AP Psych Unit 1

Psychology—the science of behavior and mental processes.

Monism—seeing mind and body as different aspects of the same thing.

Dualism—seeing mind and body as two different things that interact.

Nature-Nurture Controversy—the extent to which behavior results from

heredity or experience.

Plato and Descartes believed that behavior is inborn (nature).

Aristotle, Locke, Watson, and Skinner believed that behavior results from

experience (nurture).

Schools of psychology:

• School of Structuralism—early psychological perspective that

emphasized units of consciousness and identification of elements of

thought using introspection.

Wilhelm Wundt—founder of scientific psychology in Leipzig, Germany;

studied consciousness using introspection.

G. Stanley Hall—brought introspection to his lab at Johns Hopkins

University in the United States; first president of the American

Psychological Association.

Edward Titchener—studied elements of consciousness at his Cornell

University lab.

Margaret Floy Washburn—first woman to complete her PhD in

psychology.

• School of Functionalism—early psychological perspective concerned

with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to adapt to its

environment.

William James—wrote Principles of Psychology.

Mary Whiton Calkins—first woman president of the American

Psychological Association.

Principal approaches to psychology:

• Behavioral approach—psychological perspective concerned with

behavioral reactions to stimuli; learning as a result of experience.

Ivan Pavlov—known for classical conditioning of dogs.

John Watson—known for experiments in classical aversive conditioning.

B. F. Skinner—known for experiments in operant conditioning.

• Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach—psychological perspective

concerned with how unconscious instincts, conflicts, motives, and

defenses influence behavior.

Sigmund Freud—“Father of psychoanalysis.”

Jung, Adler, Horney, Kohut—psychodynamic psychologists.

• Humanistic approach—psychological perspective concerned with

individual potential for growth and the role of unique perceptions in

growth toward one’s potential.

Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow—humanistic psychologists.

• Biological approach—psychological perspective concerned with

physiological and biochemical factors that determine behavior and

mental processes.

• Cognitive approach—psychological perspective concerned with how

we receive, store, and process information; think/reason; and use

language.

Jean Piaget—studied cognitive development in children.

• Evolutionary approach—psychological perspective concerned with

how natural selection favored behaviors that contributed to survival and

spread of our ancestors’ genes; evolutionary psychologists take a

Darwinian approach to the study of human behavior.

• Sociocultural approach—psychological perspective concerned with

how cultural differences affect behavior.

• Biopsychosocial model—overarching psychological perspective that

integrates biological processes, psychological factors, and social forces

to provide a more complete picture of behavior and mental processes

than a single approach.

• Eclectic—use of techniques and ideas from a variety of approaches.

Psychologists specialize in different domains:

• Clinical psychologists evaluate and treat mental, emotional, and

behavioral disorders.

• Counseling psychologists help people adapt to change or make changes

in their lifestyle.

• Developmental psychologists study psychological development

throughout the life span.

• Educational psychologists focus on how effective teaching and learning

take place.

• Experimental psychologists do research to add new knowledge to the

field.

• Forensic psychologists apply psychological principles to legal issues.

• Health psychologists concentrate on biological, psychological, and

social factors involved in health and illness.

• Industrial/organizational psychologists aim to improve productivity

and the quality of work life by applying psychological principles and

methods to the workplace.

• Neuropsychologists explore the relationships between brain/nervous

systems and behavior. Neuropsychologists are also called biological

psychologists or biopsychologists, behavioral geneticists, physiological

psychologists, and behavioral neuroscientists.

• Personality psychologists focus on traits, attitudes, and goals of the

individual.

• Psychometricians (also known as psychometric or measurement

psychologists) focus on methods for acquiring and analyzing

psychological data.

• Social psychologists focus on how a person’s mental life and behavior

are shaped by interactions with other people.

Theories—organized sets of concepts that explain phenomena.

Hypothesis—prediction of how two or more factors are likely to be related.

Replication—repetition of the methods used in a previous experiment to

see whether the same methods will yield the same results.

Independent variable (IV)—the factor the researcher manipulates in a

controlled experiment (the cause).

Dependent variable (DV)—the behavior or mental process that is

measured in an experiment or quasi-experiment (the effect).

Population—all the individuals in the group to which the study applies.

Sample—the subgroup of the population that participates in the study.

Random selection—choosing of members of a population so that every

individual has an equal chance of being chosen to participate in a study.

Experimental group—the subgroup of the sample that receives the

treatment or independent variable.

Control group—the comparison group; the subgroup of the sample that is

similar to the experimental group in every way except for the presence of

the independent variable.

Random assignment—division of the sample into groups so that every

individual has an equal chance of being put in any group or condition.

Confounding variables—factors that cause differences between the

experimental group and the control group other than the independent

variable.

Operational definition—a description of the specific procedure used to

determine the presence of a variable.

Experimenter bias—a phenomenon that occurs when a researcher’s

expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the

results obtained.

Demand characteristics—clues participants discover about the purpose of

the study that suggest how they should respond.

Single-blind procedure—research design in which participants don’t know

whether they are in the experimental or control group.

Double-blind procedure—research design in which neither the

experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimental group

and who is in the control group.

Placebo—a physical or psychological treatment given to the control group

that resembles the treatment given to the experimental group, but that

contains no active ingredient.

Placebo effect—a response to the belief that the independent variable will

have an effect, rather than the actual effect of the independent variable,

which can be a confounding variable.

Reliability—consistency or repeatability of results.

Validity—the extent to which an instrument measures or predicts what it is

supposed to measure or predict.

Statistics—a field that involves the analysis of numerical data about

representative samples of populations.

Descriptive statistics—numbers that summarize a set of research data

obtained from a sample. Key concepts of descriptive statistics include the

following:

• Frequency distribution—an orderly arrangement of scores indicating

the frequency of each score or group of scores.

• Central tendency—average or most typical scores of a set of research

data or distribution.

mode—most frequently occurring score in a set of research data (“quick

and dirty”).

median—the middle score when a set of data is ordered by size.

mean—the arithmetic average of a set of scores.

• Variability—the spread or dispersion of a set of research data or

distribution.

• Range—the difference between the largest score and the smallest score

(“quick and dirty”).

• Standard deviation (SD)—measures the average difference between

each score and the mean of the data set.

• Normal distribution—bell-shaped curve that represents data about how

lots of human characteristics are dispersed in the population.

• Percentile score—the percentage of scores at or below a particular score

(from 1 to 99).

• Correlation coefficient (r)—a statistical measure of the degree of

relatedness or association between two sets of data that ranges from −1

to +1.

Inferential statistics—statistics that are used to interpret data and draw

conclusions.

Statistical significance (p)—the condition that exists when the probability

that the observed findings are due to chance is less than 1 in 20 (p < .05)

according to some psychologists, or less than 1 in 100 (p < .01) according

to those with more stringent standards.

Ethical guidelines—suggested rules for acting responsibly and morally

when conducting research or in clinical practice.