AP psych terms (U1-U3)

Humanism

Focus on personal growth & potential

Endocrine system

Hormone producing glands

motor cortex

Controls voluntary movements

Inferential statistics

Drawing conclusions from data

Hindsight bias

I knew it all along effect

Temporal lobe

hearing, memory, language comprehension

Dopamine

reward, motivation, pleasure, movement

Occipital lobe

Processing visual information

Behaviorism

Study observable behavior only (Watson Skinner)

Cognitive psych

How we think know remember

Biopsychological

Mix of biology, psychology, social factors

Glutamate

Prepares nuerons for memory (formation/processing)

GABA

Quiets neural activity

Functionalism

How mental processes help us adapt (James)

Hypothesis

Testable prediction

Operational Definition

How you measure a variable

Random assignment

Assign to groups by chance

Correlation

How two things relate

Placebo effect

Thinking something works makes you feel good

Neuron

Nerve cell

Synapse

Gap between two neurons (where messages are passed)

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Brain + spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

– All the nerves outside the CNS.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers: serotonin and dopamine

plasticity

Brain can change and organize

Amygdala

Fear and emotion

Hippocampus

Memory

Hypothalamus

Hunger thirst temp sex drive

Corpus Callosum

Connects brain hemispheres

Psychodynamic

Behavior = unconscious drives + early childhood. Freuds playground.

Independent variable

The thing you change in an experiment

Dependent variable

The result you measure in an experiment

Control group

group with no real treatment used for comparison

double blind procedure

Participants nor researchers know who’s in which experiment group- prevents bias

Endorphins

Natural painkillers brain releases during stress or exercise

Medulla aka brain stem

Controls heart beatbreathing- basic survival functions

Reticular formations

Keeps you alert + awake. Damage of this = coma

Thalamus

routes info to right parts of brain. All senses go here first

Myelin Sheath

Fatty layer around axons- speeds up neural messages

Psychology

science of behavior and mental processes

Nature vs. Nurture

Are we more shaped by genetics (nature) or experience (nurture)?

Case Study

Studying one person or group deeply.

Confounding Variable

Something else that could affect the outcome.

Experiment

A test to find cause and effect.

Naturalistic Observation

Watching behavior without interfering.

Survey

A quick way to collect data by asking questions

Axon

a long fiber on a neuron: sends messages to other neurons muscles

Dendrites

Branches on a neuron that receive messages.

Frontal lobe

CEO of brain= plans and makes conditions

Operant conditioning

Learning by action and consequences (reward or punishment)

Spinal reflex

Super fast body reaction without waiting for brain (auto pilot)

Absolute Threshold

Smallest signal your body can detect

Selective attention

Focusing on one thing and ignoring the others

Scatterplot

Graph showing how two variables relate

Willhelm Wundt

Father of psychology started first lab in 1879

B.F Skinner

Contributed to operant conditioning

William James

Studied purpose of mind and behavior: birthed functionalism

Sympathetic Nervous system

Speeds body up for fight/ flight

Para sympathetic

Calms body down rest/ digest

Hierarchy of needs

Needs that motivate people

John B. Watson

Founder of behaviorism

Cerebral cortex

Outer brain level for high level thinking

Retina

Back of eye that senses light

Cones

See color, works best in light

Transduction

Changing sensory input to brain signals

Sigmund Freud

Psychologist who developed psychoanalytic field

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory about unconscious thoughts shaping behavior.

Unconscious mind

Hidden thoughts and feelings that influence you without awareness.

Psychologist

Studies behavior/mental processes

Psychiatrist

Medical doctor who diagnoses mental illness and prescribes meds.

Therapist/counselor

Talks with people to help mental health and emotions.

Automatic nervous system

Para sympathetic vs sympathetic

Variable

The thing that changes