AP Psych Units 0-1

What is psychology?

The scientific study of mind and behavior

What are the branches on the “Tree of Psychology”?

7 perspectives

What are the roots on the “Tree of Psychology”?

Philosophy

What is the purpose of the modern perspectives of psychology? 

There are multiple views because we live in a complex world where people do the same actions with different motives or reasons

Biopsychsocial Model

An integrative model for combining the 7 major perspectives in contemporary psychology to explain a person’s behavior

What do psychologists do?

They are helpers, researchers, or applied researchers

Helpers

Therapists, improves quality of life such as mental health or relationships

Researchers

Targets work into learning more about human behavior

Applied researchers

Takes research conclusions and puts it into practice in the real world

Qualitative research

Answers “why?'“ question, observations, interpret results

Quantitative research

Answers “how much?”, numbers, statistics

Case study

In-depth analysis of individuals or groups

Advantages of case studies

Provides rich, in-depth data; opportunity to study rare phenomena; suggests direction for further research; allows for investigation that might be hard/unethical to do otherwise

Disadvantages of case studies

Difficult to generalize findings; difficult to replicate; time/money consuming

Naturalistic observation

Observing/recording the natural behavior of many individuals

Advantages of naturalistic observation

Gives researchers the ability to observe authentic behavior

Disadvantages of naturalistic observation

Doesn’t explain behavior, describes it; researchers cannot control the variables that affect certain behavior; can not follow up/interfere with the “participants”; ethical risk

Meta-analysis

Synthesis/analysis of the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion; each study is the “subject” in the new study

Advantages of meta-analysis

Can often provide more accurate results due to larger sample sizes; can reveal trends not apparent in single studies; shows if results are consistent across groups/methods

Disadvantages of meta-analysis

Can not improve original studies; comparability may be biased based on methods; if the studies are weak/biased, so will the meta-analysis 

Correlational studies

Describes the relationship between two or more variables

Advantages of correlational studies 

Helps make predictions; studies variables that cannot be manipulated experimentally; can be conducted in natural settings; provides insights into potential causal relationships

Disadvantages of correlational studies

Cannot establish cause-effect relationships

Correlation coefficient

A statistical measure that helps figure out how closely two things vary together, how well either one predicts the other; often visualized through scatterplots

Scatterplots

Used to show the correlation between two variables

Positive correlation

Two sets of scores rise or fall together

Negative correlation

Two sets of scores relate inversely

Advantages of scatterplots

Reveals what we miss with casual observation, easier to spot patterns and relationships

Illusionary correlation

Perceiving a relationship where none exists, or a stronger-than-actual relationship to confirm beliefs

Regress towards mean

An outlier is likely to be followed by a statistic closer to the average. The outlier is usually due to random error or chance

Directionality problem

Cannot tell which variable is the cause and effect in correlational research

“r” = ± 0-1

Relation = positive/negative; strength of relationship; closer to 1 is stronger

I Do Care About Research Participants

Informed consent (or assent for minors); Debriefing; Confidentiality; Anonymity; Review board (IRB); Protection from harm

Informed Consent (assent for minors)

Researchers must get participants’ informed consent before taking part in the research

Debriefing

Must fully debrief after the research has concluded, including any temporary deception

Confidentiality

Must keep information about participants confidential

Anonymity

Must keep participants anonymous in published work 

Review Board (IRB)

The Institutional Review Boards help enforce these standards at universities and research organizations

Protection from harm

Must protect participants from physical or psychological harm or discomfort

Survey

Asking people questions

Advantages of surveys

Can easily acquire information about people with their consent

Disadvantages of surveys

Looks at cases in less depth; difficult to gain accurate data because of social desirability bias and self-report bias

Social desirability bias

People answer in a way they think will please the researcher

ex: lying about washing your hands

Self-report bias

People don’t accurately report/remember behavior

Why is wording important in surveys?

Avoids social desirability bias and helps gain truthful data

Sampling bias

Generalizing conclusions from a few vivid but unrepresentative cases 

Convenience sampling

Collecting data from a readily available group instead of random sampling

Random sampling vs. Random assignment

RANDOM SAMPLING is choosing random participants from the population to create a representative sample that allows for generalizable results. RANDOM ASSIGNMENT is putting random participants into control or experimental groups to equalize the chance of getting into either group, used in experiments

What do consider before accepting survey findings?

Consider the sample: a random, representative group is best for generalizations

Experimental studies

Allows researchers to manipulate a variable to observe its effects on another

Advantages of experimental studies

Helps determine cause and effects; can control variables and environment; easy to replicate

How to determine if something is an experiment?

Look for a falsifiable hypothesis; random assignment

Disadvantages of experimental studies

May not always replicate/reflect real world conditions; time and money consuming; researchers may opt out for correlation (cheaper)

Experimental group

Group that receives independent variable (they get the predicted cause)

Control group

Group that doesn’t get the independent variable (sometimes gets placebo), helps compare when evaluating the effect of the IV

Single-blind procedure

Participants don’t know if they have the IV or placebo

Double-blind procedure

Participants and researchers don’t know who has the IV or placebo; helpful for evaluating drugs and treatment on its efficiency without bias

Independent variable

The “cause”; manipulated factor; effect on other variables being studied

Dependent variable

The “effect”; the variable that is affected when the IV is manipulated

Confounding variable

The “third variable”; other factors that could influence results such as social desirability bias, or experimenter bias

Experimenter bias

Researchers unconsciously influence results to confirm beliefs

How can confounding variables be avoided in an experiment?

Through single/double blind, or random assignment

Descriptive statistics

Summarizes data; includes measures of central tendency and measures of variation

Histograms

Bar graph depicting a frequency distribution; used in descriptive statistics

Measures of central tendency

A single score that represents a whole set of scores (mean, median, mode, percentile rank); used to help summarize data

Mean

Average; affected by outliers the most

Median

Middle score

Mode

The most frequently occurring scores

Bimodal distribution

When there are two frequently occurring scores

Percentile rank

The percentage of scores less than a given score (ex: 67th percentile means the score is higher than 67% of the other scores)

Skewed distribution

A representation of scores that lack symmetry around their average value

Skewed left

Scores are higher

Skewed right

Results are lower

Measures of variation

Describes how spread out or how close together a set of data points are. The lower the variability, the more reliable the average (ex: a basketball player who makes between 13 to 17 points is more likely to have an accurate average of 15 compared to a player who makes 5 to 25 points)

Range

The gap between the lowest and highest score; provides a rough estimate of variation

Standard deviation

The dispersion or spread of scores around the average; lower SD is closer to the mean, higher is more variation

Why is standard deviation better?

Incorporates information from each score

Normal curve (bell curve)

Symmetrical; most scores lie near the mean, median, and mode

Inferential statistics

Assess if data can be generalized

When is an observed difference reliable?

1) Representative samples are better than biased (unrep.) samples 2. Bigger samples are better than smaller ones (averages based on many cases are more precise, larger samples makes the study more replicable) 3. More estimates are better than few estimates (use meta-analysis) 

Null hypothesis

Term used to describe groups that have no relationship between each other; used when first sampling different groups; researchers aim to disprove this

Statistically significant

The evidence collected is sufficient enough to disprove the null hypothesis (p<0.05)

P-values

The probability of whether a result is a null hypothesis or not. If the p-value is <0.5, then results are not null, and there is a relationship between the groups

Effect size

Strength of relationship between the IV and DV; the larger the effect size, the better

Intrinsic motivator 

Internal motives (for your own sake)

Extrinsic motivator

External motives (for a reward/to prepare)

Overjustification effect

Given a reward for an intrinsic motivated task can kill the natural love for the task and turn it extrinsic

Z-score

How many standard deviation you are from the mean (0)

T- test

Tells us if the test is statistically significant; determines the p-value

Psychoanalytic behavior

Behavior comes from unconscious drives which stems from early childhood experiences; difficult to study since it’s untangible 

Behaviorism

Behavior is the result of learning through interactions in environment; observation and imitation; consequences and rewards; made psych driven by empirical research techniques 

Humanism

Man is inherently good and want to achieve their best self through their free will

Self-actualization

Your best self; part of humanistic behavior

Maslow’s Hierarchy

Bottom to top: basic needs, safety, love and belonging, esteem, self-actualization. Our lack of these things explains behavior

Cognitive

Behavior is a reflection of how we perceive situations; perception, beliefs, expectations drive behavior

Sociocultural 

Behavior is the result of trying to fit in the norms and expectations of society/culture; race, ethnicity, religions, political affiliation, socioeconomic status, age, gender; more broad than behaviorism 

Biological

Behavior driven by biology; genetics, nervous system, chemical imbalance, brain function

Evolutionary

Behavior comes from the desire to survive and reproduce; pass down adaptive traits for survival; natural selection

Operational definitions

A carefully worded statement of the specific procedures/methods of measurement used in a research study; allows for replication

Hindsight bias

When people believe that an outcome was predictable all along after the outcome had already occurred (aka “I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)