AP Psychology Review

• Dualism


  Socrates and Plato believed the body and mind were separate and that only the mind survived after death; also believed ideas were innate (nature/born with)
• Monism


  Aristotle disagreed with his mentors suggesting that the mind could not be separated from the body because mind and body were different aspects of the same thing; believed ideas resulted from experience (nurture)
• Rene Descartes


  Interested in how the physical body and non-physical mind work together. Tried to figure out the body-mind connection by dissecting animals to view their brains and nerves. The combination of philosophy and physiology is seen as an important step in the birth of psychology.
• Francis Bacon


  Used the scientific method to conduct experiments. Known as a father of modern science.
• John Locke


  Wrote that people are born with minds that are a "blank slate" (tabula rasa). Everything we know has been learned since then. This is the birth of modern "empiricism" –knowledge comes from experiences. Locke then agreed with Bacon: we must use experiments.
• Mary Whiton Calkins


  • She was elected president of the American Psychological Association and the American Philosophical Association in 1918. She was the first woman to hold a position in both societies.
• Charles Darwin


  • Published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence for natural selection
• Dorothea Dix


  • Advocate for the mentally ill and created the first generation of American mental asylums.
• Sigmund Freud


  • He is the founder of psychoanalysis (the "talking cure") and developed techniques such as free association and transference. His theory of the unconscious included the id, ego, and superego model of the mind.
• G. Stanley Hall


  • He began the first journal dedicated only to psychology called the American Journal of Psychology. He was the first president of the American Psychological Association.
• William James


  • Father of American Psychology and was one of the strongest proponents of the school of functionalism in psychology
• Abraham Maslow


  • Humanistic psychologist who created the hierarchy of needs
• Ivan Pavlov


  • Father of classical conditioning by studying the digestive systems of dogs. He used a bell as his conditioned stimulus

  
• Jean Piaget


  • He created the four cognitive development stages

  
• Carl Rogers


  • Humanistic psychologist who emphasized acceptance, genuineness, and empathy, and unconditional positive regard
• B.F. Skinner


  • Behaviorist who created operant conditioning
• Edward B. Titchener


  • Structuralism who worked under Wundt
• John B. Watson


  • Established the psychological school of behaviorism. He also conducted the "Little Albert" experiment.
• Wilhelm Wundt


  • Founder of experimental psychology, and set up the first laboratory for experimental psychology in Germany.
• Structuralism


  Aimed to classify and identify different structures of consciousness. Used self-reported introspection (looking inside) to analyze consciousness into its basic elements
• Functionalism


  Aimed to investigate how mental processes function and enable the organism to adapt and survive
• Gestalt


  Perspective that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole
• Biopsychosocial


  The idea is that all three components (biological, psychological, and socio-cultural) influence behavior and thinking.
• Each level (theoretical approach) provides a valuable vantage point for looking at behavior, yet each by itself is incomplete. They ask different questions and have their own limits. Each is helpful but by itself fails to reveal.
• Theory


  Aims to explain some phenomenon and allows researchers to generate testable hypotheses with the hope of collecting data that supports the theory.
• Domains of psychology


  • Applied
  • Basic
  • Biological
  • Clinical
  • Cognitive
  • Counseling
  • Developmental
  • Educational
  • Experimental
  • Industrial-organizational
  • Personality
  • Psychometric
  • Social
  • Positive
• Naturalistic Observation


  Observing and recording behavior in natural situations without trying to manipulate or control the situation
• Naturalistic Observation


  • Describes behavior as we see it
  • Does not explain the purposes of behavior (no cause and effect)
  • Pays no attention to mental processes
• Case Study


  Studying one person or group in-depth in hope of revealing universal principles
• Case Study


  • Can try to understand very specific issues
  • Helped us develop early brain research
  • Cannot be used to generalize the whole population
• Survey


  Obtaining self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a group, usually through questioning a random sample
• Survey


  • Able to obtain data from many people faster, cheaper, and thus more easily
  • Response rate—can be low; not enough people to represent the population properly
  • Self-report—sometimes people lie;inaccurate answers
• Correlation


  Measuring the extent to which two factors vary together and how well one factor can predict the other
• Correlation


  • Correlation helps us make logical predictions
  • Correlation is NOT causation! One factor does not CAUSE the other to change
  • An unknown variable could be influencing the relationship
• Experiment


  Measuring the extent to which two factors vary together and how well one factor can predict the other
• Experiment


  • Can control or manipulate variables to be more accurate
  • Can explain cause and effect
  • Placebo effect—results caused by expectations alone
  • Confounding variables
• Longitudinal


  Involves looking at variables over an extended period of time (weeks, months, years) in the same subjects
• Longitudinal


  • Helps us understand changes over time
  • Participants tend to drop out over time
  • Can be expensive
• Cross-Sectional


  Conducted at a single point in time, comparing many variables in groups of different ages
• Cross-Sectional


  • Explains what's happening in a population NOW
  • Can look at differences in age groups without doing it over a long period
  • Can look at many variables at once
  • Usually cheap/fast
  • Not causal (does not manipulate variables)
  • Same weaknesses for surveys (if used)