AP Psych Unit 1 Study Guide – History, Approaches & Research

Psychology’s History

A. Prescientific Psychology

»Terms to Know:

Empiricism

Key Individuals / Ideas
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Descartes
Sir Francis Bacon
John Locke

B. Psychological Science is Born

» Terms to Know:

Experimental psychologists

» What event defined the founding of modern scientific psychology?

First Schools of Thought / Introduced By / Ideas/Focus
Structuralism
Functionalism
Behaviorism

» What school of thought did Titchener introduce?

» How did Titchener use self-reflective introspection? What were the disadvantages of introspection?

» How was the idea of functionalism different from that of structuralism?

» Who was Mary Whiton Calkins? What were her contributions to psychology?

» Who was Margaret Floy Washburn? What were her contributions to psychology?

C. Psychological Science Develops

» Terms to Know:

Psychology

Cognitive neuroscience

Early Schools of Thought / Introduced By / Ideas/Focus
Behaviorism
Humanistic Psychology
Freudian Psychology

» How did John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner redefine psychology?

» How did Freud’s ideas differ from earlier schools of thought?

» What is considered to be the modern-day version of Freud’s ideas?

» How did Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow differ from earlier schools of thought?

» When did the cognitive revolution occur?

PSYCHOLOGY’S BIG ISSUES AND APPROACHES

A. Psychology’s Biggest Question/Debate

» Terms to Know:

Natural selection

» From what 2 fields did psychology develop?

» What is psychology’s biggest issue/debate?

» Why are Darwin’s ideas about natural selection important in the study of psychology?

B. Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis

» Terms to Know:

Levels of analysis

» What factors does the biopsychosocial approach consider?

Psychology’s Approaches / Focus
Behavioral
Biological
Cognitive
Evolutionary
Humanistic
Psychodynamic
Social-cultural

C. Psychology’s Subfields/Careers in Psychology

» Terms to Know:

Basic research

Applied research

Subfields / Focus
Basic Research Subfields
Cognitive
Developmental
Educational
Experimental
Psychometric and Quantitative Psychologists
Social
Personality
Applied Research Subfields
Forensic Psych
Health
Industrial-Organizational
Neuropsychologists
Rehabilitation
School
Sport
Human Factors Psychologists
Positive Psychology
The Helping Professions
Clinical Psychologists
Community
Counseling

» How are psychiatrists different from psychologists?

THE NEED FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

A. Did We Know It All Along?

» Terms to Know:

Pop psychology

Critical thinking

» How does hindsight bias illustrate why we cannot rely solely on intuition and common sense?

» How does overconfidence illustrate why we cannot rely solely on intuition and common sense?

» Why do people often perceive order in random events?

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND DESCRIPTION

A. The Scientific Method

» Terms to Know:

Theory

Hypotheses

Operational definitions

Replicate

» Why is it important for psychologists to use operational definitions when they report their studies?

B. Description

» Terms to Know:

Wording Effects

Sampling Bias

Population

Random Sample

Technique / How Is It Conducted? / When Is This Technique Best? / Advantages / Disadvantages
Case Study
Naturalistic Observation
Surveys

Correlation and Experimentation

A. Correlation

» Terms to Know:

Correlate

Correlation coefficient

Scatterplots

Illusory correlation

» What does it mean to say that a correlation is negative?

» What does it mean to say that a correlation is positive?

» What does it mean to say that correlation is close to zero?

» What is the range for a correlation coefficient?

» What scores represent a stronger correlation?

» Is correlation the same as causation? Why?

» What is an example of illusory correlation in everyday life?

B. Experimentation

» Terms to Know:

Experiment

Experimental group

Control group

Random assignment

Placebo effect

Double-blind procedure

Independent variable

Dependent variable

Confounding variables

Validity

» What is the purpose of random assignment in an experiment?

» How are experiments different from correlational studies?

» What can control for possible confounding variables during an experiment?

STATISTICAL REASONING IN EVERYDAY LIFE

A. THE NEED FOR STATISTICS

» Why is it important to have an accurate understanding of statistics?

B. Descriptive Statistics

» Terms to Know:

Descriptive statistics

Histogram

Mode

Median

Mean

Range

Standard deviation

Normal curve (Bell curve)

» What is a measure of central tendency? What are the 3 most common measures of central tendency?

» What does it mean when a distribution is skewed?

» Why would it be more reliable to examine averages derived from scores with low variability versus looking at those derived from scores with high variability?

» Why is standard deviation a useful standard for measuring how much scores deviate from one another?

C. Inferential Statistics

» Terms to Know:

Inferential statistics

Statistical significance

» When is an observed difference reliable?

» When is a difference significant?