AP Psychology
Vocabulary List
To be successful on the AP Exam, knowledge of the discipline’s vocabulary is a must.
This is a working list of terms that often appear on the AP Psychology exam. Every Friday
you will have to turn in a handwritten definition in your own words with examples or
diagrams when necessary. Some terms have multiple terms within it, so the actual number of
terms you turn in each week will vary. An announced vocabulary quiz will be given each
week to assess comprehension. Quizzes will be comprehensive after the first quiz. The second
quiz will include the terms from the first and so on; so when you take the final vocabulary
quiz it can cover all of the terms.
The vocabulary terms will be written on 3 x 5 index cards. The terms will be written
on the blank side and the definition will be written on the flip side. The cards will count as a
class work grade.
Unit I
1. psychology
2. empiricism
3. structuralism
4. functionalism
5. seven perspectives of psychology on page 11
6. humanistic psychology
7. biopsychosocial approach
8. nature vs. nurture issue
9. basic research vs. applied research
10. counseling vs. clinical psychology
11. psychiatry
12. hindsight bias
13. critical thinking
14. theory
15. hypothesis
16. operational definition
17. replication
18. case study advantages vs. disadvantages
19. survey advantages vs. disadvantages
20. naturalistic observation
21. population
22. random sample
23. random assignment
24. false consensus effect
25. correlation and correlation coefficient
26. illusory correlation
27. scatter plot
28. experiment- experimental condition, control condition, IV, DV,
29. placebo effect
30. double-blind procedure
31. mean, mode, median
32. standard deviation vs. range
33. statistical significance
34. APA - American Psychological Association
35. frequency polygon
36. descriptive vs. inferential statistics
37. histogram
38. ethics of testing
39. Wilhelm Wundt
40. William James
41. bell curve
Unit II
42. neuron- various types- motor, sensory & interneurons
43. parts of the neuron: dendrite, axon, myelin sheath, synapse
44. action potential vs. resting potential
45. threshold& all or nothing response
46. depolarization
47. refractory period
48. neurotransmitters see chart on page 58 ACh, Dopamine, Serotonin, Endorphins,
Norephinephrine, GABA & Glutamate
49. Nervous System- Central and Peripheral
50. Somatic and Autonomic Nervous system
51. Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System
52. Reflex
53. Neural Networks
54. Endocrine System
55. hormones
56. Adrenal glands
57. Pituitary Glands
58. lesion
59. EEG
60. PET
61. MRI and fMRI
62. brainstem
63. medulla
64. reticular formation
65. thalamus
66. cerebellum
67. limbic system
68. amygdala
69. hypothalamus
70. cerebral cortex
71. glial cells
72. blood brain barrier and L-Dopa
73. Lobes of the brain: frontal, parietal, occipital & temporal
74. motor and sensory cortex
75. association areas
76. aphasia
77. Broca’s Area
78. Wernike’s Area
79. plasticity
80. Corpus Callosum
81. Split Brain and what the left and right can do
Unit III- Developmental Psychology
82.Developmental Psychology
83. Zygote, Embryo & Fetus
84. Genotype vs. Phenotype
85. teratogens
86. FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
87. Rooting, Moro &Babinsky Reflexes
88. Novelty Preference
89. Habituation
90. Feral Children
91. Schema
92. Assimilation vs. Accommodation
93. Piaget’s Stages of Development
94. Egocentricism
95. Theory of Mind
96. Autism
97. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
98. Carol Gilligan’s Critiques of Kohlberg’s Theory
99. Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
100. Attachment Secure vs. Insecure
101. Basic Trust
102. Stranger Anxiety
103. Harry Harlow’s Attachment Experiment
104. Critical Period
105. Imprinting
106. Adolescence
107. Puberty
108. Primary vs. Secondary Sex Characteristics
109. Menarche
110. Erik Erickson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
111. Alzheimer’s disease
112. crystallized intelligence vs. fluid intelligence
113. Cross-Sectional vs. Longitudinal Studies
114. Cross Cultural Studies
115. social clock
Unit IV- Sensation
116. Sensation & perception
117. bottom-up processing vs. top-down processing
118. psychophysics
119. absolute threshold
120. signal detection theory
121. subliminal
122. priming
123. difference threshold (jnd)
124. Weber’s law
125. sensory adaptation
126. transduction
127. wavelength
128. hue
129. intensity
130. parts of the eye: pupil, iris, lens, retina, fovea, retinal ganglion cells
131. accommodation
132. visual acuity
133. nearsightedness& farsightedness
134. rod vs. cones
135. blind spot & optic nerve
136. feature detector cells: Hubel and Wisel’s research on visual processing
137. parallel processing
138. Young-Hemholtz trichromatic theory
139. opponent-process theory (include complimentary colors)
140. color constancy
141. color blindness kinds
142. audition
143. frequency
144. pitch
145. parts of the ear: middle ear, cochlea , inner ear
146. place theory vs. frequency theory
localization of sound
147. conduction hearing loss vs. sensorineural hearing loss
148. cochlear implant
149. the four types of skin sensations
150. galvanic skin response (GRS)
151. gate-control theory of pain
152. gustatory sense: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami
153. olfaction
154. sensory interaction
155. kinesthesis
156. vestibular sense
Unit IV- Perception
157. selective attention
158. inattentional blindness
159. visual capture
160. gestalt: proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness
161: figure ground relationship
162. depth perception
163. visual cliff
164. binocular cues
165. retinal disparity
166. convergence
167. monocular cues:
168. relative size
169. interposition
170. relative clarity
171. texture gradient
172. relative height
173. relative motion or apparent motion
174. linear perspective
175. light and shadow
176. phi phenomenon
177. perceptual constancies:
178. size constancy
179. color constancy
180. lightness (brightness) constancy
181. shape constancy
182. space constancy (self-motion vs object motion)
183. Moon Illusion
184. perceptual adaptation
185. perceptual set
186. context effects
187. human factors psychology
188. extrasensory perception (ESP)
189. parapsychology
190. ganzfeld procedure
Unit V- Consciousness
191. consciousness, unconscious & subconscious
192. biological rhythms
193. circadian rhythm
194. REM sleep & REM rebound
195. beta waves, alpha waves& delta waves
196. hallucinations
197. sleep disorders: insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea & night terrors
198. dreams, manifest content vs. latent content
199. hypnosis, posthypnotic suggestion & dissociation
200. psychoactive drugs
201. tolerance
202. withdrawal
203. physical dependence vs. psychological dependence
204. addiction
205. depressants
206. stimulants
207. hallucinogens
208. barbiturates
209. opiates
210. amphetamine
211. methamphetamine
212. cocaine
213. MDMA
214. LSD
215. THC
216. Freudian analysis of dreams
217. dualists vs. monists
Unit VI- Social Psychology
218. social psychology
219. attribution theory
220. fundamental attribution error
221. attitude
222. foot-in-the-door phenomenon
223. Hawthorne Effect
224. Zimbardo prison experiment
225. cognitive dissonance theory
226. conformity
227. Solomon Asch studies
228. normative social influence
229. informational social influence
230. Milgram’s experiments on obedience
231. social facilitation
232. social loafing
234. deindiviuation
235. group polarization
236. group think
237. power of social influence- social control vs. personal control
238. minority influence
239. prejudice and four cognitive ways we maintain prejudice
240. stereotype
241. discrimination
242. overt prejudice vs. subtle prejudice
243. blame the victim dynamic by Gordon Allport
244. ingroupvsoutgroup and an outgroup bias
245. scapegoat theory
246. just-world phenomenon
247. aggression
248. frustration aggression principle
249. agression-replacement programs
250. social scripts
251. catharsis hypothesis
252. social learning theory
253. Albert Bandura Bobo doll experiment
254. conflict
255. social traps
256. mirror-image perceptions of conflict
257. three factors of attraction: proximity, physical attractiveness & similarity
258. Zajonc’s mere exposure effect
259. reward theory of attraction
260. passionate love vs. companionate love
261. two components of companionate love equity & self disclosure
262. altruism
263. bystander intervention and factors that influence it
264. Kitty Genovese Murder and the bystander effect
265. social exchange theory
266. reciprocity norm
267. social responsibility norm
268. superordinate goals
269. GRIT
Unit VII-Motivation & Emotion
270. motivation
271. instinct
272. drive-reduction theory
273. homeostasis
274. incentive
275. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
276. self-actualization needs
277. glucose
278. lateral hypothalamus
279. ventromedial hypothalamus
280. orexin, ghrelin,leptin, PYY
281. set point
282. basal metabolic rate
283. anorexia nervosa
284. bulimia nervosa
285. sexual response cycle
286. refractory period
287. sexual disorder
288. estrogen
289. testosterone
290. predictors of sexual restraint
291. sexual orientation
292. flow
293. industrial-organizational psychology
294. personnel psychology
295. organizational psychology
296. interviewer illusion
297. structured interview vs. unstructured interview
298. 360-degree feedback
299. halo error, leniency and severity errors
300. task leadership
301. social leadership
302. emotion
303. James-Lange theory
304. Cannon-Bard theory
305. Schacter-Singer two factor theory
306. Autonomic nervous system
307. sympathetic vs. parasympathetic nervous system
308. arousal& performance
309. the spillover effect
310. polygraph
311. the speedy low road vs thinking high road for emotional responses
312. amygdala
313. facial feedback effect
314. two dimensions of emotion
315. anterior cingulate
316. catharsis theory
317. feel-good, do good phenomenon
318. subjective well-being
319. adaptation level phenomenon
320. relative deprivation
321. predictors of happiness
Unit VIII- Learning
322. learning
323. associative learning
324. classical conditioning- US-UR-CS-CR
325. behaviorism
326. stages of learning- acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery
327. generalization vs. discrimination
328. operand conditioning
329. respondent behavior / operant behavior
330. law of effect
331. operant chamber
332. shaping& chaining
333. positive& negative reinforcement
334. reinforcers- primary & secondary
335. continuous vs. partial reinforcement
336. schedules of reinforcement -FI, FR, VI, VR
337. punishment
338. cognitive map
339. latent learning
340. John Garcia’s ideas w animals & conditioning
341. Clever Hans experiment
342. intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
343. observational learning
344. modeling
345. mirror neurons
346. prosocial behavior
347. aversive conditioning
Unit IX- Memory & Thinking
348. memory
349. flashbulb memory
350. encoding/storage /retrieval
351. Atkinson &Shiffrin’s classic Three-Stage Processing Model
352. sensory memory
353. short-term memory & long-term memory
354. working memory
355. episodic memory
356. declarative vs. procedural memory
357. automatic processing vs. effortful processing
358. rehearsal
359. next-in-line effect
360. spacing effect
361. Ebbinghaus research on memory
362. serial position effect
363. visual encoding / acoustic encoding / semantic encoding
364. imagery
365. mnemonics
366. method of loci
367. chunking
368. iconic memory or eidetic memory / echoic memory
369. long-term-potentiation
370. amnesia
371. implicit memory vs. explicit memory
372. recall vs. recognition
373. relearning
374. priming
375. priming
376. deja vu
377. mood-congruent memory
378. proactive interference
379. retroactive interference
380. repression
381. repression
382. misinformation effect
383. source amnesia
384. Elizabeth Loftus research on eye witness testimony
Thinking & Language
385. cognition
386. concepts
387. prototypes
388. algorithm
389. heuristic
390. insight
391. confirmation bias
392. fixation
393. mental set
394. functional fixedness
395. representativeness heuristic
396. availability heuristic
397. overconfidence
398. framing
399. belief bias
400. belief perseverance
401. language
402. phonemes
403. morpheme
404. grammar
405. semantics
406. syntax
407. babbling stage
408. one-word stage
409. two-word stage
410. telegraphic speech
411. Noam Chomsky’s research
412. linguistic determinism
Unit X- Mental Disorders & Therapy
413. psychological disorder
414. ADHD and the three key symptoms
415. medical model
416. biopsyschosocial approach
417. DSM-IV TR
418. 5 Levels of the DSM IV TR
419. anxiety disorders- (4) generalized anxiety disorder/panic disorder/phobia/OCD
420. PTSD
421. DID or MPD/ dissociative fugue/dissociative amnesia
422. somatoform disorders -conversion disorder/hypochondriasis/somatization/pain disorder
423. mood disorders
424. dysthymic disorder
425. major depressive disorder
426. mania
427. bipolar disorder
428. postpartum depression
429. social cognitive perspective on depression
430. depression’s vicious cycle
431. schizophrenia/ disorganized thought /delusions, hallucinations/inappropriate emotions
432. Types of schizophrenia- paranoid/catatonic/ undifferentiated
433. Possible causes of schizophrenia
434. ECT
435. personality disorders: antisocial /dependent/histrionic/ obessive-compulsive/
paranoid/schizotypal/narcissism/borderline
437. psychotherapy
438. biomedical therapy
439. eclectic approach
440. psychoanalysis/resistance/interpretation/transference
441. client-centered therapy/active listening
442. behavior therapy
443. counterconditioning
444. exposure therapies
445. systematic desensitization
446. virtual reality exposure therapy
447. aversive conditioning
448. token economy
449. cognitive therapy
450. cognitive-behavior therapy
451. Albert Ellis-RET
452. irrational ideas/internalized sentences/ awfulize
453. group therapy
454. family therapy
455. regression toward the mean
456. meta-analysis
457. psychopharmacology
458. tardive dyskinesia
459. antianxiety drugs/Xanax/Ativan
460. antidepressant drugs /SSRI’s-Prozac/Zoloft/Paxil
461. mood stabilizing drug- lithium
462. ECT
463. repetitivetranscranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)
464. psychosurgery
465. lobotomy
466. milieu therapy
Unit XI- Intelligence
467. intelligence
468. reification
469. factor analysis
470. Charles Spearman- general intelligence (g factor)
471. L.L. Thurstone seven clusters of primary mental abilities
472. savant syndrome
473. Howard Garner &multiple Intelligence's
474. Robert Sternberg triarchic theory
475. Emotional Intelligence 4 aspects
476. creativity
477. convergent and divergent thinking
478. 5 components of creativity
479. intelligence tests
480. Alfred Binet- Stanford BinetTest
481. mental age
482. Lewis Terman& the innate IQ
483. William Stern’s intelligence quotient
484. aptitude tests v achievement tests
485. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) & WISC
486. Psychological Tests Three Criteria: standardized, reliable and valid
487. normal curve/distribution/ bell curve
488. Flynn Effect
499. content validity
500. predictive validity
501. criterion
502. mental retardation
503. Down Syndrome
504. Gender similarities and differences
505. two meanings of bias
506. stereotype threat