AP Psychology Unit 1

1.1 - Introducing Psychology

• Psychology is a more complex science because people change, so it is hard to study

• Wilheim Wundt

  • Father of psychology
  • Founded the first psychology lab (1879)
  • Defined psychology as a separate branch of science

• Edward Titchener

  • Wundt’s student
  • Took Wundt’s ideas back to the US
  • Coined the term structuralism
  • Studying the mind by trying to look at what it is made of
  • The problem with this approach is the research method to study it; introspection
  • Introspection is asking a person to observe themselves think
  • A person cannot actively pay attention to more than one thing at a time

• William James

  • Wrote the first psychology textbook

• Functionalism - attempt to study what the mind does or its function

• Structuralism vs. functionalism

  

• How to approach a multi-sided subject?

  • Many ways to study it; perspectives & approaches
  • Psychodynamic approach
    • Many people think of this
    • Lying on a couch, hypnosis, dream analysis
    • One of the oldest approaches
    • Developed by Sigmund Freud
    • Aka psychoanalytic theory
    • unconscious
  • Behavioral approach
    • Observing behaviors and reflexes
    • Ivan Pavlov
    • Studied digestion in dogs and discovered their reflex that they would salivate at something other than food if that thing was served routinely before food
    • reflexive/classical conditioning

If a reflex can be associated with anything with any random stimulus, then any reflex can be associated with anything, even if it isn’t normally scary

• Operant conditioning

Focused on behavior

Every behavior has a consequence; might be a reward or punishment

• Cognitive approach

  • Focuses on thoughts
  • Everything in the world is related to thoughts
  • problem - many thought processes are flawed and based on shortcuts, emotions, and limited experience

• How to approach a complicated subject?

  • Perspectives & approaches
  • Biological approach
  • (more in unit 2)
  • Mind is what the brain does
  • You can’t have thoughts and emotions without the brain doing something
  • Chemical and electrical signals being sent/received

  

• Humanistic approach

  • Focuses on how people are unique and special
  • Optimistic approach, strengths of an individual
  • Rejects pessimistic idea that unconscious is in conflict with society’s beliefs and that people should be trained with rewards and punishments
  • freewill

  

• Sociocultural approach

  • We all come from somewhere
  • Family, religion, neighborhood, culture, society
  • Your likes/dislikes exist because of what you are surrounded by and the media you consume

  

  

1.2 - Research Methods In Psychology

• Research is not done in the same way

• methods of research

  • Surveys
  • Questionnaires to gather data
    • Data is raw and has to be processed to be useful

  

• Naturalistic observation

  • Go to people’s environments and observe them

  

• Case study

  • Gather lots of deep data about a specific group/individual

  

• Experiments (in next video)

• Different ways to do these methods

  • Longitudinal
  • Follows one group
  • Long time of data collection
  • Can data be generalized?
  • Cross-sectional
  • Compares different groups
  • Gathers data at one point in time (snapshot), doesn’t give full picture

• These methods are correlational, not causal

• Could have third or fourth variables or other confounding variables

1.3 - Defining Psychological Science: The Experimental Method

• Experimental method

  • Experiments are the only way to find a causal relationship (one thing causes another)
  • One thing (independent variable) causes a change in something else (dependent variable)
  • Independent variable is what you do, dependent variable is what you get

• Hypothesis

  • A prediction; if, then statement
  • If we manipulate the independent variable and hold everything else constant, then the dependent variable will change because of the independent variable

• Experimental control

  • Holding everything else constant

• Placebo effect

  • Change because of the belief in the independent variable

• Placebo

  • Something that is close to the independent variable as possible but it is missing something important

  

  

  

1.4 ~ Selecting a Research Method

• participant/subject bias
  • consciously/unconsciously behaving in a way to ensure research outcome fit their expectations of whatever the researcher wants to find
• single-blind procedure → to prevent participant bias
  • Subjects are not aware if they are in the control or experimental group
• experimenter/researcher bias
  • consciously/unconsciously conducting research that ensures the outcome fits the expectations
• Double-blind procedure → to prevent experimenter bias
  • Neither researcher or subjects know if subject is in control of experimental group
• Hawthorne effect
  • A study to identify what conditions would boost worker productivity
  • independent variable - length of rest periods, work day, work week
  • dependent variable - productivity
  • Results:
  • Productivity increased with increase of rest periods
  • But when workers returned to original schedules, productivity was the same
  • dependent variable stayed the same because subjects were being observed

1.5 ~ Statistical Analysis in Psychology

• Quantitative data
  • Deals with numbers
• Qualitative data
  • Deals with descriptive data
• Descriptive statistics
  • Organizing and describing data
• inferential statistics
  • Predicting how data and independent variable relates to larger population
• frequency distribution table
  • Way to organize data and determines how often data occurs
• Discrete data
  • Data which can be counted
  • Nominal scale
  • Data without any structure or order
  • Ordinal scale
  • Count and order but not measure
• Continuous data
  • Data which can be measured
  • Interval scale
  • Degrees of difference but not the ratio between them
  • Ratio scale
  • Meaningful measurement with 0 value
• Dichotomy scale
  • Two categories when organizing data
• Trichotomy scale
  • Three or more categories
• Central tendency
  • Identifying an estimated center of the distribution of data
• Mean
  • Average of the data set
• Mode
  • Most occurring value in the data set
• Median
  • Score found at the exact middle of the data set
• Range
  • Difference between highest and lowest values
• standard deviation
  • Allows researchers to indicate average from the mean for a set of scores
  • Higher standard deviation → less similar the score
• Normal distribution/bell curve
  • symmetrical distribution is produced
• Positive skew
  • When scores pull mean toward higher end of the score
• Negative skew
  • When scores pull the mean toward lower end of scores
• Correlational studies DO NOT imply causation, but allows researchers to determine relationships between variables
• Correlation coefficient
  • Strengthen of two variables
  • The closer the value is to +1 or -1, the stronger the relationship
• Positive relationship
  • 0 → +1
  • Both variables or increasing or decreasing together
• negative relationship
  • 0 → -1
  • One variable is increasing while other is decreasing
• No correlation
  • No relationship between variables and data is scattered
• Statistical significance
  • Likelihood data collection is a result of manipulation of independent variable and not left to chance

1.6 ~ Ethical Guidelines in Psychology

• American Psychological Association was first established in 1892
• Principle A: Beneficence and Nonmaleficence
  • Researchers must conduct experiments that are helpful to others and doesn’t harm
• Principle B: Fidelity and Responsibility
  • Cultivate a positive atmosphere and a scientific environment built on trust, accountability, and ethical consideration
• Principle C: Integrity
  • Psychologists must engage trust and transparent practices within all aspects of psychology
  • Exception → can deceive subjects when conducting social psychology experiments
• Principle D: Justice
  • Must prevent unjust practices by remaining aware of their biases, level of competence, and areas and limits of expertise
• Principle E: Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity
  • Subjects have informed consent and rights to privacy
• Ethical codes for animals
  • Researchers must acquire, care for, use, and dispose of animals in accordance to federal, state, and local laws