Mid+Term+Review

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 * Make sure that you understand all of the learning objectives for the units we have covered:**

Psychology has evolved markedly since its inception as a discipline in 1879. There have been significant changes in the theories that psychologists use to explain behavior and mental processes. In addition, the methodology of psychological research has expanded to include a diversity of approaches to data gathering.
 * I. History and Approaches (2–4%) **

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

• Recognize how philosophical perspectives shaped the development of psychological thought.

• Describe and compare different theoretical approaches in explaining behavior: — structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism in the early years; — Gestalt, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, and humanism emerging later; — evolutionary, biological, and cognitive as more contemporary approaches.

• Recognize the strengths and limitations of applying theories to explain behavior.

• Distinguish the different domains of psychology: — biological, clinical, cognitive, counseling, developmental, educational, experimental, human factors, industrial–organizational, personality, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">psychometric, and social.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify the major historical figures in psychology (e.g., Mary Whiton Calkins, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Charles Darwin, Dorothea Dix, Sigmund Freud, G . Stanley Hall, William James, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ivan Pavlov, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, B . F . Skinner, Margaret Floy Washburn, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">John B . Watson, Wilhelm Wundt)


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">II. Research Methods (8–10%) **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Psychology is an empirical discipline. Psychologists develop knowledge by doing research. Research provides guidance for psychologists who develop theories to explain behavior and who apply theories to solve problems in behavior.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Differentiate types ofresearch (e.g., experiments, correlational studies, survey research, naturalistic observations, and case studies) with regard to purpose, strengths, and weaknesses.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe how research design drives the reasonable conclusions that can be drawn (e .g ., experiments are useful for determining cause and effect; the use of experimental controls reduces alternative explanations).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify independent, dependent, confounding, and control variables in experimental designs. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Distinguish between random assignment of participants to conditions in experiments and random selection of participants, primarily in correlational studies and surveys.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Predict the validity of behavioral explanations based on the quality of research design (e .g ., confounding variables limit confidence in research conclusions).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Distinguish the purposes of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Apply basic descriptive statistical concepts, including interpreting and constructing graphs and calculating simple descriptive statistics (e .g ., measures of central tendency, standard deviation).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Discuss the value ofreliance on operational definitions and measurement in behavioral research.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify how ethical issues inform and constrain research practices.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe how ethical and legal guidelines (e.g., those provided by the American Psychological Association, federal regulations, local institutional review boards) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">protect research participants and promote sound ethical practice.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An effective introduction to the relationship between physiological processes and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">behavior—including the influence of neural function, the nervous system and the <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">brain, and genetic contributions to behavior—is an important element in the AP <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">course. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">AP students in psychology should be able to do the following: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify basic processes and systems in the biological bases of behavior, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">including parts of the neuron and the process of transmission of a signal <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">between neurons.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">III. Biological Bases of Behavior (8–10%) **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Discuss the influence of drugs on neurotransmitters (e.g.,reuptake <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">mechanisms).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Discuss the effect of the endocrine system on behavior.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe the nervous system and its subdivisions and functions: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">— central and peripheral nervous systems; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">— major brain regions, lobes, and cortical areas; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">— brain lateralization and hemispheric specialization.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Recount historic and contemporary research strategies and technologies that <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">support research (e .g ., case studies, split-brain research, imaging techniques).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Discuss psychology’s abiding interest in how heredity, environment, and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">evolution work together to shape behavior.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Predict how traits and behavior can be selected for their adaptive value.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify key contributors (e.g., Paul Broca, Charles Darwin, Michael Gazzaniga, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Roger Sperry, Carl Wernicke)


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">IV. Sensation and Perception (6–8%) **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Everything that organisms know about the world is first encountered when stimuli in the environment activate sensory organs, initiating awareness of the external world. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Perception involves the interpretation of the sensory inputs as a cognitive process.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Discuss basic principles of sensory transduction, including absolute threshold, difference threshold, signal detection, and sensory adaptation.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe sensory processes (e.g., hearing, vision, touch, taste, smell, vestibular, kinesthesis, pain), including the specific nature of energy transduction, relevant anatomical structures, and specialized pathways in the brain for each of the senses.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Explain common sensory disorders (e.g., visual and hearing impairments).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe general principles of organizing and integrating sensation to promote stable awareness of the external world (e .g ., Gestalt principles, depth perception).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Discuss how experience and culture can influence perceptual processes (e.g., perceptual set, context effects).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Explain the role of top-down processing in producing vulnerability to illusion.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Discuss the role of attention in behavior.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Challenge common beliefs in parapsychological phenomena.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify the major historical figures in sensation and perception (e.g., Gustav Fechner, David Hubel, Ernst Weber, Torsten Wiesel)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Understanding consciousness and what it encompasses is critical to an appreciation of what is meant by a given state of consciousness. The study of variations in consciousness includes an examination of the sleep cycle, dreams, hypnosis, circadian rhythms, and the effects of psychoactive drugs.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">V. States of Consciousness (2–4%) **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe various states of consciousness and their impact on behavior.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Discuss aspects of sleep and dreaming: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">— stages and characteristics of the sleep cycle; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">— theories of sleep and dreaming; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">— symptoms and treatments of sleep disorders.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe historic and contemporary uses of hypnosis (e.g., pain control, psychotherapy).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Explain hypnotic phenomena (e.g., suggestibility, dissociation).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify the major psychoactive drug categories (e.g., depressants, stimulants) and classify specific drugs, including their psychological and physiological effects.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Discuss drug dependence, addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify the major figures in consciousness research (e.g., William James, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hilgard).


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">VI. Learning (7–9%) **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This section of the course introduces students to differences between learned and unlearned behavior. The primary focus is exploration of different kinds of learning, including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. The biological bases of behavior illustrate predispositions for learning.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Distinguish general differences between principles of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning (e .g ., contingencies).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe basic classical conditioning phenomena, such as acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination, and higher-order learning.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Predict the effects of operant conditioning (e.g., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, schedules of reinforcement).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Predict how practice, schedules of reinforcement, and motivation will influence quality of learning.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Interpret graphs that exhibit the results of learning experiments.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Provide examples of how biological constraints create learning predispositions.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe the essential characteristics of insight learning, latent learning, and social learning. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Apply learning principles to explain emotional learning, taste aversion, superstitious behavior, and learned helplessness.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Suggest how behavior modification, biofeedback, coping strategies, and selfcontrol can be used to address behavioral problems.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify key contributors in the psychology of learning (e.g., Albert Bandura, John Garcia, Ivan Pavlov, Robert Rescorla, B . F . Skinner, Edward Thorndike, Edward Tolman, John B . Watson)


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">VII.Cognition (8–10%) **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In this unit students learn how humans convert sensory input into kinds of information. They examine how humans learn, remember, and retrieve information. This part of the course also addresses problem solving, language, and creativity.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Compare and contrast various cognitive processes:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">— effortful versus automatic processing;

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">— deep versus shallow processing;

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">— focused versus divided attention.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe and differentiate psychological and physiological systems of memory (e .g ., short-term memory, procedural memory).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Outline the principles that underlie effective encoding, storage, and construction of memories.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Describe strategies for memory improvement.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Synthesize how biological, cognitive, and cultural factors converge to facilitate acquisition, development, and use of language.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify problem-solving strategies as well as factors that influence their effectiveness.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• List the characteristics of creative thought and creative thinkers.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• Identify key contributors in cognitive psychology (e .g ., Noam Chomsky, Hermann Ebbinghaus, Wolfgang Köhler, Elizabeth Loftus, George A . Miller) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">