AP Psych NEW: Unit 0

AP Psychology Unit 0 Flashcards for the updated AP Psych 2025 exam. Based on Barron's AP Prep book.

Humanist Perspective

• Individual Choice + Free Will

• Behaviors are choices guided by physiological, emotional, or spiritual needs.

• Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers

Psychodynamic Perspective

• Unconscious mind controls much of thought and actions

• Dream analysis, word association

• Childhood experiences (Repression)

• Sigmund Freud

Biopsychology / Neuroscience Perspective

• Behavior as Biological Processes

• Genes (predisposition) , Hormones, NeuroTransmitters in the Brain (Brain structures)

Evolutionary/ Darwinian Perspective

• Natural Selection

• Traits that are advantageous for survival are passed down

• Charles Darwin

Behavioral Perspective

• Behavior stems from conditioning

• Observable behaviors in humans and animals in response to stimuli (reinforcement, reward- punishment)

Cognitive Perspective

• Behavior stems from how we interpret, process and remember events

• Rules that we use to view the world

• Cognition develops in stages(Cognitive Developmental Theory)

• Jean Piaget

Sociocultural Perspective

• DIfferences in thoughts and behaviors among cultures

• Culture based variety

• Cultural norms

Biopsychosocial Perspective

• Human thinking and behavior come from biological and psychological factors

• Looks at biological and social influences (conformity)

• Less focused on thinking and behavior (reductionistic)

Eclectic Point Of View

• No one perspective has the answers to human thought / behavior

Hindsight Bias

• After something happens you can explain why it happens

Confirmation Bias

• Paying more attention to info that supports our ideas

Overconfidence

• Being overconfident about things we believe

Applied Research

• Solving practical problems

• Clear, practical application

Basic Research

• Interesting, but has no immediate real-world applications

Quantitative Research

• Numerical

Qualitative Research

• Complex textual responses

• Key themes

• Often involves open-ended questions

Hypothesis

• Expresses a relationship between two variables

• Educated guess

Dependent Variable

• The variable that responds to the independent variable

• Measured

Independent Variable

• Variable that is manipulated

Theory

• Aims to explain a phenomenon

• Allows hypothesis’s to be formed

Falsifiable Hypothesis

• Hypothesis’s that have controverting (conflicting) data

• Essential

Operational Definitions

• Explains how variables will be measured

• Helps testify to validity and reliability

Valid Research

• Research that measures what the researcher intended to measure

Reliable Research

• Replicability of an experiment

Population

• Entire group of people data is relevant to

Sample

• A small group out of the population that will be included

Representative Sample

• Sample accurately represents the larger population

Random Sampling

• Every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected

• Increases likelihood of representation

• Allows data to be generalized

Convenience Sampling

• Collecting data from easily accessible people

Can true randomness be achieved by a human?

• No, it cannot.

Stratified Sampling

• Separating the population into groups and taking a sample including members of each group

Laboratory Experiments

• Highly controlled

• Sometimes unrealistic

Field Experiments

• Uncontrolled

• Typically more realistic

Confounding variables

• Anything other than the independent variable that can affect the dependent variable.

• Researchers try to eliminate this as much as possible

Random Assignment

• Every participant has an equal chance of being placed into a certain group.

• Limits chance of participant relevant confounding variables

Experimenter Bias

• Unconscious tendency of researchers to treat members in the experimental group differently

• The goal is to increase the chance of confirming the hypothesis.

Single- Blind Study

• Participants do not know which group they are in.

• Minimizes Placebo effect

Double- Blind Study

• Neither participants nor researcher know what group the participants are in

Demand Characteristics

• Cues about the purpose of the study

• Should be minimized

Response/Subject Bias

• Tendency of participants to behave in certain ways

Social desirability bias

• Tendency to try and give answers that reflect well upon yourself (make you look good)

Experimental Group

• Group that gets the treatment

Control Group

• Gets none of the treatment

• Used to compare results

Placebo Method

• Control group is given a fake version of the independent variable

• Allows researchers to separate physiological and psychological effects

Counterbalancing

• Using participants as their own control group

• ex. recording their data before the experiment

  • May have order effects ( doing better on something because you already did it once )

Positive Correlation

• Presence of one thing predicts the presence of the other

Negative Correlation

• The presence of one thing predicts the absence of the other

Quasi-experimental study

• aims to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between an independent and dependent variable without using random assignment

Likert Scales

• Participants express their level of agreement or disagreement with a given statement

• Used with the survey method

Directionality Problem ( Temporal Precedence)

• Inability to tell which variable came first

Naturalistic observation

• Observing participants in their natural habitat.

• The goal is to get a realistic picture of the participant’s behavior.

Structured Interview

• Survey with a fixed number of questions asked in a set order

• Qualitative research method

Case Study

• used to get a full, detailed picture of one participant or a small

  group of participants

• Qualitative research method

Descriptive Statistics

• Describing a set of data

Central tendency

• Measures of central tendency attempt to mark the center of a distribution

• Mean, median, and mode

Mean, Median, Mode

• Mean: Average score

• Median: Central score

• Mode: Most frequent data points

Bimodal

• If two scores appear equally frequently and more frequently than any other score.

Positively skewed

• Distribution is affected by extremely high data

Negatively skewed

• Distribution is affected by extremely low data

Measures of variability

• Attempt to depict the diversity of a distribution

• Range, Variance, Standard Deviation

Normal curve

• Theoretical bell-shaped curve for which the area under the

  curve lying between any two z-scores has been predetermined

• Empirical rule (68, 95, 99)

Percentiles

• Distance of a score from zero

Inferential Statistics

• Determines where findings can be applied to the larger population

• t-tests, chi-square tests, ANOVAs

Sampling Error

• Extent to which the sample differs from the population

P-Value

• the probability that the difference between the groups is due to chance

• Smaller the value, more significant the results

• Can never be zero

Statistically Significant

• Requires a p-value of 0.05 (5%)

Practical significance

• How large an effect is (effect size)

Meta-analysis

• Combines the results of many studies to estimate an average effect

APA

• American Psychological Association

APA Ethical Guidelines

• All experiments / studies must follow these guidelines

IRB (Institutional Review Board)

• Academic research must be proposed here first

• They look for ethical violations and procedural errors

Animal Research Requirements

• The research must have a clear scientific purpose.

• The research must answer a specific, important scientific question.

• Animals chosen must be best suited to answer the question at hand.

• Researchers must care for and house animals in a humane way.

• Researchers must acquire animal subjects legally.

• Researchers must design experimental procedures that employ the least amount of suffering feasible.

Human Research Requirements

• No coercion

• Informed consent

• Confidentiality

• No significant risk

• Debriefing (after)