AP Psychology unit 1

• Psychology

  The questions of "Who are we? What produces our thoughts? Our feelings? Our actions? and how are we to understand and manage those around us?".

  The scientific study of mind and behavior.
• Philosophy


  Study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language.
• Mary Whiton Calkins

  • 1st female American Psychological Association president.
  • 14th president of the APA
  • Space and time consciousness, emotion, association, color theory, and dreams.
  • Paired association technique and work in self-psychology
• Charles Darwin


  Collected various species from nature
• Theory of Evolution

  Darwin's groundbreaking theory, presented in "On the Origin of Species" (1859), proposed natural selection as the mechanism for species adaptation and evolution over time
• Natural Selection

  Darwin argued that organisms with advantageous traits are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on those traits to future generations
• Darwin's theory

  Sparked debates and controversies, challenging religious beliefs and traditional views of creation
• Dorthea Dix

  • Voiced out unfair treatment of mentally ill people
  • reformed insane asylums
• Signmund Freud

  Psychologist who developed psychoanalysis
• Psychoanalysis

  • Method to treat mental disorders by exploring unconscious conflicts and childhood experiences
• Structure of the Mind

  Consists of three parts: the id (primitive desires), ego (mediator), and superego (moral conscience)
• Defense Mechanisms

  • Repression
  • Denial
  • Projection
• Defense Mechanisms

  Used by the ego to protect against anxiety
• Dream Analysis

  Freud believed dreams were the "royal road to the unconscious" and analyzed them to uncover hidden desires and conflicts
• Freud's theories, including the Oedipus complex and sexual stages, were controversial and faced criticism
• G. Stanley Hall

  • 1st American to get a pHd in psychology
  • Opened 1st psychology lab in america
  • 1st president of the APA
• William James

  • taught 1st psychology courses at Harvard Uni
  • wrote the 1st psychology textbook
  • created the theoretical approach known as functionalism
  • helped get females into psychology
• Jean Piaget

  • 1st to conduct a systematic study of cognitive development
  • created cognitive development theory focusing on children
  • Piaget's Theory of cognitive development
  • Sensorimotor stage (0-2)
  • Pre-operational stage (2-7)
  • Concrete operational stage (7-12)
  • Formal operational stage (12 +)
• Ivan Pavlov

  Psychologist who discovered classical conditioning
• Reflex conditioning / classical conditioning

  Associative learning process where a neutral stimulus is paired with a reflex-triggering stimulus, causing the neutral stimulus to trigger the response on its own
• Classical Conditioning

  1. Pavlov studied the digestive system of dogs

  2. Accidentally discovered that dogs began to associate the sound of a bell with food

  3. Causing them to salivate even without food present
• Pavlovian Response

  Through repeated pairing of a neutral stimulus (like a bell) with a reflex-triggering stimulus (like food), the neutral stimulus alone could trigger a response
• Behaviorism

  • Focuses on observable behaviors and their conditioning
  • Pavlov's work laid the foundation for this field
• Pavlov's experiments demonstrated the principles of associative learning and influenced fields beyond psychology, including education, marketing, and animal training
• Pavlov's research remains integral to understanding learning and behavior, with classical conditioning being a fundamental concept in psychology
• Carl Rogers

  • Person's life experience created reaction, thoughts, & personality
  • self-image distoration and ideal self (person aspires to become )
  • humanistic psychology
  • operant conditioning
• Operant Conditioning


  Skinner's main contribution was the theory of operant conditioning, which emphasizes how behavior is influenced by its consequences
• Skinner Box

  • He conducted experiments using a device called the Skinner box, where animals learned to perform behaviors (such as pressing a lever) to receive rewards
• Positive Reinforcement


  Rewarding desired behavior
• Negative Reinforcement


  Removing aversive stimuli to increase behavior
• Punishment

  Applying negative consequences to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring
• Behavior Modification

  Behavior could be modified through careful control of environmental stimuli and reinforcement schedules
• Skinner's work had a significant impact on psychology, education, and animal training, shaping our understanding of human and animal behavior
• Margaret Floy Washburn

  • Studied animal behaviour
  • psychological movements were responsible for all mental processes
  • first women to earn psych degree
• John B. Watson

  Psychologist who promoted behaviorism
• Little Albert experiment

  Experiment where a white rat was exposed to loud noises
• Little Albert experiment

  1. White rat exposure

  2. Loud noises
• Behaviorism

  • Focuses on observable behaviors
  • Rejects the study of internal mental processes
• Stimulus-Response Theory

  Emphasizes the role of environmental stimuli in shaping behavior, proposing a direct link between stimuli and responses
• Practical Applications of Watson's ideas

  • Influenced fields such as advertising, marketing, and education
  • Emphasized the importance of environmental factors in behavior