425 Terms to Know for AP Psych

Zimbardo

Stanford Prison Experiment/Lucifer Effect - Role Playing: People take on the role of what they feel are proper for the situation

John Locke

Tabula Rosa - mind is a blank slate written on by experiences

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce a computer generated image that distinguishes between the types of soft tissue in the brain

z-score

a type of standard score that tells us how many standard deviation units a given score is above or below the mean for that group

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a certain task

Pons

above the medulla, makes chemicals involved w/ sleep & facial expressions

Applied Research

aims to solve practical problems

Psychoanalytic Theory

all behavior is meaningful and driven by unconscious forces

Electroencephalography (EEG)

an amplified recording of waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface, these waves are measured by electrodes placed on the skull

Structuralism

analyze sensations, images, and feelings into their most basic elements

Sympathetic Nervous System

arouses the body

Negative correlation

as one goes up, the other goes down

Positive correlation

as one goes up, the other goes up

Limbic System

associated with emotions like aggression and fear and drives such as hunger and thirst and sex (Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, and Amygdala)

Temporal Lobe

at side of brain above ears involved in memory, perception, hearing

Mean

average of the scores - add them up and divide by total number of scores

Parasympathetic Nervous System

calms the body

Interneuron

central nervous system neurons that internally communicate and intervene between the sensory inputs and the motor outputs

Neurotransmitters

chemical contained in terminal buttons that enable neurons to communicate; they fit into the receptor site of neurons like a key fits into a lock

Asch

conformity - tendency to go along with the views and actions of others, even if you know they are wrong - line test

Medulla

connected to the base of the brain stem, controls our blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing

Hypothalamus

controls the metabolic functions of body temp, sex arousal, hunger, thirst, motivation/emotions, and the endocrine system (four f's)

Cognitive Dissonance

people change their behavior to avoid looking bad, (ie → person is against gay rights then becomes gay, he will change attitude to gay rights activist)

In-group

people with whom one shares a common identity with

Sampling

process by which participants are selected

Basic Research

pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base

Reticular Formation

screens incoming info, and filters out irrelevant info, controls arousal and attention

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body

Social Traps

situation in which the confliction parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interests, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

Cognitive

study how we perceive, thinks, and solve problems

Sociocultural

study of how cultural and political experiences affect our life

Developmental

study of our changing abilities from womb to tomb

Evolutionary

study of the evolutionary of humans over time (from apes)

Psychoanalytic

study of the unconscious, includes childhood and aggression issues

Behavioral

study that says all behavior is observable and measurable

Humanistic

study that says that humans are basically good and possess a free-will

Placebo

sugar pill - something administered that has no real effect on the person other than what they think mentally

Representative sample

take the results from a smaller group and apply that to a larger group of people

Bystander effect

tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

Just-World Phenomenon

tendency of people to believe that the world is just and people get what they deserve and deserve what they get

Foot-in-the-Door Phem

tendency to apply w/ larger requests after responding to a smaller request

Hindsight Bias

tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have predicted it beforehand and may contribute to blaming the victim and forming prejudices against him/her

Attribution Theory

tendency to give explanations for someone's behavior, often by crediting situation or person's disposition

Fundamental Attribution Thy

tendency to overestimate the impact of person's disposition and underestimate impact of situation

Population

the amount of participants that can be selected for the sample

Standard Deviation

the average distance of scores around the mean

William James

the brain and mind are constantly changing

Central Nervous System (CNS)

the brain and spinal cord

Thalamus

the brains sensory switchboard

Somatic Nervous System

the division of the PNS that controls the body's skeletal muscles

Pituitary gland

the endocrine system's most influential gland, under the influence of the hypothalamus, this regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands

Reciprocity Norms

the expectation that we should return help, not harm to those who have helped us

Experimenter bias

the experimenter, either unconsciously or consciously, affects the outcome of the experiment

Out-group

those perceived as different from themselves

Survey

a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes, opinions, or behavior of people in a questionnaire, or similar way of ascertaining information

Social Facilitation

improved performance in presence of others; easy tasks get easier as hard tasks get harder

Social Loafing

in the presence of others, people tend to do less, partly because they believe others will do it

Hippocampus

part of the limbic system involved in learning and memory

Amygdala

part of the limbic system that is involved in emotions, aggression, and fear

Operational definition

a clear statement of what one is looking for in an experiment

Dependent Variable (DV)

a factor that may change in response to the IV

Independent Variable (IV)

a factor, manipulated by the experimenter, and whose effect is studies

Myelin Sheath

a fatty covering around the axon of some neurons that speeds the neural impulse

Groupthink

a mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision making group overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives

Neurons

a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system

Random sample

everyone has an equal chance of being selected for the experiment because the participants are chosen at random

Agonist

excite, by causing neurotransmitters to hit site multiple times

Biological

explore the links between brain and mind

Wilhelm Wundt

father of psychology

Sigmund Freud

founder of psychoanalysis

Case study

get a full, detailed picture of one participant or a small group of participants

Control

group that does not take part in the critical part of the experimentation process, used as a comparison group

Group Polarization

if a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens prevailing options and attitudes

Hawthorne effect

if you know you're being studied, you will act differently than you normally/typically would

Antagonists

inhibits, by blocking neurotransmitters

Hypothesis

is a testable prediction, often induced by a thy, to enable us to accept,reject, or revise the thy (educational guess)

Theory

is an explanation that integrates principles, organizes, and predicts behavior or event

Reliability

it is replicable and is consistent

Validity

it measure what you want it to be measured

Frontal Lobe

located under forehead, involved with complex cognitive functions

Introspection

looking inward at one's own mental processes

Deindividualization

loss of self-awareness and self-restraint, typically in a sense of anomie (mob situation)

Occipital Lobe

lower back part of brain involved with processing visual info vision

Median

middle score - when all scores are put numerically in order, the middle score

Double-blind procedure

neither the experimenter nor the subject knows to what group the subjects are in

Motor Neurons (efferent)

neurons that carry incoming information from the central nervous system to the muscles and glands

Sensory Neurons (afferent)

neurons that carry incoming information from the sense receptors (nose, ears, hands) to the central nervous system

Milgram

obedience - people tend to obey authority figures; 60% of participants thought they delivered the max possible level of shock

Naturalistic observation

observing and recording behavior in the wild/natural environment

Cerebellum

the little brain attached to the rear of the brain stem, controls coordination, fire muscles movements and balance

Range

the lowest score subtracted from the higher score

Mere exposure effect

the mere exposure to a stimulus will increase the liking of it

Mode

the most frequently occurring score in the distribution

Autonomic Nervous System

the part of the PNS that controls the glands and muscles of the internal organs, like the heart

Single-blind procedure

the subjects do not know to what group they belong

Peripheral Lobe

top of brain, discriminates between textures and shapes

Functionalism

underlying causes and practical consequences of certain behaviors and mental strategies "steam of consciousness"

Prejudice

unjustifiable attitude towards a group and its members

Altruism

unselfish regard for the welfare to others

Axon

wire-like structure ending in the terminal that extends from the cell body