AP Psych Exam Important People
Name
Calkins
School
functionalism
Description of Discovery & Key Words
1st women pres of APA
Darwin
Evolutionary –
how natural
selection favored
behaviors that
contributed to
survival and
spread ancestors
genes
Natural selection
Nature v. Nurture – relative contribution of genes and experience
Dix
Humane hospitals to treat people with psych. disorders
Freud
Psychoanalytic –
how unconscious
instincts, conflicts,
motives and
defenses
influence behavior
G. Stanley Hall
Stucturalism introspection
James
Functionalism How organisms
use perceptual
abilities to adapt
to enviro.
Behavioral –
measuring and
recording
observable
behavior.
Pavlov
Piaget
Rogers
Cognitive - how
we receive, store
and process
information; think
reason and use
language
Humanistic
Concerned with
individual
potential for
growth
Psychodynamic theory, psycho sexual development (Oral, Anal, Phallic,
Genital)
Unconscious, preconscious, conscious
Id, ego, superego
Free association
Defense mechanism – denial, suppression, repression, displacement,
sublimation, projection, rationalization, regression, reaction formation
Latent and manifest content of dreams
1st Pres. APA
Described adolescence as period of “storm”
Developed school of functionalism – focused on how our mental & behavioral
processes function (attempted to describe the functions of the mind).
Classical condition – Pavlov’s dogs (involuntary responses)
Unconditioned stimulus - food
Unconditioned response - salivate
Conditioned stimulus - tone
Conditioned response – salivate (UR and CR always same)
Generalization
Extinction
Spontaneous Recovery
Schemas, assimilation, accommodation
Stages of cognitive development – sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete,
formal operational
Client centered therapy
Ideal v. actual self
Unconditional positive regard,
Self concept
Skinner
Behaviorism
Operant conditioning (voluntary response)
Shaping
Successive approximations
Discriminative stimulus,
Positive/negative reinforcement and punishment
Reinforcement Schedules
Superstitions
Titchner
Structuralism
Founder of Structuralism Studied elements of consciousness
Washburn
Behavioral
1st women with Phd. in Psychology
Watson
Behaviorism
Little Albert
Wundt
Structuralism
1st psych lab in Leipzig; focused on the structures of the mind and
identification of the basic elements of the consciousness (sensations, feelings
images, using introspection.
Broca
Biological
Broca’s area (left frontal lobe) controls speech & language. Damage disrupts
speech (called aphasia)
Gazzaniga
Biological
Split – Brain patients
Right and left brains don’t perform same functions.
Left = verbal mathematical, analytical functions (Logic, Language)
Right = nonverbal, special, musical, identifying faces and facial expressions –
can’t verbalize left visual field; left had can pick out flashed item
Flashed the word HEART. Said they saw ART (left brain controls what right
side sees), but pointed to HE (right brain controls left side)
Sperry
Biological
Severed Corpus Callosum
Wernicke
Biological
Wernicke’s are in left temporal lobe Left temporal lobe plays role in
understanding language and making meaningful sentences
Fechner
Absolute threshold – the weakest level of a stimulus that can be correctly
detected at least half the time
Hubel
Feature detector cells – respond only to specific features of visual stimuli ie.
Line, angle, movement color
Weber
Weber’s law – 2 stimuli must differ by a constant percentage rather than a
constant amount to be perceived as different
Wiesel
See Hubel
Hilgard
Dissociation – split levels between different levels of consciousness (in
hypnosis)
Bandura
Behaviorism
Observational learning – bobo doll experiment
Garcia
Behavioral
Taste aversion study in rats who ate poison that made them sick
Rescorla
Cognitive
Cognition plays a role in learning
Animals can learn predictability of an event
Thorndike
Behavior
Law of Effect – rewarded behavior is likely to recurr
Tolman
Behavioral
Latent learning – learning that is not immediately expressed
Insight learning – aha moment
Cognitive map – mental representation of a map
Chomsky
Cognitive
Language acquisition device – language is innate
Universal grammar - some rules of grammar are hard-wired into the brain ie.
Negatives (not), learn noun’s before verbs
Ebbinghaus
Cognitive
Ebbinghaus – forget a lot fast, then levels off
Used strings of nonsense syllables to research memory
Kohler
cognitive
Insight with Chimpanzees
Koehler
Gestalt
Gestalt school studied perception, and how humans combine parts into
whole
Loftus
Cognitive
Reconstructive memory - recall from false memories as if the event
happened
False memory – fabricated or distorted memory of an event
Misinformation effect – incorporating misinformation into one’s memory of
an event
Miller
Cognitive
Magical number 7 +- 2 .
Short term memory can store about 7 pieces of info
Kinsey
Biological
Sexual behavior in the human male and female. First to explore human
sexuality and publish his findings
Maslow
Humanistic
Hierarchy of needs- physiological needs must be met first before higher level
safety and psych. needs
Self actualization – motivation to fulfill one’s potential
Schachter
Cognitive
Two factor theory of emotion – to experience emotion one must be physically
aroused and cognitively label the arousal
Seyle
Biological
General Adaptation Syndrome – body’s adaptive response to stress in three
phases – alarm, resistance, exhaustion
Ainsworth
Behaviorist
Categorizes babies as securely attaché, insecure-avoidant, or insecureambivalent.
Insecure-attached don’t deal with new experiences well, may have problems
with relationships later in life
Erikson
Developmental
8 stage theory of Psychosocial development
Trust v. mistrust
Autonomy v. shame
Initiative v. guilt
Industry v. inferiority
Identity v. role confusion
Intimacy v. isolation
Generativity v. stagnation
Integrity v. dispair
Parenting styles
Authoritative – demanding & responsive
Authoritative - expected to follow strict rules, no explanation, punishments
Permissive – indulgent, few demands
Baumrind
Developmental
Gilligan
Developmental
Kohlberg’s stages of moral development differed for women - many women
couldn’t reach Kolhberg’s preconventional stage; reasoning of females is
based on relationships and the social context
Females more social and group oriented than men
Men more individualistic
Harlow
Developmental
Attachment; cloth wire experiment
Contact comfort – monkeys became attached to parents who were soft and
warm. Need for affection creates a stronger bond than wire monkey mom.
Kohlberg
Developmental
Stages of moral reasoning:
Preconventional
 Obedience and punishment
 Individualism and exchange
Conventional
 Good girl/good boy orientation
 Maintaing social order
Postconventional
 Social contract
 Individual rights
Vygotsky
Developmental
Zone of proximal development - range of abilities that a person can perform
with assistance, but cannot yet perform independently.
Jung
Psychodynamic
Collective unconscious – common reservoir of memory traces from our
species history
Binet
Cognitive
Mental age – level of performance associated with a certain age
Galton
Biological
Coined phrase nature v. nurture
Tried to have people of high intelligence mate together; used Darwin’s ideas
Gardner
Cognitive
Multiple intelligences – 8 intelligences; linguistic, logical/math, music, spatial,
Bodily/kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalist
Spearman
Cognitive
General intelligence – those who score high in one are score high on others.
(g) intelligence underlies all intelligence. Used factor analysis
Sternberg
Cognitive
Triarchic theory of intelligence – analytical, creative , practical
Terman
Cognitive
Stanford –Binet IQ Test – modified Binet’s
IG = (mental age/chronological age) X 100
Weschsler
Cognitive
WAIS - 11 subsets of intelligence tested
Ellis
Jones
BehavioralCognitive
Behavioral
Wolpe
Behavioral
Rational-emotional behavior therapy or REBT– therapy that helps to change
irrational beliefs that underlie feelings of anxiety
Systematic desesensitization – a counter conditioning therapy; person is
systematically exposed to fears from lowest to highest over a period of time
Exposure therapy – exposing patient to fears; replacing conditioned response
with a relaxation response
Asch
Social
Conformity - “visual perception test” to see if participants would conform
with confederates
Milgram
Social
Obedience – “shock experiments” people obey a person in authority
Festinger
Social
Cognitive dissonance - uncomfortable feeling when thoughts and behaviors
are inconsistent; usually leads people to change their thoughts
Zimbardo
Social
Stanford Prison Experiment – role playing (actions) affects attitude
Latane
Social
Bystander theory - tendency for a bystander to be less likely to help if other
people are present
Diffusion of Responsibility – when many people share the responsibility for
helping, we think someone else will help