Unit 0 AP Psych ALL TERMS

Psychodynamic - thumb pointing back

emphasizes the role of unconscious mental processes, early childhood experiences, and interpersonal relationships in shaping human behavior and personality

Cognitive - tap pointer finger to forehead

focuses on the internal mental processes that influence behavior, viewing the brain as a processor of information and examining concepts like perception, memory, thinking, decision-making, and language

Behaviorist - middle finger

all behaviors as learned, rather than innate, through interactions with the environment

Humanistic - ring finger

emphasizes an individual's innate goodness, free will, and drive to achieve self-actualization, or their full potential

Biological - PINKY AND THE BRAIN

encompasses everything related to the brain, nervous system, genetics, and body - emphasizes the role of neurons, brain structures, and the overall nervous system in processing information, generating thoughts, and producing behaviors. 

Evolutionary - EXTRA sixth finger

Darwinism; explains behavior and psychological traits as products of natural selection, where characteristics that promote survival and reproduction are passed down through generations

What is the important phrase to remember for evolutionary perspective questions?

“All or most cultures around the world”

Social-Cultural

a way of understanding human behavior, thought, and development by examining the combined influence of social and cultural factors, such as shared values, norms, beliefs, and interactions within various social groups and subgroups

Biopsychosocial

emphasizes the interconnectedness of biological, psychological, and social factors in understanding and treating health and illness

independent variable

the factor that’s being changed in an experiment

dependent variable

what’s being measured in an experiment

confounding variables

a variable that effects the IV and DV and makes it harder to determine the true effect of the IV

random assignment

allocating participants in a study to experimental groups in an unbiased way

population

the entire group of individuals a researcher wants to study and draw conclusions about

sample

a portion of the population that is studied to draw conclusions about general population

random sampling

a subset of individuals selected from a larger population in such a way that every member of the population has an equal chance of being included

representative samples

a group of individuals selected from a larger population whose characteristics accurately mirror those of the population

generalizability

being able to say the findings of an experiment apply to the entire population studied

experimental group

group receiving treatment

control group

group not receiving treatment

placebo group

control group where participants receive an inactive treatment

placebo effect

the improvement of a person’s health after receiving an inactive pill, due to their beliefs that the pill works

single-blind procedure

participants don’t know which treatment they’re receiving but researchers do know

double-blind procedure

neither the participants or researchers know who is receiving which treatment

experimenter bias

occurs when a researcher's expectations or beliefs about the outcome of a study unintentionally influence the results

What are some examples of experimenter bias?

• a researcher unintentionally conveying how they expect the results to turn out so the participants try to achieve this expectation

• unintentionally misinterpreting data to align with their hypothesis

• only reporting data that supports their hypothesis

case study

investigation of a single individual, group, event, or community, gathering data from various sources like interviews and observations to provide a detailed understanding of a real-life phenomenon

correlation

the extent to which changes in one variable are associated with changes in another variable

positive correlation

two variable increase or decrease together

negative correlation

when one variable increases, the other decreases, or vice versa

scatterplots

a graph that visually represents the relationship between two numerical variables by plotting them as points on a two-dimensional coordinate system

correlation coefficient

a statistical measure between -1 and 1 that quantifies the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables.

What does a correlation coefficient close to 1 or -1 imply?

a strong correlation

What does a correlation coefficient closer to 0 imply?

a weak correlation

surveys

a research method using questionnaires or interviews to collect self-reported data on human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to understand a population's characteristics, opinions, and experiences

framing

a cognitive bias where people's decisions and perceptions are influenced by the way information is presented, rather than by the objective facts themselves

meta-analysis

a statistical method that combines and analyzes results from multiple independent studies on the same topic to provide a more reliable understanding

naturalistic observation

a research method where psychologists observe and record behavior in its natural environment without manipulation or intervention from the researcher

operational definition

A precise and measurable definition of a psychological concept or variable. It specifies how the concept will be observed, measured, and quantified in a research study. 

institutional review board

a committee that reviews and approves human subjects research to protect the rights and welfare of participants

informed consent

a process in which potential research participants or therapy clients receive clear and comprehensive information about a study or treatment, and voluntarily agree to participate or receive care

minimal deception

the ethical practice of withholding or distorting information from research participants only when necessary to achieve the study's goals

confederates

an individual who acts as a participant in a research experiment but is actually part of the research team, carrying out the experimenter's instructions to influence the behavior of real participants

debriefing

a structured discussion that takes place after a research study, experiment, or critical incident to reveal the true intentions of the experiment

central tendency

mean, median, mode

measures of variation

range and interpret standard deviation

How does the data fall for a normal curve?

approximately 68% of data falls within one standard deviation, 95% within two, and 99.7% within three.  

What is true of normal curves?

The mean, median, and mode are equal

regression toward the mean

the statistical phenomenon where, over time, extremely high or low scores or outcomes on a repeated measurement tend to become more moderate, moving closer to the average score

confirmation bias

the tendency to actively seek out and interpret information that supports one's existing beliefs while ignoring or dismissing information that contradicts them

hindsight bias

the psychological tendency to believe, after an event has occurred, that its outcome was predictable (i-knew-it-all-along)

overconfidence bias

a cognitive bias that makes people overestimate their own abilities, knowledge, or the likelihood of success, leading to poor judgments and decisions