AP Psychology: Midterm

Roots Of Psychology

Rise of civilization = rise of psychology
- After safety is taken care of (cave men)
- Once basic needs humans can think in abstract and hypothetical ways
- Psychology evolved out of philosophy
  - Philosophy’s OG Socrates & Plato discussed knowledge as being born within us (Socratic method)
- Central debate is Mind-Body Problem
  - Where do mental events exist?
    - Is it a physical thing or a spiritual thing?
    - Reese Descartes favored mind-body dualism
      - We have a body, but the mind is spiritual, mental is separate from physical bodies
- Monism
  - The belief that the mind is physical
  - Thomas Hobbes believed in Monism.
- British Empirnicism
  - All ideas and knowledge are guided through the seness and favored observation of physical behaviors and experienced over reason
  - Important People Who Favored Empirnicism
    - Francis Bacon
    - John Locke
- The first laboratory was created by William Wundt
- Structuralism
  - Hoped to understand the brain in terms of its elements
  - Important Person Who Started Structuralism: Edward Titchener
  - Used Introspection
    - Take subject, expose them to stimulus, attempt to elicit response, ask them what has changed
- Functionalism
  - Lead By: William James
  - Less interested in what the parts are, but why the parts are
- Behaviorism
  - Lead By: John Watson
  - Everything is learned through experiments
- Psychodynamic
  - What’s going on in your mind that causes behavior
  - Lead By: Sigmund Freud
- Cognitive Psychology
  - Concerned with thinking
- Nature-Nurture Issue
  - Are traits inherited or are they learned?
- Biopsychosocial Approach
  - All-rounded psychology
- Basic VS Applied Psychology
  - Basic: Just Curious
  - Applied: Psychology with a specific purpose
Important Terms
- critical thinking, p. 4empiricism, p. 7structuralism, p. 7introspection, p. 8functionalism, p. 8behaviorism, p. 10humanistic psychology, p. 11cognitive psychology, p. 13cognitive neuroscience, p. 13psychology, p. 13nature–nurture issue, p. 14natural selection, p. 14evolutionary psychology, p. 14behavior genetics, p. 14culture, p. 15positive psychology, p. 16biopsychosocial approach, p. 17behavioral psychology, p. 17biological psychology, p. 17psychodynamic psychology, p. 18social-cultural psychology, p. 18testing effect, p. 20SQ3R, p. 20psychometrics, p. 24basic research, p. 24developmental psychology, p. 24educational psychology, p. 24personality psychology, p. 24social psychology, p. 24applied research, p. 24industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology, p. 24human factors psychology, p. 24counseling psychology, p. 25clinical psychology, p. 25psychiatry, p. 25community psychology, p. 25 KEY CONTRIBUTORS TO REMEMBER Wilhelm Wundt, p. 7 G. Stanley Hall, p. 7 Edward Bradford Titchener, p. 7 William James, p. 8 Charles Darwin, p. 8 Mary Whiton Calkins, p. 8 Margaret Floy Washburn, p. 9 John B. Watson, p. 10 B. F. Skinner, p. 10 Sigmund Freud, p. 10 Carl Rogers, p. 11 Abraham Maslow, p. 11 Ivan Pavlov, p. 13 Jean Piaget, p. 13 Dorothea Dix, p. 25
Practice Questions
- The debate about the relative contributions of biology and experience to human development is most often referred to as what? Evolutionary analysis Behaviorism The cognitive revolution The nature–nurture issue Natural selection Which of the following professionals focuses on the study of human flourishing and the attainment of a happy, meaningful life? Positive psychologist Evolutionary psychologist Behavioral psychologist Cognitive psychologist Psychotherapist Which psychological principle best explains why studying an hour per day for a week is more effective than one 7-hour study session? Testing effect Distributed practice SQ3R Retrieval practice effect Psychometrics Which of the following kinds of psychologists would most likely explore how we process and remember information? Developmental Biological Social Cognitive Personality According to the behavioral perspective, psychological science should be rooted in what? Introspection Observation Cultural influences Growth potential Basic needs Which of the following psychologists would most likely conduct psychotherapy? Biological Clinical Industrial-organizational Cognitive Evolutionary Which subfield or perspective is most interested in studying the link between mental activity and brain activity? Humanistic psychology Gestalt psychology Cognitive neuroscience Psychodynamic perspective Evolutionary perspective What was the main difference between the psychological thinking of Wilhelm Wundt and earlier philosophers who were also interested in thinking and behavior? Wundt was German; earlier philosophers were American. Wundt was the first professor from a major university interested in psychology. Wundt was the first scholar to call himself a psychologist. Wundt used psychotherapy techniques established by Freud to examine the thinking and behavior of healthy individuals. Wundt and his students gathered data about human thinking and behavior in a laboratory setting. Which school of thought in psychology focused on the adaptive nature of thinking and how our consciousness evolves to meet our needs? Functionalist Structuralist Behavioral Humanistic Psychodynamic The study of our human potential for personal growth has been a focus of which psychological perspective? Behavioral Functionalist Humanistic Psychodynamic Structuralist Which of the following is the best example of applied research? Investigating personality traits Using psychological concepts to boost worker productivity Experimenting with how people perceive different stimuli Studying the changing abilities of children from ages 2 to 5 Exploring the neural changes that occur during adolescence Self-reflective introspection about the elements of experience best describes a technique used by which school of thought in psychology? Functionalists Empiricists Structuralists Behaviorists Humanists Which psychological perspective is most likely to focus on how our interpretation of a situation affects how we react to it? Psychodynamic Biological Social-cultural Evolutionary Cognitive The science of behavior and mental processes is the definition of which field of study? Philosophy Cognitive neuroscience Basic research Psychology Applied research
Unit 2: Psychological Methods and Research
- Important Questions
  - Hindsight bias, overconfidence, and our tendency to perceive patterns in random events push us to overvalue
    A. The empirical approach
    B. Operational definitions
    C. Random sampling
    D. Common sense
    E. The placebo effect
  - During the Central High School basketball game, the starting five players scored 11, 7, 21, 14, 7 points for this distribution of scores what is the range?
    - 14
  - nimin has volunteered to participate in an experiment evaluating the effectiveness of aspirin. Neither he nor the experimenters know whether the pills he takes during the experiment contain aspirin or are merely placebos. The investigators are apparently making use of
    - The double-blind procedure
  - If college graduates typically earn more than high school graduates, this suggests that the level of education and income are
    - Positvely correlated
  - Six different high school students spent $10, $13, $2, $12, $13, $14 respectively. What is the mode?
    - $13
  - Why are researchers more careful to use large representative samples in their studies
    - Larger representative sizes help ensure reliable valid results
  - Which of the following are considered to be limitations of psychological experiments conducted in laboratory environments?
    A).Laboratory experiments allow researchers to have control over variables.
    B). Experiments conducted in laboratories allow researchers to make casual inferences.
    C). It's difficult to accurately measure the research variables.
    D). Laboratories are artificial environments, so behavior might not apply to the real world.
    E). Researchers tend to ignore ethical considerations in the pursuit of proving their hypothesis.
    - D
  - Random sampling is to _; as random assignment is to _
    - Surveys; experiments
  - Reserachers are concerned with studying the difference between poor prenatal nutrition and early cognitive development. Because of ethical concerns, which research method would be most appropriate for researchers to use?
    - Correlational
  - Which measure of variation is most effected by extreme scores?
    - Range
  - To assess the effect of televised violence on aggression, researchers plan to expose one group of children to violent movie scenes and another group to nonviolent scenes. To reduce the chance that the children in one group have more aggressive personalities than those in the other group, the researchers should make use of
    - Random Assignment
  - Why would the median, rather than the mean, be the appropriate measure of central tendency in determining housing values in a particular community?
    - The median is minimally effected by extreme scores
  - Sasha believes that she is a very good driver. Her belief leads her to take unnecessary risks, such as driving too fast and cutting in front of other drivers. Sasha's driving appears to be affected by
    - Overconfidence
  - Which of the following statistical measures is most helpful for indicating the extent to which high school grades predict college grades?
    - Correlation Coefficient
  - Researchers use experiments rather than other research methods to distinguish between
    - Causes and Effects
  - Professor Woo noticed that the distribution of students' scores on her last biology test had an extremely small standard deviation. This indicates that the
    - students’ scores tended to be very similar to one another
  - In which research method do we study an exceptional individual in depth to try to carefully draw conclusions about others based on the evidence?
    - Case study
  - Which of the following correlation coefficients expresses the strongest degree of relationship between two variables?
    A) +0.10
    B) -0.67
    C) 0.00
    D)-0.10
    E)+0.59
    - B) -0.67
  - George was worried about his bakery's new cupcakes after two customers disliked them on the first day, but when he surveyed his customer over the next week more than 90% of the customers said they loves them. By giving too much weight to those two customers before the survey, George almost committed an error known as:
    - A sampling bias
  - following the scientific discovery that a specific brain structure is significantly larger in violent individuals than in those who are non violent a news headline announced: "enlarged brain structure triggers violent acts." the headline writer should most clearly be warned about the dangers of
    - confusing association with causation
  - A researcher interested in proving a casual relationship between two variables should choose which research method
    - Experiment

Concepts to Include:

I. History and Approaches (2–4%)

Psychology has evolved markedly since its inception as a discipline in 1879. There

have been significant changes in the theories that psychologists use to explain

behavior and mental processes. In addition, the methodology of psychological

research has expanded to include a diversity of approaches to data gathering.

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

• Recognize how philosophical perspectives shaped the development of

psychological thought.

• Describe and compare different theoretical approaches in explaining behavior:

— structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism in the early years;

— Gestalt, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, and humanism emerging later;

— evolutionary, biological, and cognitive as more contemporary approaches.

• Recognize the strengths and limitations of applying theories to explain behavior.

• Distinguish the different domains of psychology:

— biological, clinical, cognitive, counseling, developmental, educational,

experimental, human factors, industrial–organizational, personality,

psychometric, and social.

• Identify the major historical figures in psychology (e.g., Mary Whiton Calkins,

Charles Darwin, Dorothea Dix, Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, William James,

Ivan Pavlov, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, B. F. Skinner, Margaret Floy Washburn,

John B. Watson, Wilhelm Wundt).

II. Research Methods (8–10%)

Psychology is an empirical discipline. Psychologists develop knowledge by doing

research. Research provides guidance for psychologists who develop theories to

explain behavior and who apply theories to solve problems in behavior.

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

• Differentiate types of research (e.g., experiments, correlational studies, survey

research, naturalistic observations, and case studies) with regard to purpose,

strengths, and weaknesses.

• Describe how research design drives the reasonable conclusions that can be

drawn (e.g., experiments are useful for determining cause and effect; the use of

experimental controls reduces alternative explanations).

• Identify independent, dependent, confounding, and control variables in

experimental designs.

• Distinguish between random assignment of participants to conditions in

experiments and random selection of participants, primarily in correlational

studies and surveys.

• Predict the validity of behavioral explanations based on the quality of research

design (e.g., confounding variables limit confidence in research conclusions).

• Distinguish the purposes of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.

• Apply basic descriptive statistical concepts, including interpreting and

constructing graphs and calculating simple descriptive statistics

(e.g., measures of central tendency, standard deviation).

• Discuss the value of reliance on operational definitions and measurement in

behavioral research.

• Identify how ethical issues inform and constrain research practices.

• Describe how ethical and legal guidelines (e.g., those provided by the American

Psychological Association, federal regulations, local institutional review boards)

protect research participants and promote sound ethical practice.

III. Biological Bases of Behavior (8–10%)

An effective introduction to the relationship between physiological processes and

behavior—including the influence of neural function, the nervous system and the

brain, and genetic contributions to behavior—is an important element in the AP

course.

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

• Identify basic processes and systems in the biological bases of behavior,

including parts of the neuron and the process of transmission of a signal

between neurons.

• Discuss the influence of drugs on neurotransmitters (e.g., reuptake

mechanisms).

• Discuss the effect of the endocrine system on behavior.

• Describe the nervous system and its subdivisions and functions:

— central and peripheral nervous systems;

— major brain regions, lobes, and cortical areas;

— brain lateralization and hemispheric specialization.

• Recount historic and contemporary research strategies and technologies that

support research (e.g., case studies, split-brain research, imaging techniques).

• Discuss psychology’s abiding interest in how heredity, environment, and

evolution work together to shape behavior.

• Predict how traits and behavior can be selected for their adaptive value.

• Identify key contributors (e.g., Paul Broca, Charles Darwin, Michael Gazzaniga,

Roger Sperry, Carl Wernicke).

IV. Sensation and Perception (6–8%)

Everything that organisms know about the world is first encountered when stimuli in

the environment activate sensory organs, initiating awareness of the external world.

Perception involves the interpretation of the sensory inputs as a cognitive process.

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

• Discuss basic principles of sensory transduction, including absolute threshold,

difference threshold, signal detection, and sensory adaptation.

• Describe sensory processes (e.g., hearing, vision, touch, taste, smell, vestibular,

kinesthesis, pain), including the specific nature of energy transduction, relevant

anatomical structures, and specialized pathways in the brain for each of the

senses.

• Explain common sensory disorders (e.g., visual and hearing impairments).

• Describe general principles of organizing and integrating sensation to promote

stable awareness of the external world (e.g., Gestalt principles, depth

perception).

• Discuss how experience and culture can influence perceptual processes (e.g.,

perceptual set, context effects).

• Explain the role of top-down processing in producing vulnerability to illusion.

• Discuss the role of attention in behavior.

• Challenge common beliefs in parapsychological phenomena.

• Identify the major historical figures in sensation and perception (e.g., Gustav

Fechner, David Hubel, Ernst Weber, Torsten Wiesel).

V. States of Consciousness (2–4%)

Understanding consciousness and what it encompasses is critical to an appreciation of

what is meant by a given state of consciousness. The study of variations in

consciousness includes an examination of the sleep cycle, dreams, hypnosis, and the

effects of psychoactive drugs.

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

• Describe various states of consciousness and their impact on behavior.

• Discuss aspects of sleep and dreaming:

— stages and characteristics of the sleep cycle;

— theories of sleep and dreaming;

— symptoms and treatments of sleep disorders.

• Describe historic and contemporary uses of hypnosis (e.g., pain control,

psychotherapy).

• Explain hypnotic phenomena (e.g., suggestibility, dissociation).

• Identify the major psychoactive drug categories (e.g., depressants, stimulants)

and classify specific drugs, including their psychological and physiological

effects.

• Discuss drug dependence, addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal.

• Identify the major figures in consciousness research (e.g., William James,

Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hilgard).

VI. Learning (7–9%)

This section of the course introduces students to differences between learned and

unlearned behavior. The primary focus is exploration of different kinds of learning,

including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. The

biological bases of behavior illustrate predispositions for learning.

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

• Distinguish general differences between principles of classical conditioning,

operant conditioning, and observational learning (e.g., contingencies).

• Describe basic classical conditioning phenomena, such as acquisition, extinction,

spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination, and higher-order learning.

• Predict the effects of operant conditioning (e.g., positive reinforcement, negative

reinforcement, punishment, schedules of reinforcement).

• Predict how practice, schedules of reinforcement, and motivation will influence

quality of learning.

• Interpret graphs that exhibit the results of learning experiments.

• Provide examples of how biological constraints create learning predispositions.

• Describe the essential characteristics of insight learning, latent learning, and

social learning.

• Apply learning principles to explain emotional learning, taste aversion,

superstitious behavior, and learned helplessness.

• Suggest how behavior modification, biofeedback, coping strategies, and selfcontrol

can be used to address behavioral problems.

• Identify key contributors in the psychology of learning (e.g., Albert Bandura,

John Garcia, Ivan Pavlov, Robert Rescorla, B. F. Skinner, Edward Thorndike,

Edward Tolman, John B. Watson).

VII. Cognition (8–10%)

In this unit students learn how humans convert sensory input into kinds of

information. They examine how humans learn, remember, and retrieve information.

This part of the course also addresses problem solving, language, and creativity.

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

• Compare and contrast various cognitive processes:

— effortful versus automatic processing;

— deep versus shallow processing;

— focused versus divided attention.

• Describe and differentiate psychological and physiological systems of memory

(e.g., short-term memory, procedural memory).

• Outline the principles that underlie effective encoding, storage, and construction

of memories.

• Describe strategies for memory improvement.

• Synthesize how biological, cognitive, and cultural factors converge to facilitate

acquisition, development, and use of language.

• Identify problem-solving strategies as well as factors that influence their

effectiveness.

• List the characteristics of creative thought and creative thinkers.

• Identify key contributors in cognitive psychology (e.g., Noam Chomsky,

Hermann Ebbinghaus, Wolfgang Köhler, Elizabeth Loftus, George A. Miller).

Content Area (multiple-choice section)

I. History and Approaches. 2–4%

A. Logic, Philosophy, and History of Science

B. Approaches

1. Biological

2. Behavioral

3. Cognitive

4. Humanistic

5. Psychodynamic

6. Sociocultural

7. Evolutionary

II. Research Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8–10%

A. Experimental, Correlational, and Clinical Research

B. Statistics

1. Descriptive

2. Inferential

C. Ethics in Research

III. Biological Bases of Behavior. 8–10%

A. Physiological Techniques (e.g., imaging, surgical)

B. Neuroanatomy

C. Functional Organization of Nervous System

D. Neural Transmission

E. Endocrine System

F. Genetics

G. Evolutionary Psychology

IV. Sensation and Perception. 6–8%

A. Thresholds and Signal Detection Theory

B. Sensory Mechanisms

C. Attention

D. Perceptual Processes

V. States of Consciousness. 2–4%

A. Sleep and Dreaming

B. Hypnosis

C. Psychoactive Drug Effects

VI. Learning. 7–9%

A. Classical Conditioning

B. Operant Conditioning

C. Cognitive Processes

D. Biological Factors

E. Social Learning

VII. Cognition . 8–10%

A. Memory

B. Language

C. Thinking

D. Problem Solving and Creativity