -1 to +1).

Scatterplot

A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents values of 2 variables.

Illusory Correlation

The perception of a relationship where none exists.

Experiment

A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental processes.

Random Assignment

Assigning participants to experimental or control groups by chance, thus, minimizing preexisting differences between these assignments to different groups.

Double Blind Procedure

An experiment procedure in which both the research participants and staff are ignorant about whether or not the participants have received the treatment of a placebo.

Placebo Effect

Experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent.

Experimental Group

In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.

Control Group

Not exposed to treatment in an experiment.

independent Variable

The experimental factor that is being manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.

Confounding Variable

A factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment.

Dependent Variable

The measurable effect, outcome, or response in which the research is interested.

Mode

The most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution

Mean

The arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores

Median

the middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it

Range

The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.

Informed Principle

An ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.

Debriefing

The post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions to its participants.

Neuron

The basic building block of the nervous system.

Cell Body

The cell's life support center.

Dendrites

"Receiver" part of the neuron, consists of branched fibers that accept most of incoming messages.

Axon

Neural impulses are passed away from the cell body to other neurons, muscles, or glands.

Myelin Sheath

Layer of fatty tissue that insulates or protects the axons of some neurons and helps speed up their impulses.

Glial Cells

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons.

Action Potential

A neural impulse caused by a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.

Refractory Period

A period of inactivity after a neuron has fired.

All-or-none Response

The axon either fires or does not; stronger stimulus may trigger more neurons to fire.

Synapse

The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons.

Reuptake

A neurotransmitter's reabsorption by the sending neuron.

Agonist

A molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, stimulates a response (copycat).

Antagonist

A molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, blocks a neurotransmitters function.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

The brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body.

Nerves

Bundled axons that form neural "cables" connecting the CNS with muscles, senses, and glands.

Sensory (afferent) Neurons

Transmit incoming info from the body's tissues and sensory organs to the brain's spinal cord.

Motor (efferent) Neurons

Transmit info coming from the brain to the muscles and glands, causing movement.

Interneurons

Make up CNS and communicate internally between the sensory inputs and the motor inputs.

Somatic Nervous System

The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles. Also called the skeletal nervous system.

Autonomic Nervous System

The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division srouses its parasympathetic division calms.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy.

Reflex

A simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response.

Endocrine System

The body's slow chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream.

Hormones

Chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissues.

Pituitary Gland

The endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands.

Lesion

Tissue destruction; a brain lesion is a naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Test that measures the magnetic fields your brain's electric currents produce.

Computed Tomography (CT)

A series of x-ray images taken from different angles and combines by computer in a composite representation of a slice through the body.

Position (PHET) Emission Tomography scan

A visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a specific task.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

A technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer generated images of soft tissue; shows brain anatomy.

Functional MRI (MRI)

A technique for revealing blood flow and brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans.

Brainstem

The oldest and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull.

Medulla

The base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing

Reticular Formation

A nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal.

Thalamus

The brain's sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem, directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla.

Cerebellum

The "little brain" at the rear of the brainstem; functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance.

Limbic System

Doughnut-shaped neural system located below the cerebral hemispheres associated with emotions and drives.

Sensation

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling as to recognize meaningful objects and events.

Sensory Interaction

The process by which our five senses work with and influence each other.

Bottom-up Processing

Analysis that begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information.

Top-down Processing

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.

Selective Attention

The focusing of conscious awareness to a particular stimulus.

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.

Change Blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment.

Psychophysics

The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.

Absolute Threshold

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.

Signal Detection Theory

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

Subliminal

Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Difference Threshold (JND)

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference (JND).

Weber's Law

The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant percent rather than by a constant amount.