AP Psychology - History, Approaches, and Research Methods Study Guide
Prologue
Psychology Definition: The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Prescientific Roots:
Early understandings of the mind and body.
The beginnings of modern science.
Early Psychologists: Sought to understand the mind's structure and functions.
Key figures in these areas.
Evolution of Psychology: From the 1920s through today.
Nature-Nurture Debate:
Summary of the debate.
The principle of natural selection.
Levels of Analysis (Biopsychosocial Approach):
Three main levels: biological, psychological, and social-cultural.
Explanation of why psychology's varied perspectives are complementary.
Subfields of Psychology:
Identification of various subfields.
Difference between clinical psychology and psychiatry.
Effective Study Techniques: Five techniques to improve study habits.
Key Terms & Concepts
Psychology: The science of behavior and mental processes.
Empiricism: The idea that knowledge comes from experience and observation.
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.
Humanistic Psychology: A historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people.
Nature-Nurture Issue: The longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.
Natural Selection: The principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.
Levels of Analysis: The differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon.
Biopsychosocial Approach: An integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis.
Basic Research: Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base.
Applied Research: Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.
Counseling Psychology: A branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, or marriage) and in achieving greater well-being.
Clinical Psychology: A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.
Psychiatry: A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy.
Chapter One
Hindsight Bias:
Definition: The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.
Explanation of how it can make research findings seem like mere common sense.
Overconfidence: How overconfidence contaminates our everyday judgments.
Scientific Attitude: Encourages critical thinking.
Psychological Theories: How psychological theories guide scientific research.
Case Studies:
Advantage: Provides in-depth information, can highlight unique situations or phenomena.
Disadvantage: May not be generalizable, susceptible to researcher bias.
Surveys:
Advantages: Can collect data from large samples, relatively inexpensive.
Disadvantages: Wording effects, sampling biases.
Importance of wording effects and random sampling.
Naturalistic Observation:
Advantage: Provides realistic and spontaneous data in a natural setting.
Disadvantage: Lack of control, potential for observer bias, cannot establish cause-and-effect.
Correlations:
Description of positive and negative correlations.
Explanation of how correlational measures can aid in the process of prediction.
Causation: Explanation of why correlational research fails to provide evidence of cause-effect relationships.
Illusory Correlations: How people form illusory correlations.
Perceiving Order in Random Events: Explanation of the human tendency to perceive order in random sequences.
Experiments: How experiments help researchers isolate cause and effect.
Double-Blind Procedure and Random Assignment:
Explanation of why these build confidence in research findings.
Variables:
Difference between an independent and a dependent variable.
Statistical Principles:
Importance of statistical principles.
Example of their use in everyday life.
Bar Graphs: Explanation of how bar graphs can misrepresent data.
Measures of Central Tendency:
Description of the three measures: mode, mean, and median.
Identification of which is most affected by extreme scores (the mean).
Measures of Variation: Description of range and standard deviation.
Generalizations from Samples: Three principles for making generalizations from samples.
Meaningful Differences: Explanation of how psychologists decide whether differences are meaningful.
Simplified Laboratory Conditions: Explain the value of simplified laboratory conditions in discovering general principles of behavior
Generalizability of Psychological Research: Discuss whether psychological research can be generalized.
Animal Research:
Explanation of why psychologists study animals.
Discussion of the ethics of experimentation with both animals and humans.
Influence of Personal Values:
How personal values can influence psychologists’ research and its application.
Discussion of psychology’s potential to manipulate people.
Key Terms & Concepts
Hindsight Bias: The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.
Critical Thinking: Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.
Theory: An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.
Hypothesis: A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.
Operational Definition: A statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables. For example, human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures.
Replication: Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances.
Case Study: An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.
Survey: A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group.
False Consensus Effect: The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.
Population: All those in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn.
Random Sample: A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.
Naturalistic Observation: Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.
Correlation: A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.
Scatterplot: A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation (little scatter indicates high correlation).
Illusory Correlation: The perception of a relationship where none exists.
Experiment: A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable). By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors.
Double-Blind Procedure: An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. Commonly used in drug-evaluation studies.
Placebo Effect: 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.
Experimental Condition: The condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.
Control Condition: The condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.
Random Assignment: Assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups.
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.
Mode: The most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution.
Mean: The arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores.
Median: The middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it.
Range: The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.
Standard Deviation: A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score.
Statistical Significance: A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance.
Culture: The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.