Master AP Psychology with unit flashcards, practice MCQs, AAQ/EBQ scoring, and AI-powered study tools. Built for high school students.
5
Units
75
MCQs on exam
1 AAQ · 1 EBQ
Written questions
2h 10min
Exam length
Most universities grant credit for AP Psychology scores of 4 or 5.
The biological bases of behavior explore how our brain, nervous system, and genetics shape everything we think, feel, and do. At the most fundamental level, behavior emerges from the activity of neurons, which are specialized cells that communicate through electrical and chemical signals. Understanding how these cells work, how they connect into systems, and how those systems produce experience is the foundation of biological psychology.
The nervous system is organized into two major divisions. The central nervous system, made up of the brain and spinal cord, acts as the command center. The peripheral nervous system carries information to and from the body, with the somatic division handling voluntary movement and the autonomic division managing involuntary functions like heart rate and digestion. Within the autonomic system, the sympathetic division mobilizes the body for action while the parasympathetic division restores calm. The brain itself contains specialized structures, from the brainstem handling survival functions to the cerebral cortex enabling complex thought, language, and decision-making.
Beyond structure, this unit examines how the brain changes and adapts. Psychoactive drugs hijack natural neurotransmitter systems, sleep follows predictable cycles tied to biological rhythms, and our senses convert physical energy into neural signals through a process called transduction. Twin studies and research on heritability reveal that genes and environment work together to shape personality and behavior rather than one simply overriding the other. Neuroimaging technologies like fMRI and PET scans have given researchers a window into the living brain, transforming our ability to link brain activity to behavior.
Action Potential
A brief electrical charge that travels down the axon of a neuron when the cell reaches a threshold of stimulation. It follows an all-or-nothing principle, meaning it either fires completely or not at all.
Synapse
The junction between two neurons where communication occurs. Neurotransmitters are released from the terminal buttons of one neuron and bind to receptor sites on the dendrites of the next.
Neurotransmitter
A chemical messenger released into the synapse that carries signals from one neuron to another. Different neurotransmitters have different effects, with some exciting the receiving neuron and others inhibiting it.
Myelin Sheath
A fatty layer of insulation that wraps around the axons of some neurons and dramatically speeds up the transmission of neural impulses. Damage to this sheath, as seen in multiple sclerosis, slows or disrupts neural communication.
Limbic System
A set of interconnected brain structures involved in emotion, memory, and motivation. Key components include the amygdala, which processes fear and emotion, the hippocampus, which is critical for forming new memories, and the hypothalamus, which regulates hunger, thirst, and body temperature.
Cerebral Cortex
The thin outer layer of the brain divided into four lobes, responsible for higher-order functions including thinking, perceiving, and language. The frontal lobe handles planning and decision-making, the parietal lobe processes touch and spatial awareness, the temporal lobe is involved in hearing and language, and the occipital lobe handles vision.
REM Sleep
A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, vivid dreaming, and brain activity resembling a waking state. The body's voluntary muscles are temporarily paralyzed during this stage, and REM sleep is thought to play a role in emotional processing and memory consolidation.
Transduction
The process by which sensory receptors convert physical stimuli, such as light or sound, into neural signals the brain can interpret. Every sense organ accomplishes transduction in a different way suited to its type of energy.
Absolute Threshold
The minimum intensity of a stimulus that a person can detect fifty percent of the time. This value varies between individuals and can be influenced by factors like fatigue and attention.
Corpus Callosum
A thick band of neural fibers connecting the left and right cerebral hemispheres and allowing them to communicate. Severing it, as in split-brain surgery, prevents the hemispheres from sharing information and reveals their different specializations.
1. A researcher studying the effects of a new antidepressant finds that the drug prevents the reuptake of serotonin, leaving more of it available in the synapse. Which of the following best describes how this drug functions?
2. During a laboratory exercise, a student shows a split-brain patient the word APPLE in the left visual field and ORANGE in the right visual field. When asked to verbally identify what they saw, the patient says ORANGE. When asked to use their left hand to point to what they saw, they point to a picture of an apple. Which of the following best explains this pattern of results?
3. A psychologist measures how much a background noise level must change before participants can reliably notice a difference. Which sensory concept is this researcher investigating?
Cognition is the mental process of acquiring, storing, and using knowledge. Unit 2 begins with perception, which is how your brain interprets sensory information. Bottom-up processing starts with raw sensory data and builds toward meaning, while top-down processing uses your existing knowledge and expectations to interpret what you sense. Gestalt principles explain how we organize visual information into meaningful wholes, and perceptual constancies allow us to recognize objects as stable even when viewing conditions change.
Memory is one of the most heavily tested areas of this unit. The Atkinson-Shiffrin model describes a three-stage system moving from sensory memory to short-term memory to long-term memory. Baddeley expanded the short-term memory concept into a richer working memory model with multiple components. Long-term memory divides into explicit memory, which includes conscious recall of facts and events, and implicit memory, which includes skills and conditioned responses that operate below conscious awareness. Forgetting can result from decay, interference, retrieval failure, or in some cases motivated suppression.
This unit also covers thinking, language, and intelligence. Humans use both systematic algorithms and efficient but error-prone heuristics to solve problems, and cognitive biases like confirmation bias and the availability heuristic reveal predictable flaws in human reasoning. Language development involves an innate capacity described by Chomsky, while Whorf argued that the language we speak shapes how we think. Intelligence itself is debated, with Spearman proposing a single general factor, Gardner arguing for multiple distinct intelligences, and Sternberg describing three practical types of intelligent behavior.
Bottom-up processing
A perceptual process driven by incoming sensory data, where the brain builds meaning from raw features without relying on prior expectations or knowledge.
Top-down processing
A perceptual process guided by prior knowledge, expectations, and context, allowing the brain to interpret ambiguous sensory information more quickly.
Working memory
A limited-capacity memory system that actively holds and manipulates information for immediate use; Baddeley's model includes a central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad.
Long-term potentiation
A strengthening of synaptic connections following repeated stimulation, considered the neural basis for learning and the formation of long-term memories.
Explicit memory
Conscious, declarative memory that can be intentionally recalled, including episodic memory for personal events and semantic memory for general facts.
Implicit memory
Unconscious memory that influences behavior without deliberate recall, including procedural skills and classically conditioned responses.
Proactive interference
A type of forgetting in which older, previously learned information disrupts the ability to recall newer information stored afterward.
Heuristic
A mental shortcut or rule of thumb that speeds up decision-making and problem-solving but can lead to systematic errors in judgment.
Confirmation bias
The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.
Linguistic relativity (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)
The hypothesis proposed by Benjamin Lee Whorf that the language we speak influences and shapes the way we think and perceive the world.
1. A researcher shows participants a list of 20 words and asks them to recall as many as possible immediately after. She finds that participants remember the first few words and the last few words significantly better than the words in the middle. Which memory phenomena best explain these results?
2. Maria is learning Spanish vocabulary for the first time. She links the Spanish word 'carta' (letter) to the English word 'card' because both relate to written communication. This strategy best illustrates which encoding technique?
3. A psychologist studying cognitive biases tells participants that a used car has already been marked down from $24,000 to $18,000, and asks them to rate the deal. A second group is told the car costs $18,000 with no prior price mentioned. The first group consistently rates the deal as more favorable than the second group. This best demonstrates which cognitive bias?
Development psychology examines how humans grow and change across the lifespan, from prenatal beginnings through old age. Researchers use two primary designs to study these changes: cross-sectional studies compare different age groups at one point in time for quick results, while longitudinal studies follow the same individuals over years to track real change. Each method has trade-offs — cross-sectional studies are faster but can miss individual patterns, while longitudinal studies are thorough but expensive and time-consuming.
Cognitive development is dominated by Jean Piaget, who argued that children move through four stages as they actively construct their understanding of the world. Infants in the sensorimotor stage develop object permanence, toddlers in the preoperational stage struggle with egocentrism and conservation, school-age children in the concrete operational stage master logical thinking about real objects, and adolescents in the formal operational stage can reason abstractly. Lev Vygotsky challenged Piaget by emphasizing that learning is deeply social — his concept of the zone of proximal development describes the gap between what a child can do alone and what they can do with guidance from a more skilled partner.
Learning theory explores how experience shapes behavior and mental processes. Classical conditioning, discovered by Pavlov, shows how neutral stimuli become associated with automatic responses. Operant conditioning, developed by Skinner building on Thorndike's work, explains how consequences like reinforcement and punishment shape voluntary behavior. Bandura added that we also learn by watching others, and cognitive psychologists like Kohler and Tolman demonstrated that learning can occur mentally, without any direct reward at all.
Object Permanence
The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen or touched. According to Piaget, this develops during the sensorimotor stage, around 8 months of age.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Vygotsky's term for the range of tasks a learner cannot yet do alone but can accomplish with guidance from a more skilled person. It highlights the social nature of cognitive growth.
Classical Conditioning
A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally triggers a response, eventually eliciting that response on its own. Pavlov first demonstrated this with dogs and food.
Operant Conditioning
A learning process in which behavior is strengthened or weakened based on its consequences, such as reinforcement or punishment. B.F. Skinner was the primary researcher associated with this form of learning.
Positive Reinforcement
Adding a desirable stimulus after a behavior in order to increase the likelihood that the behavior will occur again. For example, giving a child praise after they complete their homework.
Schedule of Reinforcement
The pattern that determines how often a desired behavior is reinforced, such as after a fixed number of responses or after a variable amount of time. Variable ratio schedules produce the highest and most persistent rates of responding.
Secure Attachment
An attachment style identified by Ainsworth in which an infant uses the caregiver as a safe base, shows distress when separated, and is quickly comforted upon reunion. It is associated with sensitive, responsive caregiving.
Egocentrism
Piaget's term for the preoperational child's inability to take another person's perspective or understand that others see the world differently. The three-mountains task is a classic demonstration of this limitation.
Observational Learning
Learning that occurs by watching and imitating the behavior of others, even without direct reinforcement. Bandura demonstrated this in his Bobo doll experiments, where children imitated aggressive adult models.
Teratogen
Any environmental agent, such as a drug, disease, or chemical, that can harm a developing embryo or fetus during prenatal development. The effects of a teratogen often depend on the timing and amount of exposure.
1. A developmental psychologist wants to study how memory changes from age 20 to age 70. She recruits groups of 20-, 40-, and 70-year-olds and tests them all in the same month. Which of the following is the most significant limitation of this research design?
2. A teacher notices that students work hardest on assignments right before grades are posted each Friday, but their effort drops off sharply at the start of each new week. Which schedule of reinforcement best explains this pattern of behavior?
3. A researcher shows four-year-old Maya two identical glasses of water, then pours one glass into a tall, thin container. When asked which container has more water, Maya points to the tall container. Maya's response is best explained by which concept from Piaget's theory?
Halfway through the units.
Create a free account to save your progress, build custom flashcard sets, and get AI tutoring on any psychology concept.
Continue with Study Them →Social psychology explores how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. Central to this is attribution theory, which examines how we explain behavior. When we attribute behavior to a person's character or personality, that is a dispositional attribution. When we credit the situation or environment, that is a situational attribution. The fundamental attribution error describes our tendency to overweight dispositional causes and underweight situational ones when judging others, while the actor-observer bias notes that we flip this pattern for our own behavior, blaming situations for our mistakes but crediting our character for our successes.
Social influence shapes behavior in powerful ways. Solomon Asch demonstrated that people will conform to an obviously wrong group answer simply to avoid standing out, revealing normative social influence at work. Stanley Milgram's obedience studies showed that ordinary people would administer what they believed were dangerous electric shocks when instructed by an authority figure, illustrating how situational pressures can override personal ethics. Group dynamics add further complexity: groupthink occurs when a cohesive group prioritizes harmony over critical thinking, the bystander effect shows that individuals are less likely to help in emergencies when others are present, and diffusion of responsibility explains why each person assumes someone else will act.
Personality psychology seeks to understand what makes individuals consistent across time and situations. Freud's psychodynamic theory emphasizes the unconscious mind, driven by the competing forces of the id, ego, and superego, and explains psychological tension through defense mechanisms like repression and projection. Humanistic theorists like Maslow and Rogers offered a more optimistic view, focusing on growth, self-actualization, and the need for unconditional positive regard. Trait theories, culminating in the Big Five model, describe personality along five stable dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Bandura's social-cognitive approach adds that personality also emerges from the interaction between behavior, environment, and personal factors, a concept called reciprocal determinism.
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining other people's behavior. For example, assuming a rude cashier is a bad person rather than considering they may be having a difficult day.
Cognitive Dissonance
Leon Festinger's concept describing the mental discomfort experienced when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors. People are motivated to reduce this tension by changing a belief, adding new cognitions, or rationalizing.
Conformity
Adjusting one's behavior or beliefs to match the perceived norms of a group. Asch's line studies demonstrated that people will conform to an obviously incorrect group consensus due to normative social influence.
Obedience
Changing one's behavior in response to a direct order from an authority figure. Milgram's experiments revealed that a majority of participants would administer apparently dangerous shocks when commanded to do so by an authority.
Bystander Effect
The phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help in an emergency when other people are present. Research by Darley and Latané linked this to diffusion of responsibility, where each bystander assumes someone else will intervene.
Reciprocal Determinism
Albert Bandura's concept that personality and behavior are shaped by a continuous three-way interaction between personal cognitive factors, behavior, and the environment. No single factor determines behavior on its own.
Defense Mechanisms
In Freud's psychodynamic theory, unconscious mental strategies used by the ego to reduce anxiety arising from conflicts between the id and superego. Common examples include repression, projection, rationalization, and displacement.
Self-Efficacy
Bandura's term for a person's belief in their own ability to successfully execute a specific task or behavior. High self-efficacy is associated with greater motivation, persistence, and achievement.
Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory
The theory that emotion results from two components: physiological arousal and a cognitive label applied to explain that arousal. The same state of arousal can produce different emotions depending on how the person interprets the context.
Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN)
A widely accepted trait model describing personality across five dimensions: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. These traits are considered relatively stable across adulthood and are supported by cross-cultural research.
1. A researcher tells participants they are studying teaching methods. Participants are instructed to administer electric shocks to a learner in another room each time the learner gives a wrong answer, increasing the voltage with each error. Despite hearing apparent cries of pain, 65 percent of participants delivered the maximum shock level. Which concept best explains why participants continued administering shocks even when they appeared distressed by doing so?
2. After spending weeks arguing that a particular diet plan does not work, Marcus reluctantly tries it and loses ten pounds. He then tells his friends that he always believed the diet was effective and that he had encouraged others to try it. Marcus's behavior is best explained by which of the following?
3. A social psychologist conducts a study in which participants complete a challenging puzzle either alone or in the presence of an audience. Results show that participants who had already practiced the puzzle extensively performed better in front of an audience, while novice participants performed worse in front of an audience. Which concept best explains this pattern of results?
Mental and physical health are deeply interconnected, and Unit 5 explores how psychologists define, diagnose, and treat psychological disorders. The unit begins with an important question: what makes a behavior or thought pattern a disorder? Psychologists use criteria like distress, dysfunction, and statistical rarity, while models like the medical model and the biopsychosocial model offer different frameworks for understanding causes. The DSM-5 serves as the standard diagnostic manual in the United States, organizing disorders into categories based on shared symptoms.
The unit surveys a wide range of specific disorders, from neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD and autism spectrum disorder to mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, dissociative disorders, and personality disorders. For each category, students should understand the core symptoms, proposed causes, and how the disorder fits into the broader biopsychosocial framework. For example, schizophrenia involves both positive symptoms like hallucinations and negative symptoms like flat affect, and researchers have linked it to excess dopamine activity in certain brain pathways.
The final major focus of this unit is treatment, both historical and modern. Early reformers like Phillipe Pinel and Dorothea Dix fought to treat people with mental illness humanely rather than imprisoning them. Today, treatments fall into two broad categories: biomedical approaches such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, and ECT, and psychotherapies such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and humanistic therapy. Understanding the goals and techniques of each approach, as well as which disorders they are best suited for, is essential for success on the AP exam.
Biopsychosocial Model
A framework that explains psychological disorders as the result of interacting biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors rather than any single cause.
DSM-5
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, published by the American Psychiatric Association and used to diagnose psychological disorders based on standardized symptom criteria.
Positive Symptoms (Schizophrenia)
Symptoms of schizophrenia that reflect an excess or distortion of normal function, including hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized speech.
Negative Symptoms (Schizophrenia)
Symptoms of schizophrenia that reflect a diminishment of normal function, such as flat affect, alogia (reduced speech), and avolition (lack of motivation).
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
A psychotherapy developed largely by Aaron Beck that helps clients identify and restructure maladaptive thought patterns in order to change emotions and behaviors.
Systematic Desensitization
A behavioral therapy technique developed by Joseph Wolpe in which a client is gradually exposed to a feared stimulus while practicing relaxation, used to treat phobias and anxiety disorders.
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
A mood disorder characterized by at least two weeks of depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, and other symptoms such as changes in sleep, appetite, energy, and concentration.
Dopamine Hypothesis
The theory that schizophrenia is associated with excess activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine, supported by the fact that antipsychotic drugs that block dopamine receptors reduce symptoms.
Unconditional Positive Regard
A core concept in Carl Rogers's person-centered therapy referring to the therapist's complete acceptance and support of the client without judgment or conditions.
PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder)
A trauma and stressor-related disorder that develops after exposure to a traumatic event, characterized by intrusive memories, avoidance, negative mood changes, and hyperarousal lasting more than one month.
1. A therapist is working with a client who has a severe phobia of dogs. The therapist first teaches the client deep muscle relaxation techniques, then creates a hierarchy of feared situations ranging from seeing a photo of a dog to standing next to one. Over several sessions, the client works through the hierarchy while remaining relaxed. Which therapeutic technique is the therapist using?
2. A patient is diagnosed with a disorder characterized by periods of extremely elevated mood, impulsivity, grandiosity, and decreased need for sleep lasting at least seven days, followed by periods of severe depression. Based on DSM-5 criteria, which diagnosis best fits this patient?
3. According to Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, psychological distress is primarily caused by which of the following?
1 AAQ · 1 EBQ · 70 minutes total — redesigned 2024–25
Article Analysis Question
Evidence-Based Question
Write operational definitions for exactly what was measured — not the concept
An operational definition states how a variable was specifically measured in that study. "Anxiety was measured by participants' self-reported score on a validated 50-point anxiety scale" is correct. "Anxiety is a feeling of worry or fear" is the conceptual definition — which earns zero points for operational definition parts of the AAQ.
Cite sources explicitly — use parenthetical or embedded citations
In the EBQ, you must cite your sources explicitly to earn evidence points. Write "(Source 1)" or "According to Source 2..." — not "one source says..." or "the research shows...". Graders need to see which source you're drawing from. Undirected citations earn no credit.
Use psychological terminology — not everyday language
Replace vague language with the correct AP Psych term. Say "negative reinforcement" not "taking away something bad." Say "fundamental attribution error" not "blaming personality." Say "serotonin reuptake inhibitor" not "medicine that helps mood." Graders reward precision.
Connect evidence to a specific psychological theory or concept by name
In the EBQ, your application points require naming a specific psychological theory, study, or concept — not just describing what happens. Write "This supports Bandura's social learning theory, which argues that behavior is acquired through observational learning" rather than "people learn from watching others." Named theory connections earn full credit; paraphrased descriptions do not.
Write a response to the practice question below. Our AI grader scores it against AP Psych rubric criteria — operational definitions, source citations, theory connections — and gives specific feedback. First grade is free — no account required.
Read the following research summary and answer all 6 parts. A researcher investigated whether removing smartphones causes anxiety in college students. Eighty students were randomly assigned to two conditions: an experimental group (n=40) who placed their phones in a separate room during a 60-minute task period, and a control group (n=40) who kept phones on their desks (silenced, face down). After the task period, all participants completed a validated anxiety scale (range: 0–50; higher = more anxiety). The experimental group scored significantly higher (M = 28.4, SD = 4.2) than the control group (M = 19.7, SD = 3.8), p < 0.01. (a) Identify the research method used. (1 point) (b) Write an operational definition for "anxiety" as used in this study. (1 point) (c) Explain what p < 0.01 indicates about the results of this study. (1 point) (d) Identify one ethical guideline the researcher should have followed. Explain how it specifically applies to this study. (1 point) (e) Identify one characteristic of the sample or study design that limits the generalizability of the findings. Explain why. (1 point) (f) Do the results support or refute the claim that smartphone absence causes anxiety? Justify your answer using the data. (1 point)
Time management
90 min for 75 MCQs + 70 min for AAQ (25 min) and EBQ (45 min) = 2h 10min total. For MCQs: ~72 seconds per question, finish in 80 min to leave time to revisit. For AAQ: budget ~4 minutes per part. For EBQ: budget 10 min planning, 30 min writing, 5 min reviewing.
AI Tutor
Ask any AP Psychology question — from neurotransmitter functions to Freud's defense mechanisms — and get a clear, exam-focused answer from an AI trained on AP curriculum.
AAQ & EBQ Scoring
Practice the 2024 redesigned written response format with instant rubric feedback. Get specific guidance on operational definitions, source citations, and theory application.
Spaced Repetition
Our algorithm tracks which psychologists, theories, and disorders you know and surfaces the ones you need to review. Master all 5 units before exam day.
Custom Flashcard Sets
Auto-generate unit-specific flashcard sets for every AP Psych topic, or build your own from class notes. Quiz mode and spaced review keep facts fresh.
AP Subjects
Test Prep
Study Them — free AP study tools for high school students.