AP Psychology Midterm Review

structuralism

idea proposed by Wundt that the mind operates by combining subjective emotions and objective sensations; aimed to uncover the basic structures that make up mind and thought

functionalism

theory presented by William James; emphasizes adaptiveness of the mental or behavioral processes

Wilhelm Wundt

set up first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879; known for training subjects in introspection and for his theory of structuralism

Sigmund Freud

revolutionized psychology with his psychoanalytic theory; believed the unconscious mind must be examined through dream analysis, word association, and other psychoanalytic therapy techniques; criticized for being unscientific and creating unverifiable theories

behaviorism

theory that states psychologists should look at only behavior and causes of behavior, and not concern themselves with describing elements of consciousness; dominant school of thought in psychology from the 1920s through the 1960s

Psycho-dynamic Psychology

study of how unconscious drives and conflicts influence behavior, and uses that information to treat people with psychological disorders

biology psychology

the scientific study of the links between biological (genetic, neural, hormonal) and psychological processes

evolutionary psychology

the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection

behavioral psychology

the scientific study of observable behavior, and its explanation by principles of learning

Sociocultural Psychology

study of influence of cultural and ethnic similarities and differences on behavior and social functioning

humanistic psychology

study of reaching full potential and personal growth

Cognitive Psychology

study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, and reasoning

operational definitions

a researcher's explanation how the variable of an experiment will be measured

illusory correlation

perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists

confirmation bias

the tendency to attend to evidence that complements and confirms our beliefs or expectations, while ignoring evidence that does not

cognitions

mental processes, such as thinking, memory, sensation, and perception

longitudinal study

non-experimental method; a type of study in which one group of subjects is followed and observed (or examined, surveyed, etc.) for an extended period of time (years.)

cross-sectional study

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

hindsight bias

people's tendency upon hearing about research findings to think that they knew it all along

Case Study

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

Informed Consent

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

Debriefing

an ethical principle in which the post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants

confidentiality

an ethical principle in which researchers may not release or publish the names of anyone participating in the experiment.

protection of participants

an ethical principle in which All participants are protected from physical mental and emotional harm.

Right to discontinue

an ethical principle in which Participants have the right to end their participation during any phase of an experiment.

minimum of deception

an ethical principle in which Researchers have an obligation to avoid deceiving participants whenever possible.

Skewed distribution to the left

negatively skewed

Skewed distribution to the right

positively skewed

Neurotransmitters

chemical messengers that travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving cites on the receiving neuron

action potential steps

Acetylcholine

neurotransmitter that enables muscle action, learning, and memory

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter influences movement, attention, learning, and emotion

Serotonin

A neurotransmitter that affects hunger,sleep, arousal, and mood.

GABA

a major inhibitory neurotransmitter

Endorphins

neurotransmitter that influence the perception of pain and pleasure

types of neurons

sensory, motor, interneurons

sensory neurons

carry impulses from the sense organs to the spinal cord and brain

motor neurons

carry impulses from the brain and spinal cord to muscles and glands

interneurons

neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

connects the body to the CNS by gathering information from the senses and transmitting messages to the CNS

autonomic nervous system

involuntary controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs

sympathetic nervous system

arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations fight, flight, or freeze impulse accelerates heartbeat, raise blood pressure, slows digestion, raise blood sugar, cools body

parasynthetic nervous system

calms the body, conserving its energy rest and digest decelerates heartbeat, lowers blood pressure, stimulates digestion, processes waste, and calms the body

somatic nervous system

controls skeletal muscles

reflex arc

A relatively direct connection between a sensory neuron and a motor neuron that allows an extremely rapid response to a stimulus, often without conscious brain involvement.

endocrine system

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

nervous system

neurons releases neurotransmitters neurotransmitters move across the synapse neural transmission is nano-fast

pituitary gland

master gland regulates growth and metabolism

adrenal glands

helps trigger fight or flight response

medulla

the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing

Pons

controls sleep and coordinate movement

recticular formation

helps control arousal and filters incoming sensory stimuli Nerve network that travels through the brainstem into the thalamus

Thalamus

relay station for incoming and outgoing sensory information (with the exception of smell)

Cerebellum

processing sensory input, coordinating movement and balance, nonverbal learning and memory Judging time, modulating emotions, discriminating sound and textures Coordinated voluntary movement

amygdala

linked to emotion, fear, and aggression (Two lima-bean-sized neural cluster )

Hypothalamus

directs eating, drinking, body temperature; helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion

Hippocampus

helps process for storage explicit (conscious) memories of facts and events Small structure with two "arms" that wrap around the thalamus Decreases in size and function with age

cerebral cortex

the intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center Is divided into four regions called lobes

frontal lobe

involved in speaking, motor movements, judgment, and decision making

parietal lobe

receives and processes sensory input for touch and body position

temporal lobe

each lobe receives auditory information, primarily from opposite ear

occiptical lobe

each lobe receives visual information, primarily form opposite visual field

motor cortex

controls voluntary movements

somatosensory cortex

registers and processes body touch and movement sensations

association areas

most of the brain's cortex which integrates information involved in learning, remembering, thinking, and other higher-level functions Attention is shifted, planning occurs Not specifically devoted to motor or sensory cortex functions

broca's area

language center located in the left frontal lobe Involved in expressive language

Wernicke's area

language center located in the left temporal lobe Involved in receptive language

Neuroplasticity

the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience E.g. blind people have increase sensitivity in fingertips

Neurogenesis

although the brain often attempts self-repair by reorganizing existing tissue, it sometimes attempts to mend itself through neurogenesis

corpus callosum

a wide band of nerve fibers connecting the right and left cerebral hemispheres

left hemipshere

Speaking and language Math calculations Making literal interpretations Controlling the right side of the body

right hemisphere

Perceptual tasks Making inferences Modulating speech Visual perception Recognition of emotion Controlling the left side of the body

parallel processing

unconscious processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously

sequential processing

conscious processing or one aspect of a problem at a time; generally used to process new information or to solve difficult problems

Heredity

the genetic transfer of characteristics from parents to offspring

Heritability

The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied.

Epigenetics

the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself.

attribution theory

proposed by Psychologist Fritz Heider

we can credit/blame (attribute) the behavior to the person's internal stable, enduring traits (a dispositional attribution), or we can attribute it to the external situation (a situational attribution) e.g. if Jack eats an entire cake, do we explain that behavior by noting that Jack has not eaten in days (situational) or that Jack is greedy and glutinous (dispositional)

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing others' behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition e.g. when passing a homeless person on the street, the fundamental attribution error suggests that we might be more likely to attribute their homelessness to their own personality (Lazy? unmotivated?) rather than to the situation (loss of job? break up of the family? schizophrenia?)

factor that affect attributions

culture: individualist westerners more often attribute behavior to people's person traits. people in the east asian collectivist cultures are more sensitive to the power of the situation.

peripheral route persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness.

uses attention-getting cues to trigger emotion-based snap judgments.

e.g. endorsements by beautiful or famous people can influence people's attitudes, whether the judgement is about choosing a political candidate or buying the latest smart phone

central route persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

offers evidence and arguments that trigger careful thinking

e.g. to persuade buyers to purchase a particular phone, an ad might itemize the phone's great features. to increase support for climate change intervention, effective arguments have focused on accumulating greenhouse gases, melting Arctic ice, rising world temperatures and seas, and extreme weather.

foot-in-the-door phenomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. Succumb to a temptation and you will find the next temptation harder to resist

door-in-the-face phenomenon

tendency for people who won't agree to a large task, but then agree when a smaller request is made

what did the Standford Prison study demonstrate about roles?

every time we act like the people around us, we slightly change ourselves to be more like them, and less like who we used to be although the volunteers in Zimbardo's study knew it was a research set up, they eventually began to act more like their assigned role of prisoner or guard. they took on the roles and performed the behaviors expected in that role (norms)

cognitive dissonance

Leon Festinger's theory

we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) or our thoughts and behaviors are inconsistent.

when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes e.g. a person who smokes and enjoys the sensation, may also know that smoking cigarettes is correlated with lung cancer. this disconnect between a belief (smoking causes cancer) and a behavior (continuing to smoke cigarettes) causes tensions...or dissonance.

to relieve the dissonance, a person must either change the behavior (stop smoking) or change the thought ("i may die young, but at least i am enjoying myself today!")

social contagion

behavior is contagious. if one yawns, laughs, coughs, scratches, stares at the sky, or checks our phone, others in our group will often do the same

chameleon effect

unconscious mimicry of the postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of one's interaction partners e.g. Tanya Chartrand and John Bargh's research: found that students tended to rub their face when with the face-rubbing person and shake their foot when with the foot-shaking person

how does social contagion lead to empathy and fondness?

this natural mimicry enables us to empathize--to feel what others are feelings. this helps explain why we feel happier around happy people than around depressed people

confromity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard because of real or imagined pressure to fit in

Solomon Asch's Experiment

1955, Asch devised a simple study to research conformity

the subject of the study is given the line test and his accuracy scores are recorded. then the subject is asked to join five other men in a room to complete the line test together. the five other men in the study are all confederates of Asch.

results: 1/3 of the time, the subjects went along with the group, even though they knew the confederates were wrong

normative social influence

influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval we are sensitive to social norms because the price we pay for being different can be severe

informational social influence

influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality when we accept others' opinions about reality, as when reading online movie and restaurant reviews

obedience was highest in Milgram's when...

the person giving the orders was close at hand and was perceived to be legitimate authority figure (donning a white lab coat) the authority was supported by a prestigious institution. conducting the study on Yale campus, versus downtown Bridgeport, increased obedience the victim was depersonalized or at distance, even in another room there were no role models for defiance

social facilitation

improved performance on simple or well-earned tasks in the presence of others e.g. skilled athletes often find they are "on" before an audience (what they do well, they do even better when people are watching)

social loafing

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts towards attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

deindividuation

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

e.g. during England 2011 riots and looting, rioters were disinhibited by social arousal and by the anonymity provided by darkness and their hoods and masks. later, some of those arrested expressed bewilderment over their own behavior

group polarization

the enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group the beliefs and attitudes we bring to a group grow stronger as we discuss them with like-minded others

groupthink

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives often when a group is involved in decision making, the hope that the group can arrive at a decision may subtly influence dissenters of the group decision to remain sile

prejudice

an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action is an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members--who often are people of a particular racial or ethnic group, gender, sexual orientation, or belief system