AP Psychology Unit 1 (Myers' Unit I and II) Key Terms

empiricism

the view that (a) knowledge comes from experience via the senses, and (b) science flourishes through observation and experiment

structuralism

an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind

functionalism

a school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish

behavioral psychology

the scientific study of observable behavior, and its explanation by principles of learning

psychodynamic psychology

a branch of psychology that studies how unconscious drives and conflicts influence behavior, and uses that information to treat people with psychological disorders

psychometrics

the scientific study of the measurement of human abilities, attitudes, and traits

cognitive psychology

the scientific study of all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

industrial-organizational psychology (I/O)

the application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces

human factors psychology

an I/O psychology subfield that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use

positive psychology

the scientific study of human functioning, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive

operational definition

a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures used in a research study

random sample

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

correlation

a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.

random assignment

assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups

placebo

experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent

independent variable

the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied

dependent variable

the outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable

descriptive statistics

numerical data used to measure and describe characteristics of groups; includes measures of central tendency and measures of variation

standard deviation

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

inferential statistics

numerical data that allow one to generalize—to infer from sample data the probability of something being true of a population