all ap psychology terms

psychology

the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

hypothesis

a prediction that can be tested about what you think will happen in a study

falsifiable

whether or not a theory or hypothesis can be proven wrong (false) by testing or observation

example: a hypothesis that if you use mr. sinn’s review packet you will score higher on the ap exam compared to students who don’t.. can be true or false

operational definition

explains exactly how a variable is measured or manipulated in a study

example: instead of just saying "study time," an operational definition would be "study time is measured by the number of hours spent reading the textbook each week”

case study

when a researcher studies one person, group, or situation in depth over a long period of time

survey

a non-experimental way of collecting data that is self-reported through questioning of individuals, typically using questionnaires or interviews to gather information about attitudes, opinions, or behaviors.

social desirability bias

when people choose to respond in a way that they believe they should, or how researchers might want them to

self-reported bias

when people choose to report themselves and their behaviors inaccurately

sampling bias

when the people chosen for a study don’t accurately represent the whole population, which can mess up the results

example: if a survey about favorite school lunches only asks students from the soccer team, the sample is biased because it leaves out most students

random sample

when each individual in a population has an equal chance of participating in the study

population

the entire group that the research is studying

correlation

measure of how factors vary between each other, and how well each factor predicts the other

correlation coefficient

statistical index of +1.00 (positive) to -1.00 (negative) between two variables

experiment group

the group in a study that receives the treatment or change

example: a study is testing if a new drug reduces anxiety, the group that takes the drug is the experimental group

control group

the group in an experiment that is not exposed to the treatment and serves as a comparison between the experimental group to evaluate the effects of the treatment

also known as the placebo group

random assignment

when participants are randomly placed into either the experimental group or the control group to ensure that each group is similar at the start of the experiment

everytime you see random assignment, it is an EXPERIMENT

single-blind procedure

the participants do not know which group they are in (experimental or control), but the researchers do

prevents the social desirability bias

placebo

a fake treatment given to the control group in an experiment to test if the actual treatment has an effect

example: a study testing a new drug for pain relief, the control group might receive a placebo pill, which has no active ingredients, while the experimental group gets the real drug.

independent variable

the factor in an experiment that is being manipulated, this is the cause

example: researcher wants to test if drinking coffee affects alertness → the _ is the amount of coffee the participants drink (because that's what the researcher changes)

confounding variable

an outside factor that changes along with the independent variable and messes up the results, it makes it hard to tell what really caused the outcome

example: if you’re testing whether coffee improves alertness, but some participants also got more sleep than others → sleep is a _ — you can’t tell if alertness improved from coffee or from more sleep

dependent variable

the outcome that is measured in the study, this is the effect

example: in a study testing if drinking coffee affects alertness → the ___ is the level of alertness (measured maybe by a reaction time test)

quantitative research

research method that uses and relies on numerical data that is quantifiable

qualitative research

research method that relies on narrative data that is in-depth and that is not translated into numbers

informed consent

giving potential participants enough information about a procedure to let them choose whether or not they want to do it

debrief

explaining the study to participants once it is finished, including the purpose and any deceptions

mean

the average of a distribution, gotten by adding all the scores and then dividing by the number of scores

percentile rank

the percentage of scores that are lower than the given score

skewed distribution

representation of scores that lack symmetry around the average value

standard deviation

measures how spread out the numbers are from the average (mean) in a set of data

example: in a math class, if everyone scores around 90%, the standard deviation is small; if scores are all over the place like 60%, 80%, and 100%, the standard deviation is big

normal curve (normal distribution)

symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many different types of data

psychodynamic/psychoanalytic perspective

focuses on the unconscious mind and early childhood experiences

free association

when a person says whatever comes to mind without censoring themselves; reveals emotional issues, unresolved conflicts, and impact of early experiences on adult personality

no filter

behaviorism (behavioral perspective)

idea that psychology should focus only on observable behaviors because behavior is learned from the environment. uses reinforcements and punishment

example: a child gets a cookie every time they say “please”, so they start saying “please” more often.

sociocultural perspective

behavior and thinking are shaped by social groups, culture, family, and society around you

example: a child grows up speaking two languages because their family and community are bilingual

humanistic perspective

people are naturally good and want to grow, improve, and reach their full potential

example: a student struggles in school but keeps working hard because they believe they can improve and achieve their dreams of being a doctor

cognitive perspective

focuses on how we think, process, remember information and how this influences our behavior

example: a person who is trying to quit smoking changes negative thoughts (“i need a cigarette to relax”) to more positive ones (“i can relax in other ways”)

biological perspective

explains how the brain, nervous system, hormones, and genetics influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

helps understand mental disorders and effects of medication

biopsychosocial perspectives

connections of biological, psychological, and social factors in understanding behaviors and mental processes

example: someone becomes depressed because of a mix of low serotonin levels (biological), negative thinking patterns(psychological), and lack of social support (social)

bio+psycho+social

evolutionary perspective

how natural selection and adaption influence behavior

example: person fears snakes and spiders because back then, avoiding dangerous animals helped humans survive

experimental methodology

a way of doing research by carefully controlling variables, with the goal of being able to test a hypothesis and establish a casual relationship between independent and dependent variable

example: researcher gives one group of people coffee and another nothing, then measures who does better on a memory test to see if the coffee causes better memory

non-experimental methodology

researchers study relationships or behaviors without changing anything — they just observe or measure.

example: researcher surveys students about how many hours they study and their grades, but doesn’t control or change their study habits

hawthorne effect

when people change their behavior due to them being aware that they are being observed

correlational study

allows researchers to gain insight into the relationship between two variables but does NOT show causation

example: a study finds that people who exercise more tend to sleep better, but it doesn’t prove that exercises causes better sleep.

third variable problem

when an outside variable impacts the study

meta-analysis

a research method that is used to compare/contrast previous studies to make overall conclusions about that body of research

example: researchers gathered results from 50 different studies on therapy for depression to see if therapy really works and makes their own conclusion

naturalistic observations

watching and recording the behavior of people or animals in their natural environment without intervening

theory

supported by data from research that has been completed and explains a question, thought, or phenomena

sample

the selected group of individuals in a population that are selected to represent the population in the study

stratified sampling

when you divide the population into groups based on characteristics like age, gender, etc. and then randomly sample from each group

example: if a school has 60% girls and 40% boys, and you want your sample to match that, so you divide students by gender first, then randomly pick 60% girls and 40% boys for your sample.

representative sample

the sample group in the study represents all the different people in the population

convenience sampling

when individuals are selected to participate in a study based on their availability, can cause bias because the sample might not represent the entire population accurately

generalizability

refers to the extent of which the findings of a study can be applied to the larger population
(important for AAQ)

random selection

when participants are randomly selected to be part of a study

example: a researcher wants to study student attitudes toward homework in a school district, they use random selection to pick students from all grades, ensuring the sample represents the whole district

quasi-experiment

where researchers compare groups, but the participants are not randomly assigned to the groups

example: a researcher wants to study the effects of smoking on health, they compare smokers vs. non-smokers, but they can’t randomly assign people to smoke or not

social desirability

when people answer questions or behave in ways that make them look good to others, rather than being completely honest

example: in a survey about cheating, a student might lie and say they have never cheated because they want to seem honest and responsible

placebo effect

happens when a person experiences a real change (like feeling better) just because they believe they are getting a real treatment, even if the treatment was fake

double-blind procedure

neither the participants nor the researchers know who is in the experimental or control group

prevents experimenter bias and social desirability bias

experimenter bias

when a researcher accidentally influences the results of a study based on their own expectations or beliefs

example: if a researcher smiles more when participants do what they "expect," those participants might act differently without realizing it and skew the results

qualitative measures

non-numerical data that provide detailed, descriptive insights into participants thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

example: interviewing people about how they felt after losing a loved one and recording their stories

structured interviews

researcher asks the same set of questions in the same order to every participant

quantitative measures

numerical data that can be counted, measured, and analyzed statistically

likert scale

a rating scale where people show how much they agree or disagree with a statement, usually on a numbered scale which measure a person’s attitude and opinions

informed consent

participants must be told all important information about a study before they agree to participate

informed assent

when the participant is not legally able to provide full consent on their own, usually because they’re a minor

peer review

when other experts in the same field evaluate a study before it gets published to make sure the research is high-quality, accurate, and trustworthy

replication

other individuals conduct the study again to check the original findings and verify the results

cultural norms

the rules and expectations within a culture about how people should behave, think, and act

expectations

beliefs or assumptions about how things will happen or how people should behave in a given situation

circumstances

the situations or conditions that surround a person or event, which can influence how things unfold or how people behave

example: if someone is late to a meeting due to heavy traffic, the traffic explains why they couldn’t arrive on time

confirmation bias

tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that supports what we already believe, while ignoring or dismissing evidence that contradicts it

example: if someone believes a certain diet is the best, they might only see news stories or studies that praise it, while ignoring those that criticize it

hindsight bias

tendency to believe, after an event has happened, that we knew it all along or that the outcome was more predictable than it actually was

overconfidence bias

when people overestimate their abilities, knowledge, or the accuracy of their predictions

descriptive statistics

researchers organize and describe data, here researchers are describing the data that is collected

inferential statistics

helps researchers determine if the data from a sample can be applied to a population

example: a poll of 1,000 voters is used to predict how an entire country's population will vote in an election

null hypothesis

there is no effect, no relationship, or no difference between groups or variables in an experiment. it suggests that any observed differences are due to chance or random variation

example: in a study testing whether a new drug lowers blood pressure, it would be that the drug has no effect on blood pressure

alternative hypothesis

contradicts the null hypothesis, suggesting that there is an effect, relationship, or difference between groups or variables

example: in a study testing whether a new drug lowers blood pressure, the alternative hypothesis would be that the drug does lower blood pressure, which is the opposite of the null hypothesis

p-value

shows if your experiment results likely happened by chance.
– is low (below 0.05), the results are probably real, not from chance → reject the null hypothesis
– is high (above 0.05), the results could be from chance → don’t reject the null hypothesis
example: 0.03 means there’s a 3% chance the results happened randomly, so they are likely significant

effect size

tells us how big or meaningful the differences of a relationship is in a study

example: two different studying methods both improve test scores, but if one method raises scores by 10 points and the other only by 1 point, the first method has a larger effect size

statistical significance

the results of a study are unlikely to have happened by chance — suggesting there is probably a real effect or difference.

example: if students who get tutoring score significantly higher on tests compared to those who don’t — and the p-value is 0.01 — the results are statistically significant, meaning tutoring likely had a real effect.

frequency distribution table

allows researchers to see how often sets of data occur

histogram

type of bar graph that shows the frequency of data with vertical columns

mean

the average of a set of numbers, add up all the numbers and then divide by how many numbers there are

example: if your quiz scores are 80, 90, and 100: add them: 80 + 90 + 100 = 270, divide by 3 because there’s 3 numbers: 270 ÷ 3 = 90 ← thats the mean

regression

shows how strongly two variables are related and how one can predict the other

example: predicts a student’s future test score based on the number of hours they studied, more hours studied→ higher predicted test score.

mode

number that appears the most

example: in the numbers 2, 4, 4, 5, 7, the mode is 4 because it appears more than any other number

median

find the score that is in the exact middle of the data set

example: In the numbers 3, 5, 7: median is 5. if there’s an even number of scores (like 2, 4, 6, 8): take the middle two, add them, and divide by 2

range

take the highest value point and the lowest value point and subtract them

example: if your scores are 70, 80, 90, and 100: highest = 100, lowest = 70. range = 100 − 70 = 30

positive skew

occurs when scores are low and clustered to the left of the mean

negative skew

occurs when scores are high and clustered to the right of the mean.

correlation range (positive correlation)

as one variable increases, the other also increases

correlation range (negative correlation)

as one variable increases, the other decreases

evolutionary perspective

the idea that human behavior and thinking are shaped by our need to survive and adapt, based on how we evolved over time.
example: our fear of snakes might have been evolved because snakes were dangerous to our ancestors

natural selection

the process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change
example: giraffes with longer necks survived better since they could reach leaves high in trees

eugenics

the study of improving a population's genetic quality
example: promoting people to breed to enhance traits that are needed

twin studies

a research method that compares the similarities and differences between identical and fraternal twins to understand the influence of genetics and environment

central nervous system

the brain and spinal cord

peripheral nervous system

transmits information to and from the central nervous system
remember: perry the platypus is a detective that transmits information

autonomic nervous system

things that happen automatically. regulates involuntary bodily functions such as heart rate and digestion

somatic nervous system

controls reflex actions, and processing sensory information
example: walking, pulling your hand away from a hot pan, sensations like touch or vibration

parasympathetic nervous system

“rest and digest”. responsible for calming the body down.
example: a person calmly resting after a meal

neuron

carries messages between different parts of the brain and body allowing us to think, feel, and move