AP Psychology

What did the following psychologist show about behavior?

Harry Harlow

Konrad Lorenz

Paul Ekman

Why is the use of the polygraph lie detector suspect?
Know each of the Axes of the DSM – IV- TR

What are antagonist and agonist drugs?

What can a test-retest correlation tell a researcher about the reliability of a test?

What does Gestalt psychology primarily investigate?

What is an absolute threshold?

What is the difference between sampling bias and experimenter bias?

What is a social desirability bias?

What is transduction and where does it take place for all the senses

What is the difference between fetal alcohol syndrome, and phenylketonurial?

What is the difference between the trichromatic theory of color perception and the opponent-process theory?

What is the difference between content, construct and predictive validly?

What is the gate control theory of pain?

What are display rules?

What is the purpose of debriefing?

What perspective is most interesting in locus o control in analyzing behavior?

How does a somatization disorder differ from hypochondriasis and conversion disorder?

What did we learn from Schachter and Singer’s experiment that aroused participants through injections of epinephrine?

What is belief perseverance?

We will postpone the Chapter test until after Chinese New Year. We will spend one to two lesson during the first week back covering and reviewing all material on personality.

1. When can babies first recognize their mother’s smell? Voice? Face?
2. Define these important terms: maturation, accommodation, menarche, critical period, object permanence, assimilation, attachment, habituation, social clock, theory of mind, rooting reflex, teratogen, menopause.
3. What is the difference between authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles?
4. What is the difference between fluid and crystallized intelligence?
5. Know all the stages of Piaget, Kohlberg and Erikson’s theories?
6. On what do females base their sense of personal identity?
7. What is the ideal parent?
8. What illnesses are more likely to occur in the elderly?
9. What is infantile amnesia and what causes it?
10. When do our physical abilities peak?
11. What are the advantages of early puberty in boys?
12. What are the symptoms of autism?
13. How can parents foster secure attachment?
14. What is the empty nest syndrome?
15. What happens to a male physically as he advances through middle adulthood?
16. How does self-esteem fluctuate for young Americans from teen years to late teen years?
17. What are women more likely to do in marriage compared to men?
18. What causes Alzheimer’s disease?
19. What is the difference between primary and secondary sex characteristics?
20. What is the best predicator of marital satisfaction?
21. What happens to our sense of hearing as we age?

Do not forget the online quiz.

Discuss your teenage life by referring your physical, intellectual, emotional and social development. Ensure that you refer to concepts discussed in class and covered in your text.
In your conclusion discuss:
· the extent to which you know who your are i. e. to what extent have you defined your identity
· which theory of adolescence makes most sense to you:
Hall’s view of adolescence as a time of storm and stress view, or Mead’s theory that adolescence is an enjoyable time or Havighust’s view that adolescence is a time of challenges.

1. Define memory.
2. Why are flashbulb memories so strong?
3. What are the three stages in information processing model of memory?
4. What do we call our visual sensory memory and our aural sensory memory?
5. How long do these last?
6. What did we learn about iconic memory from Sperling?
7. What is the capacity of our STM?
8. How can we retain more information in our STM?
9. What is the capacity of our LTM?
10. Give examples of automatic and effortful processing.
11. Why does rehearsal of information improve retention?
12. What are the benefits of spaced learning?
13. Explain the serial position effect?
14. What is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference?
15. What are example of mnemonics?
16. What did we learn form Kandel and Schwartz?
17. How does chunking help us?
18. What did we learn from the experiments concerning context clues?
19. We learnt that we are not video recorders, instead we construct memories. What does this mean and what are these reconstructions of the past based on what?
20. If you had a PET scan in operation, what part of the brain would you aim it at to determine if someone is lying?
21. What is LTP?
22. Give biological explanations of infantile amnesia?
23. What are our two major types of memory
24. How have studies of people suffering from amnesia confirmed this? (p.332)
25. How can we use Bowers experiment to help us study?
26. Recall, recognition and relearning are all indication of ______________ in action.
27. Compare and contrast implicit and explicit memories.
28. Why should we be wary of hypnotically refreshed memories?
29. What is deja vu?
30. Define the following: blocking, suggestibility, bias and misattribuiton, sources amnesia.

Seriously, the next three weeks will place extra demands on your time and commitment to achieving good grades for the semester. A. P. courses by their very nature leave little time for navel gazing or running home to grandma.

Our goals over the next three weeks are to:

1. Complete Chapter 9 and 10
2. Complete two chapter tests on Chapters 9 and 10
3. Complete retests if necessary.
4. Complete Chapter 12 and 13 (These chapters will be tested in the exam.)
5. Revise for the AP Psychology Semester Exam. (See Revision Guide Post)

To this end and to reduce stress there will be no November bloglog. The work you have completed to date will be held over to the January Bloglog.

Schedule

D Block Class:

20 November Chapter 9 Test (end of lesson)

29 November Chapter 10 Test (beginning of lesson)

29 November to 5 December Motivation and Emotion Chapters

7 December Exam period

G Block Class

21 November Chapter 9 Test (end of lesson)

30 November Chapter 10 Test (beginning of lesson)

30 November to 6 December Motivation and Emotion Chapters

7 December Exam period

Study and Review Opportunities

Starting next week (Except for Wednesdays) I will be available after school for review and assistance either individually or in small groups.

We can do this!

Cognitive Psychology
Definition: a study of the way we process, understand and communicate information

Schemas
Definition: A framework that organizes and interprets information
Schemas are continually being utilized and redesigned through the dual processes of assimilation and accommodation
Assimilation sees new experiences organized with similar material e.g. a child learns the word doggie and then calls a cow a doggie when he first sees one.
After some further experiences with these two animals or after being corrected, the child might change his schema through the process of accommodation.
Accommodation sees schemas change in response to new experiences. e.g. the child now develops a new categories labeled dog cow cats horses etc.

Concepts
Definition: Mental groupings of similar objects, events and places.
We can store these visually through images or verbally through words. We usually have a prototype of a particular concept e.g. robins as opposed to penguins.

Solving Problems and Making Decisions and Judgments
Methods
· algorithms : step by step problem solving strategies e.g. looking for something at the supermarket by starting in the first aisle and then step by step walking along all aisles until object found
· heuristics: mental strategies or ‘rules of thumb’ e. g. looking for an object at the supermarket by going to that section i.e. washing up liquid in the detergent aisle
· insights: some heuristics may operate unconsciously producing moments of insight

Obstacles to Solving Problems
· Confirmation bias can cause difficulties because we are prone to look for information that confirms previously held ideas while disregarding information that challenges the idea (this is self-serving because the process confirms we are right and we always like to be right)
· Fixation: using a mental set– i.e. a way of solving a problem– repeatedly even when it fails to produce a solution. This hinders our ability to redefine the problem. Recall the 6 matchstick to make 4 triangles demonstration or the join the dots problem.
· Functional fixedness is the same but applied to the uses to which objects can be put. Recall the candle mounting problem.
· Representatives Heuristic: We tend to estimate the likelihood of things in terms of how closely that represent the prototype. This can let us down. Recall the slim truck driving poet.
· Availability Heuristic: We make erroneous judgments based on the presence of some event in our memories. Recall Handout 10-4
· Overconfidence: We tend to be overconfident about the correctness of our thinking. Recall Handout 10-4
· Framing: The way an issue or question is addressed can influence our thinking. The Loftus experiments on eye-witness testimony demonstrated the power of words in questions.
· Belief Bias and perseverance. Our beliefs can distort logic and we have a tendency to cling to our original beliefs even in the face of contradictory information..

Essential Questions.
1. How do we learn?
2. What are the practical implications of the principles of learning studied by psychology?

Topic Activity

1. Learning: Overview of the types of learning
2. Classical Conditioning:
Pavlovian conditioning
Worksheet: Classical Conditioning
Little Albert Case Study
3. Operant Conditioning:
Contingencies of Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement and Punishment
Operant Conditioning worksheet
Types of Reinforcers
Schedules of Reinforcement
4. Modeling:
Bandura and the Bobo doll

5. Learned Helplessness Learned Optimism and testing your optimism
My ABCDEs

6. Review Video: Learning

Assessment Chapter Test

Focus
Write about a time when you taught someone a particular skill or some information. Describe your method and evaluate your success.

Introduction:

Briefly outline the major theories concerning dreams. (PP Lecture and article All in the Mind)

Body Paragraph 1

Describe your dream

Body Paragraph 2

Reflect on your dream in light of the various theories. Can you find evidence to support their explanations as to why we dream.

Conclusion:

Explain which theory makes most sense to you

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