Psychology AP Exam Review

1. Psychology AP Exam Review Unit 1: History and Approaches Unit 2: Research Methods Unit 14: Social Psychology

2. Unit 1Top Ten List (2-4%) • Philosophical perspectives’ influence on Psychological Thought • Historical Approaches • Biological Approach • Behavioral Approach • Cognitive Approach • Humanistic Approach • Psychodynamic Approach • Sociocultural Approach • Evolutionary Approach • Different domains of Psychology

3. 1. Philosophical perspectives’ influence on Psychological Thought • Hippocrates, Plato • Mind and body are separate (dualism) • Believed our behaviors and thoughts were innate • Aristotle • Monism – the soul is not separate from the body • Knowledge is learned through experience • John Locke • Tabula Rasa • Empiricism – knowledge originates in experience and science should rely on observation and experimentation

4. 2. Historical Approaches • Structuralism –Wundt, Titchener, Hall • First Psychological lab and experiment • Introspection • School of Structuralism – focused on the structure of the mind and identification of the basic elements of consciousness • Functionalism – James • Published Principles of Psychology • Mary Whiton Calkins first woman prez of APA • Tried to explain behavior; Believed in environmental influences and felt experience is adaptive

5. 3. Biological Approach • Focus on biology and medicinal treatments • Examine how complex chemical and biological processes within the nervous and endocrine systems are related to behavior

6. 4. Behavioral Approach • Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, BF Skinner, Thorndike, Albert Bandura • Behavior is the result of reinforcements, punishments and observation.

7. 5. Cognitive Approach • Jean Piaget, Noam Chomsky, Alan Baddeley, Albert Ellis • How people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.

8. 6. Humanistic Approach • Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers • Focuses on uniquely human issues, such as the self, hope, love, creativity, nature, being, becoming, individuality,

9. 7. Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic Approach • Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung • Our unconscious mind plays a huge role in everything.

10. 8. Sociocultural Approach • Examines cultural differences in an attempt to understand, predict, and control behavior

11. 9. Evolutionary Approach • Charles Darwin • We’re result of 1000s years of adaptation, survival of fittest

12. 10. Diff. Domains of Psyc • Basic Research - pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base • Biological psychologists • Developmental psychologists • Cognitive psychologists • Personality psychologists • Social psychologists • Applied Research - scientific study that aims to solve problems • Industrial/organizational psychology • Counseling psychology • Human factors psychology • Clinical psychology • Psychiatry

13. Unit 2 Top Ten List (8-10%) • Need for critical thinking • Scientific Method • Strengths and Weaknesses of Descriptive Research Methods • Random assignment vs. Random sampling • Experimental Research • Variables • Research groups • Statistics • Deception in research • Ethical issues in Research

14. 1. Need for Critical Thinking • Hindsight Bias - The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. • Overconfidence - The tendency to overestimate our abilities, including knowledge (the illusion of knowledge) • Scientific Attitude - Being skeptical but not cynical, open but not gullible

15. 2. Scientific Method • Theory – an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations • Hypothesis– a testable prediction, often implied by a theory • Replication – repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants in other circumstances

16. 3. Strengths and Weaknesses of Descriptive Research Methods • Case Study - An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth with the hope of revealing universal principles. • +/- • Survey - A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of them. • +/- • Naturalistic Observation - Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation. • +/

17. 4. Representative Sample vs. Random Sample • Must have a representative and random sampling from the population for generalization to be possible • Population – all of the cases in a group from which samples may be drawn for study • Representativesample – reflective of the population • Randomsample – a sample in which all individuals have an equal chance of inclusion in the study • Generalization – the ability to reflect results from the random sample on the entire population

18. 5. Experimental Method • A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable). By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors. • Pros: • Variables can be controlled and manipulated • Can determine cause-and-effect • Can be replicated • Cons: • Labs can not always duplicate real-life environments • Can be expensive • Sometimes not feasible; • not ethical to manipulate certain variables

19. 6. Variables • Anything that can vary • Independent variable - The variable manipulated by the experimenter • Dependent variable - The outcome being studied as a result of the independent variable • Ex: Hypothesis – Pill X can reduce the effects of heart disease. • Ind. - Pill X • Dep. – effects of heart disease • Confounding variable – variables that correlate (directly or inversely) with both the dependent variable and the independent variable

20. 7. Research Groups • Experimental group - Participants that receive the independent variable • Control group - Participants NOT exposed to the independent variable • Serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the ind. variable (sets a base-line)

21. 8. Statistics • Mode (occurs the most in a distribution) • Mean (arithmetic average of a distribution by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores) • Median (middle score in a distribution, half the scores are above it and half are below it) • Range - the difference between the highest and lowest score in a distribution. • Standard Deviation - a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score. • Normal Curve (bell shaped)

22. 9. Deception in Research • Placebo – a substance or treatment that has no effect apart from a person’s belief in it. • Placebo effect – a person receiving the placebo may report to positive effects due to a belief in the drug/treatment • Single blind study – participants do not know if they are in the experimental or control group • Double blind study – participants nor researchers know who is in the experimental or control group

23. 10. Ethics Issues in Research • Minimize intrusions on privacy • Protection from Harm • Informed Consent • Use of Deception • Debriefing

24. Unit 14 Top Ten List (8-10%) • Attribution theory • Evaluating behavior • Attitudes and Attitude Change • Conformity, Compliance, Obedience • Experiments in Social Psychology • Group Dynamics • Stereotyping and Prejudice • Aggression/Antisocial Behavior • Interpersonal Perception • Why do some people help and others don’t?

25. 1. Attribution Theory • Social Cognition – the way people gather, use, and interpret information about the social aspects of the world around them. • Attribution Theory - Suggests how we explain someone’s behavior – by crediting either the situation OR the person’s disposition

26. 2. Evaluating Behavior • Self-serving bias – we attribute our achievements and successes to personal causes (dispositional factors) and our failures to situational factors • Fundamental Attribution Error - The tendency to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition • We often attribute OUR behaviors to external factors, while attributing others’ behaviors to internal dispositions • Just-world phenomenon - the tendency of people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

27. 3. Attitudes and Attitude Change • Attitudes - Feelings based on our beliefs that influence our reactions and responses to people, objects, and events. • We typically think in terms of attitudes affecting actions (common sense view) • Foot-in-door phenomenon - Tendency to agree to a small request at first, then to a larger request later • Cognitive Dissonance - When behaviors and attitudes do not match, we change our attitudes to reflect our behaviors

28. 4. Conformity, Compliance, Obedience • Conformity - Adjusting behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard • Why and When to conform • Normative social influence vs. Informational social influence • Compliance – a kind of conformity in which we give in to social pressure in our public responses but do not change our private beliefs • Obedience - Complying to social pressures and authority

29. 5. Social Psyc Experiments • Solomon Asch (1955) asked participants to judge line lengths, when most would answer wrong, the participant would go along with it more than 1/3 of the time • Milgram’s Obedience Experiments (1963,1974) • Paired teachers and learners and when the learner got it wrong, they got a “shock.” Shocks were stronger as they questions continued - 63% (of 40) completed it. • Zimbardo’sStanford Prison Experiment(6 days!), 1972

30. 6. Group Dynamics • Social Facilitation - Stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others • Social Loafing – The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable • Deindividuation– The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal • Group Polarization - The enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclination through discussion within the group • Group Think - The mode of thinking that occurs when the desired for harmony in a decision making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

31. 7. Stereotyping and Prejudice • Stereotype – widely held beliefs that people have certain traits because they belong to a particular group; usually negative and inaccurate • Prejudice - A negative, unjustifiable attitude toward a group and its members. • Prejudices = schemas for perceiving and reacting to events and people • Prejudice = belief; Discrimination = action • Reasons for prejudice • In-group bias • Scapegoat theory

32. 8. Aggression/Antisocial Behavior • Aggression - Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy • Causes • Biological (nature) • Brain – amygdala (stimulation – aggression) • Damage to the frontal lobe • Blood chemistry – hormones, alcohol • Males tend to be more aggressive • Environment (nurture) • Aversive events • Learning aggression is rewarded • Observation (Bandura’s bobo doll study)

33. 9. Interpersonal Perception • Attraction and Mere-exposure effect - the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them • Physical attractiveness - More likely to be perceived as healthy, happy, and socially skilled • Similarity • Opposites do not attract. • Similarity breeds content. • Reward theory of attraction - we will like those whose behavior is rewarding to us and we will continue relationships that offer more rewards than costs.

34. 10. Why do some people help and others do not? • Bystander Effect - the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present. • Why? • Altruism - unselfish regard for the welfare of others • Cooperation • superordinate goals - shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.