AP Psychology - Everything for the exam

Philip Zimbardo

This psychologist conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment in which some participants were "prisoners" and some were "prison guards". The prison guards ended up being hardcore and the prisoners either tried to rebel or had mental breakdowns. The experiment lasted 6 days.

Solomon Asch

This psychologist did an experiment in which he showed participants a "standard line" and then three others; the participants had to identify which line was closest standard line. The confederates participating in the experiment purposely said the wrong answer to see if the blind participant would conform.

Stanley Milgram

This psychologist is best known for his Yale experiment on obedience. The confederate played the role of the "learner" where they would try (and often fail) to learn a set of words, and the "teacher" (the blind participant) would shock them when they failed.

Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

Founded the Humanistic theory

Absolute threshold

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

Acceptance

Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure.

Accommodation

The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.

Acetylcholine

Muscle Contractions, Memory, and learning ,Ex. Alzheimer's (memory)

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, the initial stage when one links a neutral stimulus and a UCS, so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the CR; in operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response

Action Potential

Causes the neuron to fire, Toilet: When the toilet is flushing

Adrenal Gland

Helps generate extra energy when in fight or flight

Aggression

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy whether done reactively out of hostility or proactively as a calculated means to an end

Agonists

Imposter that mimics neurotransmitter Ex. Key works but not the same

Agreeableness

The personality trait of being kind, sympathetic, cooperative warm and considerate.

Albert Bandura

Developed social learning theory; Bobo Doll experiment displayed modeling and observational learning

Alfred Adler

Introduced concept of "inferiority complex" and stressed the importance of birth order.

Algorithmic Thinking

Step by step method that guarantees a solution as long as each step is properly executed

All or nothing principle

When nucleus decides to fire it fires down the axon all the way or not at all,Toilet: either flushes or doesnt no inbetween

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others

American Psychological Association (APA)

Professional organization representing psychologists in the United States.

Amplitude

Height of a wave; influences brightness in visual perception and volume in audition

Anal Stage

Freud's psychosexual period during which a child learns to control his bodily excretions.

Antagonists

Blocker that blocks neurotransmitter

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to form new memories

Antisocial behavior

Negative, aggressive, harmful, and potentially illegal behavior

Applied research

Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

Archetypes

Emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meaning.

Associative learning

Learning that certain events occur together (2 stimuli or response and consequence)

Atkinson Shiffrin Model

Sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory

Attitudes

Feelings, often based on our beliefs, that cause us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

Attribution theory

Theory that suggests how we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition

Audition

The sense of hearing

Autnomic Nervous System (ANS)

Controls involuntary functions Ex. breathing, heartbeat, and digestion

Availability Heuristic

Making a decision based on the answer that most easily comes to mind Ex. Is it more likely for k to be the first or third letter of a word?

Axon

The long middle part of the neuron that is the travel site for the message

Axon terminal buds

The end part of the neuron that release the message into the synapse to the next neuron

Basal Ganglia

Procedural memory and motor movement; implicit memories

Basic research

Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base

Basilar membrane

Area within the cochlea where hair cells are located

Behavioral approach

An approach to psychology emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants.

Behaviorism

the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes

Belief Perseverance

Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

BF Skinner

Behaviorist that developed the theory of operant conditioning by training pigeons and rats

Binocular cues

Depth cues that require the combined input of both eyes

Biofeedback

A system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle psychological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension

Biological Approach

An approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system

Biopsychosocial approach

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

Bipolar cells

Second layer of neurons in the retina that transmit impulses from rods and cones to ganglion cells; rods share these, but cones do not

Blame the victim dynamic

The tendency for people to believe that the victim of a crime is partially responsible for that crime

Blind spot

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye; no receptors cells are located there. Creates a gap in our vision that is "filled" by the brain.

Bottom-up processing

Analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.

Brain

Neural center of the body (control center)

Brain Lesions

Any damage to an area of brain tissue caused by injury, disease, surgery, tumor, stroke, or infection.

Brocas Area

In LEFT frontal lobe, area that controls creating speech

Bystander effect

The tendency effect for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

Cardinal Traits

The most dominant traits/passions/obsessions/drives that shape a person's personality.

Carl Jung

Stated we all share a collective unconscious.

Carl Rogers

Developed "client-centered" therapy.

Case study

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

CAT scan

Takes x ray photos for cross sectional images of the brain

Cell Body (soma)

Middle circle of the neuron that contains the nucleus

Central Nervous System (CNS)

The brain and spinal chord in the center of the body

Central route persuasion

Convincing someone to agree with you by using facts and evidence

Central Traits

General characteristics that serve as the building blocks of a person's personality.

Cerebellum

The little brain in the back of full brain, works with movement balance and coordination

Cerebral Cortex

Perform sophisticated information processing, thin layer covering brain.

Chameleon effect

Effect in which we unconsciously mimc others' expressions, postures, and voice

Change blindness

When paying attention to a specific aspect of a visual scene, we may fail to notice other fairly obvious changes or presentations of stimuli; demonstrated by the door study and the gorilla illusion

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Classical conditioning

A type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli

Clinical psychology

A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders

Closure

Gestalt grouping principle; we fill in "gaps" to create a full, complete object

Cochlea

Snail-shaped tube in the inner ear that contains fluid that moves in response to vibrations, stimulating activity on the basilar membrane

Cochlear implant

A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea

Cocktail party effect

Ability to selectively attend to one voice among many

Cognitive Approach

An approach to psychology emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.

Cognitive dissonance theory

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent; for example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes

Cognitive learning

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

Cognitive map

A mental representation of the layout of one's environment. for example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned this

Cognitive neuroscience

The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)

Cognitive Psychology

A branch of psychology that studies all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Collectivist

Culture whose members focus more on the needs of the group and less on individual desires.

Color constancy

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the objects.

Community psychology

A branch of psychology that studies how people interact with their social environments and how social institutions affect individuals and groups

Companionate love

The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

Conditioned (Secondary) reinforcer

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer

Conditioned reinforcer

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer

Conditioned response (CR)

A learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response

Conduction hearing loss

Hearing loss caused by damage to the (mechanical) middle ear structures that conduct sound waves to the cochlea.

Cones

Receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. They detect fine details and give rise to color sensation.

Confirmation Bias

aA tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Conflict

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

Confounding variable

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

Connectedness

Gestalt grouping principle; when objects uniform (in color or texture) are linked (no space exists between them) we perceive them as a single unit

Conscientiousness

The personality trait of being careful and vigilant with a desire to perform tasks well.

Context Dependent Memory

Dependent on environment

Continuity

Gestalt grouping principle; our tendency to perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones

Continuous reinforcement schedule

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs