AP Psych Midterm #1

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Wilhelm Wundt, believed that the mind was made up of sections and in order to study them they must be thought of objectively

Wilhelm Wundt

Wundt asked his subjects to report on their reactions to stimuli. Objective not subjective.

How conscious mind is related to behavior and past experiences

no filter, the initial reaction to something

Look at the mind as a whole rather than pieces

Freud - illness is because of conflict in the unconscious mind. Childhood experience important (sex w/ parents)

Neo-Freudians, focus on current rather than past

• Observable and recordable
• Reward/Punishment

• people are innately good
• self esteem and free will

• Humans = computers
• thinking and memory - how info is gathered and stored

How culture and social interactions influence how people behave, feel, and think

how structure of the brain and NS influence behavior

medicine that tries to counteract issues in the body

• Influenced by Darwin
• Explained mental strategies and traits by examining changes in behavior over time

One individual is studies in depth

• Very detailed descriptions
• Examine rare scenarios that you could not ethically create

• Limited numbers of participants
• Incorrect information - open to bias

observations w/o interfering to observe natural behavior

• No subject bias
• Accurate research
• free

• Hard to keep hidden
• no control

controlled stimulation of natural or artificial setting

• Situation easily manipulated
• Data easily recorded

People know they are being watched - subject bias

self report - ? asked to a large population

• Verifiable data
• Uniform questions/data
• Annoymous

• People may lie
• Subject/ Participant bias

People of different ages are examined at the same time

• less money
• instant results

Not totally accurate bc the people are not the same

a group of people is observed over a long period of time

very accurate

• expensive
• need a big sample group to accommodate for people dropping out

• Database of what we know
• Statistics with no info attached

• Seeks to answer a specific question
• Usually has a practical application

• A perceived relationship between variables that may not exist
• Superstitions

the tendency to think that you could have guessed the outcome when you already know what happens

• Control Conditions- Experimental/ Control groups
• Experimental Variables- independent/dependent
• Random sample/ Random assignment

the real "treatment"

the placebo or no treatment

what we manipulate

reaction, what you are measuring

researcher knows who is in the control group but participants do not

neither the researcher nor the participants know who is in the control or experimental groups

"fake" drug

when the brain acts as if it has recieved the treatment when it hasn't

• Mean - average
• Median - Middle #
• Mode - most occuring
• Range - highes # minus lowest #

• Must obtain informed consent - agreement after learning purpose and risks of the study
• If deception was used - debrief