1. AP Psychology Exam Structure & Review

2. Structures 2 hours: Essay ( FRQ) 2/3 of Test Multiple choice
100 Questions in 70 min
Essay ( FRQ)
1/3 of the test
2 FRQ in 50 min

3. How the scores are calculatedMC
Number Correct
FRQ
# of points x _____ = 50 +
Normally 100
Normally 50

4. How scores are calculated:
FRQ
14 points (7 each) x = 50 MC
Number Correct
(No penalty for incorrect answers) +
Normally 100
Normally 50

5. U1:History Key Points: Historical Schools of Psychology Structuralism
Functionalism
Gestalt
Psychoanalysis
Contemporary Schools of Psychology
Biological/Neuroscience
Behavioral
Humanistic
Psychodynamic
Socio-cultural
Evolutionary
Cognitive
Phil and Bio Roots
And Fields: Health/Sport, I/O, Clinical versus Counseling, Humanistic, Developmental, Biological

6. U2: Psychological Science
Key Points: Research Methods
Case Study
Naturalistic Observation
Surveys
Studies of Development
Longitudinal/Cross Sectional
Measures of Central Tendency (mode, median, mean)
vs.
Measures of variation (range, standard deviation)
APA Ethics and Guidelines
Experiment
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Correlation Studies
Illusory correlation
Correlation Coefficient
Correlations

7. U3:Neuroscience Psychology linked w/anatomy through NS Parts of neuron
Key Points:
Psychology linked w/anatomy through NS
Parts of neuron
How the neuron fires (action potential)
Neurotransmitters
Drug Effects
Agonists and antagonists
Brain structures (4 lobes, 4 cortexes, 2 areas)
FMSPOTva
How the brain works (amygdala – fear, aggression)
Neuro-imaging(EEG, PET,CT,MRI)
Endocrine system- glands and hormones
All parts of brain

8. Nature versus Nurture Key Points: Nature
Genes, chromosomes, genome (not on
Link words like:
Innate, Genetic, Predisposition, Tendency
Evolutionary perspective
Natural selection
Fraternal twins versus identical twins (MISTRA Studies) ; Adoption studies
Nurture
Environment
Culture

9. U4: Sensation and Perception
Key Points:
7 senses
Thalamus – Sensory switchboard
Touch – warmth, cold, pressure, pain
Gate control theory of pain
Taste (aka gustation)
sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami
Smell (aka olfaction) - chemical sense
Hearing (aka audition) – sounds waves
Sight (most dominant sense) – light waves
Vestibular sense- balance, based on canals/bones in the ear
Kinesthesis- sense of where your body is in space

10. U4: Sensation and Perception
Key Points:
Thresholds
Absolute threshold/Difference threshold (JND)/Weber’s law
Parts of ear
Parts of eye and understanding transduction
Theories of Sight (Young-Helmholtz tri-chromatic theory, Opponent process theory)
Theories of sound (Place theory, Frequency theory)
Perception: how we interpret and make sense of info
Gestalt - organizational psychology
Depth perception
Monocular cues
Binocular cues
ESP
Change blindness/deafness
Visual Cliff
Ames Room

11. U5: States of Consciousness
Key Points:
Sleep stages
Stage 1 (dozing)
Stage 2 (sleep spindles)
Stage 3 (delta wave, deep sleep)
Stage 4 (deepest sleep)
REM ( rapid eye movement, paradoxical sleep)
Up and down: 1,2,3,4,3,2,REM
Sleep disorders (insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea)
Theories of sleep versus Theories of dreaming
Hypnosis
Drugs- depressants (alcohol, barbiturate, opiates), stimulants (cocaine, caffeine, amphetamines), hallucinogens (LSD, marijuana-THC)
REM Rebound

12. U6:Learning Key Points:
Associative learning - classical and operant conditioning
Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning
UCS, UCR,CS,CR, NS
Acquisition, generalization, discrimination, extinction, SR
Operant (Skinnerian) conditioning
law of effect, skinner box, shaping, reinforcement, punishment, primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, continuous reinforcement, partial (intermittent) reinforcement, reinforcement schedules
fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, variable interval
Observational learning
Bandura’s Bobo doll, modeling, prosocial, antisocial
relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience
VOICE mnemonic

13. U7:Memory Key Points: STM, Working Memory, LTM Encoding Storage
automatic processing, effortful processing, next-in-line effect, spacing effect, serial position effect, semantic, visual, acoustic, imagery, mnemonic devices, chunking, hierarchies
Storage
sensory memory (iconic and echoic memory), short term memory (7±2), long term memory, amnesia (retrograde, anterograde), implicit memory (cerebellum), explicit memory (hippocampus)
Retrieval
recognition, relearning, recall, priming
Forgetting
encoding failure, storage decay (Ebbinghaus forgetting curve), retrieval failure (proactive and retroactive interference)
Misinformation effect (Loftus), source amnesia

14. U7:Thinking
Key Points:
mental activities of processing, understanding, remembering, and communicating (language)
Concepts- prototype
Solving problem- algorithm, insight, heuristics
Problems in problems solving
confirmation bias, overconfidence
Fixation, functional fixedness
mental set
Making judgments
Availability heuristic, representativeness heuristic
Belief bias (logic), Belief perseverance
Framing

15. U7: Language Key Points:
spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
Morphemes, phonemes, grammar (semantics and syntax)
One word stage
Two word stage (telegraphic speech)
Language acquisition-
Noam Chomsky (inborn universal grammar)

17. U8:Motivation Key Points:
Instinct theory - complex, unlearned species specific behavior
Drive-reduction theory - physiological drive causes need: organism need to satisfy drive
Hunger
dual role of hypothalamus
lateral increases hunger when stimulated
ventromedial decreases hunger
blood glucose, insulin, leptin, ghrelin
Metabolism, Set point
Sex - Masters and Johnson Sexual Response Cycle
4 phases: (Eat Plenty Of Radishes):
Excitement, Plateau, Orgasm, Resolution (refractory period)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs – bottom levels 1st physiological needs to self-actualization

18. Emotion
Key Points:
3 THEORIES
James-Lange theory - our awareness of physiological arousal THEN experience of emotion
Cannon-Bard theory- arousal and experience are SIMULTANEOUS / AT THE SAME TIME
Schacter-Singer Two factor theory- physical arousal + COGNITIVE LABEL= emotional experience
Catharsis hypothesis- release
Feel-good-do-good phenomenon
Adaptation level phenomenon
Relative deprivation

19. U9:Development Womb to Tomb, Life Span
Key Points:
Womb to Tomb, Life Span
Develop socially, cognitively, morally, physically
Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Development
8 stages, all w/a crisis
Critical period, imprinting
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development
4 stages (Socks Pulled –Over Cold Feet)
Sensory/Preoperational/Concrete/Formal
Conservation, schemas, assimilation, accommodation, object permanence, egocentrism
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Moral Development
3 stages: Pre-conventional, conventional, post conventional
Sigmund Freud’s Psycho-sexual Development
5 stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital

20. U9: Development Key Points:
Development in utero: zygote, embryo, fetus
Teratogens
Puberty and sex characteristics
Adult years: menopause, dementia, Alzheimer's
Studies:
Ainsworth attachment studies
Parenting styles
Key Concepts:
Crystallized versus fluid intelligence
Longitudinal versus cross-sectional studies

21. Stress and Health Key Points: Stress, stressor, stress response
Hans Seyle’s General Adaptation Syndrome
Alarm
Resistance
Exhaustion
Walter Cannon- Fight or Flight response
Type A and Type B personalities
Biofeedback

22. U10:Personality Key Points:
characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
Psychoanalytic - Freud
unconscious motives & conflicts : id, ego, superego
psychosexual stages, fixation, Oedipus complex, Electra complex
Anna Freud’s defense mechanisms
repression / regression
rationalization /denial
projection / displacement
sublimation /react formation
Neo Freudians
Carl Jung - Collective Unconscious
Alfred Adler - Inferiority Complex
Karen Horney - Womb Envy

23. U10:Personality Projective tests Rorschach Ink blot TAT
Humanistic approach - Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers - emphasis on growth potential of healthy people
Self-actualization, unconditional positive regard, genuineness, acceptance
Trait -Gordon Allport - identifiable patterns of behavior
Social-Cognitive – interaction learning, cognition, & social influence
Personal control
internal locus or external locus, learned helplessness, individualism, collectivism

24. U11: Intelligence Key Points: Mental age/ chronological age x 100= IQ
Charles Spearman- single intelligence- G factor
Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (8)
Robert Sternberg- 3 intelligences (practical, creative, analytical)
Emotional intelligence (EQ)
Mental retardation- below 70 on IQ test & difficulty w/demands of independent living
Intelligence tests –
Weschler’s WAIS Adult Scale
Standardization
Normal curve
68% 95% 99% = 1SD, 2SD, 3SD
Validity (content and predictive) v. reliability

25. U12:Psychological Disorders
Key Points:
harmful dysfunction:
Disturbing Atypical Maladaptive Unjustified
Medical model vs. Bio-psycho-social perspective
DSM V- diagnostic manual
psychotic vs. neurotic

26. U12: Psychological Disorders
Anxiety disorders: phobias, GAD, OCD, panic attacks, PTSD, PTG
Mood disorders: MDD, dysthymic, bipolar, mania
Somatoform: Hypochondriasis, Conversion
Personality disorders: inflexible/enduring behavior patterns, impair social functioning, normally w/o anxiety, depression, or delusion
Cluster A (Odd, bizarre, eccentric):
Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal
Cluster B (Dramatic, erratic):
Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic
Cluster C (Anxious, fearful):
Avoidant, Dependent, OCPD

27. U12: Psychological Disorders Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is
Schizophrenia:
Delusions: grandeur and/or persecution
disorganized thinking (word salad)
Hallucinations (auditory and/or visual)
inappropriate behavior and emotions
disturbed perceptions
over-activity of dopamine
Positive =ADDED behaviors
Negative = REMOVED behaviors
Dissociative disorders: conscious awareness becomes separated from previous memories/thoughts/feelings.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is
NOT SCHIZOPHRENIA!

28. U13: Therapy
Key Points:
Psychoanalysis – Freud - focus on uncovering repressed conflicts
Free ass., hypnosis, dream interpretation (latent c.), resistance, transference
Humanistic – Rogers - focus on growth,/potential, self-actualization (active listening/GAE), client-centered therapy
Cognitive - Beck - Correcting negative thinking, confrontational dialogue
Behavioral – Skinner & Watson - counter conditioning, systematic desensitization, aversive conditioning, token economy
Biomedical / Drug therapy
ECT- electro-convulsive shock therapy –only to alleviate depression
EMDR-Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (anxiety)
Light Exposure therapy (depression)

29. U13:Therapy Anti-depressants Tricyclics, SSRI’s
i.e. Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil
Anti-anxiety
Anxiolytics, benzodiazepines, barbiturates
i.e. Valium, Xanax, Librium
Anti-psychotics
Neuroleptics
i.e. thorazine/haldol for positive symptoms
clozapine for negative symptoms
Side effects of drugs: tardive dyskinesia (muscle tremors)
Mood Stabilizers
- Lithium (Bi-Polar)
- monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors (depression)

30. Social Psychology Key Points:
how we think about, influence, relate to one another
Social facilitation, social loafing, deindividuation, group polarization, groupthink
Attribution theory, fundamental attribution error
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
Cognitive dissonance theory
Social Influence
Asch’s Conformity line experiment
Stanley Milgram’s SHOCKING Obedience experiment
Zimbardo’s Prison experiment
Social Relations
Prejudice, in-group and out-group bias, just-world phenomenon, frustration- aggression principle, social traps, mere-exposure effect, bystander effect

31. GOOD LUCK
&
HAPPY
STUDYING!
I WISH YOU ALL SUCCESS!