AP Psych Unit 1

Plato

Greek philosopher who argued for the role of nature in psychological development

Aristotle

Greek philosopher who argued for the role of nurture in psychological development

John Locke

English philosopher, started the idea of Tabula Rosa, where the mind is like a blank slate at birth, and any healthy baby can become anything

Gustav Fechner

German experimental psychologist who developed the idea of the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) which is considered to be the first empirical psychological measurement

Charles Darwin

British naturist whose theory of natural selection influenced the functionalist school and the field of evolutionary psychology

Wilhelm Wundt

German psychologist who opened one of the first psychology laboratories and helped develop the field of structuralism, used introspection (looking inside oneself to examine mental experience, and certain structures made the mind)

Edward Bradford Titchener

American psychologist who contributed to the field of structuralism

G. Stanley Hall

American psychologist who brought introspection to his lab at Johns Hopkins University in the United States; first president of the American Psychological Association

Margaret Floy Washburn

First woman to complete her PhD in psychology

William James

American psychologist who opened on of the first psychology laboratories and helped develop the field of functionalism (analyzing the purpose of behavior), wrote the first psychology textbook in 1890

Ivan Pavlov

Russian psychologist whose experiments on learning led to the principles of classical conditioning

Hermann Ebbinghaus

German psychologist who studied who studied the ability of people to remember lists of nonsense syllables under different conditions

Sigmund Freud

Austrian psychologist who founded the field of psychoanalytic/psychodynamic psychology, conscious and unconscious processes

John B. Watson

American psychologist who contributed to the field of behaviorism

Sir Frederic Bartlett

British psychologist who studied the cognitive and social processes of remembering

Jean Piaget

Swiss psychologist who developed an important theory of cognitive development in children

B. F. Skinner

American psychologist who contributed to the school of behaviorism (changing behaviors can be treatment, conditioning can be used)

Gestalt

criticized James and Wundt for not considering the “whole self”

Structuralists

Wundt, Hall, Titchener

Functionalists

James, James Cattell, John Dewey

Psychodynamic psychoanalysts

Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Heinz Kohut, and others

Humanists

Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and others

Behaviorists think…

behavior results from learning

Psychoanalysts/Freud think…

unconscious internal conflicts explain mental disorders, personality, and motivation

Humanists think…

free will and personal growth shape behavior and thought

Evolutionary psychologists think…

behavior patterns are adaptations naturally selected to increase reproductive success

Cognitive psychologists think…

receiving/storing/processing information, thinking and reasoning, and language must be emphasized to understand behavior

Sociocultural psychologists think…

social/environmental factors and cultural differences must be examined to understand behavior

Biopsychosocial psychologists think…

biological processes, psychological factors, and social forces provide a more complete picture of behavior and mental processes

Clinical psychologists

evaluate and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders

Counseling psychologists

help people adapt to change or make changes in their lifestyle

Developmental psychologists

study psychological development throughout the life span

Educational psychologists

focus on how effective teaching and learning take place

Forensic psychologists

apply psychological principals to legal issues

Health/positive psychologists

concentrate on biological, psychological, and social factors involved in health and illness

Industrial/organizational psychologists

aim to improve productivity and quality of work life by applying psychological principals and methods to the workplace

Neuropsychologists

explore the relationships between brain/nervous systems and behavior

Psychometricians/Psychometric psychologists/measurement psychologists

focus on methods for acquiring and analyzing psychological data

Social psychologists

focus on how a person’s mental life and behavior are shaped by interactions with other people

theory

based on facts/evidence

hypothesis

testable prediction to a theory

variables

factors with multiple values

only this can prove cause and effect

controlled experiment

population

includes all the individuals in the group to which the study applies

sample

subgroup of population

random selection

putting all the names in a hat and picking out a specified number of names, alphabetizing the roster of enrollees and choosing every fifth name, using a table of random numbers to choose participants, etc.

experimental group

receives treatment

control group

does not receive treatment

between-subjects design

the participants in the experimental group and the control group are different individuals

random assignment

minimizes existence of preexisting differences between the two groups

confounding variables

differences between the experimental group and the control group other than those resulting from the independent variable

subjects

attend the same two sessions upon which the quiz is based

operational definition

describes the specific procedure used to determine the presence of a variable

experimenter bias

phenomenon when a researchers expectations or preferences about the outcome influence the results obtained

demand characteristics

clues participants discover about the purpose of the study (rumors about the study suggesting how they should respond, etc.)

single-blind procedure

a research design in which the participants don’t know which treatment group - experimental of control - they are in

double-blind procedure

a research design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimental or control groups

placebo

imitation treatment

placebo effect

describes any cases when experimental participants change their behavior in the absence of any kind of experimental manipulation

within-subjects design

a research design that uses each participant as their own control

counterbalancing

a procedure that assigns half of the participants to one treatment first and the other half of participants to the other treatment first

quasi-experimental research/research designs

similar to controlled experiments but without random assignment for particpants

correlational research

looks at the relationship between two variables without establishing cause and effect relationships

naturalistic observation

gathers descriptive information about typical behavior without manipulating behaviors

survey method

researchers use questionnaires or interviews to ask a large number of people questions about their behaviors, thoughts, or attitudes

retrospective

look at an effect and seek the cause

reliability

consistency or repeatability

validity

the extent to which an instrument measures or predicts what it is supposed to

case study

in depth examination of a specific group or single person that typically includes interviews, observations, and test scores

elementary statistics

analysis of numerical date about representative samples of populations

descriptive statistics

numbers that summarize a set of research data obtained from a sample

frequency distribution

orderly arrangement of scores indicating the frequency of each score or each group of scores

histogram

bar graph from the frequency distrobution

frequency polygon

a line graph that replaces the bars with single points and connects the points with a line

mode

most frequently occurring score in a set of research data

bimodal

two scores appear most frequently

multimodal

three or more scores appear most frequently

variability

the spread or dispersion of scores for a set of research data or distribution

standard score

enable psychologists to compare scores that are initially on different scales

correlation coefficient

statistical measure of the degree of relatedness or association between two sets of data

p-value/statistical significance

percent chance that the findings are due to chance