AP PSYCH CARDS Flashcards
PEOPLE
People
Charles Darwin
Theory of evolution, survival of the fittest-origin if the species
Wilhelm Wundt
introspection—psychology became the scientific study of conscious experience; father of modern psychology; structuralism was the approach and introspection was the methodology. 1st Psych lab
John Watson
founder of behaviorism; generalization; applied classical conditioning; most famous for Little Albert experiment, when he first trained Albert to be afraid of rats and then to generalize his fear to small, white animals
Alfred Adler
Neo-Freudian; believed that childhood social, not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality formation; believed that people are primarily searching for self-esteem and achieving the ideal self; inferiority complex
Carl Jung
Disciple of Freud who extended his theories; believed in a collective unconscious as well as a personal unconscious that is aware of ancient archetypes which we inherit from our ancestors and we see in myths (loving mother); coined the terms introversion and extroversion
Gordon Allport
Three levels of traits-
- Cardinal: dominant trait that characterizes your life
- Central: common to all people
- Secondary: surfaces in some situations and not in others
Albert Ellis
Father of Rational-Emotive Therapy (REBT), which focuses on altering client’s patterns of irrational thinking to reduce maladaptive bx and emotion (if I fail AP test my life will end)
Abraham Maslow
Humanist psychologist who said we have a series of needs which must be met; you can’t achieve the top level, self-actualization, unless the previous levels have been achieved; from bottom to top the levels are psychological needs, safety, belonging, self-esteem, self-actualization; lower needs dominate and individual’s motivation as long as they are unsatisfied (Hierarchy of needs)
Carl Rogers
Humanistic psychologist who believed in unconditional positive regard; people will naturally strive for self-actualization and high self esteem, unless society taints them; reflected back clients thoughts so that they developed a self-awareness or their feelings; client-centered therapy; active listening
B.F. Skinner
: operant conditioning
Techniques to manipulate the consequences of an organism’s bx in order to observe the effects of subsequent bx; Skinner box; believed psych was not scientific enough; wanted it to be believed everyone is born tableau Rosa (blank state); NOT concerned with unconscious or cause, only bx Voluntary Bx
Ivan Pavlov
father of classical conditioning- an unconditional stimulus naturally elicits a reflexive bx called an unconditional response, but w/ repeated pairings w/ a neutral stimulus, the neutral stimulus will elicit the response Involuntary Reflexive Bx
Noam Chomsky
Believed there are an infinite # of sentences in a language and hat humans have an unborn native ability to develop language; words and concepts are learned but the brain is hardware for grammar and language
Jean Piaget
Four stage theory of cognitive development-sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational; two basic processes (assimilation and accommodation) work in tandem to achieve cognitive growth; Object Permanence, Conservation Tasks
Erik Erikson
People evolve through 8 states over the life span; each state is marked by psychological crisis that involves confronting “who am I”; Psycho-social development
Lawrence Kohlberg
His theory that there are 3 levels of moral reasoning (pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional) and each level can be divided into 2 stages; Learning right from wrong; Heinz Dilemma
Carol Gilligan
Maintained the Kohlberg’s work was developed only observing boys and overlooked potential differences btwn the habitual moral judgment of men and women
Hans Eysenck
personality is determined to a large extent by genes; used the terms extroversion and introversion; Trait Theory; x and y axis w/ quadrants
S. Schacter
Believed that to experience emotions one must be physically aroused and must then label the arousal heart races, then we decide we are feeling fear; physical, then cognitive, then emotion
Benjamin Whorf
his hypothesis is that language determines the way we think; Hopi Tribe
Robert Sternberg
triarchic theory of intelligence
- Academic problem-solving intelligence
- Practical intelligence
- Creative intelligence
Howard Gardner
Theory of multiple intelligences (8 distinct categories
E.L. Thorndike
law of effect-the principle that bx followed by favorable consequences becomes more likely and vice versa; Cat Box; rewards work better than punishments
Albert Bandura
observational learning-allows you to profit immediately from the mistakes and successes of others; his experiment had adult models punching BoBo dolls and then observed children whom watched begin to exhibit many of the same bxs; social learning theory
Alfred Binet
Created test to see if children were ready for school; tests were turned into IQ tests
Lewis Terman
revised Binet’s I.Q. test and established norms for American children
David Weschler
established an intelligence test especially for adults (WAIS); also WISC and WPPSI
Charles Spearman
Found that specific mental talents were highly correlated; concluded that all cognitive abilities showed a common core which he labeled “g” for generability
H. Rorschach
Developed one of the first projective tests, the Inkblot Test; subject reads the ink blots and projects to the observer aspects of their personality
Philip Zimbardo
Conducted Stanford Prison experiment; studied to power of social roles to influence peoples bx; proved people’s bx depends to a large extent on the roles they are asked to play; experiment had to be stopped bc it got out of control
David Rosenhan
Conducted a hospital environment to test the diagnosis that hospitals make on patients; wanted to see the impact of bx on being a patient; proved that once you are diagnosed with a disorder, your care would not be very good in a mental hospital setting. He had to pretend to have schizophrenia to enter a mental hospital
S. Asch
Study of conformity; experiment had a subject unaware of his situation to test if he would conform if all the members of a group have an obviously incorrect answer. Line test
Stanley Milgram
Conducted a study on obedience when he had a subject shock a patient to the extent that they would be seriously injuring the patient. Shock experiment
Harry Harlow
Studied theory of attachment in infant Rhesus monkeys; also experimented on the effects of social isolation in young monkeys and observed that they become severely emotionally disturbed and never recover fully cloth/wire mothers
Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalytical theory that focuses on the unconscious, id, ego, superego; believed innate drives for sex and aggression are the primary motives for our bx and personalities. Defense mechanisms
Karen Horney
Criticized Freud; said that personality is continually molded by current fears and impulses rather than being determined solely by childhood experiences; saw humans as craving love and social interaction to drive their needs. Moving against, away, or towards people
Martin Seligman
learned helplessness is the giving up rx that occurs from the experience that whatever you do cannot change your situation
H. Ebbinghas
First to conduct scientific studies on memory and forgetting; leading curves
Hubel and Wiesel
Did a study of the activities of neurons in the visual cortex
Walter B. Cannon
Believed that gastric activity in an empty stomach was the sole reason for hunger; did experiment by inserting balloon in subjects stomach
Ernst Weber
Pioneered the first study on JND (Just noticeable difference) which became Weber’s Law; the JND btwn stimuli is a constant fraction of the intensity of standard stimulus
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Theory proposed the 5 stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance)
Robert Zajonc
mere exposure effect; it is possible to have preferences w/o inferences and to feel w/o knowing why
RANDOM VOCAB TO KNOW
Random
belief perseverance
clinging to one’s belief even when they have been discredited
belief bias
when one’s beliefs force them to distort logic in order to support that belief
confirmation bias
tendency to search for information that support that belief
Deindividuation
Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint when in a group
false consensus effect
The tendency to believe that others agree with us more than they do
frustration-aggression principle
frustration creates anger which may create aggression
group polarization
Tendency for individual group members of two basically opposed views to become more extreme in their opposition to the other view
Groupthink
When desire for harmony in a group overrides logical search for alternative solutions
Hindsight basis
Tendency to believe, after a solution has been found, that you know it all along
Illusory correlation
The perception of a relationship where none exists bc we only notice instances that fit our existing schemes or stereotypes (confirmation bias)
in-group bias
tendency to favor one’s own group and to view the out-group negatively
just-world phenomenon
tendency for people to believe the world is just and therefore people get what they deserve
mere exposure effect
the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them
misinformation effect
Incorporating false information into memories and believing they are accurate
Overconfidence
Tendency to believe our opinions are correct more often than they are
Representativeness heuristic
Making a decision or forming an opinion based on what we most associate w/ that topic; stereotyping
Availability heuristics
Making a decision or forming an opinion based on what we have most recently learned, seen or heard
self-serving bias
A readiness to believe good things about ourselves; tend to blame the situation when something goes wrong for us; but credit when it goes welll
Fundamental attribution error
Tend to blame the personality of others for what they are doing wrong, rather than the situation
Serial position effect
Tendency to remember the first and last item
Social faculitation
Improved performance on tasks in front of groups, it applies to tasks we know well or do well, not to newly learned or difficult tasks
Social loafing
Tendency for individuals engaged in a group task to work less hard than if they were being held individually accountable or working alone
Social trap
A situation when those engaged in a conflicting pursuit of self-interest become caught in mutually self-destructive bx
EXPERIMENTAL TERMS
Experimental groups
Hypothesis
Your prediction of how the experimebt will come out, based upon a theory
Population
All cases in a study; group from which samples are drawn. If you were studying teen driving for instance, teens would be your population; the specific teens you studied would be your sample
Random sample
The group you are doing the actual experiment on. They should all have had the same chance of being selected from the population
Random assignment
The way in which you assign members of the random sample to the control or experimental group. Again, each member of the random sample should have an equal chance of being selected to each group. Try to keep all things equal. Wait until everyone is there and randomly select them
Subject
The person you are doing an experiment of; a member of the random sample who has been randomly assigned
Operational definition
A statement of the procedures used to define research variables. Spell out what you at comparing and how you are going to measure and compare the dependent variable
independent variable
The experimental factor that is manipulated; how the groups are different
experimental group
The group being experimented on or acted upon by the independent variable
control groups
Group compared to the experimental group to see if any change has occurred bc of the independent variable
Dependent variable
Bx or mental process that is being tested; the bx or mental process that changes bc of the introduction of the independent variable. The results of the experiment are compared to the bx or mental process before and after, or against the control group of the dependent variable
Results
The outcome in quantitative or measurable bxl terms comparing the dependent variable before and after
Confounding variables
Uncontrolled variables that affect the control group and experimental group affecting your results
Double blind
Technique, wherein neither the experimenter nor the subject know who is in the control group or experimental group so that they won’t sway the reaults
Mean (average)
Sum of a list of numbers, divided by the total numbers in the list
Median “middle value”
Smallest number such that at least half the numbers in the list are no greater than it. If the list has an odd number of entries, the median is the middle entry in the list after sorting the list into increasing order. If the list has an even number of entries, the median is equal to the sum of the two middle numbers divided by two
Mode “most”’
Most common value; a list can have more than 1 mode. For histograms a mode is a relative max number (bump)
standard deviation
Tells how spread out numbers are from the average; calculated by taking the square root of arithmetic average of the squares of the deviations from the mean in a frequency distributions
social-learning theory
we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished
signal detection theory
predicts how and when we detect the prescience of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory
theory that the retina contains three different color receptors-one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue- which when stimulated in a combination, can produce the perception of any color
opponent process theory
opposing retinal processes enable color vision (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black)
Place theory
Links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated
Frequency theory
Rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch
gate-control theory
The spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain
drive reduction theory
the idea that a physiological need creates a drive that motivates an organism to satisfy the need
James-Lange Theory
Our experience of emotion is our awareness of our psychological responses and the subjective experience of emotion
Cannon-Bard Theory
An emotion-arousing stimulus triggers cognitive body responses simultaneously
two factor theory
Schachter’s theory that to experience emotion one must be psychically aroused and cognitively label the arousal
Cribution Theroy
We tend to ice a casual explanation for someone’s bx, often by creating either the situation or the person’s disposition
Cognitive-dissonance theory
we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent
scapegoat theory
prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame
Social exchange theory
Our bx is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs
social-learning theory
we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished
signal detection theory
predicts how and when we detect the prescience of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory
theory that the retina contains three different color receptors-one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue- which when stimulated in a combination, can produce the perception of any color
opponent process theory
opposing retinal processes enable color vision (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black)
Place theory
Links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated
Frequency theory
Rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch
gate-control theory
The spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain
drive reduction theory
the idea that a physiological need creates a drive that motivates an organism to satisfy the need
James-Lange Theory
Our experience of emotion is our awareness of our psychological responses and the subjective experience of emotion
Cannon-Bard Theory
An emotion-arousing stimulus triggers cognitive body responses simultaneously
two factor theory
Schachter’s theory that to experience emotion one must be psychically aroused and cognitively label the arousal
