AP Psych Unit 0 Vocab

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior/mental processes in both humans and animals

Empirical evidence

information gained through experiements

cognitive bias

distort thinking and and lead to wrong opinions

Conformation bias

looking for info that confirms what they want to believe

hindsight bias

“Knowing” that something was going to happen after it has occured, “i knew it all along”

Overconfidence

Having too much faith in ones own ability, cocky.

evolutionary perspective

psychologists and researchers take principles of evolution including natural selection and apply them to psychological perspectives

cognitive perspective

focuses on intelligence and mental processes (like thinking, problem solving and memory) that influence behavior

humanistic perspective

emphasizes the human capacity for choice of growth. positive outlook, fulfill their potential and focus on the future.

psychodynamic perspective

established by behavior is determined by your past experiences left in the unconscious mind/ childhood experiences

behavioral perspective

observable behaviors/learned behaviors. people are controlled by their environnment, positive/negative outcome.

sociocultural perspective

society and culture shaping our thoughts, beliefs, values, language etc… CULTURE

hypothesis

A testable prediction about an outcome

falsifiable

can be proven false though experimentation

replication

repeating a research study to see if the data is consistent

reliability

study is reliable if it has consistent results when administered with similar conditions

APA

professional organization dedicated to advancing psychology

validity

if a study measures what it intends to measure

quantitive data

numbers based information, gathered from surveys and etc…

lickert scales

used in surveys/questionnaires to gauge attitudes and opinions “stongly agree”

qualitative data

non-numerical based information, deeper insights about certain behaviors

structured interviews

research method in which predetermined questions are asked in the same order

case study

research method in psychology that involves an in-depth examination of a person or a group. may not be generalizable to a larger population.

survey technique

research method used to collect data through self reporting measures

wording effect

changes wording or order of questions, this can change the responses depending on the change.

social desirability bias

responding to questions in a way that will get a person viewed more favorably by others often leading to inaccurate self reports

correlational research

used to show the relationship between two variables, does not establish the causation but predicts it.

third variable problem

a third variable may be influencing the relationship between the 2 variables of interest.

scatterplot

used in correlational research to display the relationship between 2 variables (a graph)

correlation coefficient

statistical measure to quantify the strength and direction between 2 variables. ranging from -1 to +1.

positive correlation

the variables move in the SAME direction. as one variable increases, the other variable also increases.

negative correlation

variables move in OPPOSITE directions. as one variable increases, the other variable decreases.

biological perspective

influence of genetics and brain chemistry on thinking and behavior, physical and biological process.

perspective

researchers use a variety of techniques or approaches to understand why people do the things they do.

naturalistic observation

observe and record real world behavior without any intervention or manipulation.