Scientific Foundations
Define psychology as it is used in AP Psychology.
What is the science of behavior and mental processes?
Identify the difference between an experiment and a correlational study.
What is the mainpulation of variables, proving causation?
The concept of having the educated choice to participate in a research.
What is informed consent?
Identify the function of neurotransmitters.
What is communicating neural messages throughout the nervous system?
Define sensation.
What is the reception of information from our environment?
Identify the psychological perspective most associated with observable behavior and learning through conditioning.
This is the use of a vauge concept in research, by making it clear and measurable?
What is an operational definition and why is it necessary in psychological research?
Identify one situation in which deception is allowed in psychological research.
What is when it's essential to get authentic behavior, no non-deceptive method works, the potential scientific knowledge gained is significant, and participants aren't deceived about physical pain or severe distress ?
Name the part of the neuron that receives incoming signals and explain its role.
What is the dendrite?
Define absolute threshold.
Explain how the cognitive perspective differs from the behavioral perspective when studying learning.
What is a focus on internal cognitive processes vs. observable behavior?
A study finds a strong positive correlation between screen time and anxiety. Explain what this result does *and does not* mean.
Correlation does not equal Causation
Explain why debriefing is a critical component of ethical research involving deception.
What is the full understanding of participants?
Explain how an action potential occurs.
What is the change in resting potential of a neuron caused by the reception of a charge from a connected neuron?
Explain the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing.
What is trying to understand something from details first, vs, understanding something from larger concepts?
Bottom-up processing builds perception from raw sensory data (sensation), moving from small details to the whole, while top-down processing uses prior knowledge, expectations, and context ( cognition) to interpret sensory input, starting with the big picture to understand the parts
A researcher explains depression using neurotransmitter activity while another focuses on unconscious conflicts. Identify both perspectives and justify each.
What is the biological perspective and the psychoanalytic perspective, respectively?
Design a basic experiment to test whether sleep affects memory. Identify the IV, DV, and one control.
*varies*
A researcher exposes participants to mild stress without informing them beforehand. Identify the ethical issue and justify whether this violates APA guidelines.
What is informed consent and unecessary deception and harm?
Describe how the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems interact during a stressful event.
What is the fight or flight? What is the rest and digest?
Apply Weber’s Law to explain how people perceive changes in stimulus intensity.
What is our ability to notice changes in a stimulus (like light, sound, or weight) depends on its original intensity?
Explain how psychology’s early roots in philosophy and biology shaped its development as a scientific discipline.
What is the evolution of psychology from a philosophy to a research based science?
Explain how random assignment improves internal validity and why it is essential for establishing cause-and-effect relationships.
What is representative samples of the greater population, and less experimenter or sampling bias?
Compare ethical considerations in human research versus animal research.
What is the inclusion of harm? What is the care and keeping of animals? What is ethical sourcing?
Damage to the frontal lobes results in changes to personality and decision-making. Explain this using brain–behavior relationships.
What is the case of Phineas Gage? The Frontal lobe is in charge of executive processes, and therefore the 'personality'.
Explain how perceptual set can influence eyewitness testimony and discuss the implications for reliability.
What is a readiness to perceive a stimulus in a particular way, influenced by factors such as expectations, emotions, motivations, culture, and past experiences?
In the context of eyewitness testimony, this can lead to several effects;