Unit I & II: History and Approaches &
Research Methods
Advanced Placement Psychology
Mr. Landry
2011-2012
People to Know
 Be able to explain why each of these is important to psychology
 What their belief was concerning the fundamental questions of early psychology
 Make sure to know any theories, approaches, famous works, etc. associated with each one
1.
Alcmaeon of Croton
11. Saint Thomas Aquinas
21. Mary Calkin
2. Protagoras
12. Rene Descartes
22. Margaret Floy Washburn
3. Democritus
13. Thomas Hobbes
23. John Watson
4. Empedocles
14. John Locke
24. Sigmund Freud
25. Ivan Pavlov
5. Hippocrates
15. Franz Joseph Gall
6. Socrates
16. Pierre Flourens
26. Jean Piaget
7. Plato
17. Wilhelm Wundt
27. Carl Rogers
8. Aristotle
18. G. Stanley Hall
28. B.F. Skinner
9. Tertullisn
19. Edward Titchener
10. Saint Augustine
20. William James
Important terms & concepts related to history and approaches
 Be able to define the different terms and concepts
 Be able to distinguish among the different terms and concepts
1. Definition and meaning of the word psychology
11. Inborn/born with all knowledge vs Mind is a
2. Major concepts in early psychology
blank-slate (white-paper) (who are associated
3. Empiricism vs. Rationalism
with which each one)
4. Structuralism vs. Functionalism
12. Early psychologists weren’t yet psychologists
5. Basic research
(philosophers, biologists, zoologists, physicians,
6. Applied research
etc)
7. Psychologist
13. Psychologist vs. psychiatrist
8. Psychology
14. How definition of psychologist has changed in
9. Psychiatrist
the past century
10. Mind & body connected vs. Mind & body separate
(who are associated with which each one)
Psychological Perspectives
 Know the five major perspectives (and two minor ones)
 Know the differences among the difference perspectives
 Know who is associated with each perspective
 Know how the different perspectives might look at different situations
1. Biological/Neuroscience
4. Humanistic
2. Behavioral
5. Psychodynamic
3. Cognitive
6. Socio-Cultural
Major subfields of psychology
 Know the major subfields and what part of psychology each one involves
1. Clinical psych
4. Industrial Organization 6. Social psych
2. Counseling psych
psych (I.O. psych)
7. Developmental psych
3. School psych
5. Experimental psych
8. Psychometric psych
7. Evolutionary
9. Forensic psych
Important terms and concepts related to methods of research
• Be able to explain why do we need psychology
• Scatterplot
• Hindsight bias
• Perfect positive correlation +1
• Overconfidence
• Perfect negative correlation -1
• Scientific method
• Correlation does not mean causation
• Parts/steps of the scientific method:
• Illusory correlation
• Developing a hypothesis/theory
• Cause and effect
• Performing a method of research
• Make sure you know what the cause and the effect
• Gathering objective data
• Parts of experiments
• Analyzing the results and accepting or
• Methods of eliminating or lessening bias
rejecting the hypothesis
• (Single) blind
• Publishing, criticizing, and replicating the
• Double blind (know difference between)
results
• Know the difference between Independent
• Replication – reasons for
variable & Dependent variable
• Know the three main methods/strategies of
• Control variables
research
• Placebo
• Know the Pros and Cons of each of the three main
• Placebo effect
methods/strategies
• Counterbalance
o Descriptive
• Confounding variables
o Correlational
• Random selection & Random sampling
o Experimental
• Random selection & Random sampling vs. Random
• Descriptive
assignment
• Know the Three main types of the Descriptive
• Statistics
Method/Strategy
• Mean
o Case study
• Mode
o Survey
• Median
o Naturalistic Observation
• Range
• Hawthorne Effect
• Standard deviation
• Longitudinal study
• Statistical significance
• Know the major issues regarding surveys
• What are measures of central tendency? What
• Wording effect
ways are used to measure central tendency?
• Sampling
• What are the measures of variation? What are
• Population
the ways to measure variation?
• Random sampling
• APA ethical principles for the treatment of human
• Self-selecting
participants
• Correlational
• Correlation coefficient
FRQ terms
1. Empiricism
2. Structuralism
3. Functionalism
4. Psychology
5. Nature-nurture issue
6. Natural selection
7. Basic research
8. Applied research
9. Clinical psychology
10. Psychiatrist
11. Case study
12. Control condition
13. Correlation coefficient
14. Critical thinking
15. Culture
16. Dependent variable
17. Double-blind procedure
18. Experiment
19. Experimental condition
20. False consensus effect
21. Hindsight bias
22. Hypothesis
23. Illusory correlation
24. Independent variable
25. Mean
26. Median
27. Mode
28. Naturalistic
observation
29. Operational definition
30. Placebo effect
31. Population
32. Random assignment
33. Random sampling
34. Range
35. Replication
36. Scatterplot
37. Standard deviation
38. Statistical significance
39. Survey
40. Theory
Vocabulary: Due the day of the test
1. Rationalism
6. Experimental group
2. Introspection
7. Experimenter bias
3. Confounding variables
8. Hawthorne Effect
4. Control group
9. Measures of Central Tendency
5. Counterbalancing
10. Measures of Variation
11. Overconfidence
12. Placebo
13. Random selection
14. Single-blind procedure
Previous test question breakdown
n/a
Reading assignment due dates
Reading: 1-17
“A”
Reading: 19-36
“A”
Reading: 37-45 (46-53)
“A”
Test/outline/vocab
“A”
Day: Friday, September 2nd/”B” Day: Tuesday, September 6th
Day: Thursday, September 8th /”B” Day: Friday, September 9th
Day: Monday, September 13th /”B” Day: Tuesday, September 14th
Day: Wednesday, September 15th /”B” Day: Thursday, September 16th