AP Psych - Semester 1 Review

• early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind

• introduced by Edward Bradford Titchener

school of thought that emphasizes the whole is different than the sum of its parts (you can’t deduce attributes of the whole from analyzing the parts in isolation)

school of psychology hat focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function (how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish)

the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes

• rebelled against determinism of Freudian psychology and behaviorism

• emphasized an individual’s potential for personal growth

interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked w/ cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)

the science of behavior and mental processes

longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits

the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations

differing views (biological, psychological, social-cultural) for analyzing a given phenomenon

an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis

pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base

scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, or marriage)

a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders

a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders, practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments

• study method

• Survey, Question, Read, Rehearse, Review

believed in innate ideas, suggested that the brain is the seat of mental processes

denied the existence of innate ideas, suggested that the heart is the seat of mental processes

French philosopher who proposed mind-body interaction and believed in the concept of innate ideas

British philosopher who rejected Descartes’ notion of innate ideas and insisted the mind at birth is a “blank slate” (tabula rasa)

• scientist

• theory of evolution, natural selection

activist who played a role in the founding/expansion of hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill

established the first psychology laboratory

used introspection to search for the mind’s structural elements

• functionalist

• invited Mary Calkins into his graduate seminar

• puzzle boxes + cats

• law of effect

psychologist who studied child development

first woman elected to membership in the APA

first woman to get a Ph.D. in psychlogy

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

the tendency to look for information that confirms or strengthens beliefs, rather than evidence to the contrary

thinking that examines assumptions, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

an explanation that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events

a testable prediction

a clear, measurable, definition of a variable

repeating the essence of a research study to see whether he basic findings extend to other participants and circumstances

and observation technique in which one person is studied in depth

a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group

a sample that fairly represents a population bc each member has an equal chance of inclusion

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

the interdependence between variable quantities

a statistical index of the relationship btwn two things (from -1 to +1)

the perception of a relationship where none exists

assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences bwtn those assigned to different groups

mode - most frequently occurring score in a distribution

mean - the arithmetic average of a distribution

median - the middle score in a distribution

range - the difference btwn the highest and lowest scores

standard deviation - a measure of how much scores vary around the mean

the mental activities associated w/ thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance

mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

a mental image or best example of a catagory

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

a strategy that allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently, usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

a tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often one that has been successful in the past

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory

the was an issue is raised

our spoken, written, or signed words, and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

• the smallest distinctive sound unit

• cats has 4 (c, a, t, s)

• the smallest unit that carries meaning

• cats has 2 (cat, s)

system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences

• the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

• ex. red ball vs. pelota roja

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding)

Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

• theory by Noam Chomsky

• human brain contains a predefined mechanism that is the basis for the acquisition of all language.

• studied chimpanzee problem solving

• insight

• taught ASL to Washoe the chimpanzee

known for her work w bonobos Kanzi and Panbanisha, used keyboards to communicate

nerve cell, building block of the nervous system

carry incoming information from sensory receptors to brain and spinal cord

carry outgoing information from brain and spinal cord to muscles and glands

only in brain and spinal cord, communicate internally between sensory inputs and motor outputs

receive information and conduct it towards cell body

contains nucleus

has genetic material

transfers electrochemical messages

layer of fat that speeds up transmission

gaps in myelin sheath that sped up transmission

produce myelin sheath

very end of axon

allow for communication between nerve cells

neural impulse, brief electrical charge that travels down the axon

• outside has more positive (sodium) ions, inside has more negative ions

• polarized

positive Na+ ions enter cell

return of + outside, - inside

push charge above -70mv

push charge below -70mv

the time in which a nerve cell is unable to fire an action potential (nerve impulse)

about -55 mv

action potential either fires or it doesn't, no middle ground

chemical messages called neurotransmitters