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AP Psych Unit 4 Notes

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AP Psych Unit 4 Notes

Uploaded by

regan.schultz26
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© © All Rights Reserved
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1. Describe some important milestones in psychology’s early development.

1. Psychology was recognized as the science of behavior and mental processes,


recognized that psychology can be observed through behavior but not sensations or
feelings. Structuralism and functionalism were the first to think about the mind's structure
and behavior.

Wilhelm Wundt - German philosopher, established 1st psych lab in Leipzig, Germany in
1879, designed experiment to test how long people press a key after hearing a ball drop

Edward Titchener - British psychologist, aimed to discover mind’s structure

Structuralism - early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener that used
introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind

Introspection - examine one’s own emotional states and mental processes

Charles Darwin/ natural selection/ evolution - from among chance variations, nature selects
traits that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment

William James - psychologist, wanted to consider functions of our thoughts and feelings,
linked it to evolution

Functionalism - early school of thought promoted by James that explored mental and
behavioral process functions and how they help organisms adapt, structure, and flourish

2. Describe how psychology continued to develop from the 1920s through today.

2. Watson and Skinner dismissed introspection and said psychology can’t just be focused
on mental life if it’s rooted in observation. You can’t observe sensations or feelings but
you can observe behavior.

Ivan Pavlov - Russian scientist that used classical conditioning (partnering one thing with
another) on dogs (early 1900s)

Sigmund Freud - (influenced psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and dream interpretation)


emphasized the ways our unconscious mind and childhood experiences affect our
behavior (ego, repression, fixation, sibling rivalry)

John Watson - championed psychology as the scientific study of behavior, worked with
Skinner to dismiss introspection

B. F. Skinner - behaviorist, rejected introspection and studied how consequences shape


behavior
Behaviorists - psychologists that say psychology should be a science that studies
behavior without reference to mental processes

Humanistic psychology - emphasizes human’s potential for growth and the importance of
love and acceptance

Cognitive neuroscience - studies brain activity and how we perceive, process, and
remember information

Today’s definition of psychology - science of behavior and mental processes

3. Summarize the nature–nurture debate in psychology.

Nature–nurture issue - nurture works on what nature gives us, controversy over whether
or not genes or experience form and affect development of psychological traits and
behaviors

4. Describe psychology’s three main levels of analysis and related perspectives.

Biopsychosocial approach - integrated approach that incorporates biological,


psychological and social-cultural levels of analysis

biological - genetic traits, mutations, genes, natural selection

psychological - cognitive processes, emotional responses, learned fears and expectations

social-cultural - influences are the presence of others, culture, society, and peer/group
influences

neuroscience perspective - how the body and brain enable memories, emotions, and
sensory experiences

evolutionary perspective - how the natural selection of traits has promoted the survival of
our genes

behavior genetics perspective - how our genes and our environment influence our
individual differences

psychodynamic perspective - how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

behavioral perspective - how we learn observable responses

cognitive perspective - how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information

social-cultural perspective - how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures

Psychology’s main subfields


basic research - all seven perspectives used to test fundamental theories

applied research - applying research directed at a specific set of circumstances

counseling psychology - assists in problems in achieving well-being

clinical psychology - mental health pros who study, assess, and treat people with psych
disorders

psychiatry - branch of medicine that have licensed physicians to provide medical


treatments for therapy

positive psychology - research human strengths and human flourishing

community psychologists - create social and physical environments that are healthy for all

5. Explain how hindsight bias, overconfidence, and the tendency to perceive order in random
events illustrate why science-based answers are more valid than those based on intuition and
common sense

3. Intuition and common sense are just predictions and don’t have factual evidence that
something will or won’t happen.

Overconfidence - tendency to think we know more than we do

Hindsight bias - “I-knew-it-all-along-phenomenon”, tendency to believe after learning an


outcome, that no one would have foreseen it

Tendency to perceive order in random events - random sequences, patterns and streaks
occur more often than people expect

6. Explain how the three main components of the scientific attitude relate to critical thinking.

4. 3 main components of scientific attitude relate to critical thinking because evidence is


used to test intuition, assumptions and biases. Want a clear answer and to challenge our
thinking. They can admit to being wrong.

Scientific attitude

Curiosity - explore and understand the world without being fooled by it

Skepticism - scrutinize competing claims

Humility - we may have to reject our own ideas


7. Describe how theories advance psychological science.

5. Allows scientists to make predictions of what they should observe if a theory is true

Theory - organizes a wide range of observations

Hypotheses - testable prediction of a theory

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