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AP Psychology - Unit 1 Study Guide
AP Psychology
AP
High School - US
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Unit 1 Study Guide
Aristotle “theorized about learning and memory, motivation and emotion, perception and personality.”
In December 1879, Wilhelm Wundt set up the first-ever psychology lab at the University of Leipzig, Germany. ● He created a machine to measure the time between hearing a ball hit something and the listening participant pressing a telegraph key -- seeking to measure the “atoms of the mind.”
Edward Bradford Titchener, a student of Wilhelm Wundt, introduced structuralism -- a concept that utilized introspection (the examination/observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes) to explore the mind’s structural elements.
William James, philosopher-psychologist, more wisely thought to consider the “evolved functions of our thoughts and feelings.” A functionalist, James sought to explore down-to-earth emotions/consider the function of thoughts and feelings.
The younger science of psychology developed from the more established fields of philosophy and biology.
Psychology: ● Science of behavior and mental processes. ● Behavior: anything an organism does. ● Mental processes: internal experiences we infer from behavior. ○ The study of our inner feelings and behaviors.
Wundt and Titchener focused on inner sensations in the early days of psychology.
Sigmund Freud emphasized how emotional responses to childhood experiences and our unconscious thoughts affect our behavior.
Behaviorism: ● Psychology = objective science ● Studies behavior without reference to mental processes. ○ Most scientists follow the first definition, not second.
Humanistic Psychology: ● Went against Freud and behaviorism. ● Emphasized the importance of current environmental influence on growth potential, as well as needs for love and acceptance satisfied.
Cognitive Neuroscience: ● Explore ways how we receive, process, and remember information. ● Helps treat disorders.
Nature-Nurture: ● Controversy over contributions of biology and experience. ○ Born with traits or developed?
Biopsychological Approach: ● Considers the influences of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors.
PERSPECTIVES AND FOCUSES:
● Neuroscience: How the brain and body enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences. ○ Almost anything biology ● Evolutionary: How the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes. ○ Over time/natural selection ● Behavior Genetics: How much our genes and our environment influence our individual differences. ○ Genetic and behavioral ● Psychodynamic: How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts. ○ Childhood/memories influence ● Behavioral: How we learn observable responses. ● Cognitive: How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information. ● Social-Cultural: How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures.
Do our feelings always match our behaviors? ● If someone calls you a bitch, you may feel sad inside. ○ But, you may be acting tough on the outside, while crying on the inside.
History of Psychology:
● Focused on spirituality and free will. ○ We must strive to be the best we can be. ■ “Self-actualization” ○ Happiness defined by distance between “self-concept” and “ideal self.”
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OVERBEARING QUESTION:
How can we best use psychology to understand why people think, feel, and act as they do?
Two phenomena - hindsight bias and judgemental overconfidence - illustrate why we can’t solely rely on intuition and common sense.
(In) Hindsight ● After 9/11, people said the second tower should have been evacuated... ● People saying Chris Brown was a violent kid after the incident with Rihanna. ○ This is the process of realizing/knowing what to do after the event has already happened. ■ “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon.
Overconfidence ● Thinking you are better than you actually are/dramatizing one’s ability. ○ Think FRAT BOYS! ○ 82% of US drivers consider themselves to be in the top 30% of safe drivers. ● Humans tend to be overconfident; once people know the answer, hindsight makes it seem obvious. ○ Robert Vallone and friends had students predict at the beginning of the school year if they’d drop a course/vote in the upcoming election/etc. ■ Many ended up failing it, exemplifying this trend of cockiness.
The Barnum Effect ● Tendency for people to accept general/vague characteristics of selves and take them to be accurate. ○ Psychics/horoscopes
Scientific inquiry fixes the overabundance of faith put into our own intuition!
Scientific Approach ● Does it work? ○ Answering some questions require leaps of faith.
James Randi, a magician, “tested and debunked a variety of psychic phenomena” through the scientific approach.
Curiosity, skepticism, and humility make science possible.
Critical Thinking ● One doesn’t just accept arguments/prompt conclusions.
The Scientific Method ● In science, theory is linked with observation. ● A scientific theory explains through an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events. ● Hypotheses are testable predictions, produced by ‘good’ theories.
Operational Definitions ● Statements of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables; what you mean in your hypothesis. ○ How the variables will be measure in “real life” terms. ○ How you operationalize the variables will tell us if the study is valid and reliable. ○ Define variables! ■ Say exactly what you did! ■ Organizes self-report/observation. ○ Helps replicate study! ■ Clear predictions/testable.
Experimental Groups receive treatment. Control Groups don’t receive treatment.
Independent Variable is what is manipulated in the experiment. Dependent Variable is what changes, based on the independent variable. ● The dependent variable is what is being tested for.
■ Placebo - results caused by expectation.
Correlation ● How one trait is related to another. ● Correlation Coefficient: r ○ ASSOCIATION DOESN’T PROVE CAUSATION. ■ Correlation Coefficient ranges from -1 to +1. ● -1 means the two data sets are inversely related. ○ Ex. Less rainy days leads to more cotton candy sales. ● +1 means the two data sets are directly related. ○ Ex. More disposable income leads to higher life expectancy
Illusory Correlation ● Non-existent trend - like losing hair the long you’re married. ○ ASSOCIATION DOESN’T PROVE CAUSATION!
Standard Deviation
● Stylized by σ
● How far, on average, scores vary from mean (μ) ○ Small standard deviation → data doesn’t vary too greatly. ○ Large standard deviation → data varies greatly! ■ In normal distribution, mean, median, and mode are all the same.
Z-Score ● Measures distance of a score from the mean. ○ Z score of 0 = right in the middle!
Normal Distribution ● 68-95-99% rule ○ In normal distribution, mean, median, and mode are all the same.
Positive skew = more low scores. (Tail is at the positive end).
Negative skew = more high scores. (Tail is at the negative end).
If 2 averages represent a population well, the difference is reliable! Statistical Significance ● Observed difference is probably not due to chance variation between samples. ● When a statistic is significant, it simply means that you are very sure that the statistic is reliable. ○ Less varying observations = reliable data set.
Inferential Statistics discover whether findings can be applied to the larger population from which sample was collected. ● Probability value (or) P-value >0 for statistical significance.
Alternate Hypothesis = H 1
Ethics in Research ● Identify how ethical issues inform and constrain research practices.
Institutional Review Board keeps experiments ethical!
Informed Consent is consent to an experiment, knowing full well what will happen. ● Deception is sometimes needed for legitimate results.
Confidentiality is crucial; change name for specific members of study when released.
Psychological Treatment - HIPPA: You, as an individual, have the right to know what psychologists are writing about you.
Debriefing is mandatory; before leaving, all members of a study need to be “debriefed” on what they found in the experiment, etc.
AP Psychology - Unit 1 Study Guide
Subject: AP Psychology
AP
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