Midterm Review Sheet – AP Psychology

These flashcards cover key concepts, definitions, and terms from the Psychology midterm review material.

Biological perspective

Focuses on the physiological bases of behavior.

Cognitive perspective

Emphasizes mental processes like perception and memory.

Behavioral perspective

Studies observable behavior and the effects of learning.

Psychodynamic perspective

Explores the unconscious influences on behavior.

Random selection

A method of selecting participants in a way that each has an equal chance of being chosen.

Ethical guidelines in research

Include informed consent, debriefing, confidentiality, no harm, and IRB approval.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that transmit signals across a synapse.

Central nervous system

Consists of the brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral nervous system

Connects the central nervous system to the rest of the body.

Sympathetic nervous system

Prepares the body for fight or flight response.

Parasympathetic nervous system

Calms the body and conserves energy.

Cognitive dissonance

The mental discomfort experienced when holding two conflicting beliefs.

Long-term memory

The continuous storage of information.

Classical conditioning

A learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one’s preconceptions.

Actor-observer bias

The tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes while attributing others' actions to internal causes.

Biological perspective

Focuses on the physiological bases of behavior.

Cognitive perspective

Emphasizes mental processes like perception and memory.

Behavioral perspective

Studies observable behavior and the effects of learning.

Psychodynamic perspective

Explores the unconscious influences on behavior.

Sociocultural perspective

Examines how culture and social interactions influence behavior.

Humanistic perspective

Stresses the importance of individual choice and personal growth.

Correlation

A statistical measure that indicates the extent to which two variables fluctuate together.

Meta-analysis

A statistical technique for combining the findings from independent studies.

Independent variable

The variable that is manipulated in an experiment.

Dependent variable

The variable that is measured in an experiment.

Random selection

A method of selecting participants in a way that each has an equal chance of being chosen.

Ethical guidelines in research

Include informed consent, debriefing, confidentiality, no harm, and IRB approval.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that transmit signals across a synapse.

Central nervous system

Consists of the brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral nervous system

Connects the central nervous system to the rest of the body.

Sympathetic nervous system

Prepares the body for fight or flight response.

Parasympathetic nervous system

Calms the body and conserves energy.

Cognitive dissonance

The mental discomfort experienced when holding two conflicting beliefs.

Long-term memory

The continuous storage of information.

Classical conditioning

A learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one’s preconceptions.

Actor-observer bias

The tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes while attributing others' actions to internal causes.

Operant conditioning

A learning process through which the strength of a behavior is modified by reinforcement or punishment.

Nature vs. nurture

The debate concerning the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus their personal experiences.

Double-blind study

An experimental procedure in which neither the participants nor the experimenters know who is receiving a particular treatment.

Reliability

The degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and consistent results.

Validity

The extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure.

Hippocampus

A brain structure primarily associated with memory, specifically the formation of new memories.

Amygdala

A brain structure involved in emotional processing, particularly fear and aggression.

Statistical significance

A determination that a relationship between two or more variables is caused by something other than chance, often defined as p < 0.05.

Standard deviation

A statistic that measures the dispersion of a dataset relative to its mean, often represented by the symbol \sigma.

Operational definition

A clear, concise, and detailed description of a measure used to ensure consistency in research.

Placebo effect

Occurs when an individual's expectations about a treatment cause them to experience a benefit, even if the treatment is inactive.

Longitudinal study

A research design where data is gathered for the same subjects repeatedly over a long period of time.

Frontal lobe

The part of the cerebral cortex involved in reasoning, motor control, emotion, and language.

Neuroplasticity

The ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to overemphasize internal, personal characteristics and ignore external, situational factors when judging others' behavior.

Groupthink

The practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.

Self-serving bias

Attributing successes to internal factors while blaming failures on external circumstances.

Endocrine system

A series of glands that produce chemical substances known as hormones.

Case study

An intensive analysis of 1 unit, such as a person or community, stressing developmental factors in relation to environment.

Cerebral cortex

The outer layer of the brain's cerebral hemispheres that plays a vital role in consciousness, thought, memory, and language.

Myelin sheath

An insulating layer that forms around nerves, allowing electrical impulses to transmit quickly and efficiently.

Social facilitation

The tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others than when alone.

Chunking

A process by which individual pieces of an information set are broken down and then grouped together in a meaningful whole.

Thalamus

The brain's sensory control center, located on top of the brainstem, which directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex.

Occipital lobe

The portion of the cerebral cortex located at the back of the head that includes areas that receive and process information from the visual fields.

Temporal lobe

The portion of the cerebral cortex located above the ears that includes the primary auditory processing areas.

Parietal lobe

The portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head toward the rear; it receives sensory input for touch and body position.

Synapse

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

Hindsight bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have predicted it all along; also known as the "I-knew-it-all-along" phenomenon.

Deindividuation

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

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Working memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that involves conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory.

Sensation

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

Perception

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

Semantic memory

A type of explicit memory that involves a person's knowledge about the world, including facts, ideas, meanings, and concepts.

Episodic memory

A category of long-term memory that involves the recollection of specific events, situations, and personal experiences.

Corpus callosum

The large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them.

Acetylcholine (ACh)

A neurotransmitter that plays a role in learning and memory and is also the messenger at every junction between motor neurons and skeletal muscles.

Biological perspective

Focuses on the physiological bases of behavior.

Cognitive perspective

Emphasizes mental processes like perception and memory.

Behavioral perspective

Studies observable behavior and the effects of learning.

Psychodynamic perspective

Explores the unconscious influences on behavior.

Sociocultural perspective

Examines how culture and social interactions influence behavior.

Humanistic perspective

Stresses the importance of individual choice and personal growth.

Correlation

A statistical measure that indicates the extent to which two variables fluctuate together.

Meta-analysis

A statistical technique for combining the findings from independent studies.

Independent variable

The variable that is manipulated in an experiment.

Dependent variable

The variable that is measured in an experiment.

Random selection

A method of selecting participants in a way that each has an equal chance of being chosen.

Ethical guidelines in research

Include informed consent, debriefing, confidentiality, no harm, and IRB approval.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that transmit signals across a synapse.

Central nervous system

Consists of the brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral nervous system

Connects the central nervous system to the rest of the body.

Sympathetic nervous system

Prepares the body for fight or flight response.

Parasympathetic nervous system

Calms the body and conserves energy.

Cognitive dissonance

The mental discomfort experienced when holding two conflicting beliefs.

Long-term memory

The continuous storage of information.

Classical conditioning

A learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one’s preconceptions.

Actor-observer bias

The tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes while attributing others' actions to internal causes.

Operant conditioning

A learning process through which the strength of a behavior is modified by reinforcement or punishment.

Nature vs. nurture

The debate concerning the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus their personal experiences.