Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
AP Psych Unit 1
Prologue & Chapter 1: History & Research Methods
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Psychology | The scientific study of behavior and mental processes |
| Behavior | Is anything an organism does--any action we can observe & record |
| Mental Processes | The internal subjective experiences we infer from behavior- sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings |
| Socrates | Ancient Greek philosopher that concluded that knowledge is innate or inborn |
| Plato | A student of Socrates, Plato agreed with Socrates that knowledge is innate |
| Aristotle | Ancient Greek philosopher who believed that the mind and the body are separate and that knowledge comes from experiences stored in our memories |
| Descartes | Studied nerves and proposed simple reflexes, he is the first to try to map the nervous system |
| Francis Bacon | Scientist who established the scientific method |
| John Locke | Believed that the mind is a blank slate when born (tabula rasa) and that we learn through experience (empiricism) |
| Empiricism | A concept first formally discussed by John Locke that suggests that knowledge originates in experience and as a result science should rely on careful observation and experimentation |
| 1879 | The founding of psychology with Wilhelm Wundt's groundbreaking research |
| Wilhelm Wundt | The man credited with creating the first psychology experiment |
| Structuralism | Created by Edward Titchner, Structuralism relies on introspection to explore the structure and organization of the mind |
| Charles Darwin | Wrote Origin of the Species and offered theories about natural selection and survival of the fittest. |
| Functionalism | A school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function- how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish. Created by William James |
| Mary Calkins | First female to finish the qualifications who was denied her degree from Harvard and became the APAs first female president. |
| Margaret Floy Washburn | First female to earn a Ph.D. in psychology and the second female president of the APA. |
| William James | The founder of functionalism who supported Mary Calkins |
| Behaviorists | Psychologists who believe that studying learning and behavior is the most important aspect that determines behavior |
| Humanistic psychology | A type of psychology that emphasizes the idea that human beings are capable of doing great and unique things. |
| Nature vs. Nurture | The ongoing discussion over whether our genetic code and inherited traits (nature) or our environment and culture (nurture) impact determine our behavior and our choices. |
| Natural Selection | The idea that the strongest survive |
| Levels of Analysis | The differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon |
| Biopsychosocial Approach | An integrated perspective that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis |
| Neuroscience Perspective | Looks at how the brain and body enable emotions memories and sensory experiences. Focused on the brain and neurons |
| Behavior Genetics Perspective | Focused on how much of our genes and our environment influence our individual differences |
| Psychodynamic Perspectives | Looks at how our behavior changes as a result of our unconscious drives (motivations that we are unaware of) and conflicts. Key terms include childhood, trauma, repression, unconscious, parents |
| Behavioral Perspective | Looks at how our behavior is effected by our learning |
| Cognitive Perspective | Looks at how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information |
| Social-Cultural Perspective | Looks at how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures |
| Basic Research | Pure scientific research that aims to increase the basic scientific knowledge |
| Applied Research | Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems |
| Counseling Psychology | A branch of psychology that assits 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 |
| Hindsight Bias | The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it (I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon) |
| Overconfidence | The tendency to be more confident than correct--to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs, judgement, and skills. |
| 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 |
| Operational Definitions | A statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables. |
| Replication | Repeating the research study usually with different participants and perhaps altering the scenario some to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances |
| Reliability | A measure of whether or not a test or experiment yields consistent results. |
| Case Study | An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles. It is a type of correlational research |
| Survey | A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of them. A type of correlational research |
| False Consensus Effect | The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors |
| Population | The whole group you wish to study. (All female high-schoolers in North America, would be all of the female students throughout every state in the U.S. which is quite a large number |
| Sample | A subset of a population |
| Random Sampling | A procedure for choosing a random sample of the population in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen |
| Naturalistic Observation | Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate the situation. It is a type of correlational research. |
| Positive Correlation | As one variable increases in occurrences the other variable increases in occurrences. |
| Negative Correlation | As one variable increases in occurrences the other variable increases in occurrences. |
| Scatterplots | A graphed cluster of dots each of which represents the value of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. Shows degree of correlation |
| Correlation | Indicates the possibility of a cause-effect relationship, but it does not prove it. It is generally concluded from correlational research studies. |
| Causation | Proof that one thing causes another to happen and can only be proven with evidence from experiments. |
| Illusory Correlation | The perception of a relationship (correlation) where none exists. |
| Experiment | A research method in which an investigator manipulates variables in order to observe the effect. Can prove causation |
| 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 placebo. Used most often in drug study research. |
| Placebo Effect | Results that are caused because patients believe the treatment will work. |
| Experimental Condition (Group) | The condition in the experiment that exposes the participants to one version of the independent variable. The group that gets the treatment |
| Control Condition (Group) | 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 | The act of assigning participants to either the experimental group or the control group by chance, and minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups. |
| Independent Variable | The variable that "I" the experimenter get to manipulate in the experiment |
| Dependent Variable | The outcome variable, the variable that we measure in the experiment |
| 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 in the distribution |
| Median | The middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it |
| Range | The differences between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution |
| Standard Deviation | A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean. Square root of the variance. Measures consistency |
| Variance | Second to last step in calculating the standard deviation. Take the square root of the variance to determine the standard deviation. The bigger the variance the bigger the standard deviation which means the more spread-out and less consistent the sample |
| Statistical Significance | A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance. If it fails at this point then there isn't enough evidence to prove your point because it could have happened by chance. |
| Edward Bradford Titchner | The psychologist credited with inventing structuralism which is based on introspection. |
| Introspection | Journaling and asking patients to record their every thought in order to try to understand how the mind was structured. A part of structuralism. However there are critics of this method because patients can't always record every thought we ever have. |
| American Psychological Association | An organization founded in order to help organize and publish key studies, the organization oversees ethics and research today. The first APA President was G. Stanley Hall. |
| John Watson | A famous behavioral psychologist who focused on research in learning. He conducted the famous "Little Albert Study" with Rosalie Rayner that conditioned a small child to be afraid of white furry things using classical conditioning. |
| Ivan Pavlov | A famous behavioral psychologist who conducted the first experiments using classical conditioning. In his experiments he got dogs to associate the sound of a tuning fork with the sight of food. |
| B.F. Skinner | A famous behavioral psychologist who conducted studies in operational conditioning. He worked on positive and negative reinforcement which increased performance of a behavior and positive and negative punishment which decreased performance of a behavior. |
| Sigmund Freud | The man famous for psychoanalysis. He gave us the 1st theory of personality and therapy. He theory includes the parts of the mind, conscious v. unconscious, free association, repression, dream analysis, defense mechanisms, and psychosexual stages. |
| Carl Rogers | One of the most famous humanist psychologists. He creates person/client-centered therapy. He believes in empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard for others. |
| Abraham Maslow | One of the most famous humanist psychologists. He creates the hierarchy of needs, one must satisfy physiological needs, then safety needs, then love and belongingness, then esteem needs in order to then achieve self-actualization. |
| Jean Piaget | One of the most famous developmental psychologists. He is known for his theories on cognitive development in children. His theory emphasizes stages (SPCF) Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete operational, and formal operational. |
| Positive Psychology | Created by Martin Seligman that attempts to study human functioning with the goal of promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals in the community thrive |
| Community Psychology | A branch of psychology that studies how people interact with their social environments and how social institutions affect individuals and groups. |
| Gestalt Psychology | A branch of psychology that concerns itself with how we organize our perceptions. The gestalts analyzed "figures" versus the "ground" behind them and came up with the 5 strategies of grouping (proximity, similarity, connectedness, closure, and continuity) |
| G. Stanley Hall | The man credited with creating the first psychology laboratory in the U.S. at John Hopkins University, helps found the APA and then serves as its first President. |
| Dorthea Dix | American woman who fought hard to improve conditions for individuals with psychological disorders both in asylums and in the prison system. |
| Scientific Method | A scientific process for evaluating ideas with observation and analysis. It attempts to describe and explain human nature. If a theory gains evidence than it becomes accepted and if it does not it is revised or rejected. |
| Descriptive Studies/Methods | Methods of research that describe behaviors. Generally case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observations. |
| Wording Effects | How even small changes to a question on a survey can dramatically alter how a person responds to the question. We must consider this when we analyze survey responses. |
| Correlation Coefficient | One number, that tells us how strong the relationship is between two variables.The closer something is to -1 the more perfect the negative correlation. 0 indicates no relationship at all and numbers close to 1 have positive correlations. |
| Confounding Variables | A factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment. It complicates the experiment. One of the goals is to reduce the role of these variables so that they don't contaminate your results. |
| Measures of Central Tendency | The goal of these measures is to to try to come up with one score that represents the entire data set. The measures of central tendency are mean, median, and mode. |
| Measures of Variation | The goal of these measures is to tell us how much variation there is in the data- how similar are the scores to each other are they very alike or very diverse. The measures of variation are range and standard deviation. |
| Normal Curve | Also known as a normal distribution or bell curve. This means that it follows the 68-95-99.7 rule. 68% of the data falls in 1 s.d. away from the mean, 95% of the data falls in 2 s.d. away from the mean and 99.7% falls in 3 s.d. away from the mean. |
| Culture | The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next. |
| Informational Consent | An ethical principle that research participants be told enough information to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate. |
| Debriefing | The postexperimental explanation of a study, including its purpose, and ANY DECEPTIONS, to its participants |
Created by:
thompsonce
Popular Psychology sets