Gretel’s AP Psychology Blog

RESEARCH METHODS: HINDSIGHT BIAS:  the tendency to believe after leaving the outcome.  that you “knew along”  OVERCONFIDENCE:  tending to think we more than we do THE BARNUM EFFECT:  The tendency for people to accept very general characteristics of themselves take understand them to be accurate.   APPLIED v. BASIC RESEARCH : applied :  - clear and practical applications - you can use it   basic :  - explores questions that you might be curious about  - not intended to be use (immediately) HYPOTHESIS :  - the relationship between two variables  - variable can be anything  - ex: “Participation in class leads to better grades, than not participating” INDEPENDENT VARIABLE : - whatever is being changed in the experiment  DEPENDENT VARIABLE :  - whatever is being measured in the experiment  - DEPENDS on the independent variable OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS : - a sta...

PSYCHOLOGY :  -the science of behavior and mental processes  -science: based on research  -behavior: observation/measurable  -mental/processes: thinking, dreaming...  * STABILITY v. CHANGE  * CONTINUITY v. DISCONTINUITY  * NATURE v. NURTURE; (biology v. experience)  ------ GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY ------  - observe  - predict  - explain - describe  - control  -Socrates and his student, Plato believed that the mind was completely separate from the body, and the mind continued after death.  -Aristotle said that the soul was the NOT separate from the body and knowledge grows from experiences  -stress, illness, and abnormal behavior was caused by natural reason and not the supernatural.  -Descartes believed in soul-body separation, but questioned how the immaterial mind & physical body communicated. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704) -The mind was a blank sheet at birth, experiences wr...