AP Psych: Unit 1

Structuralism

The study of the structure of the human mind through introspection.

Functionalism

The study of how mental and behavioral processes function and adapt to help individuals survive and flourish.

Behaviorism

The approach to psychology that focuses on observing and studying people's behavior and how they respond, react, and learn in different situations.

Humanistic psychology

The branch of psychology that emphasizes the importance of the current environment in nurturing or limiting personal growth and understanding the needs for love and acceptance.

Clinical psychology

The field of psychology that involves the study, assessment, and treatment of individuals with psychological disorders.

Introspection

The process of asking individuals questions about their experiences in order to understand their inner thoughts and feelings, although it is considered unreliable.

Evolutionary psychology

The study of how biology and experiences contribute to the evolution of behavior and the mind.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Psychiatry

The branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of psychological disorders, including the ability to prescribe medication to address physical causes.

Community psychology

The field of psychology that focuses on understanding how people interact in social environments and the impact of social institutions, with the goal of developing healthy environments for all.

Wundt

Wilhelm Wundt (father of psych) is known for creating the first psychology laboratory (1879) and conducting experiments, such as the one where participants had to press a key as soon as they heard a sound, which revealed differences in conscious awareness and reaction times.

James

William James explored the functions of emotion, habit, memory, willpower, and consciousness, contributing to the development of functionalism.

Tichtner

Edward Titchener was known for his approach of introspection and structuralism in psychology.

Hindsight bias

The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that one would have predicted it all along, also known as the "I knew it all along" phenomenon.

Critical thinking

The process of examining assumptions, appraising the source, discerning hidden values, evaluating evidence, and assessing conclusions in order to make informed judgments.

Theory

An explanation that uses an integrated set of principles to organize observations and predict behavior.

hypothesis

testable prediction; implied by theory 

operational definition

carefully worded statement of exact procedures used in research 

double blind procedure

research participants + staff are ignorant about who receives the treatment or placebo

control group

didn’t get the treatment; used to compared to other groups 

mode

most frequently occurring score

range

difference between highest and lowest values

statistical significance

statistical statement of how likely the result was by chance

intuition

effortless, immediate, automatic feeling/thought; contrast conscious reasoning 

replication

doing it multiple times

case study

analysis of an individual/group; trying to apply it to a bigger picture

survey

 asking people questions; obtain self reported attitudes/behaviors; random sampling

population

entirety of the sample/subjects 

random sample

choosing randomly to avoid sampling bias 

naturalistic observation

watching or recording natural behavior; correlations

placebo effect

result cause by expectation - think they got the treatment

independent variable

factor manipulates; variable whose effect is being studied 

median

middle score

standard deviation

how much the scores varied/deviated

debrief

post experimental explanation of the study to participants

longitudinal study

research with same people over a long period of time 

correlation

extent to which 2 factors vary together + predict the other

correlation coefficient

statistical index of the relationship between 2 things (-1.00 - +1.00) 

illusory correlation

recall confirming instances for relationships; illusion to control illusion that uncontrollable events correlate with our actions; when one perceives a relationship between 2 variables when one exist

experiment

research method where one manipulates +1 factor to observe effect; cause + effect result

random assignment

assign randomly; minimize difference in groups

experimental group

 research participants who got the treatment 

dependent variable

outcome is measured; variable may change when independent variable changed

mean

average

normal curve

bell shape curve

regression toward the mean

tendency for extent sources/events to regress to average/normal 

informed consent

giving potential subjects enough info about the study to let them choose 

confounding variable

other factors that may produce an effect

industrial organizational

scientific study aimed to solve practical problems

cross section study

similar people of different ages are compared with one another

descriptive statistics

summarize + describe main features of a dataset

inferential statistic

using data to draw conclusions or make predictions about a larger sample/population