Free AP Psychology Flashcards

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Classical Conditioning

Learning through association; Pavlov's dogs; neutral stimulus becomes conditioned stimulus after pairing with unconditioned stimulus

Operant Conditioning

Learning through consequences; B.F. Skinner; reinforcement increases behavior, punishment decreases behavior

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Physiological → Safety → Love/Belonging → Esteem → Self-Actualization; must meet lower needs first

Cognitive Dissonance

Leon Festinger; mental discomfort from holding contradictory beliefs; people change attitudes to reduce discomfort

Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo (1971); students assigned guard/prisoner roles; showed power of situational forces on behavior

Milgram Obedience Study

Stanley Milgram (1963); participants administered fake shocks; 65% obeyed authority to maximum voltage level

Nature vs Nurture

Debate over whether behavior is determined by genetics (nature) or environment/experience (nurture); most traits are both

Id, Ego, Superego

Freud's personality theory; Id: pleasure principle; Ego: reality principle; Superego: moral conscience

Stages of Sleep

Stage 1-3 (NREM, progressively deeper) → REM (dreaming, brain active); cycles ~90 minutes

REM Sleep

Rapid Eye Movement; vivid dreaming occurs; brain is active; body is paralyzed; important for memory consolidation

Short-term Memory

Limited capacity (7±2 items); lasts ~20-30 seconds without rehearsal; working memory model by Baddeley

Long-term Memory

Unlimited capacity and duration; explicit (declarative) and implicit (procedural); requires encoding and consolidation

Bystander Effect

People less likely to help when others are present; diffusion of responsibility; Kitty Genovese case

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to search for information that confirms existing beliefs; ignore contradictory evidence

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts for quick decisions; availability heuristic (ease of recall); representativeness heuristic (stereotypes)

Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency to attribute others' behavior to personality rather than situational factors

Piaget's Stages

Sensorimotor (0-2) → Preoperational (2-7) → Concrete operational (7-11) → Formal operational (11+)

Erikson's Psychosocial Stages

8 stages of development from birth to death; each has a crisis: Trust vs Mistrust, Identity vs Role Confusion, etc.

Attachment Theory

Bowlby/Ainsworth; secure, anxious-avoidant, anxious-resistant attachment styles; formed in infancy; affects adult relationships

Fight or Flight Response

Sympathetic nervous system activation in response to perceived threat; adrenaline release; increased heart rate

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers: Serotonin (mood), Dopamine (reward), GABA (inhibition), Acetylcholine (memory), Norepinephrine (arousal)

Broca's Area

Left frontal lobe; controls speech production; damage causes Broca's aphasia (can understand but can't speak fluently)

Wernicke's Area

Left temporal lobe; controls language comprehension; damage causes fluent but nonsensical speech

Longitudinal Study

Same participants studied over a long period; tracks changes over time; expensive and time-consuming

Correlation vs Causation

Correlation shows relationship between variables but does NOT prove one causes the other

Placebo Effect

Improvement in condition due to belief in treatment rather than the treatment itself

DSM-5

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; standard classification of mental disorders; used by clinicians

Schizophrenia

Psychotic disorder; positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions) and negative symptoms (flat affect, social withdrawal)

Major Depressive Disorder

Persistent sadness, loss of interest, sleep/appetite changes; linked to low serotonin; treated with SSRIs and therapy

Big Five Personality Traits

OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

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