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This flashcard set is based on Myers' Psychology for the AP Course 4th Edition by David Myers, Nathan DeWall, and Elizabeth Hammer.
What is psychology?
The science of studying human behavior and mental processes through scientific study.
What is the scientific attitude?
Thinking in a way that involves curiosity, skepticism, and humility.
What is critical thinking?
Thinking that does not automatically accept arguments and conclusions. Instead, it examines assumptions, appraises the source, surpass biases, evaluate evidence, and assess conclusions.
What are the 7 different real psychological perspecties to explain real-world scenarios
Behavioral, biological, cognitive, humanistic, psychodynamic, sociocultural, and evolutionary.
What is the definition of Psychological Perspectives?
Different ways of thinking about or describing human behavior. A total of 7 perspectives.
What the behavioral perspective? Name one theorist…
The idea that human behavior is shaped through rewards and punishments. A theorist is Albert Bandura
EX: A rat using a Skinner box and then pressing a button to get a reward.
What is the biological perspective? Name one theorist…
The idea that human behavior is shaped through biological processes. A theorist is Ben Caroson
EX: A lobotomy is preformed to try and fix someone’s personality.
What is the cognitive perspective? Name one theorist…
The idea that human behavior is shaped by thinking, processing, or interpreting things. A theorist is Gordon Allport.
EX: Anytime you use your memory.
What is the humanistic perspective? Name one theorist and explain the self-actualization pyramid.
The idea that human behavior is shaped by a person trying to reach their best self. A theorist is Carl Rogers
EX: The self-actualization pyramid where people want to be at the top (their best self), but need to start at the bottom and work their way up.
What is the psychodynamic perspective? Name one theorist…
The idea that human behavior is shaped by previous memories and times in the past. One theorist is Sigmon Freud.
EX: An early childhood fear of not washing your hands made you wash your hands everyday.
What is the sociocultural perspective? Name one theorist…
The idea that human behavior is shaped by peers and anything involving other people. One theorist is Emile Durkheim.
EX: Hanging out with your friends affects who you are as a person.
What is the evolutionary perspective? Name one theorist…
The idea that human behavior is shaped by evolution and people continuously changing. One theorist is Charles Darwin.
EX: Your thumb allowing you to grab things.
What is human behavior?
Obervable actions or reactions of People(s) (Anything observable)
What are the four main activities that describe human behavior?
Physical actions, emotional respones, social interactoins, learned behaviors.
What are mental processes?
Operations in the mind that are not directly observable.
What are the four main activities that describe mental processes?
Cognition - Mental activities related to thinking/knowing.
Emotion - Internal ordeals related to feelings (influences behavior)
Motivation - Internal drives needs that direct human behavior toward achieving goals or needs.
Perception - Process of organizing/interpreting sensory information to understand the environment.
What are the three roadblocks to critical thinking?
Hinsight bias, overconfidence, and perceiving patterns in random events.
Why can we not just rely on common sense?
Because people often make errors, or are given information from two different view points that sounds true (hence creating a problem).
What is hindsight bias?
The tendency that people believe something would happen after learning about an outcome.
EX: People who were informed that separation from couples increases romanticism would be unsurprised from common sayings, like “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
What is overconfidence?
The idea that people quickly make decisions, often incorrect ones, based on confidence.
What are superforecasters?
People who avoid overconfidence and instead, gather facts, balance clashing arguments, and settle on an answer.
What is percieving order in random events? Why is it misleading?
The idea that people are prone to pattern seeking and make decisions that involve patterns.
It causes people to draw false conclusions and see meaning where there is none.
Why are people so prone to pattern-seeking?
Because a random, unpredictable world is unsettling and making sense of the world through patterns gives people closure.
What are peer reviewers?
Scientific experts who evaluate a research article’s theory, originality, and accuracy.
What is a theory?
An explanation that explains behaviors/events by offering organizational observations.
What is a hypothesis? Why is it important?
A specific, testable prediction that is often derived from a theory.
It guides research by providing a clear statement to be tested.
What is falsifiable?
The possibility that an idea, hypothesis, or theory can be disproved by observation or experiment.
How do you know if a theory is useful?
If it satifies three things:
It organizes observations
Implies predictions that anyone can use to check the theory.
Stimulates further research that leads to a revised theory that bettern organizes and predicts.
What is the operational definition? Why is it important?
A carefully worded statement of exact procedures used in a research study.
Important because it allows for a precise measurement and replication.
EX: Sleep deprivation could be defined as “at least 2 hours less than a person’s natural sleep”
What does replication mean?
The ability to repeat a research study, usually with different participants and a different situation. (to see if the findings can be reproduced)
What are two ways to test your hypotheses and refine your theories?
By either using non-experimental methods, or experimental methods.
What do non-experimental methods describe?
They describe behaviors through case studies, correlational studies, meta-analysis, and naturalistic observations.
What do experimental methods describe?
They observe the effect as you manipulate variables.
What is a case study?
A non-experimental technique where an individual or group is studied to hopefully reveal something major.
EX: Smokers die younger: 95% of men over 85 are nonsmokers.
What is a naturalistic observation?
A non-experimental method that involves recording responses in natural environments WITHOUT trying to interfere with the situation.
EX: Watching chimpanzee societies in the jungle.
Just like case studies, naturalistic observations DO NOT ____ behavior, rather it _____ it.
explain; describes.
What is a survey?
A sampling technique that uses questionnaires or interviews to collect data from many people.
Why is surveying not the best non-experimental technique?
It is because people may not tell the truth. Or the question may be worded in a way that inclines people to a certain answer (self-report bias).
What is social desireability bias?
Bias from people’s responding in ways they presume a researcher expects/wishes.
What is self-report bias?
When people report their behavior inaccurately.
How might researches reduce self-report bias?
They may pair surveys with other means of measuring behaviors.
What is convenience sampling?
Collecting research from a group that is readily available (like your friends at school). This is a bad sampling method.
How do you obtain a representative sample instead of having to resort to convenience or volunteer samples?
You would seek a random sample, where every person in the population has an equal chance of being included.
What is a random sample? (similar to a representative sample)
When everyone from the population has an equal chance of being selected.
What is a population?
All of the people in a group being studied. (random samples draw from this)
What is non-experimental research?
Research that observes and describes behavior WITHOUT manipulating variables.
What is a correlational study?
A non-experimental study that examines the relationship between at least two variables.
Example: Investigating the relationship between hours of sleep and academic performance.
What is meta-analysis?
A non-experimental way of statistically analyzing multiple studies on the same topic. (combines results of multiple related studies)
Example: Numerous studies have been analyzed on the effectiveness of a specific theory.
What is a sample?
When a smaller group is chosen from a larger population to represent it.
What is sampling bias?
When the sample is not representative of the population.
What is social desireability bias?
When respondents give answers they think are socially acceptable rather than truthful.
Example: Underreporting smoking habits in a health survey.
What is self-report bias?
When participants provide inaccurate information about themselves.
Example: Overestimating the number of hours studied per week.
What is experimenter bias?
When researches’ expectations influence the outcome of a study.
Example: A researcher unintentionally encourages participants to respond in a certain way.
What do experiements ATTEMPT to establish?
Cause and effect conenctions.
What is a correlation?
A measure between two variables and how well either one predicts the other.
What is the correlation coefficient?
A number from -1 to 1 that describes the strength between two variables.
What is a variable?
Anything that can vary and is able to be measured.
What is a scatterplot?
A graphed cluster of dots where the slope represents the correlation between those two variables.
What is illusory correlation?
Thinking there is a relationship when none exists OR thinking there is a stronger than actual relationship.
Why are illusory correlations common?
Because people usually think of instances that PROVE their illusory correlation.
Example: People who think dreams predict the future may have had an instance like that.
What is regression toward the mean?
The likelihood for extreme/unusual values or events to fall back (regress) toward the average.
Example: If you get a really low test score, another test should be higher (AKA go closer to the mean).
What is an experiment?
Where a researcher manipulates one or more independent variables to observe its effect on a behavior or mental process.
What is an experimental group?
When a group in an experiment is exposed to a treatment (to a version of a variable).
What is a control group? Why have this?
When a group in the experiment does NOT get a treatment. This group is used to compare the results back to.
What is random assignment? Why do this?
When researchers assign participants to experimental and control groups by chance. It is done to minimize the preexisting differences between the groups.
What is a single-blind procedure?
When the research participants are unaware about wehter they have received the treatment or a placebo.
What is a double-blind procedure?
When both the researcher and their participants are unaware about whether the participants received the treatment or a placebo.
What is the placebo-effect?
The idea that people will respond favorably to any treatment.
What is an independent variable?
When something in an experiment is manipulated.
What is a dependent variable?
The outcome in an experiment that is measured. (may change based on the independent variable)
What is a confounding variable?
When a factor other than the one being studied influences a study’s results.
What is validity?
How well the test/experiment measured or predicted what it was supposed to.
When is the benefit to single-blind experiments?
They help to reduce the social desirability bias.
When is the benefit to double-blind experiments?
They help to reduce experimenter bias.
What is the basic purpose of non-experimental methods (all but correlational studies)? What is a negative?
To observe and record behavior.
One negative is that there is no control of variables and single cases might be misleading.
What is the basic purpose of correlational studies? What is a negative?
To detect naturally occurring relationships and to see how well one predicts the other.
A negative is that it cannot specify cause and effect.
What is the basic purpose of experiments? What is a negative?
To explore cause and effect relationships.
A negative is that cause and effect is sometimes not possible.
What factors do scientists think of when considering which research design to use?
Amount of money, time, ethical issues, and other limitations.
What is qualitative research?
It’s research that relies on in-depth, narrative data that is not in numbers.
What is quanitative research?
It’s research that relies on numerical data.
What is the purpose of a laboratory experiment?
It lets psychologists re-cereate psychological forces under controlled conditions.
Why do we use animals in experiments (do not use ethics in your answer)?
It is because of the similarities we share between them.
What is the Institutional Review Board? Who is composes of it?
It is a board that screens research proposals and the ethics of it.
One scientist, a non-scientist, and a community representative. HAS TO BE AT LEAST 5 PEOPLE.
What are confederates? What is their goal?
People who pretend to be fellow participants but are actually part of the experiment.
They try to decieve people or temporarily stress them.
What are the four main ethics codes that must be met in any sort of experiment?
Informed Consent
Protecting participants from inhumanity
Keep information about participants confidential (HIPPA)
Fully debrief people about the experiment’s results.
What is informed consent?
Giving potential participants enough information about a study to enable them to choose whether or not to be a part of it.
What does it mean to debrief someone?
A post-experimental explanation that includes the purpose and any deceptions to its participants.
What are descriptive statistics? What measures does it include?
It summarizes and describes the quanitative information from a population/sample. It includes measures of central tendency and variation
What is a histogram?
A bar graph that that depicts a frequency distribution.
What is “a measure of central tendency?”
It is a single score that represents a whole set of scores.
What is mode?
The most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution.
What is mean?
The average of a distribution.
What is median?
The middle score in a distribution. Half the scores are above it, half are below.
What is percentile rank? Give an example…
The percentage of scores that are lower than a given score.
Example: If you are in the 79th percentile in math, your score is higher than 79 percent of your peers.
What is a skewed distrbution?
A distribution that lack symmetry around their average value.
What is variation?
How similar/different the scores in a distribution are.
Averages derived from scores with _______ variability are more reliable than averages based on scores with _____ variability.
low; high
Why do we use standard deviation to measure variability?
Because it tells us whether scores are packed together or dispersed.
What is the normal curve (think of the z-table and list the percentages that lie within 1, 2, and three std. deviations from the mean)?
It’s a bell-shaped curved where 68% of the scores fall between one standard deviation, 95% fall between two, and 99.7% fall between three.
What is a null hypothesis?
The assumption that no difference exists between groups (like between men’s and women’s scores on test of agression).
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