AP Psych Vocab

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Psychology

The scientific study of human behavior and mental processes.

Human Behavior

The observable actions or reactions of individuals or groups.

Physical Actions

Movements and activities that can be seen and measured, such as walking, talking, eating, and playing sports.

Emotional Responses

Expressions of feelings like happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, which can sometimes be observed.

Social Interactions

Ways in which people interact with each other, such as communication, cooperation, and conflict.

Learned Behaviors

Actions that are acquired through experience or education, such as driving a car or playing a musical instrument.

Mental Processes

The internal operations of the mind that are not directly observable.

Cognition

Mental activities related to thinking, knowing, and remembering, including perception, memory, problem-solving, decision-making, and reasoning.

Emotion

Internal experiences related to feelings, which can influence behavior and thought patterns.

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to understand the environment.

Motivation

The internal drives and needs that direct behavior towards achieving goals and satisfying needs.

Empirical Evidence

Observable and measurable data that psychologists rely on, gathered through experiments, surveys, and case studies.

Scientific Method

A process involving forming hypotheses, conducting experiments, and analyzing results to ensure findings are reliable and valid.

Scientific Attitude

An attitude built on curiosity, skepticism, and humility necessary for good scientific practice.

Curiosity

The drive to explore and understand the unknown.

Skepticism

Healthy skepticism means not accepting claims without evidence and questioning whether conclusions are supported by data.

Humility

The willingness to accept that one can be wrong and recognizing the limitations of one's knowledge.

Critical Thinking

The ability to analyze and evaluate information and arguments to feed a scientific attitude and promote smarter thinking.

Describe

By simply describing thoughts and behavior, we can understand them better.

Explain

Conducting research helps explain why people think and behave the way they do.

Predict

Once we understand human behavior and thought, we can make predictions about how they will behave in the future.

Change

Psychology makes a difference in the world from treatment for mental health to changing habits and educating children.

Psychologists

Professionals who question whether a conclusion is supported by data and consider alternative explanations.

Humility

The quality of being willing to accept that one can be wrong and recognizing the limitation of one's knowledge.

Critical Thinking

The engine that drives the scientific attitude; it examines assumptions, appraises the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that one would have foreseen it.

Overconfidence

The tendency to overestimate your knowledge and/or ability.

Gambler's Fallacy

The tendency to overestimate the occurrence of patterns in random data.

Illusory Correlation

The tendency to believe that variables have a relationship where none exists.

Psychological Theories

Explanations that apply an integrated set of principles to organize observations and generate hypotheses.

The Scientific Method

A systematic process involving observation, theory development, hypothesis formulation, experimentation, and evaluation.

Null Hypothesis

A statement that variables are not connected or that results are due to chance, indicating no significant difference between specified populations.

Operational Definitions

Exact specifications on how research is conducted, providing a clear and objective description of a concept or behavior.

Peer Reviewers

Individuals who evaluate the results of research and provide additional insight or perspective.

Pop Test

A surprise test.

Teenage

Humans between the ages of 13-19.

Stress Level

A physical and emotional reaction to a sudden and unfavorable news.

Descriptive Methods

Research methods that describe behaviors, often using case studies, surveys, or naturalistic observations.

Correlational Methods

Research methods that associate different factors or variables.

Experimental Methods

Research methods that manipulate variables to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

Case Study

A descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth to reveal universal principles.

Advantages of Case Studies

Provides in-depth information of a limited number of subjects and illustrates general principles that can be applied to others.

Naturalistic Observation

Naturalistic Observation is a descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate or control the situation.

Advantages of Naturalistic Observation

Noninvasive - subjects more likely to display honest behavior in a natural setting; Offer ideas for further research.

Disadvantages of Naturalistic Observation

Can be time consuming and expensive; Subjects may become aware of the observer and may act differently as a result; Observer may misinterpret the actions of the subjects.

Survey

A survey is a descriptive technique used to obtain self-reported attitudes and behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning the group.

Advantages of Surveys

Able to collect a large amount of data in a short period of time; Relatively inexpensive; Flexible - online, in person, etc.

Disadvantages of Surveys

Can be affected by poor survey questions; Participants can provide poor or false information (misinformation effect); Can have a poor response rate.

Longitudinal Study

Observes a subject(s) over an extended period of time.

Advantages of Longitudinal Study

Capturing data over extended period of time; changes and trends; development of individuals and effects of various factors.

Disadvantages of Longitudinal Study

Resource-intensive, time consuming, and subject to loss of interest or weakened enthusiasm.

Cross-Sectional Survey/Study

Observational studies that analyze data from a population at a single point in time.

Cohort-Sequencial

Research method that involves following two or more groups of people, or cohorts, over time.

Social Desirability Bias

Tendency for people to provide answers that may be dishonest because they are seeking approval and/or want to highlight their character strengths.

Self-Report Bias

Participants can try to affect the outcome of the research and/or be unrealistic about themselves.

Sampling Bias

Tendency for researchers to target their participants to increase the likelihood of proving their hypothesis, or failure to properly gather participants as a representative sample of the population, leading to skewed results.

Wording Effects (aka Framing)

How questions are worded can skew responses.

Population

Group that research is meant to apply to.

Sample

A variety of people from the population used as participants for research.

Representative/Random Sample

Participants chosen fairly to represent a population; all those in a group being studied have an equal chance of inclusion.

Behavioral Perspective

Focuses on observable behaviors while putting feelings to the side; Deals with how we learn.

Biological Perspective

It's all about the function of the brain and body chemistry.

Cognitive Perspective

Cognitive means thought process or thinking.

Humanist Perspective

Peaked in the late 1960's and 70's, so it focused on spirituality and free will.

Self-actualization

We have to strive to be the best we can be.

Happiness

Defined by the distance between our self-concept and ideal self.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Focuses on the unconscious mind.

Repression

We repress many of our true feelings and are not aware of them.

Social-Cultural Perspective

Says that much of your behavior and your feelings are dictated by the culture you live in.

Evolutionary Perspective

Focuses on Darwinism.

Inherited Behaviors

We behave the way we do because we inherited those behaviors.

Eclectic Approach/Perspective

Psychologists pick and choose what theories to use depending on the situation and the client.

Eclectic

A person who derives ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

Correlation

Naturalistic observations and surveys often show us that one trait or behavior (variable) tends to coincide with another, or correlate.

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical measure noted on a scale from -1.0 to +1.0 (r-value) and displayed through a scatter plot.

Positive Correlation

If there is a positive correlation, the variables trend in the same direction.

Negative Correlation

If there is a negative correlation, the variables trend in opposite directions.

Correlation ≠ Causation

Just because variables trend together in a predictable way, it does not indicate a cause and effect relationship.

Illusory Correlation

When we believe there is a relationship between variables where none exist.

Experiments

To isolate cause and effect, researchers must conduct an experiment; a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or two factors (independent variables) to observe the effects on some behavior or mental process (dependent variables).

Hypothesis

A prediction about the relationship between variables.

Independent Variable

Factors that are manipulated or controlled by the researcher.

Dependent Variable

Factors that are measured or observed by the researcher.

Experimental Group

Participants that receive the manipulated variables.

Control Group

Participants that do not receive manipulated variables.

Random Assignment

Participants have equal chance of being in the experiment or control group to help the researcher control or overcome other relevant factors.

Single-blind study

participants do not know which group they are in, but the researcher does.

Double-blind study

an experimental procedure in which both the research staff and the participants are ignorant of which group has received the placebo, to prevent bias from either party.

Placebo

inert substance that is in place of independent variable in control group so participants do not know they are in control group.

Placebo effect

experimental results caused by expectations alone (i.e. the participants acts or claims to feel a certain way because they think they have received a drug that would cause that reaction).

Extraneous/Confounding Variables

factors that impact the dependent variable that are not the independent variable.

Experimental Bias

researcher only notes aspects of the experiment that support their hypothesis, ignoring anything that could challenge their hypothesis.

Validity

the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it intends to.

Hawthorne effect

the modification of behavior by study participants in response to their knowledge that they are being observed or singled out for special treatment.

Barnum effect

the phenomenon that occurs when individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them (more so than to other people), despite the fact that the description is actually filled with information that applies to everyone.

Quantitative research

a method that relies on and supplies numerical data.

Qualitative research

a method that relies on in-depth, narrative analysis that cannot be translated into numerical data.

Voluntary participation

giving potential participants enough information about the study to enable them to choose whether or not to participate.

Informed consent

participants can leave at any time.

Confidentiality

privacy of participants maintained.