{
 "source": "https://peabody.kids/flashcards/tp-ap-psychology",
 "id": "tp-ap-psychology",
 "title": "AP Psychology Key Terms",
 "category": "test-prep",
 "subject": "AP Psychology",
 "levels": [
  "9-12",
  "college"
 ],
 "description": "Core vocabulary on the brain, learning, memory, development, personality and mental health.",
 "tags": [
  "ap",
  "psychology"
 ],
 "frontLabel": "Term",
 "backLabel": "Meaning",
 "cards": [
  [
   "Behaviorism",
   "School of thought studying observable behavior"
  ],
  [
   "Cognitive psychology",
   "Study of mental processes such as memory and thinking"
  ],
  [
   "Psychoanalytic perspective",
   "Freud's view that unconscious drives shape behavior"
  ],
  [
   "Humanistic psychology",
   "Focus on growth, free will and self-actualization"
  ],
  [
   "Biopsychology",
   "Study of how biology influences behavior"
  ],
  [
   "Wilhelm Wundt",
   "Founded the first psychology lab in 1879"
  ],
  [
   "Hypothesis",
   "A testable prediction"
  ],
  [
   "Independent variable",
   "The factor the researcher manipulates"
  ],
  [
   "Dependent variable",
   "The outcome measured"
  ],
  [
   "Random assignment",
   "Placing participants into groups by chance"
  ],
  [
   "Control group",
   "Group not receiving the treatment"
  ],
  [
   "Double-blind study",
   "Neither participants nor researchers know who gets the treatment"
  ],
  [
   "Placebo effect",
   "Improvement due to expectation, not the treatment"
  ],
  [
   "Correlation",
   "A relationship between two variables; does not prove cause"
  ],
  [
   "Correlation coefficient",
   "A number from -1 to +1 showing strength and direction of relationship"
  ],
  [
   "Operational definition",
   "A precise statement of how a variable is measured"
  ],
  [
   "Informed consent",
   "Participants agree after learning what is involved"
  ],
  [
   "Neuron",
   "A nerve cell"
  ],
  [
   "Dendrite",
   "Receives signals into a neuron"
  ],
  [
   "Axon",
   "Carries signals away from the cell body"
  ],
  [
   "Action potential",
   "An electrical impulse along an axon"
  ],
  [
   "Synapse",
   "The gap between neurons"
  ],
  [
   "Neurotransmitter",
   "Chemical messenger sent across a synapse"
  ],
  [
   "Dopamine",
   "Neurotransmitter linked to reward and movement"
  ],
  [
   "Serotonin",
   "Neurotransmitter affecting mood, sleep and appetite"
  ],
  [
   "Acetylcholine",
   "Neurotransmitter involved in muscles and memory"
  ],
  [
   "Endorphins",
   "Natural pain relievers"
  ],
  [
   "Central nervous system",
   "The brain and spinal cord"
  ],
  [
   "Peripheral nervous system",
   "Nerves outside the brain and spinal cord"
  ],
  [
   "Sympathetic nervous system",
   "Prepares the body for action"
  ],
  [
   "Parasympathetic nervous system",
   "Calms the body"
  ],
  [
   "Hypothalamus",
   "Regulates hunger, thirst, temperature and hormone release"
  ],
  [
   "Hippocampus",
   "Forms new explicit memories"
  ],
  [
   "Amygdala",
   "Processes fear and emotion"
  ],
  [
   "Cerebellum",
   "Coordinates balance and movement"
  ],
  [
   "Frontal lobe",
   "Planning, judgment and movement"
  ],
  [
   "Broca's area",
   "Involved in producing speech"
  ],
  [
   "Wernicke's area",
   "Involved in understanding language"
  ],
  [
   "Corpus callosum",
   "Band of fibers connecting the brain's hemispheres"
  ],
  [
   "Neuroplasticity",
   "The brain's ability to change through experience"
  ],
  [
   "Sensation",
   "Detecting stimuli with sense organs"
  ],
  [
   "Perception",
   "Interpreting sensory information"
  ],
  [
   "Absolute threshold",
   "The smallest stimulus detected half the time"
  ],
  [
   "Just noticeable difference",
   "The smallest change that can be detected"
  ],
  [
   "Sensory adaptation",
   "Reduced response to unchanging stimuli"
  ],
  [
   "Gestalt principles",
   "Rules for how we organize perceptions into wholes"
  ],
  [
   "Depth perception",
   "Judging distance"
  ],
  [
   "Binocular cues",
   "Depth cues that need both eyes"
  ],
  [
   "Bottom-up processing",
   "Perception built from sensory details"
  ],
  [
   "Top-down processing",
   "Perception guided by expectations"
  ],
  [
   "Circadian rhythm",
   "The roughly 24-hour body clock"
  ],
  [
   "REM sleep",
   "Sleep stage with vivid dreams and active brain"
  ],
  [
   "Consciousness",
   "Awareness of ourselves and our surroundings"
  ],
  [
   "Classical conditioning",
   "Learning by associating two stimuli"
  ],
  [
   "Unconditioned stimulus",
   "Naturally triggers a response"
  ],
  [
   "Conditioned stimulus",
   "Neutral stimulus that comes to trigger a response"
  ],
  [
   "Extinction",
   "Fading of a learned response when the association stops"
  ],
  [
   "Operant conditioning",
   "Learning through consequences"
  ],
  [
   "Reinforcement",
   "Anything that increases a behavior"
  ],
  [
   "Punishment",
   "Anything that decreases a behavior"
  ],
  [
   "Positive reinforcement",
   "Adding something pleasant to increase behavior"
  ],
  [
   "Negative reinforcement",
   "Removing something unpleasant to increase behavior"
  ],
  [
   "Variable-ratio schedule",
   "Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses"
  ],
  [
   "Observational learning",
   "Learning by watching others"
  ],
  [
   "Albert Bandura",
   "Bobo doll studies on observational learning"
  ],
  [
   "Ivan Pavlov",
   "Discovered classical conditioning using dogs"
  ],
  [
   "B.F. Skinner",
   "Pioneer of operant conditioning"
  ],
  [
   "Encoding",
   "Getting information into memory"
  ],
  [
   "Storage",
   "Keeping information over time"
  ],
  [
   "Retrieval",
   "Getting information out of memory"
  ],
  [
   "Working memory",
   "Short-term memory used to process information"
  ],
  [
   "Explicit memory",
   "Memory of facts and experiences you can state"
  ],
  [
   "Implicit memory",
   "Memory shown through skills and habits"
  ],
  [
   "Mnemonic device",
   "A memory aid"
  ],
  [
   "Spacing effect",
   "Learning is better spread out than crammed"
  ],
  [
   "Retroactive interference",
   "New learning disrupts old memories"
  ],
  [
   "Proactive interference",
   "Old learning disrupts new memories"
  ],
  [
   "Anterograde amnesia",
   "Inability to form new memories"
  ],
  [
   "Heuristic",
   "A mental shortcut"
  ],
  [
   "Confirmation bias",
   "Seeking information that supports existing beliefs"
  ],
  [
   "Functional fixedness",
   "Seeing objects only in their usual uses"
  ],
  [
   "Algorithm",
   "A step-by-step method that guarantees a solution"
  ],
  [
   "Intelligence quotient",
   "Score derived from standardized intelligence tests"
  ],
  [
   "Reliability",
   "Consistency of a test"
  ],
  [
   "Validity",
   "Whether a test measures what it claims to"
  ],
  [
   "Standardization",
   "Uniform procedures and norms for a test"
  ],
  [
   "Developmental psychology",
   "Study of change across the lifespan"
  ],
  [
   "Piaget's stages",
   "Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational"
  ],
  [
   "Object permanence",
   "Knowing that things exist when not seen"
  ],
  [
   "Conservation",
   "Understanding that amount stays the same despite shape change"
  ],
  [
   "Egocentrism",
   "Difficulty seeing another person's viewpoint"
  ],
  [
   "Attachment",
   "Emotional bond between infant and caregiver"
  ],
  [
   "Harlow's monkeys",
   "Showed infants need comfort contact as well as food"
  ],
  [
   "Authoritative parenting",
   "High warmth with firm limits"
  ],
  [
   "Erikson's stages",
   "Eight psychosocial crises across life"
  ],
  [
   "Zone of proximal development",
   "Tasks a child can do with help; Vygotsky's idea"
  ],
  [
   "Maslow's hierarchy",
   "Needs from physiological to self-actualization"
  ],
  [
   "Intrinsic motivation",
   "Doing something for its own enjoyment"
  ],
  [
   "Cannon-Bard theory",
   "Emotion and body arousal occur at the same time"
  ],
  [
   "Cognitive dissonance",
   "Discomfort when beliefs and actions conflict"
  ],
  [
   "Fundamental attribution error",
   "Overestimating personality and underestimating situation when explaining others' behavior"
  ],
  [
   "Conformity",
   "Adjusting behavior to fit a group"
  ],
  [
   "Bystander effect",
   "People are less likely to help when others are present"
  ],
  [
   "Big Five traits",
   "Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism"
  ],
  [
   "Id, ego, superego",
   "Freud's three parts of personality"
  ],
  [
   "Defense mechanism",
   "Unconscious strategy to reduce anxiety"
  ],
  [
   "Locus of control",
   "Belief about whether outcomes come from inside or outside you"
  ],
  [
   "Psychological disorder",
   "Patterns of thought or behavior that cause distress or impairment"
  ],
  [
   "Anxiety disorder",
   "Excessive fear or worry"
  ],
  [
   "Mood disorder",
   "Disturbance of emotion such as depression"
  ],
  [
   "Cognitive-behavioral therapy",
   "Treatment changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors"
  ],
  [
   "Psychotherapy",
   "Treatment through talking with a trained professional"
  ],
  [
   "Antidepressant",
   "Medication treating depression"
  ]
 ]
}