AP Psychology Exam Cram Sheet

Key Psychologists and Their Contributions

• Wundt: "Father of Psychology"; Introspection
• Wertheimer: Gestalt Psychology
• Titchner: Structuralism
• James: Functionalism
• Watson: Behaviorism; "Little Albert Study"
• Freud: Psychoanalytic; dream analysis; free association; structure of personality; stages of development; defense mechanisms
• Milgram: Obedience; Ethics
• Broca: Left frontal lobe; associated with expressive language
• Wernicke: Left frontal lobe; receptive language
• Pavlov: Classical conditioning; dogs
• Thorndike: Instrumental learning; cats; law of effect
• Skinner: Operant conditioning; rats and pigeons; Behaviorist
• Tolman: Latent learning; cognitive maps
• Bandura: Observational learning; Bobo Dolls; Social-Cognitive Theory
• Ebbinghaus: Forgetting; Decay Model
• Chomsky: (Native Theorist) Inherent Existence of sets of cognitive structures
• Whorf: Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
• Washoe, Sara, and Koko: Apes from language studies
• Jung: Collective unconscious; archetypes; Psychoanalytic
• Horney: Basic childhood anxiety; Psychoanalytic
• Erickson: Life crisis; psycho-social development; Psychoanalytic
• Adler: Inferiority Complex; Psychoanalytic
• Piaget: Stages of Cognitive Development; Cognitive theorist
• Rogers: Client-centered; unconditional positive regard; transactional Analysis
• Ellis: Rational Emotive Therapy; Cognitive Theorist
• Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs; Humanistic
• Binet: I.Q.
• Eysenck: Biological model of Personality; Trait-type hierarchy
• Harlow: Monkey Studies; Attachment
• Lorenz: "Survival of the Fittest Theory" and imprinting
• Phineas Gage: Railroad spike; damaged (limbic system), emotions/motivational control center
• Beck: Cognitive therapy treating depression
• Murray: Need to achieve; TAT
• Allport: Trait Approach-cardinal, central, secondary
• Cattell: Crystallized Fluid Intelligence
• Kelley: Personal Construct Theory
• Mishel: Social-learning theory
• Gilligan: Examined moral differences between boys and girls based on social rules and on ethic of caring and responsibility

Psychological Perspectives

• General

  • Behaviorism: Learning; environmental; nurture
  • Biological: Physiology; genetics; nature
  • Cognitive: Mental processes
  • Psychoanalytic: Unconscious conflicts
  • Humanistic: Freewill; self-direction; basis goodness of people
  • Gestalt: Emphasizes the organization process in behavior; Focuses on problem of perception

• Personality

  • Psychoanalytic: Driven by instincts, largely sexual
  • Behaviorist: Behavior is personality; determined by history of reinforcement
  • Humanistic: People are inherently good, society ruins them, people strive to satisfy a hierarchy of motives toward self-actualization
  • Cognitive: People are rational and want to predict and control their world; personal constructs help in this process
  • Biological: Factors such as body type or genetics

• Abnormal

  • Psychoanalytic: Emerge from initial psychological conflicts that are unconscious, often arising from childhood trauma
  • Biomedical: Traceable to physical abnormalities, biochemistry, structural defects
  • Cognitive: Results from unusual ways of thinking, inappropriate belief system
  • Behavioral: Results from faulty contingencies of reinforcement
  • Cultural: Variables such as social class, gender, and rural-urban contexts contribute to the development of psychological disorders
  • Humanistic/Existential Model: Results from Failure to fulfill one's potential

Therapy and Treatment

• Psychoanalysis: Alleviate unconscious conflicts
  • Techniques: Free association, dream analysis, transference, symptom substitution
• Behavior Therapy: Application of learning principles
  • Techniques: Systematic desensitization, flooding, implosive therapy, aversion therapy
• Cognitive-Behavior Therapy: Thoughts and behavior
  • Techniques: Cognitive therapy, modeling and role play, rational-emotive therapy
• Humanistic: Focuses on accepting responsibility for improvement
  • Rogers' client-centered therapy: Unconditioned positive regard
• Biomedical Treatment: Medical procedures and medication
  • Includes: Psychosurgery, Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), Psychopharmacological treatment

Experimentation

1. Two variables studied for cause and effect
   • Independent variable: Manipulated by experimenter
   • Dependent variable: Affected by IV; measured
   • Confounding variables: May influence results
2. Group Dynamics
   • Experiment group: Exposed to manipulation
   • Control group: Unaffected comparison
3. Biases and Techniques
   • Subject bias: Behavior changes due to expectations
   • Researcher bias: Expectations influence recordings
   • Double-blind technique: Controls for bias
   • Placebo: Inactive substance given

Important Theories

• Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development
  • Stages: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational
• Kohlberg's Moral Judgment
  • Stages: Preconventional, Conventional, Postconventional
• Erickson's Psychosocial Development: Trust vs. mistrust to Ego integrity vs. despair
• Kubler-Ross' Stages of Death: Denial to Acceptance

Additional Theories

• Weber's Law: Just noticeable difference
• Young-Helmholtz Color Theory: Trichromatic theory
• Opponent-Process Color Theory: Antagonistic pairs
• Place and Frequency Theories: Perceived pitch and sound
• Facial Feedback Hypothesis: Sensations from the face and emotion
• Statistical Significance: Less than 5% explains results
• Matching Theories: Template and prototype
• Restorative and Adaptive Nonresponding Theories: Purposes for sleep
• Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis: Dreams and neural activity
• Thorndike's Law of Effect: Reward and punishment
• Premack Principle: High-probability behavior as a reward
• Continuity vs. Discontinuity: Development theories
• Serial Position Phenomenon: Recall influenced by sequence
  • Primacy Effect: Enhanced memory for earlier items
  • Recency Effect: Enhanced memory for later items
• Decay Theory: Forgetting due to similar learning
• Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis: Language determines experience
• Drive-Reduction Model and Cognitive Consistency Theories: Motivation explanations
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Reconciling cognitive discrepancies
• Arousal Theories and Yerkes-Dodson Law: Performance and arousal
• Incentive Theory: Behavior motivation
• Emotion Theories: James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter's

Social Psychology Studies

• Zimbardo's Prison Study: Effect of roles
• Hawthorne Effect: Behavior changes under observation
• Darley and Latane's Bystander Effect: Diffusion of responsibility
• Asch Conformity Study: Social pressure and conformity
• Milgram's Obedience Study: Authority influence
• Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance

Social Pressure and Altruism

• Conformity: Adoption of attitudes or behavior due to pressure
• Social Norms: Shared behavior standards
• Reciprocity Norm: Treating others reciprocally
• Compliance Techniques: Foot in the door, door in the face, low balling
• Obedience: Authority compliance
• Altruism: Concern for others
• Group Dynamics: Bystander intervention, social facilitation, social loafing, risky shift, deindividuation, groupthink