AP Psych Unit 1

Behavior

Actions, feelings, states of being

Mental processes

Example are thought, problem-solving

Theory

An explanation for why and how behavior occurs, provides general guidelines

Anecdotal data

Evidence collected in a casual or informal manner, relies heavily or entirely on personal experience

Empirical data

Evidence collected through the scientific method, based on observation and/or experimentation

Clinical psychologists

Assess and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders

Psychiatrists

MDs who treat disorders and prescribe medications

Counseling psychologists

Help people utilize strengths to cope with adversity

Positive psychologists

Focus on well-being and conditions that foster thriving

Community psychologists

Strengthen systems and organizations to meet group needs

Educational psychologists

Study effective teaching and learning processes

Experimental psychologists

Use empirical methods to advance scientific knowledge

Industrial/organizational psychologists

Apply research to improve workplace productivity and quality of life

Psychometric/measurement psychologists

Design experiments and analyze psychological data

Sport psychologists

Help athletes maintain motivation and manage competition challenges

Psychodynamic

Perspective that believes behavior results from unconscious mind, values childhood events since unconscious cannot be directly studied

Psychodynamic

Key terms for this perspective include id, ego, superego, defense mechanisms, the unconscious, dream analysis, childhood trauma

Biological

Perspective that believes behavior results from physical structures in the brain and body, explains case studies and the effects of psychoactive medications

Biological

Key terms for this perspective include nervous system, hormones, parts of brain, localization of function, drug therapy

Cognitive

Perspective that believes behavior results from mental processes, believes that memory, thinking, decision-making, and errors with those can indeed be studied

Cognitive

Key terms for this perspective include schema, memory, thinking, language, framing, cognitive biases

Social-cultural

Perspective that believes behavior results from situational and cultural contexts, to understand behavior, understand context, explores discrimination, i.e. with Doll Test

Social-cultural

Key terms for this perspective include attribution, conformity, society, obedience, attitude, environment

Evolutionary

Perspective that believes behavior results from the motivation to survive and reproduce, mental processes like fear of snakes and physical attraction have a purpose

Evolutionary

Key terms for this perspective include evolution, adaptation, genetics, reproduction

Behavioral

Perspective that believes behavior results from experience, believes that we are born with a blank slate, or “tabula rosa”

Behavioral

Key terms for this perspective include classical conditioning, operant conditioning, reward, punishment, reinforcement

Humanistic

Perspective that believes behavior results from the potential for personal growth, meeting basic needs comes first, answers the question “Who am I?” and influences modern positive psychology

Humanistic

Key terms for this perspective include self-actualization, self-transcendence, free will, hierarchy of needs, self-concept, self-esteem

Longitudial

Data gathered for the same subjects repeatedly over time, observational study

Cross-sectional

Data collected from a population at a specific time, observational study

Surveys

Ascertain self-reported behaviors of a group, questioning a representative sample, are efficient and affordable with a lot of data, but are not representative and prone to social desirability bias, where people answer more favorably of themselves

Experiment

Only research method that can determine causation, a research method where one or more variables is manipulated in a controlled environment to observe the effect, but results may differ from real situations, are expensive and difficult to run, and limited due to nonmaleficence ethics, or do no harm

Naturalistic observation

Observing and recording behavior naturally without interference, ability to show real-world, unexpected behavior, but prone to observer bias, or inaccurate observations, and Hawthorne effect

Hawthorne effect

Effect on an individual’s behavior when they know they’re being observed, con of naturalistic observation studies

Case study

Descriptive technique where one or more people are studied in a hope to reveal universal principles, able to collect in-depth, detailed, rare data, but not generalizable and prone to researcher bias

Correlation

A measure of the extent to which one variable predicts another, shows real-world, unexpected behavior, but does not prove causation, and subject to illusory correlation

Illusory correlation

The perception of a relationship when, in fact, there is none, con of correlation studies

Meta-analysis

A procedure for statistically combining the results of many research studies, greater statistical power and ability to generalize but difficult, time-consuming, and research bias in selecting studies

Quasi-experiment

An experiment with no random assignment, used for situations where it would be unethical to conduct an experiment but do not rule out confounding variables

Psychodynamic

Therapists who follow this perspective would say depression is caused by unresolved unconscious conflicts treated by resolving the issue

Biological

Therapists who follow this perspective would say depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and should be treated using medication

Cognitive

Therapists who follow this perspective would say depression is caused by distorted thinking and should be treated by challenging irrational thoughts

Social-cultural

Therapists who follow this perspective would say depression is caused by higher rates associated with social isolation, poverty, and cultural expectations

Evolutionary

Therapists who follow this perspective would say depression is a survival mechanism telling you to slow down

Behavioral

Therapists who follow this perspective would say the cause of depression doesn’t matter, but it should be treated by rewarding helpful activities and punishing avoidance

Humanistic

Therapists who follow this perspective would say depression is caused by a gap between one’s ideal and real self and should be treated by accepting oneself

Empiricism

Relies on sensory observation and data, proven through rigorous scientific evidence

Intuition

Gut feelings without conscious or scientific reasoning

Hindsight bias

“I knew it all along,” an outcome sounds obvious only because you know it’s right

Overconfidence

You have an inflated view of what you can know/do

Social desirability bias

People make answers more favorable to avoid social judgement

Self-report bias

People answer questions about themselves inaccurately, whether on purpose or not

Confirmation bias

Looking only for evidence that supports your hypothesis and rejecting evidence that does not

Hawthorne effect

Those being observed change their behavior when they know they’re being observed

Experimenter bias

Researcher unintentionally influencing results to confirm their beliefs, eradicated by double-blind studies

Replication

Other scientists repeating your study to prove/disprove your theory

Peer review

Other experts from your field evaluating your research’s validity, reliability, and quality

Operational definition

A precise definition of a variable being observed so that it’s measurable and repeatable

Yes

In a normal model, are mean, median, and mode all the same?

Percentile

Percentage of scores that are lower than a given score, i.e. SAT score 1300 is 87th percentile

Skew

Occurs when extreme outliers are present in a distribution

Regression towards the mean

The tendency for extreme scores to fall back toward the average

Histogram

Graph with touching bars and continuous numerical data

Bar graph

Graph with bars that do not touch and categorical data

Scatterplot

Shows correlation between two variables

Inferential statistics

Estimating what is happening in a sample population for the purpose of making decisions about that population’s characteristics

Effect size

Tells us how big or meaningful the difference or relationship is in a study

Reliability

A measure of results’ consistency

Validity

A measure of results’ accuracy

Confederate

A person in on the research study, but other participants do not know that

IRB

Approves, disproves, or guides research, different for different colleges or regions

Informed consent

Telling participants about all aspects of a study beforehand

Assent

As minors or the intellectually disabled cannot give written consent, they must continuously verbally consent

Limited deception

Deception can be used, but only when necessary, and participants must be informed of it during debriefing

Nonmaleficence

Protection from harm and discomfort in both the short and long term, participants can withdraw at any time

Confidentiality

Keeping personal information about participants secret, data is reported only on the group scale

Debriefing

Revealing all information on a study at the end, subjects must leave in the same physical and emotional condition in which they came in

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes