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AP Psychology
Unit Review: History, Perspectives, and Science

Key Terms and Concepts

Before taking the test, you need to be able to explain the meaning of each of these terms or
concepts. Use the glossary to look up the definition of terms that you're not sure about.

animal rights applied research basic research

behavior genetics behaviorism case study
central tendency clinical cognitive
confounding variable control group correlation
data dependent variable descriptive statistics
double blind empirical ethics
evolutionary experiment experimental condition
functionalism humanism hypothesis
independent variable inferential statistics informed consent
interview mean media
mode negative (inverse) correlation neuroscience
observational operational definition percentile
placebo population positive (direct) correlation
pseudoscience psychodynamic psychology
questionnaire random assignment random selection
representative research design sample
sampling science skepticism
standard deviation statistical significance structuralism
survey theory third variable
validity variable variance
z-score

History and Perspectives of Psychology

Psychology is an independent science. Modern psychologists work to gain knowledge and

apply what has been learned beneficially in many areas of everyday life. The birth of
psychology as a separate science can be traced back to the 19th century, and grew from
the work of early pioneers such as Wilhelm Wundt.
As you review materials in this course, you will see that there are now very few areas of our
personal and work lives that do not involve some knowledge of psychology; the science that
describes, explains and predicts human behavior and experience. You can also learn about
the perspectives that dominate modern psychology.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the nature, purpose and goals of psychology

• Identify persons, perspectives and events of significance in the early history of

psychology

• Describe the current major perspectives in psychology

• Identify the major applications of psychology and the career fields relevant to these

• Differentiate between clinical and other applications of psychology

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AP Psychology
Unit Review: History, Perspectives, and Science

Sample Questions
Be sure that you can give cogent answers to the following questions:

• Compare the explanations that a psychoanalyst, a behaviorist, and a humanistic

psychologist would offer to help us understand why a person would run a marathon.

• List four modern perspectives in psychology and give an example of a typical

question or problem that would be investigated within each.

• Describe the tasks that might be included in the typical workday of a school
psychologist.

Research Methods

Psychology is a science. Experimental and other psychologists who do research strive to

formulate testable hypotheses. They seek empirical evidence to support or reject
conclusions.

In this section we will review the categories of scientific studies done by psychologists, and
examine each type's weaknesses and strengths. For example, experiments may be the best
way to determine cause and effect connections between variables, but may not always be
ethical or feasible to do.

Non-experimental studies do not pose the same challenge. They don't allow us to infer
causal connections between variables because we have much less control. Review the
activities that help you to differentiate between experimental and other types of research
studies.

In choosing a research method, psychological scientists must often make trade-offs to

balance the goal of achieving valid results with the practical challenges of research
performance. Psychological researchers also strive to be good critical thinkers—they try to
evaluate claims based on the quality of the evidence presented.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the differences and relationship between applied and basic research

• Describe the major categories of research study

• List and describe the most common methods used in collecting research samples

• Describe the unique characteristics of true experiments

• Define the terms "independent variable" and "dependent variable"

• Describe the major challenges involved in doing correlational research

• Define what "positive" and "negative" correlations signify

• Describe the advantages and disadvantages of performing observational studies

• Identify the methods by which observational and correlational research are carried
out

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AP Psychology
Unit Review: History, Perspectives, and Science

• List the major ethical issues that are raised in the process of doing research with
human subjects and animal subjects

• Define the term "informed consent"

Sample Questions
Be sure you are able to answer the following questions.
• Design a true experiment to test the effectiveness of a new medication to alleviate
social anxiety.

• Explain why "correlation does not equal causation."

• Explain why it would most likely not be possible to design an experiment to

determine whether or not smoking causes gradual memory loss in humans.

Basic Statistics

Statistical procedures are the major tools for measurement, data description, and analysis.
Although statistical procedures can seem bewildering, they fall into two broad categories:
descriptive and inferential.

Descriptive statistics are just that — methods for describing characteristics of individuals
and groups. Height, weight, IQ, and many other indices yield means and standard
deviations that give us an idea of where members of a group cluster and how they typically
spread out.

Inferential procedures (when done according to protocols) are used to help us test our
hypotheses — scientific "educated guesses" — by allowing us to infer and interpret the
meaning of similarities and differences in our descriptive data.

To further your comprehension of statistics and the difference between descriptive and
inferential statistics, be sure to re-read the relevant section of your textbook and these
course materials.

Finally, keep in mind that unlike the other mathematical calculations you've learned, where
"right" is "right," it is possible to do your statistics correctly and still draw incorrect
conclusions about population conditions or characteristics. Statistics are performed on
sample data. Researchers almost never have access to every member of a population, and
often miss the truth they could have found, had they been able to look at the "big picture."

Learning Objectives
• Define the terms "data", "sample," and "population."

• Identify the three major types of central tendency and give an example of each.

• Identify the two major measures of variation.

• Define the term "percentile."

• Define the term "normal distribution."

• Explain how a distribution can become positively or negatively skewed.

• Explain the information that a z-score provides.

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AP Psychology
Unit Review: History, Perspectives, and Science

• Describe what is meant by the term "representative sample."

• Define the term "statistical significance."

Sample Questions
What do you remember about samples?

• Describe how a researcher might maximize his or her chances of obtaining a

representative sample.

• Give an example of a situation in which median or mode might be the appropriate

way to express central tendency in a population.

• What does the standard deviation tell us about a sample or population?

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