Download AP PSYCHOLOGY EXAM REVIEW

AP PSYCHOLOGY
EXAM REVIEW
Session 1: History and Approaches, Methods, States of
Consciousness
Good Resources
 Variety of AP Review Books
 College Board Website: https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/appsychology
 Crash Course Psychology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo4pMVb0R6M&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJ
Y-uHOH9KVU6
 Discovering Psychology Series:
http://www.learner.org/series/discoveringpsychology/
5 Essential Tips from Barron’s AP Psychology
 Know the psychological perspectives
 Know your terms
 Psychology is a science.
 Application is key.
 Use what psychology teaches you about cognition to improve your study habits.
The Fabulous 15
Psychologist
Major Contributions
Solomon Asch
Conformity experiments
Albert Bandura
Social-learning theory (modeling)
Albert Ellis
Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)
Erik Erikson
Psychosocial stage theory of development
Sigmund Freud
Psychosexual stage theory of personality;
stressed importance of unconscious;
psychoanalysis
Harry Harlow
Attachment studies with monkeys
Lawrence Kohlberg
Stage theory of moral development
Abraham Maslow
Hierarchy of needs; self-actualization
The Fabulous 15
Psychologist
Major Contributions
Stanley Milgram
Obedience studies
Ivan Pavlov
Classical conditioning—studies of dogs and
salivation
Jean Piaget
Stage theory of cognitive development
Carl Rogers
Person/Client-centered therapy;
unconditional positive regard
B.F. Skinner
Operant conditioning—reinforcement
John B. Watson
Father of Behaviorism; Baby Albert
experiment
Wilhelm Wundt
Set up first psychology laboratory; theory of
structuralism
History and Approaches
 Wilhelm Wundt set up the first psychological laboratory in Germany
 Introspection: subjects asked to accurately record their cognitive reactions to
stimuli
 Structuralism: idea that the mind operates by combining subjective emotions and
objective sensations
 William James published the first psychology textbook
 Functionalism: focused on the functions of consciousness and behavior
 Gestalt psychology tried to examine a person’s total experience
 Sigmund Freud revolutionized psychology with psychoanalytic theory
 John B. Watson founded behaviorism—psychologists should only study behavior
and causes of behavior
History and Approaches
 Humanistic perspective: belief that people choose most of their behaviors and these
choices are guided by physiological, emotional, or spiritual needs.
 Psychoanalytic perspective: the unconscious mind controls much of our thoughts
and actions.
 Biopsychology (or Neuroscience) perspective: explains human thought and behavior
strictly in terms of biological processes
 Evolutionary perspective: examines human thoughts and actions in terms of natural
selection.
 Behavioral perspective: explains human thought and behavior in terms of
conditioning.
 Cognitive perspective: examines human thought and behavior in terms of how we
interpret, process, and remember environmental events.
History and Approaches
 Sociocultural Perspective: how thoughts and behaviors vary from culture to culture.
 Biopsychosocial perspective: human thinking and behavior results from
combinations of biological, psychological, and social factors.
Methods
 Hindsight bias: tendency of people to think they knew it all along
 Goal of scientific research is to predict what will happen in advance
 Applied research has clear, practical applications
 Basic research explores questions of interest to psychologists but are not intended
to have immediate, real-world applications
 Hypothesis: expresses a predicted relationship between two variables
 According to an experimental hypothesis, the dependent variable depends on the
independent variable
 Theory: aims to explain some phenomenon and allows researchers to generate
testable hypotheses
Methods
 Operational definitions explain how a variable is measured
 Research is valid when it measures what the researcher set out to measure
 Research is reliable when it can be replicated
 Sample: group of participants
 Representative sample: sample represents the population of interest
 Random selection: every member of the population has an equal chance of being
selected
 Stratified sampling: process that allows a researcher to ensure that the sample
represents the population on some criteria
Methods
 Laboratory experiments are conducted in a highly controlled environment
 Field experiments are conducted out in the world
 Confounding variable: any difference between experimental and control conditions,
except for the independent variable, that might affect the dependent variable
 Random assignment: each participant has an equal chance of being placed into any
group
 Experimenter bias: the unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of
the experimental and control groups differently
 Double-blind procedure: the participants do not know which group they are in and
the researcher interacting with the participants does not know which group
participants are in
Methods
 Experimental group: receives the treatment operationalized in the independent
variable
 Control group: get none of the independent variable
 Correlation: expresses a relationship between two variables without ascribing cause.
 Positive correlation: the presence of one variable predicts the presence of the other
variable
 Negative correlation: the presence of one variable predicts the absence of the other
variable
 Survey method: people complete a survey
 Naturalistic observation: view participants in their natural setting without interacting
with them
Methods
 Case study method: used to get a full, detailed picture of one participant or a small
group of participants
 Descriptive Statistics: describes data
 Measures of central tendency: attempt to mark the center of a distribution
 Mean: average
 Median: central score in a distribution
 Mode: score that appears most frequently
Methods
 Measures of variability attempt to depict diversity of a distribution
 Range: distance between the highest and lowest scores
 Standard deviation: measure of the average distance of any score in the distribution
from the mean
 Inferential statistics: determines whether or not findings can be applied to the larger
population from which the sample was selected.
 Statistically significant results: unlikely to have occurred by chance
Methods
 APA Ethical Guidelines for Animal Research:
 Must have clear, scientific purpose
 Must answer a specific, important, scientific question
 Animals chosen must be best-suited to answer the question at hand
 They must care for and house animals in a humane way
 They must acquire animal subjects legally
 They must design experimental procedures that employ the least amount of
suffering feasible
Methods
 APA Ethical Guidelines for Human Research:
 No coercion
 Informed consent
 Anonymity or confidentiality
 Risk
 Debriefing
States of Consciousness
 Conscious: what is currently in our awareness
 Preconscious: not currently in awareness but can easily be recalled
 Unconscious: events or feelings unacceptable to the conscious mind
 Circadian rhythm: our metabolic and thought processes follow a certain pattern
 REM Sleep: characterized by rapid eye movements and active brain waves
 Insomnia: common sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep or staying
asleep
States of Consciousness
 Narcolepsy: periods of intense sleepiness, often falling asleep at unpredictable and
inappropriate times
 Sleep apnea: breathing stops for short periods of time during the night
 Night terrors: disorder affecting mostly children involving screaming and movement
with no recollection of the event afterwards
 Sleep walking is more common in children
States of Consciousness
 Freud believed dreams helped uncover information in the unconscious mind
 Manifest content: the literal content of our dreams
 Latent content: the unconscious meaning of the manifest content
 Activation-synthesis theory of dreaming: dreams are nothing more than the brain’s
interpretations of what is happening physiologically during REM sleep
 Information-processing theory: stress during the day increases the number and
intensity of dreams and the content relates to daily concerns
States of Consciousness
 Hypnosis: trance-like, suggestible state
 Post-hypnotic suggestion: a suggestion that a person behave a certain way after
being brought out of hypnosis
 Role theory: hypnosis not an altered state but rather a person is acting out the role
of hypnotized person
 State theory: through suggestion some people become more or less aware of their
environments
 Dissociation theory: hypnosis causes us to divide our consciousness voluntarily
States of Consciousness
 Psychoactive drugs: chemicals that change the chemistry of the brain and induce an
altered state of consciousness
 Molecules of psychoactive drugs are small enough to pass through the blood-brain
barrier
 Agonists: drugs that mimic neurotransmitters
 Antagonists: drugs that block neurotransmitters
 Tolerance: physiological change that produces a need for more of the same drug in
order to achieve the same effect
States of Consciousness
 Stimulants: drugs that speed up body processes
 Depressants: drugs that slow down body processes
 Hallucinogens: drugs that cause changes in perceptions of reality
 Opiates: drugs that act as agonists for endorphins and thus are powerful painkillers
and mood elevators