AP Psychology ALL Terms Study Guide
Containing (452 Terms) with Definitive
Solutions 2024-2025
psychology - Answer: the science of behavior and mental processes
nature-nurture issue - Answer: the long-standing controversy over the relative
contributions that genes and experience make to the development of
psychological traits and behaviors
, AP Psychology ALL Terms
natural selection - Answer: the principle that, among the range of inherited trait
variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be
passed on to succeeding generations
neuroscience - Answer: the perspective of psychological science that deals with
how the body and brain create emotions, memories, and sensory experiences
evolutionary - Answer: the perspective of psychological science that deals with
how nature selects traits that promote the perpetuation of one's genes
behavior genetics - Answer: the perspective of psychological science that deals
with how much our genes, and our environment, influence our individual
differences
psychodynamic - Answer: the perspective of psychological science that deals with
how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts
behavioral - Answer: the perspective of psychological science that deals with how
we learn observable responses
cognitive - Answer: the perspective of psychological science that deals with how
we encode, process, store, and retrieve information
social-cultural - Answer: the perspective of psychological science that deals with
how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures
, AP Psychology ALL Terms
basic research - Answer: pure science that aims to increase the scientific
knowledge base
applied research - Answer: scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
clinical psychology - Answer: a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and
treats people with psychological disorders
psychiatry - Answer: a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders,
practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drug)
treatments as well as psychological therapy
hindsight bias (I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon) - Answer: the tendency to
believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it
critical thinking - Answer: thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and
conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates
evidence, and assesses conclusions
theory - Answer: an explanation using an integrated set of principles that
organizes and predicts observations
hypothesis - Answer: a testable prediction, often implied by a theory
, AP Psychology ALL Terms
operational definition - Answer: a statement of the procedures (operations) used
to define research variables. For example, intelligence may be operationally
defined as what an intelligence test measures
replication - Answer: repeating the essence of a research study, usually with
different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding
generalizes to other participants and circumstances
case study - Answer: an observation technique in which one person is studied in
depth in the hope of revealing universal principles
survey - Answer: a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or
behaviors of people, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of
them
false consensus effect - Answer: the tendency to overestimate the extent to which
others share our beliefs and behaviors
population - Answer: all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn
for a study
random sample - Answer: a sample that fairly represents a population because
each member has an equal chance of inclusion