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AP Psychology Terms
Vocab terms that could possibly appear on the AP exam
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Empiricism | what humans know comes from experience, observation, and experimentation |
| Structuralism | how human perception create the conscious experience |
| Introspection | use self-reflection to describe human experience |
| Functionalism | how the functions of humans thought and behavior help humans survive |
| behaviorism | Scientific study of observable behavior |
| humanistic | Potential of human growth and Free will shapes thoughts and behaviors |
| cognitive | The study of mental processing as humans grow, learn, remember, think, communicate and problem solve |
| cognitive neuroscience | |
| natural selection | |
| evolutionary psychology | The study of human behavior and mind using principles of natural selection |
| biopsychosocial approach | |
| behavioral psychology | Operant conditioning tied to praise of academics, or avoidance of social situations; Classical conditioning tied to avoidance of social situations |
| biological psychology | Attribute nervousness to brain chemistry, hormones, or genetics |
| psychodynamic psychology | Unconscious or repressed issues stemming from the childhood trauma of losing her father to explain need for approval or social anxiety |
| social-cultural psychology | Cultural norms and expectations influence one's expectations inducing anxiety. |
| SQ3R | |
| Wilhelm Wundt | “Father of Psychology” - first to apply scientific method to psychology |
| EB Titchener | structuralism; proved to varies and unreliable from person to person |
| psychometrics | |
| basic research | Explores interest without intent of immediate use |
| hindsight bias | the tendency to believe that an outcome was inevitable |
| Hypothesis | |
| operational definition | description of something in terms of operations by which it can be observed and measured |
| Overconfidence | we believe we know more than we actually do |
| Gestalt psychology | argues that brain seeks out whole and ignores little details |
| William James | functionalism; wrote Principles of Psychology |
| Mary Calkins | denied degrees as a women; president of APA |
| John Watson | Applied Pavlov's findings to humans; Defined new area of psychology as behaviorism; Little Albert experiment |
| Case study | |
| survey | questionnaires |
| Sampling bias | unrepresented sample of subjects (doesn't reflect true population) |
| random samples | everyone in a group has an equal chance of being chosen |
| correlation | Data compiled from naturalistic observation, surveys and case studies; Expresses a relationship between 2 variables; DOES NOT SHOW CAUSATION |
| Correlation coefficient | Statistical number that measures the strength of a relationship between variables; Ranges from -1 to +1 (shown as an r value); Relationship gets weaker the closer it is to Zero |
| dependent variable | (effect) the factor that may change in response to the dependent variable |
| independent variable | (cause) the factor manipulated by the experimenter whose effect is being studied |
| Scatterplot | |
| illusory correlation | Perception of relationship where none exists (Stereotyping is the most common type) |
| regression towards the mean | |
| Experimental group | |
| control group | |
| double-blind procedure | neither patient or psychologist know who is receiving treatment/placebo |
| Placebo effect | when a person's physical or mental health appears to improve after taking a placebo or 'dummy' treatment |
| Longitudinal study | individuals studied over a length of time |
| cross sectional study | individuals studied at a point in time |
| External validity | |
| Internal validity | |
| confounding variables | factors that should be kept constant by experimenter for both control and experimental groups |
| Extraneous variables | subject relevant confounding variable (age, gender, race, religion) |
| informed consent | |
| Debriefing | results |
| Descriptive statistic | Describes Data (Terms: Central Tendency, Measures of Variation, Frequency Distribution) |
| Mode | most frequent scores |
| mean | average (add and divide) |
| Median | the middle score in a rank |
| skewed distribution | Outliers (data points at one extreme or another) skew data; the skew is either positive or negative depending on WHERE the outlier lies |
| range | difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution; average difference between each score and the mean (z- scores) |
| standard deviation | USED TO ASSESS HOW FAR AWAY INDIVIDUAL DATA POINTS ARE FROM THE MEAN WITHIN A SET OF DATA; square root of the variance |
| normal curve | A distribution of scores that produce a bell shaped symmetrical curve |
| inferential statistics | Involves ESTIMATING (infer) what is happening in a sample population for the purpose of making decisions about that population's characteristics |
| Statistical significance | Difference observed between two sample groups is probably NOT due to chance, most likely due to the independent variable |
| neuron | building block of nervous system |
| cell body | |
| dentrites | |
| axon | the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands |
| myelin sheath | a fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed |
| glial cells (glia) | |
| action potential | the change in electrical potential associated with the passage of an impulse along the axon |
| threshold | |
| refractory period | |
| all-or-none response | |
| synapse | A junction where information is transmitted from one neuron to the next |
| neurotransmitters | |
| reuptake | a excess of neurotransmitter are reabsorbed by the sending neuron |
| endorphins | natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure |
| agonist | a drug that increases a neurotransmitter's action |
| antagonist | |
| nervous system | |
| central nervous system (CNS) | |
| peripheral nervous system (PNS) | |
| nerves | |
| sensory (afferent) neurons | |
| motor (efferent) neurons | |
| interneurons | |
| somatic nervous system | |
| autonomic nervous system (ANS) | |
| sympathetic nervous system | |
| parasympathetic nervous system | |
| reflex | |
| endocrine system | |
| hormones | |
| adrenal glands | |
| pituitary gland | |
| lesion | |
| EEG (electroencephalogram) | Records brain’s electrical activity; Waves measured by electrodes placed on scalp; Helps identify seizures and abnormalities in brain activity |
| MEG (magnetoencephalography) | |
| CT (computed tomography) scan | Examines brain structure by using x-rays; Yields information about the exact shape and position of structures; Can help diagnose tumors. |
| PET (positron emission tomography) scan | Examines brain function by observing the amount of metabolic activity in different brain regions; Measures glucose absorption after injection with radioactive isotope; Shows which brain regions are active at the time. |
| MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) | Assembles picture of brain using strong magnetic pulses; Can show healthy tissue, tumors, tissue degeneration, and blood clots or leaks that may signal strokes. |
| fMRI (functional MRI) | Examines brain function by measuring blood flow and oxygen use within the brain |
| brainstem | the oldest part of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord enters the skull (responsible for automatic survival functions) |
| medulla | at the base of the brainstem (responsible for life-maintaining processes such as breathing and heartbeat) |
| thalamus | sits on top of the brain stem (the brain's sensory control center) |
| reticular formation | part of the PONS - controls arousal and consciousness (sleep and wake cycles) |
| cerebellum | sits behind the top portion of the brainstem (involved in fine motor control such as coordination, posture, and balance - helps with learning and remembering skills) |
| limbic system | a system of brain structures and neural networks involved in processing emotion and long-term memory |
| amygdala | involved in processing emotion, especially fear and aggression (alerts you when in dangerous situations - helps you read other people's emotions) |
| hypothalamus | regulates the autonomic nervous system (bodily organs and glands) (monitors and regulates body temp, hunger, thirst - hormones alert the hypothalamus of bodily states) |
| hippocampus | helps store information into long-term memory (stores spatial memory) (you would remember if you saw a HIPPO on CAMPUS) |
| cerebral cortex | the wrinkled outer position of the brain (contains left and right hemispheres) |
| frontal lobes | |
| parietal lobes | receives sensory input for touch, temperature, pain and body position |
| occipital lobes | A region of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information |
| temporal lobes | |
| motor cortex | |
| somatosensory cortex | |
| association areas | |
| plasticity | The brain’s ability to change by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience (brain structure changes - quickly changes - flexible brains are important for individual learning and therapy) |
| neurogenesis | |
| corpus callosum | the large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them |
| split brain | |
| consciousness | personal awareness of thoughts, sensations, memories, and the external world (being aware of what is going on internally and externally) |
| cognitive neuroscience | |
| dual processing | "two track mind" brain has two systems of awareness automatic processing (minimal attention) controlled processing (focused attention) |
| blindsight | |
| parallel processing | |
| sequential processing | |
| behavior genetics | the study of how genes and experience interact and lead to specific behaviors and mental abilities |
| heredity | how traits of parents are transmitted to offspring (each gene is either active (expressed) or inactive) |
| environment | |
| chromosomes | |
| DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) | |
| genes | |
| genome | |
| identical (monozygotic) twins | share 100% of the same genes, traits shared by monozygotic twins are considered to have high heritability (intelligence, personality, fears, talents) |
| fraternal (dizygotic) twins | share 50% of the same genes, share same heritability rate as other siblings |
| heritability | mathematical measure that indicates the amount of variation among individuals that is related to genes |
| interaction | |
| molecular genetics | |
| molecular behavior genetics | |
| epigenetics | sustained environmental pressures can change that activity of genes but not DNA (genes "turn on or off" - slowly changes - important for the benefit of the species) |
| evolutionary psychology | |
| natural selection | |
| mutation | |
| social script | |
| Sensation | The process of detecting, converting, and transmitting raw sensory information from the external and internal environments to the brain |
| Perception | The process of selecting, organizing and interpreting sensory information |
| bottom -up processing | processing information starting with your senses and working up to higher order thinking |
| Top-down processing | constructs perceptions based on your experiences and expectations - making assumptions based on biases & influenced by expectations, experience, culture, motivation, emotion |
| Selective attention | the focus of our conscious mind on one stimuli - focus on things you deem important (can't text and drive) |
| Change blindness | the failure to notice changes in the environment (can also apply to hear) |
| Transduction | transforming stimulus energizes (sight, sound, smell) into neural impulses our brain can interpret |
| Psychophysics | |
| Subliminal | stimuli below the absolute threshold (detected less than 50%) - Stimuli so weak we don't consciously notice them |
| Difference threshold | the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection- Referred to as WEBER’S LAW - “just noticeable difference” |
| Priming | |
| Weber’s law | |
| Sensory adaptation | diminished sensory awareness due to constant stimulation above the threshold |
| Perceptual set | a mental predisposition to perceive one thing not another - you see what you want to see |
| Wavelength (vision) | |
| Cornea | |
| Iris | |
| Lens | |
| Retina | |
| Accommodation | |
| Rods and cones | |
| Optic nerve | |
| Blind spot | |
| Fovea | |
| Three color theory (Young Helmholtz trichromatic) | |
| Opponent-process theory | |
| Parallel processing | |
| Gestalt | |
| Figure ground | The organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground). |
| Grouping | The tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups |
| Depth perception | |
| Visual cliff | |
| Binocular cue | |
| Retinal disparity | |
| Monocular cue | |
| Phi phenomenon | |
| Perceptual adaptation | |
| Audition | |
| Frequency | |
| Middle ear | |
| Cochlea | |
| COCKTAIL PARTY EFFECT | you focus on your name being said, even if you are in a room with several conversations occurring |
| Grouping Proximity | People tend to organize objects close to each other into a perceptual group and interpret them as a single entity. |
| Grouping Continuity | the tendency to perceive smooth and continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones. |
| Grouping Closure | the tendency to fill in gaps to complete a whole objects |
Created by:
stephaniev2646
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