AP Psych Chpts 1 and 2 Test Review

Chapter 1

People: focus on Wundt, Freud, Skinner, Maslow

Schools of thought: Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism,
Psychoanalysis, Humanism, Cognitivism, Evolutionary, Developmental (know
the basic focus of each and people involved)
Psychology as a profession: be able to identify applied/clinical psychology,
counseling psych, industrial/organizational psych, and educational psych
Know reasons for a focus on cultural variables in psychology
Understand the Nature vs. Nurture debate

Chapter 2

Be able to recognize a hypothesis and theory

Definition of operational definition
The various research methods: experiment, naturalistic observation, survey,
case study (know advantages and disadvantages
Identify independent and dependent variables
Understand random assignment, sampling/population---know sample bias as
well
Identify control and experimental groups
Statistics: understand descriptive and inferential
Central tendency: mean, median, mode, standard of deviation
Correlative studies: correlation coefficient
Statistical significance
Problems in research and how to correct them: experimenter bias (selffulfilling prophecy), placebo effect, response set (distortions); double-blind
study

Essay Options
1. Discuss the contributions of structuralism and functionalism to the evolution
of psychology as a discipline.
2. Compare and contrast the psychoanalytic, behaviorist, and humanist
perspectives with regard to their assumptions about human nature.
3. Provide an overview, from the 1870s to the present, of psychologys interest
in the study of mental processes.
4. Design a simple experiment to investigate the effects of television violence
on childrens aggressive behavior, being sure to identify the independent and
dependent variables, and the experimental and control groups.
5. What is the difference between a positive correlation and a negative
correlation? List some specific variables that you predict would be positively

correlated, and variables that would be negatively correlated, with alcohol

consumption by college students.
6. How do you feel about the use of animals as research subjects in
psychological studies? Back up your position with evidence.