AP psych unit 0 terms

Psychodynamic Perspective - An approach in psychology, originating with Sigmund Freud, that emphasizes the role of unconscious motives, unresolved childhood conflicts, and hidden drives in shaping human behavior and personality.

Behavioral Perspective - An approach to psychology focused exclusively on observable, measurable behaviors and how they are learned through conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment.

Humanistic Perspective - An approach in psychology that emphasizes individual human potential, self-actualization, free will, and the innate drive for personal growth.

Cognitive Perspective - An approach in psychology focusing on mental processes—such as memory, perception, problem-solving, language, and decision-making—and how people process, store, and retrieve information.

Biological Perspective - An approach in psychology that seeks to explain human behavior and mental processes through physiological mechanisms, including genetics, brain structure, neurotransmitters, and biological systems.

Evolutionary Perspective - An approach in psychology that applies Darwinian principles of natural selection, explaining how behaviors and mental traits evolved because they conferred adaptive or survival advantages.

Sociocultural Perspective - An approach in psychology that examines how social environments, cultural norms, family, and group dynamics influence individual behavior, thoughts, and attitudes.

Biopsychosocial Perspective - An integrative framework that views human health, development, and behavior as the result of dynamic interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors.

Confirmation Bias - The cognitive tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and remember information that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs while ignoring or discounting contradicting evidence.

Hindsight Bias - The tendency to believe, after an outcome has occurred, that one could have foreseen or predicted it; commonly known as the "I-knew-it-all-along" phenomenon.

Overconfidence - The tendency for individuals to overestimate the accuracy of their own knowledge, judgments, abilities, or beliefs.

Empirical Evidence - Information and data acquired through direct observation, systematic measurement, and experimentation rather than through intuition, belief, or reasoning alone.

Scientific Method - A standardized, multi-step process of research involving observation, forming a hypothesis, conducting empirical testing, collecting data, analyzing results, and drawing conclusions.

Hypothesis - A precise, testable, and falsifiable prediction about the expected relationship between two or more variables based on a theory or observation.

Falsifiable - A principle of scientific hypotheses specifying that there must be a theoretical possibility of proving the statement false through empirical testing.

Peer Review - The process by which independent scientific experts in a relevant field evaluate research studies for validity, methodology, and quality before publication in a journal.

Replication - The repetition of an experimental study, using the same or adapted procedures, to determine whether the original findings can be consistently reproduced.

The American Psychological Association (APA) - The primary professional organization representing psychology in the United States, which establishes ethical guidelines, publication formatting standards, and research protocols.

Quantitative Data - Numerical data that can be measured, quantified, and analyzed using statistical techniques.

Qualitative Data - Descriptive, non-numerical data—such as text, images, or observations—used to understand underlying reasons, meanings, and experiences.

Likert Scales - A survey rating scale used to measure attitudes or opinions by asking respondents to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement along a structured continuum.

Structured Interviews - A research method where an interviewer asks a predetermined set of standardized, fixed questions in a strict order to all participants.

Survey Technique - A quantitative research technique used to gather self-reported data regarding attitudes, behaviors, or opinions from a large sample of participants via questionnaires or interviews.

Wording Effect - A form of bias in survey research where subtle changes in how a question is phrased or framed significantly alter participant responses.

Naturalistic Observation - A non-experimental research method where researchers observe and record subjects' behaviors in their natural environments without intervention or manipulation.

Case Study - An in-depth, detailed investigation of a single individual, small group, or rare event over an extended period of time.

Correlational Research - A non-experimental research design that measures the mathematical relationship between two or more naturally occurring variables without manipulating them.

Third Variable Problem - A limitation of correlational research where an unmeasured, extraneous variable may account for the observed relationship between two measured variables.

Scatterplot - A visual graph representing pairs of numerical values, used to illustrate the direction and strength of a correlation between two quantitative variables.

Correlation Coefficient - A statistical measure (r) ranging from -1.00 to +1.00 that indicates both the direction and strength of a relationship between two variables.

Positive Correlation - A relationship between two variables in which both variables move in the same direction—either both increase together or both decrease together.

Negative Correlation - An inverse relationship between two variables in which one variable increases while the other decreases.

Experimental Method - A rigorous research procedure in which an investigator manipulates one or more independent variables under controlled conditions to determine cause-and-effect relationships.

Independent Variable - The variable in an experiment that is deliberately manipulated or controlled by the researcher to observe its effect on an outcome.

Dependent Variable - The variable in an experiment that is measured to determine if it changes in response to manipulations of the independent variable.

Confounding Variable - An unwanted, extraneous factor in an experiment that varies systematically with the independent variable, confusing the true cause-and-effect results.

Operational Definitions - Clear, precise, and measurable descriptions of how variables will be quantified and manipulated within a specific study.

Experimental Group - The group of participants in an experiment who are exposed to the active treatment or independent variable manipulation

Control Group - The group of participants in an experiment who do not receive the experimental treatment, serving as a baseline comparison.

Random Assignment - A procedure where participants are assigned to experimental or control conditions purely by chance, ensuring groups are probabilistically equivalent before manipulation.

Placebo Effect - A phenomenon where participants experience actual psychological or physical improvements due solely to their expectation or belief in a treatment rather than the treatment itself.