AP Psychology Final Study Guide: Key Concepts & Theories

What is source amnesia?

Remembering details from others' traumatic life stories as part of your own.

What does the availability heuristic illustrate?

The exaggerated fears after watching brutal attacks of bears on hikers.

What theory suggests that large-fiber activity in the spinal cord can prevent pain signals from reaching the brain?

Gate-control theory.

What technique involves combining the results of numerous published studies on a specific issue?

Meta-analysis.

Which personality disorder is characterized by intense mood swings and fear of abandonment?

Borderline personality disorder.

What motivates people who are happier by giving than receiving?

Intrinsic motivation.

What is chunking?

Grouping letters or numbers in manageable patterns.

What is the peg-word system?

Visually associating items with mental images.

What increases the risk of coronary heart disease?

High blood pressure.

What are rodents exposed to inescapable shocks more prone to when tumor cells are implanted?

Cancer.

What phenomenon occurs when we perceive a third syllable while hearing different sounds?

The McGurk Effect.

What is mania?

A disorder characterized by overexcitement, hyperactivity, and wild optimism.

What is sexual orientation?

Our sexual attraction towards members of either the same sex or the opposite sex.

What effect illustrates the need for up-to-date standardized samples in intelligence testing?

The Flynn effect.

What is the relationship between the reality principle and the pleasure principle?

The Id is to the Ego.

Which personality test is empirically derived?

MMPI.

Why is the argument that blacks score lower on IQ tests solely because of race invalid?

Race is a social category, not a biological one.

What type of failure occurs when you momentarily forget your own address?

Retrieval failure.

Why might children resist eating strong-tasting foods?

They have more taste receptors, making them more sensitive to taste.

What sense does tinnitus affect?

Auditory.

How many hours does a circadian rhythm refer to?

24 hours.

What type of dreams do people commonly report after suffering trauma?

Threatening dreams.

What type of test is a final in your AP Psychology course?

Achievement test.

What type of perception is crawling important for in infants?

Depth perception.

What bird is typically recognized as the prototype?

A Robin.

Who first developed counterconditioning techniques?

Ivan Pavlov.

What type of therapy involves writing in a diary to combat feelings of depression?

Cognitive therapy.

What does Ralph's continued drug use despite legal troubles indicate?

Addiction.

What type of clusters process complex patterns in the brain?

Supercell clusters.

What did Donald Dutton and Arthur Aron investigate with attractive women and men on a swaying footbridge?

The impact of physical arousal on passionate love.

What type of reinforcer is a bonus point for placing phones in a caddy?

A positive reinforcer.

What did Ancel Keys observe about men on semistarvation diets?

They lost interest in social activities and sex.

What does poor memory for early life experiences result from?

A baby's relative lack of maturation.

What nervous system do motor neurons belong to?

Peripheral nervous system.

Who introduced the use of free association?

Sigmund Freud.

What type of test is the MMPI considered to be?

An objective test.

What type of learning includes both classical and operant conditioning?

Associative learning.

Which brain region influences the endocrine system?

Hypothalamus.

What test measures diverse abilities like digit span and vocabulary for a twenty-three-year-old?

WAIS.

What is the eerie sense of having previously experienced a situation called?

Deja vu.

What drugs are designed to depress central nervous system activity?

Antianxiety drugs.

What are the neurons in the brain's visual cortex that respond to specific edges called?

Feature detectors.

What should inhibit our tendency to blame parents for our own dysfunctional characteristics?

A child's individual temperament.

What factor contributes most positively to secure attachment between infants and mothers?

Responsive parenting.

What do animals most readily learn associations that promote?

Their own survival.

What type of memory test does a multiple-choice question rely on?

Recognition.

What type of movement does the perception of movement in a cartoon best illustrate?

Stroboscopic movement.

What type of persuasion results from thoughtful focus on the content of arguments?

Central route persuasion.

What causes the tip of the tongue effect?

A retrieval failure.

What phase of sleep is characterized by increased heart rate and rapid eye movement?

REM sleep.

Which siblings are most likely to show the greatest similarity in temperament?

Identical twins.

What stage of development involves a two-year-old demonstrating independence?

The anal stage.

Who studied obedience and concluded that ordinary people can become agents of destruction?

Stanley Milgram.

Which measure of variation is most affected by extreme scores?

Range.

What illustrates the value of discrimination in not becoming excited by a beautiful cousin?

Discrimination.

What does functional fixation illustrate in problem solving?

The inability to consider a three-dimensional arrangement.