AP Psychology

What the course covers

5 units, with exam weights

1. Unit 1

   Biological Bases of Behavior

   15-25% of examFree
   How heredity and environment interact, how the nervous system and neurons communicate, what drugs do at the synapse, how brain structures map to behavior, why we sleep and dream, and how each sense turns energy into neural messages. Research tools here: twin and adoption studies, case studies, EEG, fMRI, lesioning, split-brain testing.
   6 topics

   1. 1.1Interaction of Heredity and Environment
   2. 1.2Overview of the Nervous System
   3. 1.3The Neuron and Neural Firing
   4. 1.4The Brain
   5. 1.5Sleep
   6. 1.6Sensation

2. Unit 2

   Cognition

   15-25% of exam
   How expectations filter perception, how people think, judge, and decide (and where heuristics and fallacies lead them astray), how memory is encoded, stored, retrieved, and distorted, and how intelligence and achievement are defined, measured, and misused.
   8 topics

   1. 2.1Perception
   2. 2.2Thinking, Problem-Solving, Judgments, and Decision-Making
   3. 2.3Introduction to Memory
   4. 2.4Encoding Memories
   5. 2.5Storing Memories
   6. 2.6Retrieving Memories
   7. 2.7Forgetting and Other Memory Challenges
   8. 2.8Intelligence and Achievement

3. Unit 3

   Development and Learning

   15-25% of exam
   Development across the whole lifespan (physical, cognitive, language, social-emotional, gender) and the research designs that study it, then learning: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social and cognitive learning.
   9 topics

   1. 3.1Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology
   2. 3.2Physical Development Across the Lifespan
   3. 3.3Gender and Sexual Orientation
   4. 3.4Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan
   5. 3.5Communication and Language Development
   6. 3.6Social-Emotional Development Across the Lifespan
   7. 3.7Classical Conditioning
   8. 3.8Operant Conditioning
   9. 3.9Social, Cognitive, and Neurological Factors in Learning

4. Unit 4

   Social Psychology and Personality

   15-25% of exam
   How people explain behavior, form and change attitudes, and act differently in groups; four theories of personality and how each measures it; and what motivates behavior and shapes emotion and its expression across cultures.
   7 topics

   1. 4.1Attribution Theory and Person Perception
   2. 4.2Attitude Formation and Attitude Change
   3. 4.3Psychology of Social Situations
   4. 4.4Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theories of Personality
   5. 4.5Social-Cognitive and Trait Theories of Personality
   6. 4.6Motivation
   7. 4.7Emotion

5. Unit 5

   Mental and Physical Health

   15-25% of exam
   Stress, coping, and health; positive psychology; how disorders are defined, classified, and explained by each perspective and by interaction models; the symptoms and possible causes of the in-scope disorders; and psychological and biomedical treatments and the ethics of practice.
   5 topics

   1. 5.1Introduction to Health Psychology
   2. 5.2Positive Psychology
   3. 5.3Explaining and Classifying Psychological Disorders
   4. 5.4Selection of Categories of Psychological Disorders
   5. 5.5Treatment of Psychological Disorders

The exam, part by part

3 parts, 2 h 40 min in all.

• Section I: Multiple Choice

  Questions

  75

  Time

  1 h 30 min

  Weight

  66.7%

  No calculator

  Format details

  Four choices (A-D), no penalty for guessing, about 72 seconds per question. A mix of discrete questions and sets of 2-3 questions that share one stimulus: a described research study, a data table, a graph, or a figure. Approximate science practice weighting on this section: Concept Application 65%, Research Methods and Design 25%, Data Interpretation 10%. Each of the five units is 15-25% of the section. Data interpretation items can ask for a mean, median, mode, range, or percentile computed by hand; there is no calculator.

• Section II, Question 1: Article Analysis Question (AAQ)

  Questions

  1

  Time

  25 min

  Weight

  16.7%

  No calculator

  Format details

  Task types: AAQ

  Section II lasts 70 minutes for both questions and students may move between them; 25 minutes here (including about 10 minutes to read the source) is the official suggested pacing. One summarized peer-reviewed study (introduction, participants, method, results and discussion, usually with a demographic table and a graph). Assesses Practices 2, 3, and 4.

• Section II, Question 2: Evidence-Based Question (EBQ)

  Questions

  1

  Time

  45 min

  Weight

  16.7%

  No calculator

  Format details

  Task types: EBQ

  Suggested pacing: 45 minutes, including about 15 minutes to read the three sources. Three summarized peer-reviewed sources on one topic; the prompt asks for an argument about a psychological question. Assesses Practices 1 and 4.

Skills the exam scores

• 1.AConcept Application: apply to a scenario

  Apply psychological perspectives, theories, concepts, and research findings to a scenario, compare how the biological, behavioral, cognitive, evolutionary, humanistic, psychodynamic, and sociocultural perspectives explain it, and draw logical, objective conclusions about behavior and mental processes.

• 1.BConcept Application: culture and cognitive bias

  Explain how cultural norms, expectations, and circumstances, and cognitive biases such as confirmation bias, hindsight bias, and overconfidence, apply to behavior and mental processes, including what happens when psychological concepts are applied in inappropriate or discriminatory ways.

• 2.AResearch Methods: identify the design

  Determine the research design a study used: experimental (a manipulated independent variable plus random assignment to groups) or non-experimental (case study, correlational study, meta-analysis, naturalistic observation).

• 2.BResearch Methods: evaluate an experiment

  Evaluate design elements of an experiment: hypothesis and falsifiability, operational definitions, independent, dependent, and confounding variables, sample versus population, random versus convenience sampling and sampling bias, generalizability, experimental and control groups, random assignment, placebo, single-blind and double-blind procedures, qualitative versus quantitative measures, representation of participants, and peer review and replication.

• 2.CResearch Methods: evaluate a non-experimental study

  Evaluate design elements of non-experimental research: hypothesis, operational definitions, variables of interest, the directionality and third-variable problems (correlation is not causation), qualitative versus quantitative measures, survey wording that invites self-report or social desirability bias, representation of participants, and peer review and replication.

• 2.DResearch Methods: evaluate ethics

  Decide whether a study followed ethical procedures: institutional review (for human and nonhuman animal research), informed consent or assent, protection from harm, confidentiality or anonymity, justified deception (including confederates), and debriefing.

• 3.AData Interpretation: identify concepts and variables

  Identify the psychological concepts, variables, and statistical ideas shown in a description, table, graph, chart, or figure.

• 3.BData Interpretation: calculate and interpret descriptive statistics

  Calculate mean, median, mode, and range from a data set; interpret standard deviation and percentile rank; explain the normal curve (the share of scores within 1, 2, and 3 standard deviations), skewed and bimodal distributions, and regression toward the mean.

• 3.CData Interpretation: interpret inferential results

  Describe trends and relationships in data, including a scatterplot and its correlation coefficient, and interpret effect sizes (about 0.2 small, 0.3-0.7 medium, 0.8 or more large) and statistical significance (a result unlikely to be due to chance).

• 4.AArgumentation: propose a claim

  Propose a specific, defensible claim based in psychological science.

• 4.BArgumentation: reason from evidence

  Use scientifically derived evidence to support, refute, or modify a claim, policy, or norm, explaining how or why it is or is not effective and what nuances the evidence reveals.