Psychology — AP Core Concepts

Freud's Id

The part of the mind in which innate instinctive impulses and primary processes are manifest.

Freud's Ego

The part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.

Freud's Superego

The part of a person's mind that acts as a self-critical conscience, reflecting social standards learned from parents and teachers.

What is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

A theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow, comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up.

Schema

A cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information in the brain.

Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage

The first stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, from birth to about 2 years of age, where infants learn about the world through their senses and actions.

Piaget's Preoperational Stage

The second stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, from about 2 to 7 years of age, where children begin to engage in symbolic play and learn to manipulate symbols, but do not yet understand concrete logic.

Piaget's Concrete Operational Stage

The third stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, from about 7 to 11 years of age, where children gain a better understanding of mental operations and think logically about concrete events.

Piaget's Formal Operational Stage

The fourth stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, starting at about 12 years of age, where individuals develop the ability to think about abstract concepts and logically test hypotheses.

What is the role of neurotransmitters in the brain?

Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit signals across a synapse from one neuron to another in the brain, enabling communication between neurons.

What is the function of dopamine?

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a major role in reward-motivated behavior, motor control, and several other critical brain functions.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response without any prior learning.

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned response to a previously neutral stimulus, which has become a conditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

The unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus.

What distinguishes short-term memory from long-term memory?

Short-term memory holds information temporarily for analysis and retrieves information from long-term memory. Long-term memory, however, is responsible for the storage of information over an extended period of time.

Positive Reinforcement

The addition of a rewarding stimulus following a behavior, which makes it more likely that the behavior will occur again in the future.

Negative Reinforcement

The removal of an aversive stimulus following a behavior, which increases the likelihood of the behavior being repeated.

What is the Bystander Effect?

A social psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present.

What is the purpose of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, focusing on the struggle between prisoners and prison officers.

Hawthorne Effect

The alteration of behavior by the subjects of a study due to their awareness of being observed.

What is the placebo effect?

A beneficial effect, produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.

What is observational learning?

A type of learning that occurs by watching others, retaining the information, and then later replicating the behaviors that were observed.

Intrinsic Motivation

The act of doing something without any obvious external rewards. You do it because it's enjoyable and interesting, rather than for some separable consequence.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation that comes from outside an individual. The motivating factors are external, or outside, rewards such as money, fame, grades, and praise.

What is the difference between an independent variable and a dependent variable?

An independent variable is the variable that is changed or controlled in a scientific experiment to test the effects on the dependent variable. The dependent variable is the variable being tested and measured in an experiment.

Double-blind Study

An experimental procedure in which neither the participants nor the experimenters are aware of the critical aspects of the experiment to minimize bias.

What is the fundamental attribution error?

The tendency for people to overemphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while underemphasizing situational explanations.

Social Loafing

The phenomenon where individuals exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone.

What is the function of the prefrontal cortex?

The prefrontal cortex is involved in complex behaviors such as planning, personality expression, decision-making, and moderating social behavior.