Ap psych final study guide
People we should know
● Kohlberg: 6 stages of Moral development (Preconventional, Conventional,
Postconventional)
● Erikson: Stages of Social Development (stuff like trust vs mistrust, etc etc.- there's an
entire packet on him, she had us start the ones that were significant)
● Ainsworth: did studies on attachment
● Gilligan: did research on differences between men and women and their moral judgment
● Harlow: Monkey attachment experiment: one with food and wire, one with cloth, monkey
went to cloth one and only went to wire one for food occasionally, showed they preferred
comfort
● B.F Skinner: Operant Conditioning: did thing with the chamber, food maze and rat thing
● Piaget: 4 stages of cognitive development, SPCF (Socks Pull over Cold Feet),
Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete, Formal
● Pavlov: Classical Conditioning, experiment w the food+dog+tone (think lemonade
experiment)
● Bandura: Observational Learning (did the Bobo the clown experiment where they
showed children aggressive videos and then put them in a room with a clown and a bunch
of toys, every single kid beat up the clown in a really aggressive way, shows that they
learned thru observation)
prologue + CHAPTER 1
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Psychology: the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Positive Correlation: as one thing increases, the other increases
Negative Correlation: as one thing increases, the other decreases
The three central tendencies: MEAN, MEDIAN, AND MODE
○ Mean: the average of the whole group
○ Median: middle score in the whole group
○ Mode: # that shows up the most
● The three measures of Variance: RANGE, VARIATION, STANDARD DEVIATION
○ Range: difference between highest and lowest scores
○ Variation: score - mean = variance
○ Standard Deviation: avg diff between scores and their means; the square root of
variance
■ Must fall between 0 and half the range
● Correlation Coefficient: represents the strength of a relationship between 2 values
○ + - 1, closer it is to POSITIVE or NEG- 0 MEANS NO CORRELATION
● CORRELATION DOES NOT MEAN CAUSATION
● Double- Blind Experiments: used to eliminate experimental bias, both the subject n
doctor or whoever person are unaware of whether or not the person is receiving the
placebo or the actual thing *think clinical trial, both patient and his doctor don’t know if
he's receiving a placebo or actual chemo, this is done so Dr. has no bias towards any of
his clinical trial patients
● Statistically Significant: the likelihood that the results you're seeing were NOT by chance
○ Probability has 2 be less than or equal to .05 but scientists want closer to .01
● Random Sampling: how I get my participants, picking people from the population
● Random Assignment: by chance, you randomly assign ppl to the control group or
experimental group; helps avoid confounding variables
● Overconfidence:
● Hindsight Bias: “I knew it all along!!” after something happens u claim that you knew it
all along, saw it coming, blah blah
● Confirmation Bias: people tend to only look at information that supports or confirms their
idea/opinion, don't want to look at anything that opposes it
● Illusory correlation: when u perceive a relationship where there highkey isn't one, ex:
thinks every time she gets a car wash it rains the next day
Chapter 2A: Neurons
Neurotransmitters
Chapter 2B: Brain
Hindbrain
● Medulla - controls breathing and heartbeat, regulates reflexes (i.e. sneezing, coughing,
salivating)
● Pons - involved in sleep arousal, connects spinal cord with the brain and links parts of the
brain to one another
● Cerebellum - assists in balance and coordination of voluntary movement, coordinates fine
muscle movement and balance
Actual commands for muscular movement come from higher brain centers - cerebellum
organizes the sensory information that guides these movements
Midbrain - ​Relays sensory information from the spinal cord to the forebrain
● Reticular Formation - maintains a state of arousal, arouses the cerebral cortex to new
stimuli (runs through hindbrain and midbrain)
Forebrain
● Limbic System - involved in emotions, memory and basic psychological drives
○ Thalamus - relays/routes incoming messages/sensory information to the
appropriate cortex and transmits replies to the medulla and cerebellum
○ Hypothalamus - Regulates hunger, thirst, body temp, sex
○ Hippocampus - involved in learning and formation of memories
○ Amygdala - influences/associated with/involved in emotions and fears
● Cerebrum - regulates higher cognitive and emotional functions (i.e. learning,
remembering, thinking)
● Cerebral Cortex - seat of information processing (bark of the brain)
Frontal Lobes - ​involved in speaking, muscle movement, and decision making
● Prefrontal Cortex - the CEO of the brain, monitors planning complex cognitive behavior,
decision making, and moderates/restrains social behavior
● Motor Cortex - controls voluntary movement
● Broca’s Area - involved in controlling the motor ability needed to produce speech
Parietal Lobes
● Sensory Cortex - regulates and processes body sensations - pressure, touch
Occipital Lobes
● Visual Cortex - receives/processes information from the eyes
Temporal Lobes - ​receives/processes information from the eyes
● Auditory Cortex - receives and processes auditory information
● Wernicke’s Area - involved in language comprehension
Associated Areas
● Located throughout the cerebral cortex, involved in mental functions (i.e. - learning,
remembering, abstract thinking), supports abstract thinking and language integrate
information from different receptors or sensory areas
Endocrine:
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secrete hormones into the bloodstream
Adrenal glands​ - a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete
hormones that help arouse the body in times of stress
Pituitary glands​ - the endocrine system’s most influential gland. Under the influence of
the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands
Chapter 4&5: Personality and Development
Nature vs. Nurture
● Genes vs. environment
Philosophers
Nature
Nurture
Plato
Aristotle
Descarte
Locke
mind is blank slate on which experience
writes
Milestones
Wundt
Founding father, did the first laboratory in
Germany; taught scientific method
Tichner
Structuralism: structures make up the mind
Darwin
Natural selection guy
James
FATHER OF PSYCH; functionalism
Infant Behavior
● Rooting Reflex - A reflex that automatically causes the baby to turn their face to the
stimulus and make sucking motions when the lip or cheek is touched
● Imprinting - in young animals the ability to recognize something with habitual trust
● Infantile amnesia - the inability to remember back to before our third birthday
Prenatal
● Teratogens - agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus
during prenatal development and cause harm
● Fetal Alcohol System - physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a
pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial
misproportions.
● Harlow’s studies on attachment - MONKEYS
○ Preferred the comfort of the cloth over the nourishment from the food
● Development
○ Zygote - fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and
develops into an embryo
○ Embryo - the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization
through the second month
○ Fetus - the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth
Schema - ​concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
(FILE CABINET)
○ Accommodation​ - adapting our current understandings to incorporate new
information
○ Assimilation ​- interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
Child Rearing Practices
Authoritative
Parents impose rules and expect obedience
Permissive
Parents submit to their children’s desires
Authoritative
Parents are both demanding and responsive
Development
Kohlberg
Stages of ​Moral ​Development
Level I. Preconventional Morality
Stage 1
Punishment Orientation
A person complies w rules during
this stage in order to avoid
punishment
Stage 2
Reward Orientation
An action is determined by one’s
own needs
Level II. Conventional Morality
Stage 3
Good-girl/Good-boy
Orientation
Good behavior is that which pleases
others and gets their approval
Stage 4
Authority Orientation
Emphasis is on upholding the law,
order, and authority and doing one’s
duty by following societal rules
Level III. Postconventional Morality
Stage 5
Social Contract Orientation
Flexible understanding that people
obey rules because they are
necessary for the social order but
that rules can change if there are
good reasons and better alternatives
Stage 6
Morality of Individual Principles
orientation
Behavior is directed by self-chosen
ethical principles. High value is
placed on justice, dignity, and
equality
Piaget
Stages of ​Cognitive​ Development
Sensorimotor
Object Permanence
Stranger Anxiety
Preoperational
Egocentrism
Concrete Operational
Conservation of Mass
Formal Operational
Abstract Reasoning
Erikson (Eight)
Stages of Psychosocial Development
Trust vs. Mistrust
- Infancy
Ages: 0-1 ½
Develops sense of trust when interactions
provide reliability, care, and affection
Basic Virtue: Hope
Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt
Ages: 1 ½ - 3
Develops a sense of personal control over
physical skills and a sense of independent
Basic Virtue: Will
Initiative vs. Guilt
Ages: 3-5
Begins to assert control and power over their
environment by planning activities,
accomplishing, accomplishing tasks & facing
challenges
Basic Virtue: Purpose
Industry vs. Inferiority
Ages: 6-12
The child’s peer group will gain greater
significance & will become a major source of
child’s self-esteem
Basic Virtue: Competency
Identity vs. Role Confusion
- Adolescence
Ages: 12-18
Teens explore who they are as individuals,
and seek to establish a sense of self, and may
experiment w/ different roles, activities, &
behaviors
Basic Virtue: Fidelity
Intimacy vs. Isolation
- Young Adulthood
Ages: 18-40
Seeking love or affection to avoid loneliness
Basic Virtue: Love
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Ages: 40-65
Am I successful? Am I a productive member
of society?
Basic Virtue: Care
Integrity vs. Despair
- Late Adulthood
Ages: 65+
Reflection of your life. Did I lead a good
life?
Basic Virtue: Wisdom
Chapter 6: Sensation and Perception
● Sensation: detectable input from environment; perception: understand and interpret da
info
● Absolute Threshold: minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect it 50% of the time
● JND: Just noticeable difference: smallest amt of change needed between 2 stimuli that I
can detect 50% of the time
● Parts of the eye:
○ Rods: receptors for black and white; night vision
○ Cones: receptors for color; daylight
○ Blind spot: the spot where the optic nerve leaves the eye
○ Optic nerve:​ impulses to the brain from the retina at the back of the eye.
● Ear stuff:
○ Middle ear- small bones: hammer, anvil, stirrup; transmits sound
○ Inner Ear: transduction takes place here but like mainly in the cochlea-sound
waves into neural energy oval window, cochlea, semicircular canals, auditory
nerve, basilar window
○ Outer ear: gather the sound, pinna, ear drum, ear canal
● Gate control: gates open to release pain-open during painful experience
● Sensory adaptation: adapting to the senses, helps u like not focus on irrelevant stimulus
● Sensory interaction: all the senses work together
● Opponent processing - created by Edward Hering; alternative theory used to explain after
images; suggest that the retina contains three pairs color receptors or cones-yellow-blue,
red-green, black-white; pairs work in opposition
● Young-Helmholtz - respond to green, blue, red problem it doesn't explain color blindness
or after images , otherwise known as the trichromatic color vision theory
● Pitch determination/detection:
○ PLACE THEORY: explains how we hear high pitched sounds but not low pitched
sounds
○ Frequency theory: explains low pitched not high pitched
○ Volley: both r correct
● Smell, taste, equilibrium, kinesthesis, vestibular
● Gestalt: whole, form
● Figure ground relationship, proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, connectedness
● Monocular cues: relative size, relative height, texture gradient, relative gradient motion
● Binocular cues: retinal disparity and convergence
● Parapsychology: ESP stuff, scientists have proven this 2 be false; telepathy, clairvoyance,
precognition
● Top-down: start with info or knowledge (like in class of the puzzle) and work our way
down
● Bottom-up processing: starting with the stimulus and from there u break it down and
analyze dat ish (putting a puzzle together, starting w the individual pieces n working YO
WAY UP)
● TRANSDUCTION EYE: RETINA
● TRANSDUCTION EAR: COCHLEA- BASILAR MEMBRANE/WINDOW
● Weber’s Law: AMT of change needed in order to recognize a difference, it b proportional
● Types of da hearing loss: conduction hearing loss: something goes wrong w da cochlea,
stirrup deteriorates but can be fixed w da surgery
○ Sensorineural: nerve deafness- from loud noises, no treatment
● Perceptual constancy, perceptual set: things stay constant even tho da size b changin
Chapter 7: Learning
● Classical Conditioning: ​Pavlov experiment with the dogs, tone, and meat
○ NS: irrelevant stimulus, elicits no reaction but paired w/ US *pavlov
○ US: elicits a natural, unlearned + reflexive response * lemonade
○ CS: learned stimulus produces CR *pavlov
○ UR: unlearned, AUTOMATIC response *salivating
○ CR: learned response * salivating
● Acquisition: the initial stage where the NS becomes the CS and the UR becomes the CR;
UNCONDITIONED BECOMES UNLEARNED
● Extinction: diminished responding when the CS no longer signals the US (not salivating
to Pavlov anymore)
● Discrimination: learned ability to distinguish between your learned stimulus + other
similar
● Generalization: once a response has been conditioned, stimuli similar to it can elicit the
same response
● Operant Conditioning- My man SKINNER voluntary behavior is strengthened if it is
reinforced or weakened if it is punished - RESPONSE IS CONTROLLED BY
CONSEQUENCE
○ Positive reinforcement: adding something good that increases the likelihood that a
behavior will reoccur
○ Negative Reinforcement: take away something bad that increases the likelihood
that a behavior will reoccur
● Skinner Box and shaping: shaping = rewarding closer and closer approximations to
desired behaviors
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○ Primary reinforcer: reinforcer that helps w like a biological need, such as foodtaking advil
○ Secondary Reinforcer: something that supports the primary reinforcer ***
○ Spontaneous Recovery: randomly spontaneously the CS starts signaling the US
again *we start salivating to Pavlov
Positive punishment: add something bad which decreases likelihood that behavior will
reoccur
Negative Reinforcement: take away something good which decreases likelihood behavior
will reoccur
Latent Learning: a skill that only appears when you’re doing it for reward; im good at
reading but i only read if i get something out of it---like in middle school typa thing
Cognitive Maps: a mental image of something in one’s environment: know ur way about
school, knowing the map of ur house without having to draw it out
Overjustification: effect of promising a reward for something someone already likes to do
Intrinsic motivation: me myself N i
Extrinsic Motivation: doing for whatever that reward might be
Chaining: a subject is taught to perform a # of responses successfully in order to get a
reward *chain link
Modeling:
Latent Learning: nonreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in our behavior
Schedules
○ Continuous: REINFORCED every time a behavior occurs; works faster
○ Partial: REINFORCED only some of the time; less likely 4 extinction
Fixed Ratio: rewarded after a set # of behaviors/responses
Variable Ratio: reinforcer given after changing, random, or unpredictable # of times *slot
machines *BEST ONE
Fixed Interval: fixed amt of time has to pass
Variable Interval: behaviors reinforced after a variable time has passed
● Observational Learning: BOBO DA CLOWN + BANDURA = ANGRY KIDS
Chapter 8: Memory
● Three steps of information processing:
○ Encoding (Acoustic, Visual, Semantic)
■ Acoustic: Echoic Memory- lasts longer than Visual memory
■ Visual: Iconic Memory
■ Semantic: facts and stuff
○ Storage:
■ Short-term: activated memory that can hold 7 items +-2 (5-9 #s) briefly
before info stored or forgotten; usually can’t hold it for more than 30
seconds
■ Long-term
■ Hippocampus: temporal lobe neural center that serves as sort of a “save”
explicit memories
● Damage: disrupts recall of explicit memories
○ Left: Verbal
○ Right: Visual
○ Retrieval:
■ Interference: Proactive- previous info getting in the way of recent;
Retroactive: recent info getting in the way of old information
○ Repression: forceful forgetting of information that may be emotional, sad, or
painful to relieve
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○ Ebbinghaus’ Curve: he’s like the genius guy of memory, he proved that you can’t
over learn anything, and that its important u space studying out
Flashbulb Memories: very vivid memories of emotional times- a family member passing,
where you were on 9/11, you can almost put yourself back into that moment
Spacing Effect: spacing out your studying is better, you’ll remember it more
Serial position: U remember better the first and last things you learn or on a list
○ Primacy = first, recency = last *experiment with freshmen memory
Mnemonic: helpful ways to remember stuff, study tools
○ Peg word: you use specific words to remember concepts, like the experiment in
class w libby, gabe, trystan where its like one is tree, two is green, blah blah blah,
and the peg words help you remember
○ Method of loci: greek method used to remember speeches, it uses visualization
○ Acronyms: PSCF - pull socks over cold feet, preop, sensorimotor, concrete,
formal
○ Mood congruent: ur mood matches ur mems, if ur sad you'll think about sad
memories
○ Context memory: scuba diver experiment thing, when ur tested in the same
context u remember it more easily
○ State-dependent memory: u remember stuff more easily in the state u were in
(hide something when ur drunk, remember where it is when ur drunk)
○ REtrograde amnesia: cant remember stuff from before onset of amnesia
○ ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA: cant remember stuff from after onset of amnesia
Chapter 9: Intelligence
● Thinking:
○ Concepts: mental groupings of similar events and things (ex: Flowers)
○ Prototype: the best example for that concept (Ex: the prototype for flowers would
be a Rose)
○ Heuristics: logical ways to solving problems; 2 types
■ Availability Heuristic: base your thinking off of all the information that is
AVAILABLE to u, everything that you know, this has a lot to do with the
media-- you think that planes are dangerous because all u see in media is
plane crashes, not successful plane flights
■ Representativeness Heuristic: based on your prototype, everything has to
fit your prototype or best example for your concept
○ Framing of questions: they way you word a question greatly impacts the
responses, you can frame a question a specific way to elicit a specific response
● Problem Solving:
○ Techniques:
■ Heuristics: logical rule of thumb strategies to come to a solution (Ex:
trying to figure out someones password, guess logical things for that
specific person like their birthday, their initials, a significant date u know)
■ Algorithm: an actual step by step procedure, takes really long because
you're trying every single possible outcome
○ Obstacles:
■ Fixation: when you try something and it doesn't work, but you get stuck
on it (fixated) and keep trying it
■ Confirmation Bias: *from prologue and chapter 1* only look at ideas that
support your belief, never look at the opposing side
■ Belief Perseverance: you stick with your ideas and beliefs even if you are
presented with evidence and info that clearly shows that your idea is false
● Language Acquisition:
○ Chomsky and Skinner (Nature vs Nurture):
■ Chomsky believed in Nature, that we’re all born w a “language acquisition
device” that requires us to learn language in a specific way during their
critical period
● “Kids all go thru stages of learning language and all around the
same time”
■ Skinner - Nurture: believed language was a learned skill
● Bandura agreed, we can remember this by remembering that these
2 were in chapter 7, learning, and they think LANG = LEARNED
○ Phonemes: smallest unit of sound
○ Morphemes: smallest unit of meaningful*** sound (like -ed, ing, etc)
○ Semantics: set of rules for how we derive words
○ Syntax: ​the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in
a language