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AP Psychology > Unit 1 > Flashcards

Unit 1 Flashcards

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1
Q

Who theorized about the mind and laid out the foundation of early psychology?

A

The ancient Greeks

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2
Q

What did John Locke believe?

A

He believed Aristotle and said that we are tabula rasa (blank slates) and knowledge was gained through experience (nurture).

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3
Q

Who believed in nature and who believed in nurture?

A

Plato, Descartes = Nature

Aristotle, John Locke = Nurture

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4
Q

What is dualism and monism?

A

Dualism - Belief that we only have a physical brain but a mind that encompasses things like emotions, convictions, and principles and it can not be observed.
Monism - Belief that there is no distinct mind, only brain.

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5
Q

Who are important female figures in psychology?

A

Calkins - William James’ student at Harvard, denied degree, first female pres of APA
Margaret Washburn - first female psych PhD

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6
Q

What are the six stages of psychology?

A

Introspection, gestalt psychology, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, humanistic psych and the cognitive revolution, modern psych (eclectic)

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7
Q

Who is considered the father of modern psychology?

A

Wilhelm Wundt; he wanted to scientifically determine the structure of mind and that led to structuralism

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8
Q

Who was Wilhelm Wundt’s student and what did he do?

A

Titchener used introspection

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9
Q

What is introspection?

A

The examination of a person’s own thoughts, impressions, and feelings. Like dropping a ball and asking how and what a person felt.

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10
Q

What did William James do?

A

He wanted to find the functions of the mind structures. He explained his theory of Functionalism in the first psychology textbook: The Principles of Psychology.

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11
Q

Who was William James influenced by?

A

Who was he influenced by?

Darwin (evolution theory)

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12
Q

Who popularized Gestalt psychology?

A

German Max Wertheimer

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13
Q

What is Gestalt psychology and how is it different from Structuralism and Functionalism?

A

Gestalt psychology emphasizes the whole of anything is greater than its part while Structuralism and Functionalism focuses on specific parts of the mind. It promotes self awareness and that a person could judge situations perfectly and honestly when all the information is presented.

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14
Q

Who revolutionized Psychology with his psychoanalytic approach?

A

Freud

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15
Q

What was Freud’s claim?

A

He claimed that he discovered the unconscious mind and it is what controls our behavior. Psychologists should study peoples’ dreams, word associations, and other psychoanalytic therapies. He also believed that sexual repression in childhood helps shape personality.

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16
Q

What did John B. Watson believed?

A

Psychology should be focused on observable behavior, not the unconscious mind (Behaviorism).

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17
Q

Who are Watson and B.F. Skinner?

A

Behaviorist who believed in materialism, things that exist in energy and matter.

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18
Q

What do behaviorists focus on?

A

Observable behavior, what causes our behavior to change (stimuli)

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19
Q

What do humanistic psychologists focus on?

A

Growth potential of people by encouraging them to accept themselves and their emotions

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20
Q

What idea do cognitive revolution psychologists reject?

A

Behaviorist ideas, re-affirmed the importance of how thoughts impact behavior

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21
Q

What do modern psychologists believe?

A

Multiple perspectives, varied perspectives provide an eclectic picture of our minds and how they are connected to our behavior.

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22
Q

What are psychologists still trying to uncover?

A

Nature VS. Nurture

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23
Q

What approach do psychologists today use?

A

Biophysical approach - biological, psychological, culture and environment

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24
Q

What are the 8 approaches?

A

Biological, behavior-genetics, psychoanalysis, evolutionary, cognitive, social-cultural, behavioral, humanistic

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25
What does the Biological approach focus on?
How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences like how the amount of neurotransmitters or hormones in the brain/body makes a person an alcoholic (neuroscience).
26
What does the Behavior-genetics approach focus on?
How our genes determine behavior like how family history makes a person an alcoholic
27
What is the Psychoanalytic approach?
Endorsed by Freud, points to our unconscious desires like how childhood problems and sexual and aggressive drives them to act a certain way.
28
What is the Evolutionary approach?
Based of Charles Darwin natural selection; view traits as those who have developed to maintain survival like how a person is extroverted to ensure survival
29
What is the Cognitive approach?
How behavior is impacted by how we process, interpret, and remember events. Not concerned about what goes on in the brain but concerned about how we process info and interpret it like how an extrovert observes and interprets social settings that are better to be that way. Being outgoing makes sense.
30
What does the Social-Cultural approach look at?
How culture influences behavior like is being talkative valued in their culture
31
What is the Behavioral Approach?
Behavior in terms of conditioning. We learn from different experiences and are conditioned to act in a certain way. An extrovert has been praised to be that way, discouraged to be introverted
32
What is the Humanistic approach?
Emphasize personal growth. People need to accept themselves and develop a positive self-concept.
33
What are the five main psychological pillars or domains?
Biological, cognitive, development, social and personality, mental health.
34
What are possible career choices?
Counseling psychologist, clinical psychologist, psychiatrist.
35
What are the 3 threats to science based thinking?
Hindsight bias, overconfidence, perceiving order in random events
36
What is hindsight bias?
To look back on events that have occurred and think to yourself “I saw that coming”.
37
Why is hindsight bias a threat to critical thinking?
Blocks you from considering new ideas or evidence to inform your opinions. It is easy to look back and understand what happened but the goal of scientific research is to reliably predict what will happen in the future.
38
Why is overconfidence bad?
Makes us think we already know the outcome of events. Can lead to poor judgement.
39
Why is perceiving order in random events bad?
It fools you into thinking there is a pattern when there really isn’t. Random sequences of data may seem to point to a conclusion but it still needs to be verified.
40
What is an example of Gambler’s Fallacy?
Expecting a head after flipping a coin and getting 10 tails in a row.
41
What are good scientific attitudes?
Curious, skeptical, humble
42
What is good about being curious?
Ask good questions
43
How can being skeptical (prone to doubt or question things) help?
Can help determine which theories match the facts.
44
Why should you be humble?
We need to be open to the possibility of error in our own judgments and possibility of surprises. We need to humbly pursue truth, regardless of what we think will happen.
45
What is the ethics code called and where do researchers need to get approval from?
American Psychological Association (APA); Institutional Review Board (IRB)
46
What are the four main rules in the APA guidelines?
1) Participants must volunteer to be in the study and must give informed consent. They must be told what will happen and be informed of the risks. They have the right to withdraw 2) Do not harm 3) Information are to be kept confidential 4) Researchers must debrief after the experiment. Deception is ok as long as the person is debriefed.
47
What do most theories start out as?
Hypothesis
48
What is an operational definition?
a description of something in terms of the operations. (hunger = x hours without food, generosity = money contributed)
49
Why do operational definitions and carefully worded statements matter?
Allow others to replicate original observation
50
What are some examples of descriptive research studies?
Case studies, naturalistic observations, surveys
51
What is the oldest method of psychological research?
Case studies (Wundt and introspection of ball)
52
What is the purpose of case studies?
To examine individuals in hopes of finding truths that may relate to everyone.
53
Why are case studies sometimes misleading?
Individual cases may mislead if an individual is unusual. Dramatic stories and personal experiences command our attention and are easily remembered. The individual who is partaking in the study may not be representative of the whole population and it is difficult to replicate study.
54
What do case studies and naturalistic observations not explain?
Does not explain behavior but it describes it
55
What are naturalistic observations?
Observations of behavior in the natural environment.
56
What is the advantage of naturalistic observations?
Reduce artificiality
57
What is social desirability bias?
People who answer surveys generally rate themselves more positively.
58
What is the wording effect and why is it bad for surveys?
How wording and phrasing affect people’s expressed opinions and answers often depend on the ways questions are worded and respondents are chosen.
59
How do we prevent bias when doing surveys?
Use sampling bias - random sampling is used to make sure the study has a representative sample. Every person in the entire group has an equal chance of participating.
60
How do we make sure there is a representative sample?
Stratified sampling - involves subdividing the population into groups (like race, gender, etc.) and making sure you have an equal number of participants from each group.
61
What is correlation?
A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus how well either factor predicts the other
62
What kind of graph best represents correlation?
A scatter plot
63
What is a correlation coefficient?
A statistical index of the relationship between two things (-1 to +1)
64
What number represents the strongest positive correlation (correlation coefficient)?
+1
65
Correlation does not mean ______
Causation (correlational studies doesn’t determine cause and effect)
66
What is the advantage of an experimental method?
Researchers can isolate the cause and effect relationship.
67
What is the advantage of a laboratory experiment?
Can be controlled
68
What is the advantage of a field experiment?
More realistic
69
What are independent and dependent variables?
Independent variables can be varied or changed to the test result while the dependent variable depends on the independent variable.
70
What two groups do researchers create to isolate the effects on the independent variable?
An experimental group which receives treatment and the control group which does not receive treatment.
71
What is the placebo effect?
Experimental results caused by expectations.
72
What is Random Assignment intended for?
To control pre existing differences between the groups of participants in an experiment and limit the effect of confounding variables.
73
What are confounding variables?
Variables that might impact the dependent variable (not part of study)
74
What are the two types of confounding variables?
Participant-relevant which the participants may affect the outcome of the study and Situation-relevant which is from the surroundings such as time of day, weather, setting.
75
What is the effect where people act differently when they know they are being studied?
Hawthorne effect
76
What is a demand characteristic?
Things participants learn about the purpose of the study that might change their behavior. Such as getting more sleep for a sleep study.
77
What procedure is used to reduce the effect of demand characteristics?
Single-bind procedure - the participants don’t know whether they are in the experimental or in the control group.
78
What is the experimenter bias?
When the researchers perceive the results he is expecting to see when he knows who receives the actual treatment.
79
What procedure is used to eliminate the effects of both demand characteristics and experimenter bias?
The double-blind procedure - both parties do not know which is the experiment or control group.
80
What is the with-in subject design and what is the goal?
When researchers use the same participant as the control and experimental group to compare the behavior in each group.
81
What problem could with-in subject design cause?
Order effects - when the order of treatment matters
82
How do you eliminate order effects?
With Counterbalancing, a procedure that assigns half the subjects to one treatment first and the other treatment.
83
What are Quasi-experiments?
Studies that are like experiments but are missing a particular feature. For example, a study of effect of child abuse because you can’t ask parents to abuse their children. You can only use a small portion of population so results won’t be valid.
84
What is the type of quasi-experiment where there are no manipulations of the independent variable?
Ex-post facto studies - for example, study of obese and normal people eating habits
85
Why should you doubt big round numbers?
Off-the-top-of-the-head estimates often misread reality and mislead the public. Someone throws a big round number and other echoes it, making it misinformation.
86
What are the three measures of central tendency?
Mean(average), median(the score in the middle), mode(most frequent occurring)
87
What is the measure of variation (dispersion)?
How similar or diverse the scores are. Low variability = more accurate average
88
What is the gap between the lowest and highest score?
Range
89
What is the standard for measuring how much scores deviate from one another?
Standard deviation - gauges whether scores are packed together or dispersed
90
What do you call a bell-shaped distribution?
A normal curve
91
What are the three principles when deciding an observed difference is reliable?
1) Representative samples are better than biased samples 2) Less-variable observations are more reliable than those that are more variable (low variability) 3) More cases are better than fewer
92
When is a difference significant?
When averages from two samples are each reliable measures of their respective populations, their difference is likely to be reliable as well. When sample averages are reliable and the difference between them is relatively large, the difference holds statistical significance.
93
What does statistical significance indicate?
Statistical significance indicates the likelihood that a result will happen by chance but does not say anything about the importance of the result.
94
What are statistical data commonly used in psychology for?
To quantify results and give credibility to data, illustrate trent
95
What are descriptive statistics?
Statistics that describe the data but don’t allow for conclusions to be made about that data
96
What are the most common forms of descriptive statistics?
Measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode)
97
What can the frequency distribution of the data be pictured as?
A histogram (bar graph) or the frequency polygon (normal curve)
98
What type of statistics is used to interpret data and draw conclusions?
Inferential statistics
99
What do inferential statistics determine?
If the trends discovered in the representative sample relate to the whole population
100
What does the null hypothesis state?
The treatment has no effect
101
What does the alternative hypothesis state?
Treatment did have an effect.
102
If the null hypothesis is false, what does it mean?
The results are statistically significance
103
What is the p value?
The probability of incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis.
104
What does a smaller and larger p value mean?
The smaller the p value, the more statistically significant the results, the larger the p value, the greater chance there is that the results occurred by chance and there is no correlation. (if less than 0.05, statistically significant)
105
What is Skewed distribution?
The outliers skew the distribution to either positive or negative. Positive skew = mean greater than median.

AP Psychology (9 decks)

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