AP Psychology Course Description:
Advanced Placement Psychology is offered to the serious student who desires the
challenge of a college-level course in high school. The course provides a scientific
study of the origins and development of human behavior. The historical
development of psychology and the major theories of psychology are presented, as
well as the methods used to study behavioral questions. Emphasis is placed on
scientific reasoning, and extensive reading and writing are required. Students are
expected to take the advanced placement examination in May. College credit may
be granted, subject to the requirements of the college or university.
Advanced Placement Psychology is a year long elective credit course offered to
students in grades eleven and twelve.
SUMMER ASSIGNMENT
“The study of psychology, I believe, enhances our abilities to restrain intuition with
critical thinking, judgmentalism with compassion, and illusion with understanding.”
th
(David Myers, Author of Psychology, 9 edition)
Producing critical thinkers is the primary goal of our Advanced Placement Psychology
course. What is a critical thinker? “Critical thinkers are open-minded. They can live with
uncertainty and ambiguity. They enjoy mysteries, avoid easy compartmentalizations of
the world, and resist black-white analyses of complex issues.” (Myers, Psychology) In
the study of psychology, it sometimes seems there are more questions than answers. One
way to get a handle on the vast amount of information explored in the course is to ensure
each student possesses a foundation of psychological terminology.
Your summer assignment is to get a jump on the vocabulary utilized for relevant
discussion in the course. You may use online resources, dictionaries, textbooks, or other
sources at your local library to define the attached psychological terms. Many students
are often surprised by the amount of biology and statistics present in the AP Psychology
curriculum. Completing the summer vocabulary list ensures there are no
misconceptions about the nature of the course in September. Psychology is truly a
social science.
Mr. Chris Jacobs: [email protected]
Enjoy defining the terms. Have a good summer and I look forward to greeting each of
you in the fall.
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absolute threshold
accommodation
acronyms
action potential
activation synthesis hypothesis
acuity
adaptation-level phenomenon
adrenal glands epinephrine/adrenalin
afterimage effect
agonist
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algorithms
all-or-none response
anorexia nervosa
antagonist
anterograde amnesia retrograde amnesia
anvil
applied research
approach/approach
approach/avoidance
arousal theory
auditory canal
auditory cortex
auditory nerve
autonomic
availability heuristic
avoidance/avoidance
axon
babbling
back-masking
basal metabolic rate
basic research
basilar membrane
behavior genetics
behavioral medicine
belief bias
belief perseverance
bias
binocular cues
biofeedback
bipolar cells
blind spot
brainstem
bulimia nervosa
case study
catharsis
cell body
central nervous system
cerebellum
Chomsky’s concept of overgeneralization
chromosome
chronological age
chunking
clairvoyance
closure
cochlea
cocktail party phenomenon
cognitive map
70. color blindness
71. conduction deafness
72. cones
73. confabulation
74. confirmation bias
75. confounding variables
76. connectedness
77. content validity
78. context effects
79. context effects
80. continuity
81. continuous vs. intermittent schedules
82. control group
83. convergence
84. convolutions
85. cornea
86. corpus callosum
87. correlation coefficient
88. creativity
89. criterion validity
90. CT
91. decay
92. déjà vu effect
93. demand characteristics
94. dendrite
95. dependent variable
96. depth perception
97. difference threshold just-noticeable difference
98. dissociation
99. DNA
100. double-blind technique
101. Down’s syndrome
102. drive-reduction theory
103. eardrum/
104. echoic memories
105. EEG
106. EEG
107. eidetic memory
108. electrical stimulation
109. episodic (flashbulb)
110. eugenics
111. excitatory
112. executive monkeys
113. experiment
114. experimental group
115. experimenter bias
116. externals
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extrasensory perception
extrinsic motivation
factor analysis
false consensus effect
far-sightedness
feature detectors
feel-good do-good phenomenon
figure/ground
fixation
fixed interval
fixed ratio
Flynn effect
fovea
framing effect
frequency theory
functional fixedness
ganglion cells
gate-control theory
gender identity
gender roles
gender schema theory
gender typed
gene complexes
General Adaptation Syndrome
generalizability
genome
g-factor
glial cells
glucose
gonads (estrogen, testosterone)
grammar
hammer
Hawthorne effect
heritability
heuristics
hidden observer
hierarchies
hierarchy of needs
hindsight bias
homeostasis
hue
hypothalamus
hypothesis
iconic memory
identical (monozygotic)
illusions (Mueller-Lyer, Ames room, Ponzo, Poggendorf);
illusory correlation
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illusory correlation
implicit/explicit
incentive theory
independent variable
inhibitory
inner-ear
insight
insomnia
instinct theory
insulin
intelligence quotient
intensity
interneurons
interposition/superposition/overlap
intrinsic motivation
iris
Kinsey’s studies
language acquisition device (LAD)
latent content
latent learning
lateral hypothalamus
lens
leptin
lesion
light and shadow
linear perspective
longitudinal study
long-term memory semantic memory
lucid dreaming
lymphocytes
macrophage
manifest content
Masters and Johnson’s stages of the sexual response cycle
mean
median
mental age
mental set
meta-cognition
method of loci
middle-ear
misinformation effect
mode
modeling
molecular genetics
monocular cues
mood-congruent
morphemes
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motor/efferent
MRI
myelin sheath
narcolepsy
natural selection/mutation
naturalistic observation
near-sightedness
nerve
nerve(sensory/neural) deafness
neural network
neurotransmitters
neutral stimulus
night terrors
noradrenalin
norepinephrine/
occipital lobe
olfactory bulb
olfactory nerve
one-word stage
operational definitions
opiate
Opponent-process theory
optic nerve
overconfidence effect
overjustification effect
pain, pressure, warm, cold
pancreas (insulin)
parapsychology
parietal lobes
peg-word
peripheral
phantom limb pain
pheromones
phi phenomenon
Phineas Gage
phonemes
pinna
pituitary gland
place theory
placebo
plasticity
population
post-hypnotic amnesia
post-hypnotic suggestion
precognition
predictive validity
priming
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proactive interference retroactive interference
procedural,
prosocial behavior
proximity
psychokinesis
psychophysiologial illnesses
pupil
random assignment/ randomization
random sample
range
recall
recognition
reflex
refractory period
reification
relative clarity/aerial perspective
relative deprivation
relative height/elevation
relative motion/motion parallax
relative size
REM rebound
replicate
representativeness heuristic
repression
respondent behavior elicit
resting potential
retina
retinal disparity
retrieval cues
reuptake
rods
rote rehearsal elaborative rehearsal
sample
scatterplot
schema
semantics
semi-circular canals in the ear
sensory cortex
sensory memory
sensory/afferent
serial position effect
serotonin
set point
sexuality
shape, size, light, color, brightness constancies
shaping/successive approximations
short-term memory
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signal-detection theory
similarity
Skinner box
sleep apnea
sleep spindles
social learning theory
sodium
sound localization
source amnesia
spacing effect
split-half reliability
stages of sleep paradoxical sleep
standard deviation
Stanford-Binet test
state-dependent memory
Sternberg’s intelligences (analytical, creative, practical)
stirrup
stroboscopic motion
summation
survey
sympathetic parasympathetic
synapse
syntax
taste aversion
taste buds
telegraphic speech
telepathy
temperament
temporal lobe
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terminal buttons/ synaptic knobs
testosterone
test-retest reliability
texture gradient
THC
theory
three primary colors of light
threshold
thyroid (thyroxin)
trial and error
two-word stage
tympanic membrane
types of brain waves
types of twins: fraternal(dizygotic)
unconscious
variable interval
variable ratio
ventromedial hypothalamus
vestibular sac
visual cliff
visual cortex
Washoe
wavelength
Weber’s law
Whorf’s theory of linguistic determinism hypothesis (linguistic relativity)
wording effect
X and Y chromosomes
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic theory