1. History, Perspectives, Research
AP Psychology Review
2017

2. History of Psychology Hippocrates—dualist Plato—dualist—”nature”
Aristotle—monist—”nurture”
Descartes—dualist, “nature”
Locke—tabula rasa, monist, “nurture”
Biggest controversy in psychology: Nature vs. Nurture

3. Early Perspectives Structuralism—Wilhelm Wundt—1879
Used introspection; Titchener, Hall
Functionalism—William James

4. Current Perspectives Psychoanalysis—Sigmund Freud *Unconscious
*Early life experiences most important
*Hypnosis, Dream Interpretation, Free Association
Psychodynamic—Adler, Horney, Jung
*followers of Freud’s
*disagreed with something fundamental

5. More Current Perspectives
Behavioral—Pavlov, Watson, Skinner
*focus only on observable
*behavior completely determined by environment
Gestalt—Wertheimer
*focus on whole conscious experience
*studied ways brain groups forms/information

6. More Current Perspectives
Humanism—Maslow, Rogers
Warm, fuzzy, positive perspective
Free will, personal growth
Emphasized “the self”
Biological/Physiological/Neuroscience—Sperry, Penfield
Chemical/biological processes within the body

7. More Current Perspectives
Evolutionary—Darwin
Behavior a product of natural selection
Cognitive—Piaget, Ellis, Beck, Vygotsky
Mental processing: thinking, knowing, understanding,
remembering
Sociocultural—Zimbardo, Milgram, Asch
How social/cultural factors influence us

8. Types of Psychologists
Clinical
Counseling
Developmental
Forensic
I/O
Neuropsychologists
Psychometricians
School psychologists
Social psychologists
Sports psychologists

9. Research How we know EVERYTHING we know in psychology!
Scientific Method:
*Research Question
*Hypothesis
*Collect Data
*Analyze Data

10. Descriptive Research Case Studies
In-depth study of person or small-group
Be careful when generalizing to population
Freud
Surveys
Participants random, representative
Naturalistic Observation
Subjects should not be aware of researcher’s presence

11. Correlational Research
Purpose to note relationships between variables
Correlation does NOT prove Causation!
Positive correlation—variables move in same direction
Negative correlation—move in opposite direction

12. Correlational Research
Correlation Coefficient
Indicates STRENGTH of correlation
+1.0 to -1.0
r =.78
Scatterplot/Scattergram
Positive—slopes upward
Negative—slopes downward

13. Experimental Research
***only research type that determines cause/effect
***only research type where researcher manipulates
some variable
Important Terms:
IV—variable being manipulated (new medication)
DV—variable being measured (depressive symptoms)
Random assignment—group assignment
Experimental group—gets IV
Control group—does not get IV (placebo)
Confounding variables—bad—could affect outcome
Single blind/double blind studies
Replication important

14. Statistics in Research
Descriptive Statistics—summary of set of data
Measures of Central Tendency—avg or most typical score
*mean
*median
*mode
Variability—dispersion of scores—Range, Standard Deviation
Normal Distribution (“bell” curve)—scores clustered around the
middle
*68% between +1 and -1 SD
*95% between +2 and -2
*99.7% between +3 and -3
The smaller the SD the more clustered together scores are;
The larger the SD, the more spread out scores are!

15. Inferential Research Used to Interpret Data and Draw Conclusions
Statistical Significance (p)
*how likely the difference between groups is due to a REAL difference rather than from chance alone
*if p < .05

16. Ethics In Research
Set forth by APA—research approved by IRB in advance
Informed Consent
Confidentiality of Participants
No Harm to Participants (physical/emotional)
Debriefing after research