Table of Contents

Syllabus Pages 2–5

Curriculum Guide Pages 6 – 17
Research Paper Pages 18 – 22
Portfolio Pages 23 – 25

Unit 1: History & Research Methods

Pages 25 – 27 Vocab
Pages 28 – 30 Released Test Questions
Unit 2: Biological Bases
Pages 31 – 34 Vocab
Pages 35 – 37 Released Test Questions
Unit 3: Sensation & Perception
Pages 38 – 41 Vocab
Pages 42 – 43 Released Test Questions
Unit 4: Consciousness
Pages 44 – 45 Vocab
Page 46 Released Test Questions
Unit 5: Learning
Pages 47 – 49 Vocab
Pages 50 – 51 Released Test Questions
Unit 6: Memory & Cognition
Pages 52 – 55 Vocab
Pages 56 – 58 Released Test Questions
Unit 7: Motivation & Emotion
Pages 59 – 60 Vocab
Pages 61 – 63 Released Test Questions
Unit 8: Lifespan Development
Pages 64 – 66 Vocab
Pages 67 – 68 Released Test Questions
Unit 9: Personality
Pages 69 – 71 Vocab
Pages 72 – 73 Released Test Questions
Unit 10: Intelligence
Pages 74 – 75 Vocab
Pages 76 – 77 Released Test Questions
Unit 11: Abnormal Psychology & Treatment
Pages 78 – 82 Vocab
Pages 83 – 86 Released Test Questions
Unit 12: Social Psychology
Pages 87 – 89 Vocab
Pages 90 – 92 Released Test Questions

Princeton Review Tips Pages 93 – 96

AP Practice Exam Pages 97 – 123
2012 AP Practice Exam Pages 124 - 151

1
 AP Psychology Course Syllabus

The Advanced Placement Psychology course is designed to introduce students to the

systematic and scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of human beings and
other animals. Students will be exposed to a number of the major topics incorporated in
the field of psychology today.

Objectives
1. Students will prepare for the AP Psychology Exam.
2. Students will develop an understanding of the major concepts, terms, and theories
of psychology.
3. Students will learn the basic skills of psychological research enabling them to devise
research projects, interpret, generalize and validate research reports.
4. Students will develop the ability to think critically.
5. Students will gain an appreciation for the science of Psychology.
6. Students will gain a mutual respect for people and their individual differences,
preparing them for life in society.
7. Students will learn the ethical standards governing the work of psychologists.

Requirements
All students are required:
1. To be prepared daily to participate in class discussions and take notes.
2. To be current on all readings assigned.
3. To complete homework as assigned including vocabulary, which must be completed
prior to each unit test.
4. To submit a research paper on a topic of the student’s choosing.
5. To submit a portfolio during the fourth marking period.

Grading
All grades will be calculated using straight percentages. Probable weights:
Tests 100 points each
Quizzes 20 – 25 points each
Free Responses 20 – 25 each
Homework 10 points each
Research Paper 200 points
Portfolio 200 points
*Midterm/Final Exam 150 points/150 points
*The midterm exam will be administered January and will encompass all content covered to that point; the
rest of the content will be assessed at the conclusion of the course. *

Conduct
Students will follow all class rules as they apply to the EAHS student handbook. Missed
work is the student’s responsibility to make up. Advanced assignments (research paper
and portfolio) must be turned in on time with no exceptions! If absent on the day an
assignment (homework, journal, etc.) is due, it must be turned in on the day the student
returns. The assignment will only be accepted providing the absence was excused.

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Topic Outline
1. Methods, Approaches, History (2 weeks)
2. Biological Basis of Behavior (3 weeks)
3. Sensation and Perception (3 weeks)
4. States of Consciousness (Independent study)
5. Learning (2 weeks)
6. Memory & Cognition (3weeks)
7. Motivation and Emotion (2 weeks)
8. Developmental Psychology (2 weeks)
9. Personality (2 weeks)
10. Testing and Individual Differences (2 weeks)
11. Abnormal Psychology & Treatment (3 weeks)
12. Social Psychology (2 weeks)
**The above topics are taken from the Advanced Placement Course Description**

Textbook
• Psychology, AP Edition (2009) by Zimbardo, Johnson, & Weber

Additional Resources
• Moodle: http://learn.eastonsd.org/

Possible Films
During the course of the year, it is possible that we will watch either a segment or the
entirety of the following films in order to enhance your understanding of the given topic.
• A Beautiful Mind (2001) Rated PG 13 (Abnormal Psych & Treatment)
• Inside Out(2015) Rated PG (Emotions & Personality)
• The Hunger Games (2012) Rated PG-13 (Social Psychology)
• Inception (2010) Rated PG-13 (Consciousness)

Please complete the information found below, which signifies your acknowledgement and comprehension of
the objectives, conduct expectations, and grading procedures. Also, your signature grants your child
permission to watch segments of, or the entire films, listed above.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Student Name/Signature

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Parent Name/Signature

Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]

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 AP Psychology Course Outline

Unit I – Psychology: A Science and a Perspective (2 weeks)

A. Emergence of Psychology: Structuralism, Functionalism, and Behaviorism.
B. Modern Perspectives: Behavioral, Cognitive, Psychodynamic, Evolutionary, and
Neuroscience.
C. Research Methods: Observation, Correlation, Experimentation, Case Studies and
Survey.
D. Statistics: Central tendency, variation, standard deviation.
E. Ethics of animal and human research
Unit II – Biological Bases of Behavior (3 weeks)
A. Neurons, Neural transmission, Neurotransmitters
B. Brain: Parts, functions, brain damage, development, lateralization.
C. Nervous System: Structure and Function
D. Endocrine System
E. Genetics and Heritability
Unit III – Sensation and Perception (3 weeks)
A. Receptors and Thresholds
B. Signal detection, Weber’s Law, Adaptation
C. Major sensory systems, sensory organs and transduction.
D. Kinesthesia and Vestibular Senses
E. Perceptual Processes, Gestalt Principles
Unit IV – Consciousness (Independent study)
A. States of Consciousness
B. Stages of Sleep and Dream Theories
C. Sleep Deprivation and Disorders
D. Meditation, Hypnosis, and Biofeedback
E. Physiological and Psychological Effects of Drug Abuse
Unit V – Learning (2 weeks)
A. Classical and Operant Conditioning
B. Cognitive processes in learning.
C. Observational and Latent Learning
Unit VI – Memory & Cognition (2 weeks)
A. Memory Processes: Encoding, Storage and Retrieval
B. Memory Stages: Sensory, Short-term and Long-term.
C. Forgetting: Interference, Decay, Amnesia
D. Thinking: Symbols, Concepts and Prototypes
E. Problem Solving, Reasoning, and Decision Making
F. Conflict: Approach-Approach, Approach-Avoidance, Avoidance-Avoidance,
Multiple Approach-Avoidance.
G. Language Development: Phonemes, Morphemes and Syntax

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Unit VII - Motivation and Emotion (2 weeks)
A. Theories of Motivation: Instinct, Arousal, Drive, Incentive, Cognitive and
B. Maslow’s Hierarchy
C. Specific Motivations: Hunger, Work, Sexual, Aggressive
D. Biological basis of Emotions
E. Theories of Emotion: James-Lange, Canon-Bard, Two Factor, Opponent-Process.
F. Causes, Effects, and Control of Stress, G.A.S. Model
Unit IX – Human Development I (3 weeks)
A. Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Studies
B. Prenatal Period and Influences on Development
C. Cognitive Development: Piaget and Vygotsky
D. Moral Development: Kohlberg
E. Social and Emotional Development: Erikson
F. Death and Bereavement: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Unit X – Personality (2 weeks)
A. Personality Theory: Freud, Jung, Adler, Rogers
B. Trait Theory: Big 5 Factors, Nomothetic Approach, Idiographic Approach
C. Self concept, Self-esteem, Self-Reinforcement
D. Personality Assessment
Unit XI – Intelligence/Individual Differences & Testing (2 weeks)
A. Achievement and Intelligence
B. Theories of Intelligence: Spearman, Thurstone, Gardner, Sternberg, Goleman
C. Psychological Testing: History, Reliability, Validity, Central Tendency, Standard
Deviation
Unit XII – Mental Disorders and Treatment (3 weeks)
A. Defining Abnormality: Medical Model, Deviance, Personal Distress, Maladaptive
Behavior
B. Diagnostic Labeling: Rosenhan Study
C. Classification of Disorders: DSM V
D. Categories of Disorders: Anxiety, Mood, Dissociative, Somatoform, Personality,
Schizophrenia
E. Major Therapies: Psychotherapy, Humanistic, Client- centered, Rational-
Emotive, Cognitive, Group.
Unit XIII – Social Thought and Social Behavior (2 weeks)
A. Attitudes and Behavior: Attribution, Roles, Cognitive Dissonance, Self Serving
Bias, Actor-Observer Bias
B. Conformity, Obedience, and Compliance: Asch Experiment, Milgram Studies,
Stanford Prison Experiment
C. Prejudice and Scapegoating
D. Pro-social Behavior: Bystander Apathy and Bystander Intervention
E. Group Behavior: Anonymity, Unanimity, De-individuation, Social Loafing

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Research Paper Assignment

Research Paper Instructions

Independent research allows each AP Psychology student the opportunity to explore a
topic of personal interest, and delve into greater detail on the chosen topic than we would
have time to cover as an entire class. Topics will be selected in class – only one student
may select each topic.

Each paper should be 5 - 6 pages typed, double-spaced with a font size of 12, not counting
the cover page, abstract, and references page. Your research should include a minimum of
4 references, with at least 2 references coming from databases searches (ex. EBSCOhost).

Print the abstracts of your chosen journal articles (an abstract is a brief summary of the
article that appears at the beginning of its write up) and attach to your reference page.

To find you’re your articles, you may utilize the library’s website
http://destiny.eastonsd.org/common/servlet/presenthomeform.do?l2m=Home&tm=Hom
e&l2m=Home. You may access the databases from the school or at home (with an Easton
Area Public Library card). If you have any questions about the appropriateness of your
articles or are having trouble finding what you want, please check with me.

Your research papers are to be prepared in APA format, and as such should include:

1. 1” margins all around

2. Title page centered horizontally and vertically
3. Abstract – second page – a brief summary of your findings
4. References within the document in APA format (NOT footnotes, but author and
year in parenthesis).
5. References page after the body of the report (not numbered, but alphabetical by
author’s last name – see examples below).

APA Format for References (fictitious samples, to show you the format):
Please utilize the following website as a reference:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

• For a professional journal article (as it would appear in the bibliography -

alphabetically by author last name):
• Example:
o Freud, S. (1933). The interpretation of dreams. Journal of Clinical Psychology,
5(2), 144-148.

• For a book:
• Example:
o Erikson, E. (1958). Psychological and social development through the lifespan.
(pp. 104-155). New York, NY: Hardcourt Brace.

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Your paper should address the following:

1. Give a brief background of the subject or problem.

2. Include a discussion of your thoughts, bias, and feelings towards the subject or
problem prior to the research you conducted. DO NOT use persona pronouns
when writing this section.
3. What types of research methods have been used to study this topic/problem?
4. What is the significance of this topic/problem? Why is it important for people
to understand? What areas of mental or physical health may it have an impact
on?
5. What is already known about this topic/problem?
6. What were the limitations that affected your efforts to research this
topic/problem? Are there things that currently limit what we know about this
topic/problem?
7. APPLICATION: how can your research be applied? Address the various
possible audiences: by psychologists? By other mental health and/or medical
professionals? By individuals and/or families? By institutions, governments or
societies?
8. Relevance: is your research important to work going on currently in the field of
psychology? How? Be specific.
9. Conclusions: what answers did your research provide for you? What are the
unanswered questions, and/or the areas where further research is needed?

Grading:
1. Please refer to the SAMPLE rubric that follows the assignment
2. This research paper is worth 200 points
3. Additional grades will be given during the 1st and 2nd quarters for progress
check-ins
4. Failure to hand this research paper in by the due date will result in a deduction
of one letter grade per day. Weekends and holidays count as a day. A
maximum of three days lateness will be allowed. All other late papers will
result in an automatic zero.

Topic List:

1. Addictions: which substance(s) most addicting? Which easiest/hardest to treat?

2. Role of the environment in the development of personality.
3. What do modern psychologists feel are the major weaknesses of Freud's
psychoanalytic theories.
4. Addiction: influences of genetics vs. peers/environment
5. Anxiety: Causes, Symptoms and Therapy
6. Attachment Theory: relationship to parenting style & psychological health as an
adult
7. Research the literature on the psychological and physical benefits of laughter.
8. The effects of the circadian rhythms on human beings.
9. The effects of cognitive dissonance on behavior/values
10. The Nightly Dream Cycle and Sleep Deprivation: impact on mental health

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11. The Validity of Psychological Tests: how established? Which tests more valid? Less
valid?
12. Collectivist vs. Individualistic Cultures: impact on positive self-esteem/sense of
self.
13. Interpersonal Attraction: causes, gender differences; is there an "ideal"?
14. Gender differences and the Brain - separating actual differences from stereotypes
15. Endorphins and Happiness: production, role, implications for mental health
16. Learned Optimism/helplessness: how each come about; implications for mental
health
17. Genius: Criteria, Characteristics and Types.
18. The Internet: positive/negative effects on our psychological health
19. How has Abraham Maslow's concept of self-actualization affected Psychology?
20. Childhood Trauma: impact on personality/role in personality disorders
21. Race and Intelligence: The Scientific View
22. Possible Causes of Childhood Autism
23. How is Intelligence Measured? Reasons for controversy/debate
24. The Dual Roles of Genetics and Environment on Intelligence
25. Inherited Behavior - The Latest Research
26. Alzheimer's Disease: causes, treatment & role lifestyle plays
27. Contact sports & degenerative brain disease
28. Workplace stress: environmental factors? Role of culture, of job type?
29. Rational Emotive Theory: development & modern uses
30. Aging: changes to brain; implications, opportunities & challenges
31. Theories of Forgetting - explanation & implications for better memory
32. Does money buy happiness? Psychological health & socioeconomic status
33. Theories of Intelligence (Spearman vs. Gardner): implications for schools
34. The Theory of Persuasion - why works/doesn't work (psychology behind it)
35. Bullying: causes, who gets bullied; what can parents/teachers do to stop it?
36. The Effects of Over Crowding on Human Beings
37. Subliminal Messages and How They can be Used to Influence Thought and Behavior
38. Current Experiments in Thought Control
39. The Psychological Effects of Torture
40. How are Children Affected by War.
41. The Theory of Memory Storage in the Human Brain: is there a physical basis? What
happens to it?
42. How to Motivate Children to Achieve
43. The Function of Play in psychological health/well-being
44. Reality Therapy: origins, modern uses
45. The Psychological Benefits of Pets & Pet Therapy
46. Psychological Problems of Paraplegics
47. The Emotional Effects of Solitary Confinement
48. Behavior Patterns of Hyperactive Children - biological vs. environmental roots
49. The Stages of Grief According to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross: implications for coping with

8
 loss
50. Attractiveness & bias: are the attractive treated differently? (convictions, hiring,
perceptions)
51. Habits: How are they Formed and How They Can Be Changed?
52. The Effects of Color on Mental States
53. The Idiot Savant: origins; contrast with normal intellectual functioning
54. The Theory of Boredom: mental/emotional determinants
55. Managing Interpersonal Conflict: psychology of mediation
56. Divorce: causes, psychological impact
57. Shyness in Adults: causes, consequences
58. How Children Develop Gender Identification
59. Typical Mother-Daughter Conflicts in Modern America: causes, solutions
60. The Psychological Aspects of Obesity
61. The Psychological Profile of a Terrorist
62. The Clinical Uses of Hypnosis - risks vs. benefits
63. Significant Findings From Recent Research on Identical Twins
64. The Psychological Profile of a Mercenary Soldier
65. Abusers: A Profile - early psychological history of a future abuser
66. Eating Disorders: why are they so resistant to treatment? Role of gender? Brain
changes?
67. Hate Crimes: impact on victims & on communities
68. Dreams & dream interpretation: why they occur? are interpretations valid?
69. The Limits of Artificial Intelligence
70. Compare and Contrast the Training, Scope, and Functions of Psychiatrists and
Psychologists.
71. The Rorschach Test: How is it Administered and evaluated?
72. The Psychological Problems of the Homeless.
73. How does social anxiety disorder affect the routine life of a person?
74. Cyber bullying: psychological impact and recommended responses
75. ADHD: Latest research and recommended treatment
76. The link between exercise and emotional health
77. Anger management: what makes psychological treatment effective?
78. Psychology of Flow: implications for workplace satisfaction
79. Psychological characteristics of long-lasting marriages
80. Creativity and Intelligence: what makes kids creative, and is it measured by
intelligence tests?
81. US Cultural and Marketing Trends: do they threaten children's physical and mental
health?
82. Violence in the Media: psychological effects on children
83. Tools of Sports Psychologists: how they can also promote mental health in the
workplace

9
 PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT

Purpose: This assignment is designed to encourage the student to monitor and self-
assess as a part of the learning experience in the Advanced Placement Psychology course.
Students should be encouraged to include psychology assignments and projects (journals,
letter to a psychologist, etc.)

Overview: This assignment can generate a good deal of interest and involvement on the
part of the student’s parents, other family members, and friends. Students are encouraged
to begin this project early in the AP Psychology course.

Directions for the Portfolio:

You are required to create a book about yourself. Essentially, you are conducting a case
study about you.

I believe that this book will stimulate reflections on your life, the people and events in it,
and the future. I also believe that it may be a source of inspiration and motivation. Most
importantly, I believe that it will help you in achieving a greater sense of your own identity
and personal worth. Finally, it is hoped that you will examine your life in terms of the
context of the Psychology class. Students who have done this project in the past have found
that preparing this assignment was a truly worthwhile exercise; it stimulated personal
growth, gave them a greater sense of their individual identities, and helped them become
more appreciative of many of the people who have contributed significantly to their lives.

If you believe that there are some special circumstances that make it impossible for you to do
this project, you must talk to me about this within the next few days.

PRIVACY:
Due to the nature of this assignment, you have the right to be concerned with your privacy.
Although I establish the guidelines, you are in control of the details. You determine the
specifics. If you have concerns about this, be sure to talk to me about them. You do not
have to show your portfolio to anyone else if you do not want to.

THE BOOK:
This project does not need to be a costly one. It is entirely possible to create a digital copy
of your portfolio by scanning pictures, including clip art and headlines, etc. I ask that if
you create your portfolio digitally, that you print a hard copy and turn it in a binder.

10
If you choose to create a traditional portfolio, procure items that are functional and durable
(scrapbooks, 3-ringer binders, plastic protective sheets, etc.)

LETTER GRADES:

Even though the greatest value in this project is not the grade that you receive, you will
indeed receive a letter grade for your accomplishment. The following criteria will be
evaluated in order to determine your grade:

1. Completeness: your book meets all content requirements. There will be a one
letter grade reduction for each section missing or incomplete.
2. Following Instructions: This includes labeling, identifying, explaining, and
following organization.
3. Appearance: It is neat, attractive, and demonstrates creativity. Written material
generated by you must be typed in a 12-point font (Arial, Times New Roman, and
Cambria are acceptable fonts).
4. Essays: all required essays are included and are well written. They reflect a
serious or thoughtful approach to each topic assigned. (See the next section for the
list of required essays.)

SECTIONS AND MINIMUMS:

1. Table of Contents
2. Personal Resume and Introduction
3. My Favorites (from each stage of development if possible)
4. Genealogy (optional)
5. Interview (or letter) of/from your parents about you (from birth to present)
6. My Family (2 pages)
7. My Friends (2 pages)
8. Activities: School, Church, and Community (optional)
9. Awards/Recognition/Honors Received (optional)
10. Religious/Spiritual/Motivational/Points to Ponder (3 pages)
*This section may include appropriate poetry, lyrics, writings, quotations,
pictures, etc.
11. Beauty (pictures, photos, poems (2 pages)
*No pictures of your “dream” girl/guy. Again, this section may include
appropriate poetry, lyrics, writings, quotations, pictures, etc.
12. Mementoes/Memorabilia (2 pages)
*This section may include concert tickets, movie stubs, stickers, pictures, etc.
13. Humor (2 pages)
*Include appropriate materials that make you laugh hysterically.

11
 Jokes, cartoons, comic strips, anecdotes, etc.
14. Essays: must be typed in 12-font and double-spaced. All of the following essays are
required. As you write these essays, think about the theories we studies in
Psychology class. At this time, has this course, and particularly this assignment
changed anything about you?
A. “Memorable Events in My Life” (2 pages)
B. “Special People in My Life” (2 pages)

C. “My Five-Year Goals” (2 pages)

*1 page essay of what you hope to accomplish in the next five years. Think
about any sacrifices and obstacles you may encounter on your path to
reaching these goals as well as how you intend on staying motivated.
*1 page “bucket list”: create a list of 25 – 50 experiences you would like to
accomplish in your lifetime.
*Include visual representations of these goals in this essay.
D. “Letter to My Child/Children” (1 page minimum)
*Write a letter to your son/daughter on the occasion of their birth. In this
letter, discuss your reasons for having this child, the qualities you hope
he/she will possess, etc.
E. “Reflections on My Book of Reflections” (1 page minimum)
*This concluding essay is to be written after the conclusion of the portfolio.
Reflect on the following:
Þ How did producing this book help me to grow as a person?
Þ What did I discover about myself in preparing this book?
Þ What is there about my book that I am most proud? Why?
Þ What did I learn about myself that I really like, respect, or both?
Þ Which items/sections were the most significant? Why?
Þ In what ways would I like to improve my life or myself?
Þ What feelings are elicited after I look back over my book?
Þ Am I more aware of myself as a special and unique person?
Explain.
Þ How do you feel now about having to do this boo as opposed to
how you felt when the assignment was given at the beginning of
the course?
§ Note: You need not answer every question.

COMMENTS:
This project will take many hours of work to do it properly, but it will also be enjoyable
once you get into it. I also believe that it will be one of the most meaningful projects or
assignments you did throughout your school years. If you put yourself into it and do it
properly, it will be the source of a great deal of pride in yourself and your product.

Get started today!! Procrastination or delay may very well put you in a serious bind as the
deadline draws near.

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Re-read these pages at different times to avoid errors, omissions, and just to keep yourself
on track.

Please feel free to consult with me on ANY questions, concerns, or problems you may have
or that may arise later on.

Keep as organized as possible!!

Unit 1: History & Research Methods

1. Behavioral Perspective

2. Behaviorism

3. Biopsychology (Neuroscience) Perspective

4. Cognitive Perspective

5. Developmental Perspective

6. Evolutionary Perspective

7. Functionalism

8. Humanist Perspective

9. Industrial Organizational psychology

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10. Introspection

11. John Watson

12. Psychoanalytic Perspective

13. Sociocultural Perspective

14. Structuralism

15. Wilhelm Wundt

16. William James

17. APA ethical guidelines for humans

18. Case study

19. Confounding variables

20. Correlation

21. Descriptive statistics

22. Double blind procedure

23. Experimenter bias

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24. Hawthorne Effect

25. Hindsight bias

26. Hypothesis

27. Inferential statistics

28. Measures of variability

29. Naturalistic observation

30. Normal curve

31. Operational definition

32. Population

33. Random Assignment

34. Random Selection

35. Sampling

36. Stratified sampling

37. Survey method

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38. Theory

Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

1. Which type of psychologist would be interested primarily in studying whether people

behave differently in groups than they do when alone?
A. Experimental
B. Cognitive
C. Developmental
D. Social
E. Clinical
2. Which of the following would be used to measure the relationship between age and
reaction time?
A. Correlation
B. Central tendency
C. A histogram
D. Standard deviation
E. A t test
3. Of the following research methods, which can best establish a cause-and-effect
relationship?
A. Naturalistic observation
B. A survey
C. A test
D. A case study
E. An experiment
4. John B. Watson was a pioneer in which of the following perspectives of psychology?
A. Biological
B. Functionalism
C. Psychoanalytic
D. Structuralism
E. Behaviorism
5. Early behaviorists believed that psychology should NOT focus on “the mind” because
“the mind” is
A. too complex.
B. genetically determined.
C. largely unconscious.
D. unobservable.

16
 E. environmentally determined.
6. A researcher studies the effects of brain lesions in rats. The research study reflects
which of the following perspectives?
A. Cognitive
B. Biological
C. Behavioral
D. Humanistic
E. Psychoanalytic

Questions 7 – 9 refer to the following study.

A student hypothesizes that high school students consuming different flavors of a drink
before a spelling test will perform differently. A study to test the hypothesis finds that with
a bitter drink, performance is best 6 hours after drinking it, whereas with a sweet drink,
performance is better 1 hour after drinking it.

7. Which of the following are independent variables?

A. Test scores and high school students
B. Test scores and time of consumption
C. Flavor of drink and time of consumption
D. Flavor of drink and high school student
E. Flavor of drink and test scores
8. Which of the following is the dependent variable?
A. Flavor of drink
B. Participants’ spelling test scores
C. Participants’ ages
D. Time the drink was consumed
E. Number of drinks consumed
9. An interaction between variables complicates the researcher’s explanation of findings.
Which of the following are most likely involved in this interaction?
A. Test scores and high school students
B. Test scores and time of consumption
C. Flavor of drink and time of consumption
D. Flavor of drink and high school students
E. Flavor of drink and test scores

Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam

10. Dr. Lewis decided to study the television viewing habits of her students and therefore
demanded that they complete and return a survey regarding their viewing habits. Which of
the following ethical principles was clearly violated in this study?
A. The right to have a copy of the results
17
 B. The right to a copy of the survey
C. The right to be protected from unnecessary risk of harm
D. The right to refuse to participate in the study
E. The right to be informed of deception

11. A researcher conducts an experiment to test the claim that new drug Y is more effective
than standard drug X in inhibiting arousal. The researcher randomly assigns participants
to receive drug Y or drug X and subsequently measures arousal. In this experiment,
participants who receive drug Y constitute the
A. dependent variable
B. confounding variable
C. experimental group
D. control group
E. placebo group
12. A market researcher is interested in ascertaining which of two possible packages is
more likely to entice buyers to purchase a new brand of chocolate-chip cookies. In this
study, which of the following pairs represents the independent and dependent variables,
respectively.
A. Another brand of cookie; the new brand of cookie
B. The new brand of cookie; another brand of cookie
C. The new brand of cookie; the two types of packaging
D. Total sales for each of the packages; the different types of package
E. The different types of packages; total sales for each of the packages

Questions 13 – 15 are based on the passage below.

A researcher studying the effect of noise level on concentration randomly assigns

student participants to either a noisy room or a quiet room to take a problem-solving test.
The researcher subsequently compares the two group’s test scores using a t-test and
concludes p = .05.

13. The dependent variable in this study is the

A. p value
B. noise level
C. problem-solving test scores
D. t-test
E. experimental group
14. The independent variable in this study is the
A. p value
B. noise level
C. problem-solving test scores
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 D. t-test
E. experimental group
15. Which of the following correlation coefficients most likely represents the relationship
between length of sleep deprivation and level of alertness?
A. 1.35
B. 0.85
C. 0.01
D. -0.4
E. -1.25

Unit 2: Biological Bases of Psychology

39. Acetylcholine

40. Action potential

41. Afferent (sensory) neurons

42. Agonist

43. All-or-none principle

44. Amygdala

45. Antagonist

46. Autonomic nervous system

47. Axon

19
48. Brain Lateralization

49. Broca’s area

50. Central nervous system

51. Cerebellum

52. Cerebral Cortex

53. Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT Scan)

54. Corpus Callosum

55. Dendrites

56. Dopamine

57. Efferent (motor) neurons

58. Electroencephalogram (EEG)

59. Endocrine system

60. Endorphins

61. Frontal lobe

20
62. Functional MRI (fMRI)

63. Hippocampus

64. Hypothalamus

65. Left Hemisphere

66. Limbic System

67. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI Scan)

68. Medulla

69. Motor cortex

70. Myelin sheath

71. Neuron

72. Neurotransmitters

73. Occipital lobe

74. Parasympathetic nervous system

75. Parietal lobe

21
76. Parietal lobe

77. Peripheral nervous system

78. Pituitary gland

79. Plasticity

80. Pons

81. Positron Emission Tomography (PET Scan)

82. Reticular Formation

83. Right Hemisphere

84. Serotonin

85. Somatic nervous system

86. Sympathetic nervous system

87. Synapse

88. Temporal lobe

89. Terminal buttons

22
90. Thalamus

91. Thyroid gland

92. Wernicke’s area

Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

1. Neurosurgeons cut the corpus callosum in the brain disrupting communication

between the right and left hemispheres to
a. Prevent the spread of epileptic seizures
b. Reduce anxiety attacks and phobic reactions
c. Reduce the incidence of violent behaviors
d. Treat Schizophrenia
e. Reduce mood swings
2. A person who has a brain injury is having difficulty seeing and hearing. These
symptoms indicate that damage has occurred in the
a. Parietal and occipital lobes.
b. Occipital and temporal lobes.
c. Frontal and temporal lobes.
d. Temporal lobe only.
e. Frontal lobe only.
3. Which of the following are most involved in the action potential of a neuron?
a. Calcium and sodium
b. Sodium and potassium
c. Potassium and calcium
d. Chloride and calcium
e. Chloride and sodium
4. Which component of the limbic system has an essential role in the formation of new
memories?
a. Amygdala
b. Hippocampus
c. Pituitary gland
d. Hypothalamus
e. Thalamus
5. Which of the following is considered the fundamental building block of the nervous
system?
a. Nucleus
b. Neuron
c. Synapse
d. Neurotransmitter

23
 e. Electrical impulse
6. The human brain differs from the brains of most other animals by the relative amount
of brain mass devoted to which of the following?
a. The occipital lobe
b. The cerebellum
c. The cerebral cortex
d. The homunculus
e. Pituitary gland

7. Which of the following structures of the brain has been linked with the regulation of
hunger and thirst?
a. Hippocampus
b. Hypothalamus
c. Thalamus
d. Pons
e. Medulla
8. Prozac functions as an antidepressant medication because it
a. Enhances production of acetylcholine
b. Blocks the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin
c. Causes selective memory loss for depression-producing events
d. Produces a steady, mild state of euphoria
e. Inhibits frontal lobe activity related to depression
9. Which of the following neurotransmitters is most directly associated with Alzheimer’s
disease?
a. Dopamine
b. Serotonin
c. GABA
d. Acetylcholine
e. Glutamate

Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam

10. A bundle of nerve fibers that interconnects the two brain hemispheres is the
a. Association areas.
b. Thalamus.
c. Corpus callosum.
d. Sylvia fissure.
e. Optic chiasm.
11. Which gland of the endocrine system controls the activity of other glands?
a. Pancreas
b. Thyroid
c. Adrenal
d. Pituitary
e. Pineal
24
12. Stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system most frequently results in which of the
following?
a. Acceleration of heart and breathing rates and dilation of pupils
b. Stimulation of tearing, salivation, and peristalsis
c. Calming of the body
d. Contraction of the muscles of the hands and feet
e. Raising the perceptual threshold of olfactory and gustatory receptors
13. In neurons, neurotransmitters are released at the
a. axons. d. receptor sites.
b. cell bodies. e. synaptic vesicles.
c. dendrites.
14. In an emergency situation, the adrenal glands secrete hormones that cause all of the
following EXCEPT
a. Increased heart rate.
b. Increased blood pressure.
c. Increased blood sugar level.
d. Reduced mood swings.
e. Reduced flow to the digestive system.
15. Which of the following is a hormone that is most directly related to human sex drive?
a. Acetylcholine
b. Testosterone
c. Angiotensin
d. Dopamine
e. Norepinephrine
16. Computer-generated color images of the brain that provide information about glucose
metabolism are produced by which of the following techniquest?
a. EEG (Electroencephalography)
b. EMG (Electromyography)
c. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
d. PET (Positron Emission Tomography)
e. CAT (Computerized Axial Tomography)

25
Unit 3: Sensation & Perception

93. Absolute threshold

94. Binocular depth cues

95. Blind spot

96. Bottom up processing (feature analysis)

97. Chemical senses

98. Closure principle

99. Cochlea

100. Cocktail party phenomenon

101. Color blindness

26
102. Cones

103. Constancy (size, shape, brightness)

104. Convergence

105. Cornea

106. Difference threshold (JND)

107. Energy senses

108. Feature detectors

109. Figure ground principle

110. Fovea

111. Gate control theory

112. Gestalt Psychology

113. Habituation

114. Interposition

115. Kinesthetic sense

27
116. Law of common fate

117. Law of continuity

118. Law of proximity

119. Law of similarity

120. Law of simplicity (Pragnanz)

121. Linear perspective

122. Monocular depth cues

123. Nerve deafness

124. Opponent process theory

125. Optic nerve

126. Perception

127. Perceptual set

128. Photoreceptors

129. Place theory

28
130. Pupil

131. Retina

132. Retinal disparity

133. Rods

134. Sensation

135. Sensory adaptation

136. Signal detection theory

137. Subliminal messages

138. Texture gradient

139. Top down processing

140. Transduction

141. Trichromatic theory

142. Vestibular sense

143. Visible light spectrum

29
144. Weber’s Law

Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

1. The longer an individual is exposed to a strong odor, the less aware of the odor the
individual becomes. This phenomenon is known as sensory
a. Acuity d. reception.
b. Adaptation e. overload.
c. Awareness
2. The ability to choose specific stimuli to learn about, while filtering out or ignoring other
information, is called
a. Selective attention d. masking.
b. Subliminal perception e. shadowing.
c. Time-sharing
3. The human vestibular sense is most closely associated with the
a. Skin d. olfactory bulb.
b. Semicircular canals e. rods and cones.
c. Taste buds
4. Which of the following is a possible reason why cats see better at night than can
humans?
a. Cats have higher proportion of rods to cones
b. Cats’ pupils can contract to a smaller opening
c. Cats have a smaller blind spot
d. Cats have a large optic nerve tract
e. The visual cortex of cats is located farther forward in the cortex
5. The minimum intensity at which a stimulus can be detected at least 50 percent of the
time is known as the
a. Visual cliff d. receptor potential.
b. Just noticeable difference e. absolute threshold.
c. Perceptual set
6. When Jason practices the drums, he tends not to hear the phone. Today he is expecting
a call from a record producer and answers the phone each time it rings even when he is
practicing the drums. Which of the following explains why Jason hears the phone
today?
a. Weber’s Law
b. Accommodation
c. Frequency Theory

30
 d. Signal Detection Theory
e. Harmonics
7. Which of the following is NOT a Gestalt principle of perceptual organization?
a. Proximity d. Intensity
b. Similarity e. Continuty
c. Closure
8. Which of the following is the correct sequence of anatomical structures through which
an auditory stimulus passes before it is perceived as a sound?
a. Cochlea, ossicles, eardrum, oval window, auditory canal
b. Eardrum, cochlea, auditory canal, ossicles, oval window
c. Oval window, auditory canal, eardrum, cochlea, ossicles
d. Ossicles, eardrum, cochlea, auditory canal, oval window
e. Auditory canal, eardrum, ossicles, oval window, cochlea
9. Receptors that are especially important for helping a person maintain balance are
located in the
a. Gyrus cinguli d. ossicles.
b. Inner ear e. ligaments.
c. Tendons

Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam

10. Which of the following is true about rods and cones?

a. Rods facilitate black-and-white vision and cones facilitate color vision
b. Both rods and cones are most concentrated at the periphery of the retina
c. Both rods and cones are most concentrated at the blind spot of the retina
d. Rods and cones are distributed evenly throughout the retina
e. Rods are more useful than cones for perception in well-lit areas

11. After constant exposure to a stimulus, our nerve cells fire less frequently. This can be
explained by which of the following?
a. Weber’s Law d. absolute threshold sensitivity.
b. Sensory adaptation e. the phi phenomenon.
c. Signal detection
12. Keisha recently lost the sight in her left eye. In which of the following situations would
Keisha NOT be able to judge depth?
a. Looking down a railroad track as it disappears into the distance
b. Looking out a train window passing scenery
c. Throwing a ball to a friend
d. Watching two people approach from different distances
e. Watching a crowd of children at play in a school yard
13. The ability of the human visual system to barely detect a candle flame at a distance of
about 30 miles on a clear, dark night is an example of
a. An absolute threshold d. Weber’s law.
b. A difference threshold e. Fechner’s law.
c. A just noticeable difference
14. The gate control theory attempts to explain how
a. The brain analyzes patterns by analyzing changes in brightness over broad areas
31
 b. Filtering of excess information results in reduced response to constant
stimulation
c. The nervous system blocks or allows pain signals to pass to the brain
d. Differing regions of the tongue are more sensitive to different tastes
e. Chemicals released by one animal can shape the behavior of a second animal of
the same species
15. The semicircular canals, located in the inner ear, provide important information about
the
a. Apparent distance of sound
b. Air pressure of the surrounding areas
c. Body’s posture and head position
d. Frequency of sound waves
e. Amplitude of sound waves
Unit 4: Consciousness

145. Activation Synthesis dream theory

146. Conscious

147. Delta waves

148. Depressants

149. Hallucinogens

150. Hypnosis

151. Information processing dream theory

152. Insomnia

153. Narcolepsy

32
154. Night terrors

155. Non-REM sleep

156. Nonconscious

157. Opiates

158. Preconscious

159. REM sleep

160. Role theory of hypnosis

161. Sleep apnea

162. Stimulants

163. Subconscious/unconscious

164. Theta waves

165. Wish fulfillment theory of dreams (Freud)

166. Withdrawal

33
Released Test Questions

1. The painful experience associated with termination of the use of an addictive substance
is known as
a. Discontinuance d. forced independence.
b. Tolerance e. transduction.
c. Withdrawal
2. Sigmund Freud believed that dream analysis was a useful device for
a. Decreasing repression
b. Sublimating the id
c. Strengthening the superego
d. Displacing instinctual forces
e. Gaining insight into unconscious motives
3. In terms of the effect on the central nervous system, alcohol is most accurately
classified as which of the following types of drug?
a. Depressant d. stimulant.
b. Narcotic e. hallucinogen.
c. Psychoactive
4. Hypnosis has been found useful in the treatment of
a. Pain d. paranoia.
b. Autism e. schizophrenia.
c. Dementia
5. A student participates in a month-long sleep study designed to examine free-running
circadian rhythms. If all time cues are removed, the student’s sleep-wake cycle is likely
to
a. Average about 25 hours
b. Average about 12 hours
c. Average whatever it had averaged when the student began the study
d. Become even more dependent than usual on the student’s activity level
e. Become extremely variable
6. A central nervous system depressant that produces a false feeling of well-being and
efficiency and results in slower reaction time to stimulation is
a. Cocaine d. alcohol.
b. Marihuana e. nicotine.
34
 c. Dopamine
7. The psychological effects of alcohol are powerfully influenced by the user’s
a. Expectations
b. Success in developing a social network
c. Agility
d. Intelligence quotient (IQ)
e. Brain dopamine level
8. Which of the following is characterized by a periodic appearance of sleep spindles?
a. Stage 2 sleep
b. Stage 3 sleep
c. Stage 4 sleep
d. REM sleep
e. Night terrors

Unit 5: Learning

167. Albert Bandura

168. Aversive conditioning

169. B.F. Skinner

170. Chaining

171. Classical conditioning

172. Conditioned response

173. Conditioned Stimulus

174. Discrimination

175. Extinction

35
176. Fixed interval schedule

177. Fixed ratio schedule

178. Generalization

179. Insight learning

180. Ivan Pavlov

181. Kohler’s chimps

182. Latent learning

183. Law of effect

184. Mental map

185. Modeling

186. Negative punishment

187. Negative reinforcement

188. Observational learning

189. Operant conditioning

36
190. Positive punishment

191. Positive reinforcement

192. Primary reinforcer

193. Secondary reinforcer

194. Shaping

195. Social learning

196. Spontaneous recovery

197. Taste aversion

198. Token economy

199. Unconditioned response

200. Unconditioned Stimulus

201. Variable interval schedule

202. Variable ration schedule

37
Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

1. A two-year-old child is frightened by a small dog. A few weeks later the same child sees
a cat and becomes frightened. The child’s reaction is most likely an example of which of
the following?
a. Stimulus discrimination d. sensory preconditioning.
b. Second-order conditioning e. spontaneous recovery.
c. Stimulus generalization
2. Which is a definition of discrimination that most directly applies to classical
conditioning?
a. Prototype matching to organize information into categories
b. Maintaining information in memory thorough repetition
c. Differential treatment, usually negative, based on group membership
d. Recognizing an object as distinct from its surrounding
e. Learning to respond differently to similar stimuli
3. A monkey is conditioned to flinch at the sound of a bell that was previously paired with
a puff of air to the monkey’s cheek. Which of he following explanations would be
consistent with a cognitive interpretation of this conditioning?
a. The animal cannot control its tendency to flinch because the response of
flinching is simply a reflex to the bell
b. The strength of the flinch response is a function of the time interval between the
onset of the bell and the air puff
c. The monkey interprets the bell as a signal that the air puff will follow
d. The bell is merely a substitute stimulus for the air puff
e. Monkeys are intelligent and know that they should flinch when they hear tones
that are paired with stimuli that elicit reflexes
4. Research indicates that many animals are more likely to associate sickness with a taste
they experienced in conjunction with the illness than with a tone or light. This finding
supports which of the following claims?
a. The tone or light must not have been appropriately paired with the onset of
illness
b. Illness is not necessarily punishing to subject
c. Animals may be biologically prepared to learn some things over other things
d. Extrinsic reinforcers may be more effective than intrinsic reinforcers
38
 e. Positive reinforcers are more effective than punishers
5. Rats in an experiment learned to associate sweetened water with a drug that causes
immune suppression. Later, the sweetened water alone produced the immune
suppression. This outcome is an example of which of the following?
a. Learned helplessness d. classical conditioning.
b. Systematic desensitization e. biofeedback.
c. Operant conditioning
6. John Garcia showed that when rats ingested a novel substance before becoming
nauseated from radiation or drugs, they acquired a
a. Conditioned taste preference for the substance
b. Generalized taste preference for similar substances
c. Conditioned taste aversion for the substance
d. Conditioned taste aversion for any novel substance
e. Conditioned taste preference for any novel substance
7. After seeing her parents give her brother a dollar for cleaning his room, Sarah begins
cleaning for own room. According to social-learning theorists, Sarah’s behavior is an
example of which of the following?
a. Classical conditioning d. discrimination training.
b. Spontaneous recovery e. observational learning.
c. Stimulus generalization

Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam

15. The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response is called
a. acquisition. d. discrimination.
b. generalization. e. spontaneous recovery.
c. extinction.
16. A person who is fearful of rattlesnakes but not garden snakes is exhibiting
a. response learning. d. extinction.
b. discrimination learning. e. generalization.
c. insight learning.
17. A child has learned that her grandparents ignore rather than reward her tantrums.
Which of the following operant principles are the grandparents using to control the child’s
behavior?
a. positive reinforcement d. extinction
b. negative reinforcement e. stimulus substitution
c. delayed reinforcement
18. Long-term potentiation is best described as the
a. interference effect of old memories on the formation of new memories
b. disruptive influence of recent memories on the recall of old memories
c. tendency of people to recall experiences that are consistent with their current
mood
d. increased efficiency of synaptic transmission between certain neurons following
learning
e. superior ability of older adults to recall events from their childhood
19. A person closes a window to shut out traffic noise. The reduction in noise leads the
person to close the window every day. This is an example of
a. positive reinforcement d. omission training.
b. negative reinforcement e. an appetitive stimulus.
39
 c. punishment
20. Classical conditioning is most efficient when the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
a. immediately follows the conditioned stimulus
b. follows the conditioned stimulus by a few minutes
c. immediately precedes the conditioned stimulus
d. precedes the conditioned stimulus by a few minutes
e. is presented at the same time as the conditioned stimulus
21. Which classic study forms the basis for social (observational) learning?
a. Ivan Pavlov … salivating dogs
b. B.F. Skinner … key-pecking pigeons
c. John Garcia … nauseous rats
d. John Watson … Little Albert
e. Albert Bandura … Bobo doll

Unit 6: Memory & Cognition

203. Anterograde amnesia

204. Chunking

205. Context dependent memory

206. Elaborative rehearsal

207. Episodic memory

208. Exemplar

209. Flashbulb memory

210. H.M.

211. Hermann Ebbinghaus

40
212. Informational processing model of memory

213. Long term memory

214. Long-term potentiation

215. Maintenance rehearsal

216. Mnemonic devices

217. Mood congruent memory

218. Primacy effect

219. Proactive interference

220. Procedural memory

221. Prototype

222. Recall

223. Recency effect

224. Recognition

225. Relearning effect

41
226. Retrieval

227. Retroactive interference

228. Retrograde amnesia

229. Selective attention

230. Semantic memory

231. Sensory memory

232. Serial position curve

233. Short term (working) memory

234. State dependent memory

235. Algorithm

236. Anchoring bias

237. Availability heuristic

238. Benjamin Whorf

239. Confirmation bias

42
240. Functional fixedness

241. Heuristic

242. Language acquisition devices

243. Linguistic relativity hypothesis

244. Morphemes

245. Noam Chomsky

246. Overgeneralization

247. Phonemes

248. Representative heuristic

249. Syntax

43
Memory Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

1. A schema can be described as

a. An out layer of the eye
b. A mental construct
c. A fissure between the lobes of the brain
d. An optical illusion
e. A fixed response to a particular stimulus
2. Which of the following is an example of retrograde amnesia
a. Ty cannot recall the face of the thief
b. Cassie’s vivid memory of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger is not
corroborated by those she was with at the time
c. Alberto in unable to remember anything since the accident that destroyed
potions of his hippocampus
d. Katie attributes her poor performance on a standardized test to the fact that she
took the exam in a room other than the one in which she learned the material
e. Alyse cannot remember any details of what happened right before her car
accident
3. Remembering how to roller skate involves which of the following kinds of memory?
a. Semantic d. procedural
b. Episodic e. prospective
c. Priming
4. Material that an individual cannot remember but is on the “tip of the tongue” is
a. In episodic memory, but no in semantic memory
b. In sensory memory, but not in iconic memory
c. In short-term memory, but not in long-term memory
d. Available, but no accessible
e. Retrieved, but not encoded
5. When Shelly first had cable television service installed, Public Broadcasting (PBS) was
on channel 9. Her cable company then switched PBS to channel 16. Shelly now has
trouble remembering that PBS is on channel 16 and not on channel 9. This memory
problem represents
a. Memory decay d. retroactive interference
b. Retrograde amnesia e. proactive interference
c. Reconstructive errors
44
Memory Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam
6. A moviegoer who cannot identify the name of a film star remembers the name when a
friend reviews a list of stars. This incident illustrates which two concepts in human
memory?
a. Rehearsal and chunking
b. The primacy and recency effect
c. Constructive and reconstructive memory
d. The sensory register and short term memory
e. Recall and recognition

7. Two groups of participants in a study are presented a list of 20 words. The first group
is told to count the number of capital letters in the words and the second group is told
to think of the definition of each word. When both groups are asked to recall the words
lists, which of the following is most likely to occur?
a. Each group will recall the same number of words.
b. The first group will recall more words than the second group.
c. The first group will rehearse the words, but the second group will not.
d. The second group will recall more words than the first group.
e. Both groups will recall all of the words.
8. An example of episodic memory is the memory of
a. One’s high school graduation
b. The capital of a state
c. What the musical note C sounds like
d. How to type
e. A mood that is triggered by the experience of a particular scent
9. The process of remembering several pieces of information by mentally associating an
image of each with a different location is a mnemonic device known as
a. The key-word method
b. The method of loci
c. The peg word system
d. The link method
e. chunking

Cognition Questions Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

1. A student who strongly believes that genetic influence is the major contributor to
human personality is analyzing data gathered about identical twins who had been
separated at birth and reunited in adulthood. The student observes many striking
similarities in personality and habits within the twin pairs but does not notice
differences within the twins pairs that might argue against the student’s belief.
a. Confirmation bias
b. The availability heuristic
c. An algorithmic error
d. Metacognition
e. A mnemonic
2. The practice of solving problems by using a mental shortcut is an example of
45
 a. An insightful operation
b. A confirmation bias
c. A hypothesis test
d. The use of a heuristic
e. The use of an algorithm
3. Language acquisition cannot be fully accounted for by associated learning processes for
which of the following reasons?
a. Language use is creative
b. Speakers construct rules for utterances by imitating the models they hear
c. Effective communication depends on one’s level of emotional experience
d. Language production is reinforced by the listener
e. Infants are too young to learn associatively
Cognition Questions Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam
4. Of the following, which is the best example of divergent thinking in problem-solving?
a. Devising as many solutions as possible
b. Ending the solution process with functional fixedness
c. Arriving at a single, plausible solution
d. Developing a personal analogy
e. Brainstorming within a category of associated solutions
5. A researcher asks a young child what she did yesterday. The child replies, “I goes to the
park.” This is best described as an example of
a. Over-regularization of grammar rules
b. Contradictory morphemes
c. The deep structure of language
d. Incorrect pragmatics
e. Semantic error
6. A young couple was having a picnic outdoors when a sudden rainstorm approached.
They became soaked because they did not think of using their plastic tablecloth for
protection from the rain. Their oversight best illustrates.
a. Ill-structured problems
b. Insight
c. Divergent thinking
d. Functional fixedness
e. incubation
7. The news of a plane crash causes a couple to cancel their plane reservation and drive
1,000 miles in their car instead, even though they know that fatal automobile accidents
are much more common than airplane accidents. The couple’s decision mainly involves
a. The overconfidence effect
b. Confirmation bias
c. Belief bias
d. The availability heuristics
e. The representative heuristic
8. Which of the following best describes the representative heuristic?
a. An estimate of the likelihood of an event based on how well it matches a typical
example
b. An estimate of the likelihood of an event based on how easily it can be recalled
c. Biased decision making based on the way a question is framed
d. The tendency to believe something after it has been discredited
46
 e. The tendency to use an initial value as a reference point in making new
estimates
9. Noam Chomsky hypothesized that humans learn language through
a. Conditioning and reinforcement
b. An innate language acquisition device
c. General cognitive development
d. Interpersonal communication
e. Trial-and-error

Unit 7: Motivation & Emotion

250. Approach-approach conflict

251. Approach-avoidance conflict

252. Arousal theory

253. Avoidance-avoidance conflict

254. Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

255. Drive reduction theory

256. Extrinsic motivation

257. Fixed action pattern

47
258. General Adaptation Syndrome

259. Incentives

260. Instinct

261. Intrinsic motivation

262. James-Lange Theory of Emotion

263. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

264. Opponent process theory

265. Schachter-Singer Two Factory Theory of Emotion

266. Set point theory

48
Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

1. Rudolph spends hours painting in his studio, even though he sells few pictures. Which
of the following explains Rudolph’s creative productivity?
a. Functional fixedness
b. Inductive reasoning
c. Intrinsic motivation
d. Incubation
e. Heuristics
2. Individuals who accept personal responsibility for their life experiences may be
characterized as having
a. Unrealistic expectations
b. Delusions of grandeur
c. An internal locus of control
d. A pessimistic view of reality
e. An introverted personality
3. Which of the following is most likely to characterize the behavior of students who have
high achievement motivation and are intrinsically motivated to play a musical
instrument?
a. If promised a reward for practicing a difficult piece of music selected by the
teacher, they will practice more than if they selected the piece by themselves
b. If permitted to choose their own pieces of music, they will select very difficult
ones that are beyond their present ability to play
c. If permitted to choose their own pieces of music, they will select easy pieces that
they can master in one session
d. If permitted to choose their own pieces of music, they will select moderately
difficult pieces that they can master if they practice them conscientiously
e. They will enjoy practicing the piano more if their parents promise them a
reward for mastering each piano piece

49
4. In Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, living up to one’s potential and striving for
personal fulfillment are referred to as
a. Biological needs d. belonging needs.
b. Aesthetic needs e. self-actualization needs.
c. Physiological needs
5. Which of the following terms is used in hunger and weight-control research to denote
the concept that each person has a body-fat level that remains fixed and resistant to
change?
a. Hyperphagia
b. Hypophagia
c. Glucagon theory
d. Set point
e. Metabolic conversion
6. The two components of Schachter and Singer’s theory of emotion are
a. Love and anger
b. Instinct and motivation
c. Instinct and brain activation
d. Physiological arousal and cognitive assessment
e. Physiological arousal and behavior
7. Greg stays up all night during finals week studying for exams. As the week progresses,
his muscles tighten and he develops a stiff neck. By the last day of finals, he is taking
more frequent breaks, leaning back in the desk chair, and staring off into space. He
arrives for the last test with a sore throat and headache.
Which of the following best describes Greg’s response to stress?
a. General adaptation syndrome
b. Object-relations theory
c. Opponent-process theory
d. Two-factor theory
e. Type B behavior pattern
8. A teacher taught her students to take turns by giving them stars to trade for snacks at
the end of the day. This technique is called
a. Systematic desensitization
b. Token economy
c. Classical conditioning
d. Rational-emotive therapy
e. Free association

Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam

9. The section of the brain considered most vital to the initiation of feeding behaviors is
the
a. Hippocampus
b. Hypothalamus
c. Superior olive
d. Suprachiasmatic nucleus
e. Substantia nigra
10. The experience of an emotion, as described by the James-Lange theory, would follow
which order?
50
 a. Stimulus, arousal, emotion
b. Stimulus, emotion, arousal,
c. Emotion, arousal, stimulus
d. Arousal, stimulus, emotion
e. Arousal, emotion, stimulus
11. Of the following, which theory of motivation emphasizes the urge for an optimal level of
stimulation?
a. Instinct d. incentive
b. Frustration-aggression e. evolutionary
c. Arousal
12. Research suggests that the ability to cope with stress in everyday situations is closely
related to a person’s
a. Annual income
b. Ability to predict and control potential stressors
c. Verbal intelligence
d. Direct experience in competitive sports
e. Low-calorie diet

13. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which of the following needs must
first be met before belongingness and love become important?
a. Safety only
b. Safety and physiological needs
c. Esteem and self-actualization needs
d. Safety, esteem, and physiological needs
e. Esteem, self-actualization, and physiological needs
14. Which of the following lends the most support to the view that early explorers
undertook their explorations to gain wealth and fame?
a. Arousal theorists d. incentive theorists
b. Drive-reduction theorists e. sociobiological theorists
c. Humanistic theorists
15. Which of the following is the phase of Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome
wherein individuals are most vulnerable to illness, collapse, and even death?
a. Appraisal d. denial
b. Alarm e. resistance
c. Exhaustion
16. According to David McClelland, which of the following is true of individuals who have a
strong need for achievement?
a. They seek out tasks that are moderately difficult
b. They are not likely to persist on any task
c. They seek out tasks that are easy
d. They seek out tasks that are nearly impossible
e. They are less likely to pursue success in their occupations
17. The Schachter-Singer theory of emotion includes a component not discussed in the
James-Lange theory. What is this component?
a. Stimulus situation d. cognitive labeling
b. Arousal e. subjective emotion
c. Facial feedback

51
18. A researcher gave identical puzzles to five-year-old children in two groups, group A and
group B. The children in group A were promised candy if they completed the puzzles
quickly and well. They children in group B were not promised a reward but were
encouraged to do the best that they could. If the researcher argues that
overjustification occurred, which of the following most likely happened during the
experiment?
a. Group A worked harder and better than group B
b. Both groups worked equally hard and well
c. Group B felt angry at not receiving the promise of a reward and therefore did not
work at all
d. Group A did not work as hard or as well as group B and would be less likely to
spontaneously work on similar puzzles in the future
e. Group B worked equally well as group A but would quickly argue that they
would have done better if offered a rewards.

Unit 8: Lifespan Development

267. Accommodation

268. Anxious/ambivalent attachment

269. Assimilation

270. Authoritarian parenting

271. Authoritative parenting

272. Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt

273. Avoidant attachment

52
274. Concrete operational stage

275. Conservation

276. Conventional stage

277. Cross-sectional research

278. Egocentric

279. Erik Erikson

280. Formal operational stage

281. Generativity vs. Stagnation

282. Harry Harlow

283. Identity vs. Role Confusion

284. Industry vs. Inferiority

285. Initiative vs. Guilt

286. Integrity vs. Despair

287. Intimacy vs. Isolation

53
288. Jean Piaget

289. Lawrence Kohlberg

290. Longitudinal research

291. Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situations

292. Metacognition

293. Nature vs. Nurture

294. Newborn reflexes

295. Object permanence

296. Permissive parenting

297. Postconventional stage

298. Preconventional stage

299. Preoperational stage

300. Schema

301. Secure attachment

54
302. Sensorimotor stage

303. Teratogens

304. Trust vs. mistrust

Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

1. Which of the following theoretical frameworks would argue most strongly that a
healthy child will choose what is good for his or her own growth?
a. Social learning theory d. Humanistic
b. Psychoanalytic e. Psychodynamic
c. Behavioral
2. A researcher asks elementary, junior high, senior high, and college students to define
the term “cheating,” and analyze differences in their definitions across age groups. This
is an example of which type of study?
a. Longitudinal d. Case study
b. Sequential e. Observational
c. Cross-sectional
3. Keisha was able to roll over at two months, crawl at five months, and walk at ten
months. This sequence of development is most likely due to
a. Egocentrism d. Attachment
b. Social context e. Assimilation
c. Maturation
4. A researcher dabs color on a 16-month-old child’s face and places the child in front of a
mirror. Which of the following developmental milestones has been reached if the child
realizes that there is something wrong with its face?
a. Visual discrimination d. Identification of the gender of the
image
b. Recognition of human form e Perception of the image as a playmate
c. Recognition of self
5. Which of the following reflects the inborn and stable rudiments of personality, such as
excitability?
55
 a. Imprinting d. Temperament
b. Social referencing e. Accommodation
c. Individuation
6. A 14-moth-old toddler is placed in an unfamiliar situation with the child’s mother, who
then leaves the room for a time. When the mother returns, the child squirms and tries
to get away from the mother when picked up, but also seems distressed when placed
back on the floor. Mary Ainsworth would consider this evidence of which of the
following?
a. Hyperactivity d. Disorganized Behavior
b. Narcissistic personality type e. Avoidance
c. A resistant or ambivalent attachment style
7. Which Piagetian stage of cognitive development is characterized by mastery of
conservation tasks?
a. Sensorimotor d. Formal Operation
b. Preoperational e. Tertiary circular reactions
c. Concrete operations

Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam

8. According to Lawrence Kohlberg, children at the first level of moral reasoning make
judgments about right and wrong on the basis of
a. Cultural norms d. The likelihood of punishment
b. Social conventions e. The approval of siblings or same-sex
peers
c. Religious beliefs
9. Gender typing is best described as
a. The realization that gender is stable, regardless of superficial behaviors such
as dress
b. A preferential interest of a female child in the attention of the mother
c. A child showing ambivalence toward the mother and father
d. Adolescents integrating social, sexual, and intellectual, and ethical aspects
into self-identity
e. The acquisition of the roles associated with distinctions between male and
female
10. In “Baby X” studies, researchers alternately dressed an infant in typical boys’ or girls’
clothing. Adults who were asked to play with the infant treated the baby in boys’
clothing in a generally rougher manner than when asked to play with the same infant
dressed in girls’ clothing. This behavior is the result of
a. Stereotyping d. Neglect
b. Androgyny e. Framing
c. Indulgence
11. A child believes that all birds can fly, yet comes to realize that a penguin is a bird.
Which of the following terms was used by Jean Piaget to refer to this developmental
process of changing one’s ways of thinking in order to incorporate new information?
56
 a. Accommodation d. Assimilation
b. Egocentrism e. Concrete operational thought
c. Formal operational thought
12. Maturation differs from learning in that developmental changes due to maturation
a. Are relatively independent of environmental factors
b. Follow no predictable pattern
c. Can take place only in an enriched environment
d. Cease after early childhood
e. Require practice
13. A mother gives her child an orange for the first time. The child rolls it across the table
and says, “ball.” Which of the following Piagetian processes would account for his
behavior?
a. Seriation d. Assimilation
b. Accommodation e. Conservation
c. Reversal
14. According to Erik Erikson’s theory of development, the key concern of adulthood is
a. Establishing a career d. Sharing intimacy with another
b. Leaving the parent’s world e. Building an identity
c. Raising children

Unit 9: Personality

305. Abraham Maslow

306. Archetypes

307. Big 5 Personality Traits

308. Carl Jung

309. Carl Rogers

310. Collective unconscious

311. Compensation/overcompensation

57
312. Defense Mechanisms

313. Denial

314. Displacement

315. Ego

316. Extrovert

317. Factor Analysis

318. Freud’s psychosexual stages of personality development

319. Fully functional person

320. Fundamental attribution error

321. Heritability

322. Id

323. Inferiority complex

324. Introvert

325. Locus of control

58
326. MMPTI-2

327. Oedipus Crisis/Complex

328. Projection

329. Projective personality tests

330. Psychoanalytic theory

331. Rationalization

332. Reaction formation

333. Reciprocal determinism

334. Regression

335. Repression

336. Self-efficacy

337. Sublimation

338. Superego

339. Type A vs. Type B

59
340. Unconditional positive regard

Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

1. Individuals who accept personal responsibility for their life experiences may be
characterized as having:
a. Unrealistic expectations
b. Delusions of grandeur
c. An internal locus of control
d. A pessimistic view of reality
e. An introverted personality
2. The technique of assessing personality by asking a person to make up a story based on a
picture presented by the researcher is an example of which of the following types of
tests?
a. Trait/type
b. Projective
c. Forced choice
d. Simulation
e. Personality inventory
3. The humanistic perspective in psychology suggests that
a. Most behavior can be explained by operant conditioning principles
b. All humans have peak experiences
c. All humans are good by nature
d. Humans are doomed to a life of neurosis and suffering
e. Self-actualization can happen only through therapy
4. Which of the following assessment tools is LEAST likely to be used by a
psychoanalytically oriented psychologist?
a. Sentence completion
b. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

60
 c. Draw-A-Person Test
d. Thematic Apperception Test
e. Rorschach Test
5. Which perspective views the human condition as a mixture of unconscious desires and
conflicts?
a. Humanistic
b. Trait
c. Psychoanalytic
d. Behavioral
e. Cognitive
6. Which perspective was used by Raymond Cattell as a basis for his personality measure
known as the 16PF test?
a. Humanistic
b. Trait
c. Psychoanalytic
d. Behavioral
e. Cognitive

Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam

7. A researcher shows a picture to a volunteer; the picture features a woman in the

foreground and an older man, looking over her shoulder, in the background. The
volunteer is asked to “tell a story” about the picture. The researcher assumes that the
volunteer will project his own unconscious feelings into the story he tells. This is an
example of which of the following tests?
a. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
b. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
c. Rorschach Inkblot Test
d. Thematic Apperception Test
e. Stanford-Binet Test
8. Which of the following is LEAST likely to be used in research on personality
a. Interviews
b. Observations
c. Inventories
d. Projective tests
e. Conservation tasks
9. The strongest support of hereditary basis of personality comes from research
techniques that use
a. Comparisons of photographs of the physiques of young male siblings.
b. Rater’s estimates of the similarities between mother and child in personality
characteristics such as shyness
c. Measures of behavioral similarities of identical twins reared apart
d. Clinical case studies of the frequency of a personality trait in a family
e. Correlations of test score profiles of brothers and sisters from the same family

61
10. The five-factor theory of personality (The Big Five) does NOT include which of the
following characteristics?
a. Intelligence
b. Conscientiousness
c. Extraversion
d. Agreeableness
e. Neuroticism/stability
11. Which of the following did Alfred Adler suggest is the primary driving force in the
development of personality?
a. Resolving the Electra complex
b. Overcoming the inferiority complex
c. Extinguishing reinforcement history
d. Analyzing the collective unconscious
e. Repressing the libido
12. Most professionals from the United States rate themselves better in performance and
competence than their average peer. This is an example of
a. Self-actualization
b. Objective self-awareness
c. Enlightened self-schemas
d. Self-serving bias
e. The fundamental attribution error
Unit 10: Intelligence

341. Achievement test

342. Aptitude test

343. Construct validity

344. Face validity

345. Flynn effect

346. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory

347. Heritability

62
348. Negatively skewed

349. Normal Distribution

350. Positively skewed

351. Reliability

352. Spearman’s Intelligence Theory

353. Split half reliability

354. Standardized tests

355. Stanford Binet IQ test

356. Sternberg’s Intelligence Theory

357. Test retest reliability

358. Validity

359. Weschler IQ test

63
Released Test Questions: 2007 Exam

1. The validity of a personality test is best indicated by which of the following?

a. The correlation between test scores and some other relevant measure
b. The correlation between test scores and IQ
c. The inverse correlation of variables being tested
d. The number of people in the test’s norming population
e. The number of questions in the test that can e objectively scored

2. In a normal distribution, approximately what percent of the scores occur within one standard
deviation above and below the mean?
a. 5%
b. 16%
c. 33%
d. 68%
e. 97%

3. Jamal receives a Full Scale IQ score of 125 on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales. This score
indicates that he
a. Scored correctly on 125 items on the test
b. Scored exactly at the mode of the test
c. Scored exactly at the median of the test
d. Scored more than one standard deviation above the mean of the test
e. Has 125 units of intelligence as operationalized by the test

4. When a teacher compares the performance of her students on the even-and-odd numbered
questions in a multiple-choice test, she is determining
a. Equivalent-form reliability
b. Split-half reliability

64
 c. Face validity
d. Concurrent validity
e. Construct validity

5. A fifty-two-year-old woman notices a decrease in her ability to solve unfamiliar problems

quickly and to form new concepts, although she still feels confident in recalling and using
familiar information. This is most likely due to a decline in
a. Mental age
b. Concrete operational thought
c. Crystallized intelligence
d. Fluid intelligence
e. Preoperational thought

6. Which of the following is generally true of participants in Lewis Terman’s longitudinal study of
intellectually gifted children?
a. Their IQ dropped with age
b. Their IQ increased with age
c. They exhibited a higher-than-average incidence of mental illness
d. They led happy and fulfilling lives
e. They came from larger-than-average families

Released Test Questions: 2004 Exam

7. The correlations between the IQ scores of identical twins reared apart are lower than those of
identical twins reared together. This difference is best explained by which of the following?
a. Heredity plays an important role in determining IQ
b. Environment plays an important role in determining IQ
c. Heredity plays no role in determining IQ
d. Environment plays no role in determining IQ
e. Heredity and environment play an equal role in determining IQ

8. A test that fails to predict what it is designed to predict lacks

a. Standardization
b. Norms
c. Fairness
d. Validity
e. Reliability

9. If the variance of a set of scores is 100, the standard deviation will be

a. 5
b. 10
c. 25
d. 50
e. 125

10. Alfred Binet’s most important contribution to psychology was in the area of
a. Intelligence testing
b. Visual perception
c. Psychopathology
d. Comparative psychology

65
 e. Classical conditioning

11. Which of the following is evidence of the reliability of a new intelligence test?
a. A correlation of +.90 exists between scores on the new test and scores on the Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children
b. The test predicts students’ ability to succeed in college
c. The correlation between scores for identical twins taking the test is +.90
d. Baseline data for test norming are obtained from a diverse sample of several thousand
participants
e. The correlation between scores of participants who take two forms of the test +.90

Unit 11: Psychological Disorders & Treatment

360. Aaron Beck

361. Active listening

362. Agoraphobia

363. Antianxiety drugs

364. Antidepressant drugs

365. Antipsychotic drugs

66
366. Antisocial personality disorder

367. Aversive conditioning

368. Bipolar disorder

369. Catatonic schizophrenia

370. Client-centered therapy

371. Clinical psychologist

372. Conversion disorder

373. Counseling psychologist

374. Counterconditioning

375. David Rosenhan

376. Delusion

377. Delusion of grandeur

378. Dependent personality disorder

379. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

67
380. Diathesis-stress model

381. Disorganized schizophrenia

382. Dissociative disorder

383. Dissociative fugue

384. Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

385. Dopamine hypothesis

386. Dream analysis

387. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

388. Flooding

389. Free association

390. Generalized anxiety disorder

391. Gestalt Therapy

392. Group therapy

393. Hallucination

68
394. Histrionic personality disorder

395. Hypochondriasis

396. Labeling debate

397. Learned helplessness

398. Major/Clinical depression

399. Mood (Affective) disorders

400. Narcissistic personality disorder

401. Obsessive compulsive disorder

402. Panic disorder

403. Paranoid schizophrenia

404. Personality disorders

405. Phobia

406. Post-traumatic stress disorder

407. Psychiatrist

69
408. Psychoanalysis

409. Psychosurgery

410. Rational emotive therapy

411. Schizophrenia

412. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

413. Social phobia

414. Somatoform disorder

415. Systematic desensitization

416. Tardive dyskinesia

417. Token economy

418. Transference

419. Unconditional positive regard

420. Undifferentiated schizophrenia

70
1. The basic purpose of the DSM-IV-TR is to
a. provide a set of diagnostic categories for classifying psychological disorders.
b. provide a clear distinction between neurosis and psychosis.
c. describe the psychoanalytic approach to psychological disorders.
d. describe internal personality factors that are involved in psychological disorders.
e. identify childhood experiences that contribute to psychological disorders.
2. An individual survives a period of captivity and exhibits behaviors that include anxiety,
inability to concentrate, depression, edginess, and the reexperience of stressful events. These
symptoms illustrate which of the following disorders?
a. Generalized anxiety d. Histrionic
b. Major depression e. Posttraumatic Stress
c. Hypochondriasis
3. Contemporary definitions of abnormality might include all of the following criteria EXCEPT
a. maladaptiveness. d. gender.
b. personal distress or discomfort. e. statistical prevalence.
c. deviance from cultural norms.
4. Which of the following forms of therapy most likely involves a confrontational atmosphere
between the therapist and the client?
a. Rational-emotive therapy d. Person-centered therapy
b. Psychoanalysis e. Systematic desensitization
c. Aversive conditioning
5. The overall purpose of psychoanalytic therapy is to
a. change the behavior patterns of the client in therapy.
b. help the client in therapy reach his or her full potential.
71
 c. alter the thought processes of the client in therapy.
d. help the client in therapy gain new insight into himself or herself.
e. help the client in therapy get rid of irrational thoughts.
6. An individual who sees and feels imaginary spiders crawling on his arms and legs is
experiencing
a. a fixation. c. an illusion. e. a phobia.
b. a hallucination. d. an eidetic image.
7. According to the psychoanalytic view, depression is caused by
a. a neurotransmitter imbalance.
b. self-defeating thoughts.
c. prolonged exposure to stressor over which the individual has limited control.
d. unresolved experiences of loss from childhood.
e. alcohol or other substance abuse.
8. One perspective in clinical psychology in clinical psychology proposes that adaptive and
abnormal behavior can be developed through similar processes. Which of the following
terms best characterizes this approach to abnormal behavior?
a. Biological c. Behavioral e. Cognitive
b. Psychodynamic d. Humanistic
9. Which of the following treatments is most frequently used to eliminate specific phobias?
a. Antidepressant drugs d. Psychoanalysis
b. Systematic desensitization e. Aversion therapy
c. Implosion therapy

10. A college student experiences a loss of sensation in her right arm before exams. Doctors can
find physiological basis for her condition. This student is most likely experiencing which of
the following kinds of disorders?
a. Somatoform c. Anxiety e. Personality
b. Dissociative d. Mood
11. The psychologists who first developed encounter groups and sensitivity-training groups
based their work on which of the following approaches to therapy?
a. Psychodynamic c. Behavioral e. Biological
b. Humanistic d. Cognitive
12. Prozac functions as an antidepressant medication because it
a. enhances production of acetylcholine.
b. blocks the reuptake of the neurotransmitters serotonin.
c. causes selective memory loss for depression-producing events.
d. produces a steady, mild state of euphoria.
e. inhibits front lobe activity related to depression.
13. A teacher taught her students to take turns by giving them stars to trade for snacks at the end
of the day. This technique is called
a. systematic desensitization. d. rational-emotive therapy.
b. token economy. e. free association.
c. classical conditioning.
14. Aaron Beck suggested that negative beliefs cause depression. To help change these negative
beliefs, Beck used which of the following therapies
a. Cognitive d. Psychoanalytic
b. Psychopharmacological e. Social-learning
c. Rational-emotive
15. Which of the following is most descriptive of antisocial personality disorder?
72
 a. A pattern of limited social interaction and reluctance to enter into relationships
b. A pattern of extreme dependence on other people and acute anxiety at being left alone
c. A pattern of bizarre or unstable behavior characterized by dramatic mood shifts
d. An inability to feel empathy for others and a lack of remorse for actions that harm
others
e. An exaggerated sense of self-importance
16. Rhoda sometimes experiences periods of major depression. At other times, she is extremely
talkative and active, appears to be in a euphoric mood, goes days without sleeping, and
reports that her thoughts are racing. The most likely diagnosis of Rhoda’s condition is
a. bipolar disorder. d. major depressive disorder.
b. dissociative identity disorder. e. schizophrenia.
c. delusional disorder.
17. Dan always return after leaving home to see if he locked the door. He always locks the door,
but he thinks about whether or not he locked until he has checked. Dan’s behavior is an
example of
a. a specific phobia. d. conversion disorder.
b. avoidant personality disorder. e. obsessive compulsive disorder
c. hypochondriasis.

18. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-IV-TR) includes which of
the following?
a. Detailed case histories and verbatim patient interviews for each type of mental
disorder
b. Table of biological abnormalities responsible for each type of mental disorder
c. Discussions of the pros and cons of various treatment approaches for each type of
mental disorder
d. Classification and diagnosis of each type of mental disorder
e. Discussions of insurance coverage for each type of mental disorder
19. Aversion therapy to eliminate undesirable behaviors is most likely to be used by which of the
following types of therapists?
a. Behavioral c. Cognitive e. Humanistic
b. Psychoanalytic d. Reality
20. A therapist who uses systematic desensitization to help a child overcome a white rabbit
phobia will probably begin treatment by
a. exploring the child’s early ego formation.
b. having the child imagine being in a room full of rabbits.
c. having the child list a hierarchy of white, fuzzy objects.
d. analyzing the child’s recent dreams for evidence of rabbit themes.
e. exposing the child to several tame, docile rabbits.
21. A person leaves her current home, moves to a new location, takes on a new identity, and has
little or no memory of her former life. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), which of the following diagnoses is most appropriate?
a. Conversion disorder d. Dissociative Fugue
b. Panic disorder e. Schizophrenic episode
c. Bipolar disorder
73
22. A therapist who helps a client replace irrational thoughts with alternative patterns of thinking
is using which of the following techniques?
a. Cognitive restructuring d. Extinction
b. Cognitive dissonance e. Aversive conditioning
c. Systematic desensitization
23. In the treatment of patients, which of the following psychologists made no attempt to offer
formal diagnosis, advice, or interpretation of patients’ unconscious motives?
a. Carl Rogers c. Albert Ellis e. Carl Jung
b. Aaron Beck d. Sigmund Freud
24. Kevin laughs when others are injured by his thoughtless pranks and shows little regard for
the feelings or well-being of others. He has been in trouble with the police and other
authority figures a number of times. Which of the following disorders would best describe
Kevin’s behavior?
a. Dissociative Identity Disorder d. Obsessive compulsive disorder
b. Antisocial personality disorder e. Dependent personality disorder
c. Narcissistic personality disorder
25. Client: “I’ve been feeling totally worthless, like I never do anything right.”
Therapist: “I guess you feel that way a lot, don’t you? That you’re no good. It’s hard to have
feelings like that.” Which of the following types of therapy would be likely to involve the
exchange above?
a. Rational-emotive therapy d. Systematic desensitization
b. Gestalt therapy e. Person-centered therapy
c. Psychoanalysis
26. Which of the following psychoactive drugs works by inhibiting the reuptake or serotonin?
a. Xanax c. Lithium carbonate e. Prozac
b. Valium d. Clozapine
27. Although it can produce undesirable side effects, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been
shown to be most effective in the treatment of
a. depression. d. psychogenic amnesia.
b. schizophrenia. e. multiple personality.
c. panic disorder.
28. Which of the following is true of persons with schizophrenia?
a. They have multiple personalities.
b. They are typically cured if they take appropriate medication.
c. They are often unable to understand simple statements.
d. They typically experience onset late in adolescence or early adulthood.
e. They typically have a history of being maltreated as children.
29. Dr. Williams is a therapist who believes that his client’s depression is caused by internalized
anger and other intra-psychic conflicts. Of which psychological perspective is Dr. Williams
most likely a proponent?
a. Biopsychological c. Humanistic e.
Psychoanalytic
b. Evolutionary d. Behavioral
30. Which of the following best represents a humanistic explanation for anxiety disorder?
a. Lower-than-normal levels of inhibitory neurotransmitters like GABA result in
higher levels of anxiety.
b. Irrational and maladaptive thoughts processes lead to increased levels of anxiety.
c. Anxiety is either classically or operantly conditioned.
d. Anxiety results from internal unconscious conflict.
74
 e. Anxiety results when an individual experiences a gap between his ideal self and
his real self.
31. Janet believes her brother Ralph is depressed because he has a distorted view of reality: he
has unrealistically negative thoughts. Which of the following theories comes closest to
describing Janet’s orientation to abnormal behavior?
a. Biological c. Behavioral e. Cognitive
b. Psychodynamic d. Systems

Unit 12: Social Psychology

421. Mere exposure effect

422. Central route to persuasion

423. Peripheral route to persuasion

424. Cognitive dissonance theory

425. Compliance

75
426. Foot-in-the-door strategy

427. Door-in-the-face strategy

428. Situational attribution

429. Dispositional attribution

430. Self-fulfilling prophecy

431. Collectivistic culture

432. Individualistic culture

433. False-consensus effect

434. Self-serving bias

435. Just world bias

436. Stereotype

437. Prejudice

438. Discrimination

439. Ethnocentrism

76
440. In-group bias

441. Superordinate goal

442. Frustration-aggression hypothesis

443. Bystander effect

444. Social facilitation

445. Social impairment

446. Conformity

447. Solomon Asch study

448. Stanley Milgram study

449. Group/Social norms

450. Social loafing

451. Group polarization

452. Group think

453. Deindividuation

77
454. Zimbardo’s prison experiment

1. Which is a definition of discrimination that most directly applies to social psychology?

a. Prototype matching to organize information into categories
b. Maintaining information in memory through repetition
c. Differential treatment, usually negative, based on group membership
d. Recognizing an object as distinct from its surroundings
e. Learning to respond differently to similar stimuli
2. Which of the following is considered an explanation of why bystander intervention is less
likely to occur if there is a large number of witnesses to a crime?
a. Prejudice d. Group polarization
b. Social facilitation e. Self-efficacy
c. Diffusion of responsibility
3. Solomon Asch’s findings on conformity might best be used to explain why
a. members of a family all like the taste of bananas.
b. adolescents follow fads in dress and hairstyle
c. people are less likely to accept blame for their failures than to accept credit for
their successes
d. bystander intervention is more likely to occur when few, rather than many,
bystanders are present
e. performance is enhanced in the presence of others.

78
4. Which of the following explains the behavior of normally law-abiding people who act
destructively when they are part of a crowd?
a. Group polarization d. Entrapment
b. The mere exposure effect e. Fundamental attribution error
c. Deindividuation
5. A club president discovers that contributions of club members drop when the total
contribution of all members is published rather than the contributions of individuals.
This drop can be explained by the phenomenon of
a. group polarization d. social facilitation
b. learned helplessness e. socialization
c. social loafing
6. Two friends attribute their high math scores to their high level of effort and ability in
math and their low Spanish scores to their teacher’s subjective grading and favoritism. In
this situation these students are exhibiting
a. the actor-observer effect. d. equity.
b. the hindsight bias. e. the self-serving bias.
c. scapegoating.
7. All of the following are conditions that may lead to conflict within organizations
EXCEPT
a. scarce resources. d. insufficient communication.
b. jurisdictional ambiguity. e. superordinate goals.
c. inequities in status.
8. According to the theory of fundamental attribution error, when explaining the failure of
others we usually underestimate the significance of
a. situational factors. d. support systems.
b. dispositional factors. e. inherited traits.
c. motivational factors.

9. Social facilitation theory focuses on situations in which the presence of others causes an
individual’s performance to
a. remain unchanged. d. spontaneously recover.
b. decline. e. become fixated.
c. improve.
10. A group of students perceived a stationary point of light in a dark room as a moving
object. When asked later how far the light had moved, their responses increased in
similarity as they heard each others’ estimates. This outcome was a demonstration of
a. obedience. d. visual masking.
b. social facilitation. e. motion parallax.
c. conformity.
11. Tension from an inconsistency between an individual’s attitudes and behavior is
a. cognitive dissonance. d. information propinquity.
b. altruism. e. constancy.
c. deindividuation.
12. The common tendency to assume that the beliefs, values, attitudes, or actions of one’s
own group are superior to those of other groups is called
a. deindividuation. c. observer bias. e. reactance.
b. groupthink. d. ethnocentrism.

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13. When members of a group who tend to agree on an issue become more extreme in their
opinion after the issue is discussed, which of the following has taken place?
a. deindividuation d. group norming
b. depersonalization e. group polarization
c. groupthink
14. The frustration-aggression hypothesis views aggression as
a. unconscious. c. innate. e. cognitive.
b. physiological. d. reactive.
15. When Stanley Milgram asked psychiatrist to predict how far participants would go in
administering shock in his original demonstration on obedience to authority, the
psychiatrists
a. made accurate predictions.
b. significantly overestimated the level.
c. significantly underestimated the level.
d. accurately predicted male responses but underestimated female responses.
e. declined to play a role in the research based on their ethical objections.
16. Jessie and a friend are driving in rush-hour highway traffic when a car suddenly cuts in
front of them in order to reach an unmarked exit ramp. Jessie’s passenger points out that
the circumstances may have required the other driver to do so, while Jessie loudly
criticizes the personal qualities of the other driver. Jessie’s response is best explained by
a. cognitive dissonance theory. d. the mere exposure effect.
b. the fundamental attribution error. e. social inhibition theory.
c. a self-fulfilling prophecy.

17. Which of the following is true regarding cross-cultural studies on attributional

tendencies?
a. The actor-observer bias is universal.
b. People in collectivist cultures are more likely to commit the fundamental
attribution error than people in individualistic cultures.
c. People in individualistic cultures are more likely to commit the fundamental
attribution error than people in collectivistic cultures.
d. People in collectivistic cultures are more likely to base their attribution about
people on their appearance than people in individualistic cultures.
e. It is almost impossible to determine cultural differences in attributional biases
with experimental design.
18. Which of the following is the best example of social inhibition?
a. A child refuses to imitate the modeled behavior of an adult.
b. An intelligent, charming person acts aloof and sullen at a party.
c. A person who is very good at “ring toss” carnival games performs even better as
crowd gathers.
d. A person declines to contribute to a church group even though a gift is offered in
return.
e. A person who is a poor bowler begins to bowl even worse than usual when
several friends are watching.

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General Info
• 70 minutes to do 100 multiple choice questions (MCT)
• 50 minutes to complete two essays called Free Response Questions (FRQ)
• MCT counts for 2/3rds of your score or 100 points
• FRQ’s count for 1/3 of the score or 50 points (25 points each)

Examples of how the test is scored

• If you get 75 points on the MCT, to get a 5 on the AP you need only to score about 12 to 14
points on the two FRQ’s.
• It is possible to get a 4 on the AP if you get just 66 points on the MCT if you do well on the
FRQ’s

MCT
• The questions are broken down into 3rds. Roughly the first third are easy; the second third
are more difficult and the last third are difficult. That is why you may feel discouraged as
you progress on the test, (not to worry).
• Use the process of elimination approach and guess if you can knock out enough (at least 1)
answer(s)
• Since you know that the first 1/3 is easy you want to do your best there
• Take your time to get them right but don’t spend too much time on it

81
• For the last 1/3 read the question. If you think you know it, go for it and answer. When and
if you are clueless mark it and return to it when/if you have time.

Strategy One: Ask it like it is

Read the MCQ and rephrase it in your own words

Strategy Two: Answer before you answer

Think of your own answer to the MCQ before checking out the a. b. c. d. or e. choices given.

Strategy Three: POE = Process of Elimination

If you can’t answer before you look at the choices, then cross out each choice that is NOT close
to what you think it might be. There usually is an obvious distracter. You should see something
that might match.

Scoring
1. Each essay is worth 16 2/3rds or 33% of the final AP score

2. Each essay has a specified number of pieces of information required usually between 8 and
12

3. Example of scoring if an essay is worth 10 points you would need to multiply the number
correct by 2.5 in order to get the 25 points total possible. If you scored a 7 on that essay (7
X 2.5 = 17.5) out of 25.

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 MCQ’s Strategies

1. If you encounter a question in which you have no idea of the answer and you cannot at least
eliminate one choice, leave it blank. There are 0.25 points deducted for every wrong answer
and 0 point deducted for every blank answer.

2. When two out of four choices are opposites, pick one of those two as the best guess.

3. B, C, and D answers are best in a five answer (A – E) multiple-choice question.

4. Nonanswers (“zero” or “none of the above”) are usually poor guesses

5. In questions asking for the most or the least, pick the answer next to the most or the least. (Ex.
5, 8, 9, 15, 30)

6. “All of the above” is usually a good choice.

7. Longest-multiple choice answers are good guesses.

8. If two out of four choices are almost identical, pick the longer of the two.

9. If a question asks for a plural or a singular answer, make sure that you pick a plural or singular
answer.

10. When limiting words are used (all, never, always, must, etc.) “False” is usually the better
answer.

11. When general terms are used (most, some, usually, could, might, etc. ), “true” is usually the
better answer.

12. Identify those questions you’re not sure of with a mark. Review these on a second pass.

13. Reread directions before turning in an exam. Use the entire time given to double-check.

14. First impressions (initial guess) are often best. If an answer comes to you from out of the blue,
it’s probably your right brain at work. Don’t fight this intuition unless you’re sure it’s wrong.

15. When a question is difficult to visualize, draw it.

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FRQ Tips

1. Read both questions before you begin writing. Rubric them, target the total points
that you will need to make.
• Number the points right on the green sheet
• Make marginal notes about terms/research to use
• Refer back to the pink booklet you write on. In a box with question #’s ETS may give
you number of rubric points for each essay.
• Summarize and break down the questions in your own words.

2. TDA = Terms, Define, Apply

• T – Use the proper psych terms. Show you know!
• D – Define your terms. Really show you know or illustrate your ideas with examples.
Include research, data or names if called for.
• A – Apply all of the above to the problem presented on the green prompt.

3. What readers are looking for:

• Buzz words and key concepts on their rubric.
• Don’t try the old rephrase and restatement trick; for example, “cognitive psych is about
cognition”
• You can be funny but it won’t get you any points, but you may end up on the collective
blooper paper (it really does exist).
• If you are clueless about some of the points, write first on the points that you do know.
• Write on the stuff you don’t know as well too, they won’t mark you wrong

4. Time
• Try to budget 20 minutes per question the last 10 minutes you can use as necessary.

5. Give the readers only what they are looking for and nothing more.

6. Don’t cross out sections, you may have been right. You may cross out single words but
never whole lines or sections. The readers have to give you a point even if you stumble on
it.

7. If you give research examples do it briefly. You get NO extra credit for describing
research in detail. Readers are looking for certain terms and concepts. Research examples
are only good to indirectly “show you know”.

8. Try not to overwrite on one question. Budget your time equally between both questions.
Try to stick to the 20-minute rule.

9. Use psych terms – Define the psych terms – Underline the psych terms.

10. It’s a vocabulary game. Work it.

84
Past AP Free Response Questions – Content Areas

1992 (3 content areas)

1. Learning
2. Clinical psych plus perspectives
1993 (4 areas)
1. Scientific Research and Design + Memory (9 points)
2. Clinical Psych + Learning (10 points)
1994 (4 areas)
1. Scientific Research and Design (12 points)
2. Learning + Memory + Soc. Psych (11 points)
1995 (3 areas)
1. Scientific Research and Design + Soc. Psych. (12 points)
2. Social Psych (10 points)
1996 (6 Areas)
1. Health + Bio. Psych + Personality and Perspectives (10 points)
2. Research and Design + Motivation (10 points)
1997 (3 areas)
1. Learning (10 points)
2. Personality (10 points)
1998 (5 areas)
1. Research and Design + Soc. Psych. (12 points)
2. Perspectives + Memory + Clinical Psych. (9 points)
1999 (6 areas)
1. Bio. Psych + Learning Theory + Health (8 points)
2. Research and Design + Memory + Thinking and Intelligence (10 points)
2000 (3 Areas)
1. Motivation + Learning Theory (8 points)
2. Research and Design (11 points)
2001 (6 Areas)
1. Intro/Perspectives + Clinical Psych (8 points)
2. Sensation and Perception + Consciousness + Thinking + Memory (6 points)
2002 (8 Areas)
1. Motivation + Bio. Psych + Sensation + Consciousness (10 points)
2. Development + Learning + Thinking and Language + Memory + Cognition (10 points)
2003 (6 areas)
1. Statistics + Intelligence + Research and Design (15 points)
2. Social Psych + Learning + Consciousness (6 points)
2004 (11 areas)
1. Statistics + Research and Design + Stress + Ethics (8 points)
2. Developing Person + Intelligence + Social Psychology + Emotion + Learning + Neuroscience +
Sensation (8 points)
2005 (11 areas)
1. Sensation + Memory + Social Psychology + Developing Person + Research & Design + Personality (8
points)
2. Disorders + Statistics + Language + Nature & Nurture + States of Consciousness (9 points)
2006 (5 areas)
1. Statistics Research & Design (9 points)
2. Social Psychology + Memory + Personality + Neuroscience (8 points)
2007 (8 areas)
1. Social Psychology + Memory + Emotion + Personality + Learning + Consciousness (8 points)
2. Disorders + Therapy (8 points)
2008 (6 areas)
1. Learning + Developing Person + Social Psychology (8 points)
2. Social Psychology + Motivation + Research & Design (7 points)

85
 Advanced Placement
Program

AP® Psychology

Practice Exam

The questions contained in this AP® Psychology Practice Exam are written to the content specifications of
AP Exams for this subject. Taking this practice exam should provide students with an idea of their general
areas of strengths and weaknesses in preparing for the actual AP Exam. Because this AP Psychology
Practice Exam has never been administered as an operational AP Exam, statistical data are not available
for calculating potential raw scores or conversions into AP grades.

This AP Psychology Practice Exam is provided by the College Board for AP Exam preparation. Teachers
are permitted to download the materials and make copies to use with their students in a classroom setting
only. To maintain the security of this exam, teachers should collect all materials after their administration
and keep them in a secure location. Teachers may not redistribute the files electronically for any reason.

© 2008 The College Board. All rights reserved. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP Central,
SAT, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trade-
mark of the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation. All other products and services may
be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.com.
86
 Section I

Multiple-Choice Questions

87
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 PSYCHOLOGY
SECTION I
Time—1 hour and 10 minutes
100 Questions

Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested answers or
completions. Select the one that is best in each case and place the letter of your choice in the corresponding box on
the student answer sheet.

1. When asked which of two countries has a larger 4. Which psychologist reported that infant
population, participants are likely to judge the attachment to another goes beyond the
country that is more familiar to them as being satisfaction of the need for nourishment?
more populous. Which of the following best
(A) Albert Bandura
explains this finding?
(B) Jean Piaget
(A) A means-end analysis (C) Harry Harlow
(B) The representativeness heuristic (D) Erik Erikson
(C) The availability heuristic (E) Konrad Lorenz
(D) Algorithms
(E) Inductive reasoning 5. Edward L. Thorndike argued that responses that
lead to satisfying outcomes are more likely to be
2. An individual with damage to Wernicke’s area repeated, and that responses followed by
is most likely to have difficulty unpleasant outcomes are less likely to be repeated.
This became known as the law of
(A) identifying an object held in the hand but
not seen (A) reinforcement
(B) planning what to wear to a party (B) associations
(C) remembering the name of a person in a (C) punishment
photograph (D) effect
(D) comprehending a spoken request for (E) outcomes
information
(E) distinguishing between red and green 6. When trying to solve a problem, Bret uses
a logical, step-by-step formula called
3. The psychoanalytic concept of repression
(A) a heuristric
suggests a difficulty in the functioning of
(B) incubation
which aspect of memory?
(C) insight
(A) Encoding (D) priming
(B) Short-term memory (E) an algorithm
(C) Procedural memory
(D) Explicit memory
(E) Retrieval

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7. It is well established that certain autonomic 10. Researchers find that there is a significant,
responses such as heart rate, perspiration, positive correlation between the number of hours
and respiration change under stress. In view students sleep and their grades. The researchers
of the fact that people generally have stronger would be justified in concluding that
autonomic responses when lying than when
(A) earning good grades causes people to sleep
telling the truth, it follows that the polygraph
more
would be a foolproof approach to lie detection.
(B) sleeping more causes students to perform
Which statement best explains why the polygraph
better in school
is not more widely used in courtrooms and in
(C) students who earn good grades tend to sleep
testing of job applicants?
more than those who do not
(A) Most people can avoid detection when (D) more sleep has a beneficial impact on
they lie. students’ grades
(B) Physiological arousal is much the same (E) sleep deprivation has no impact on school
for several emotions, so the polygraph performance
cannot always reliably distinguish guilt
from other reactions. 11. In phase one of a study, a researcher classically
(C) A significant number of people show conditions a dog to salivate to the ringing of
paradoxical autonomic reactions, a bell. In the second phase, the researcher pairs
responding more strongly when telling a flashing light with the ringing of the bell.
the truth than when lying. After several pairings of the light and the bell,
(D) In controlled studies, the polygraph has the dog will
correctly identified guilty individuals
(A) no longer salivate when the bell is rung
in only a small percentage of cases.
(B) only salivate when the bell is rung
(E) The polygraph has been shown to be
(C) salivate when the light is flashed
reliable only in highly emotional cases,
(D) stop salivating when the light is flashed
such as child abuse and spying.
(E) salivate when the researcher comes into
the room
8. The principles of operant conditioning are best
illustrated by
12. Jason is attending a parade that features the local
(A) exposing a client to anxiety-provoking high school band. Jason’s friend Brent plays the
stimuli trombone in the band. It is difficult for Jason to
(B) replacing a response to a stimulus with an hear Brent play at the parade. Which
alternative response of the following would best allow Jason to hear
(C) deep relaxation techniques Brent’s trombone?
(D) a token economy to reinforce adaptive
(A) Sensory adaptation
behaviors
(B) Selective attention
(E) development of intrinsic motivation
(C) Perceptual constancy
(D) Weber’s law
9. A man is feeling depressed about his inability
(E) Functional fixedness
to support his family after losing his job. The
fact that the patient is currently unemployed
is coded on which axis in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-IV-TR)?
(A) Axis I
(B) Axis II
(C) Axis III
(D) Axis IV
(E) Axis V

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Questions 13-15 refer to the information below. 16. A statistical technique that would allow
a researcher to cluster such traits as being
A psychologist describes the following steps to talkative, social, and adventurous with
a client, while the client is practicing relaxation extroversion is called
techniques, in order to treat the client’s psychological
(A) a case study
disorder:
(B) meta-analysis
(C) statistical significance
1. You are entering a large building.
(D) factor analysis
2. You are pressing a button for an elevator.
(E) z score
3. You are stepping into an elevator.
4. You are watching the doors close
17. Ralph is aware that smoking is harmful to his
after entering the elevator.
health, but he continues to smoke. According to
5. You are traveling five floors on
cognitive dissonance theory, it is most likely that
the elevator.
Ralph will
13. Which of the following categories would (A) gather information on the dangers of smoking
most likely represent the diagnosis associated (B) start smoking more frequently
with this set of behaviors? (C) argue that his friends should stop smoking
(D) focus on the social advantages to smoking
(A) Mood disorder
(E) experience no tension
(B) Anxiety disorder
(C) Dissociative disorder
18. Curare blocks action at acetylcholine synapses
(D) Schizophrenic disorder
and causes paralysis. This drug is an example
(E) Somatoform disorder
of an
14. What type of treatment technique is described (A) antagonist
above? (B) agonist
(C) inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP)
(A) Aversion therapy
(D) excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP)
(B) Systematic desensitization
(E) excitatory neurotransmitter
(C) Extinction
(D) Flooding
(E) Punishment

15. Which type of therapy is most closely associated

with the technique used in this method?
(A) Psychoanalytic
(B) Behavioral
(C) Biomedical
(D) Cognitive
(E) Client centered

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19. Which of the following graphs shows the most desirable test-retest correlation?

(A)
(B)

(C)
(D)

(E)

20. Which of the following is a type of medication 22. Which theoretical perspective in psychology
that has been linked to the side effect of tardive attempts to characterize the way in which humans
dyskinesia? store and process sensory information?
(A) Antidepressants (A) Behavioral
(B) Benzodiazepines (B) Psychodynamic
(C) Neuroleptics (C) Evolutionary
(D) Anxiolytics (D) Cognitive
(E) Tricyclics (E) Sociocultural

21. A researcher surveyed social adjustment in the 23. Gestalt psychology is concerned primarily
same group of 20 people from early childhood with understanding which of the following?
through adulthood. In this example, the group
(A) Learning
of 20 people surveyed was the study’s
(B) Motivation
(A) Sample (C) Development
(B) Population (D) Sensation
(C) Operational definition (E) Perception
(D) Control group
(E) Randomization

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24. During the night, Alicia stops breathing 28. Which of the following statements best describes
repeatedly, frequently gasps for air, and snores the role of biological processes in classical
loudly at regular intervals. Alicia is most likely conditioning?
suffering from which of the following conditions?
(A) A biologically-based unconditioned stimulus
(A) Sleep apnea (UCS) must immediately follow a
(B) Narcolepsy conditioned stimulus (CS) for learning
(C) Insomnia to occur.
(D) Night terrors (B) Any novel or familiar stimulus could serve
(E) The REM rebound effect as a CS because the biological mechanisms
underlying learning are very powerful.
25. All summer Thomas hears the sound of the ice- (C) Because all animals share a common cellular
cream truck approaching before his brother Oscar history, the laws of classical conditioning
hears it. Thomas most likely has which of the apply to all species.
following? (D) Certain species are biologically predisposed
to learn particular associations that enhance
(A) A lower absolute threshold for hearing
their survival.
than Oscar
(E) Biological reinforcers foster learning more
(B) A greater difference threshold for hearing
quickly than do environmental reinforcers.
than Oscar
(C) A deficit in a sensory system other than
29. Respondents to surveys and questionnaires often
hearing
report that they are healthier, happier, and less
(D) A greater amount of experience with
prejudiced than would be expected based on the
approaching ice-cream trucks than Oscar
results of other types of research. This finding
(E) A tendency for confabulation
can best be explained by which of the following?
26. A therapist who emphasizes helping clients (A) Sampling bias
to identify and change irrational beliefs that (B) Experimenter bias
underlie feelings of anxiety is using which (C) The social desirability bias
therapeutic technique? (D) The bystander effect
(E) The placebo effect
(A) Client-centered therapy
(B) Rational-emotive behavior therapy
30. Synesthesia is a phenomenon that has been
(C) Aversion therapy
estimated to occur in only a few people in
(D) Psychoanalytic therapy
a million. Because of its rarity, researchers
(E) Social-learning therapy
are likely to choose which research method
to study it?
27. Julio has fragmented thinking and distorted false
beliefs. Which of the following psychological (A) Naturalistic observation
disorders is Julio most likely experiencing? (B) Correlational research
(C) Survey research
(A) Simple phobia
(D) Case study
(B) Somatization disorder
(E) Experimental research
(C) Antisocial personality disorder
(D) Obsessive-compulsive disorder
(E) Schizophrenia

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31. Paula lacks self-confidence. She has a difficult 35. In a classic study, a group of rats learned to run
time expressing disagreement with others, and through a maze to obtain food, and another group
she usually lets friends make decisions for her. of rats explored the maze without receiving food.
Others have commented that they do not know Some time later, the researcher compared the two
who the “real” Paula is. With which of the groups of rats to determine if both groups would
following personality disorders might Paula find the food at the end of the maze. According to
be diagnosed? the researcher, the untrained rats found the food at
the end of the maze as quickly as the trained rats
(A) Histrionic
as a result of
(B) Borderline
(C) Dependent (A) latent learning
(D) Passive-aggressive (B) observational learning
(E) Narcissistic (C) avoidance learning
(D) counterconditioning
32. Chuck recalls the day last summer when he fell (E) aversive conditioning
off his bicycle and scraped his knee. This is an
example of 36. During a psychology experiment, a researcher
uses a probe to lesion the ventromedial nucleus
(A) iconic memory
of a rat’s hypothalamus. After the procedure
(B) procedural memory
the rat most likely will
(C) semantic memory
(D) episodic memory (A) become less aggressive
(E) short-term memory (B) become more aggressive
(C) eat more and gain weight
33. Researcher Renee Baillargeon found that (D) stop eating and lose weight
four-month-old infants will look longer at (E) experience a loss of coordination
a ball if it appears to roll through a solid barrier, and muscular control
demonstrating that babies seem to grasp basic
physical laws intuitively. Which of the following 37. When a person is suffering from severe pain,
theories does this finding challenge? the type of drug that will best help alleviate
that pain is
(A) Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development (A) an opiate
(B) Lev Vygotsky’s social cognition learning (B) an amphetamine
model (C) a depressant
(C) Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive (D) a hallucinogen
development (E) a stimulant
(D) Mary Ainsworth’s findings from the Strange
Situation 38. The defense mechanism of projection is best
(E) Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial illustrated by which of the following examples?
development
(A) When scolded by his parents, a college
student reverts to childlike behavior to
34. In vision, transduction occurs within the
gain sympathy.
(A) optic nerve (B) A soccer player who does not have much
(B) visual cortex athletic skill constantly criticizes other
(C) retina athletes’ performances.
(D) lens (C) A young man who is shy becomes the
(E) cornea center of attention at a party given by
friends.
(D) After exams were graded and returned, a
college student looked at his low grade and
decided that the test was unfair and difficult.
(E) After a fight with her boyfriend, a woman
yells at her roommate for sitting in her
favorite chair.

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39. Damage to the occipital lobe would most 43. Certain cultures often place more emphasis on
likely affect a person’s collective than on personal achievement. One
result of this may be that people of these cultures
(A) balance
are more likely to develop which type of self-
(B) ability to develop plans
system?
(C) vision
(D) fine motor movements (A) Interdependent
(E) language processing (B) Interrelated
(C) Independent
40. James was born with a condition that makes it (D) Integrated
impossible for him to metabolize certain proteins. (E) Inner-directed
Due to early screening and a special diet, he was
able to avoid developing potentially serious 44. A basic assumption underlying short-term
symptoms. Which of the following disorders does memory is that it is
James have?
(A) limited in capacity
(A) Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) (B) unlimited in capacity
(B) Down syndrome (C) long-lasting
(C) Autistic disorder (D) not under conscious control
(D) Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (E) resistant to decay
(ADHD)
(E) Phenylketonuria (PKU)
Set A Set B
41. Stanley Milgram’s classic research on obedience
showed that approximately what percentage of
60 60
participants administered the highest voltage
shock? 56 41
(A) 10% 58 76
(B) 25%
62 35
(C) 40%
(D) 60% 61 65
(E) 85%
59 50
42. After staring at a green, black, and orange
“American flag” for about a minute, an 45. Which of the following is true of the two sets of
individual will see a red, white, and blue scores above?
flag afterimage. Which of the following
(A) Set A has a larger standard deviation.
explains this phenomenon?
(B) Set B has a larger standard deviation.
(A) Trichromatic theory (C) The range is the same for both distributions.
(B) Opponent-process theory (D) Set A has a lower median score than set B.
(C) Retinex theory (E) The mean score is the same for both
(D) Color constancy distributions.
(E) Convergence

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46. Carol Gilligan, in her criticism of Lawrence 51. People who are color blind most likely have
Kohlberg, proposed that the moral reasoning deficiencies in their
of males is primarily based on
(A) rods
(A) male repression of females, whereas the (B) cones
moral reasoning of females is based on (C) lens
economics (D) optic nerve
(B) rational abstract principles, whereas the (E) occipital lobe
moral reasoning of females is based on
relationships and the social context 52. Research on human mating preferences suggests
(C) legalistic ideals, whereas the moral reasoning that men place greater value on physical
of females is based on more humanistic attractiveness and youthfulness, whereas women
ideals place greater value on social status and financial
(D) observational learning, whereas the moral resources. Which of the following psychological
reasoning of females is genetically points of view best explains this behavior?
determined for the most part
(A) Collectivistic
(E) physical strength, whereas males start
(B) Individualistic
developing morally later than females but
(C) Psychoanalytic
surpass them soon afterward
(D) Evolutionary
(E) Humanistic
47. Which process transfers information from sensory
memory to short-term memory?
53. If Juan tried to learn a long list of words, he
(A) Attention would be most likely to forget words that
(B) Cognition
(A) appeared early in the list
(C) Differentiation
(B) appeared near the end of the list
(D) Perception
(C) appeared in the middle of the list
(E) Sensation
(D) were very unlike the rest of the words
(E) were randomly dispersed throughout the list
48. When the word “walk” is changed to “walked,”
the suffix “ed” is an example of a
54. Which of the following perspectives argues
(A) morpheme that every person has the potential to become
(B) phoneme self-actualized?
(C) lexicon
(A) Humanistic
(D) syntax
(B) Behavioral
(E) language acquisition device (LAD)
(C) Gestalt
(D) Cognitive
49. The just-world hypothesis would best explain
(E) Psychodynamic
which of the following phenomena?
(A) Blaming the victim 55. An image projected to the left visual field
(B) Cognitive dissonance of a split-brained person will be processed in the
(C) The need for power
(A) left visual cortex
(D) Bystander apathy
(B) right visual cortex
(E) Groupthink
(C) right side of the left retina
(D) left side of the right retina
50. Which of the following is a binocular cue for
(E) sensory cortex
depth perception?
(A) Linear perspective
(B) Texture gradient
(C) Interposition
(D) Retinal disparity
(E) Motion parallax

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56. A researcher is training laboratory rats to run a 60. Which of the following assessment tools explores
complex maze. Each time the rats learn a new part individuals’ personalities by asking them to
of the maze, they are rewarded with a pellet of examine a series of inkblots and describe what
food. Within a few hours, the rats have learned the they see in the inkblot?
entire maze. Which of the following did the
(A) Thematic Apperception Test
researcher use to teach the rats the maze?
(B) Rorschach Test
(A) Shaping (C) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
(B) Generalization Inventory-2
(C) Negative reinforcement (D) Halstead-Reitan Battery
(D) A fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement (E) Bender-Gestalt II
(E) Spontaneous recovery
61. Which of the following neurotransmitters
57. Martha is an undergraduate student who is has been linked to Parkinson’s disease and
interested in pursuing a career in psychology. schizophrenia?
She wants to use her knowledge of psychology
(A) Acetylcholine
to help employees become more productive in
(B) Dopamine
the workplace. Which field of psychology should
(C) Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
Martha select in graduate school?
(D) Norepinephrine
(A) Physiological (E) Serotonin
(B) Cognitive
(C) Educational 62. According to Sigmund Freud, our sexual
(D) Clinical and aggressive instincts are located primarily
(E) Industrial-organizational in the
(A) frontal lobes
58. Although he finds it to be difficult and not
(B) ego
much fun, Tomas puts in long hours practicing
(C) superego
field hockey in the hope of getting an athletic
(D) id
scholarship to college. This best illustrates the
(E) latent stage
idea of
(A) homeostasis 63. Charles Spearman’s concept of g is most
(B) attribution theory accurately defined as
(C) catharsis
(A) a specific type of performance that is
(D) extrinsic motivation
affected by intelligence
(E) arousal theory
(B) one of seven fundamental abilities that
determine behavior
59. The term group polarization refers to the
(C) a single, underlying intellectual capacity
tendency for
measured by intelligence tests
(A) two opposing factions to emerge within (D) the ability to create novel solutions to
a group complex situations
(B) the prevailing opinion within a group (E) the storehouse of knowledge and facts
to become more extreme after discussion that we accumulate during our adult
(C) a single leader to eventually dominate most years
groups
(D) one or more group members to eventually
have their opinions disregarded
(E) democratic leadership to decrease as the
length of meetings increases

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64. Which of the following studies demonstrates 69. While grocery shopping, John heard voices
a cross-sectional research design? that seemed to be narrating his every action.
The voices made statements such as “Now
(A) Testing the first graders, and testing them
he is picking up the bread” and “Now he is
again when they are in third grade
putting the bread in his shopping cart.” No
(B) Testing first graders at the end of the
one else heard the voices. John has heard
school year
voices narrating his behavior on several
(C) Testing first, third, and fifth graders
other occasions. What is John experiencing?
at the beginning of the school year
(D) Observing first graders as they test (A) Illusions
in two different subject areas (B) Delusions
(E) Observing first graders as they interact with (C) Hallucinations
either third graders or fifth graders (D) Hypnosis
(E) Grandiosity
65. Which type of therapy uses free association,
dream interpretation, and analysis of
transference?
Questions 70-72 are based on this scenario.
(A) Cognitive-behavioral
(B) Humanistic
A researcher randomly assigned boys and girls
(C) Behavioral
to each of two groups. One group watched a violent
(D) Psychodynamic
television program while the other group watched
(E) Client-centered
a nonviolent program. The children were then
observed during a period of free play, and the
66. Which of the following psychometric properties is
incidence of aggressive behavior was recorded
used to assess the extent to which the items on an
for each group.
intelligence test measure a person’s intelligence?
(A) Internal consistency
(B) Split-half reliability 70. What is the dependent variable in this study?
(C) Standardization
(A) Sex of the children
(D) Construct validity
(B) Duration of free play
(E) Predictive validity
(C) Type of television program viewed
(D) Level of televised violence
67. Marc performs poorly on a psychology exam and
(E) Incidence of aggressive behavior
explains his failure by saying, “That test was so
hard no one could pass it.” This explanation
71. What is the independent variable in this study?
illustrates
(A) Incidence of aggressive behavior
(A) reciprocal determinism
(B) Type of television program viewed
(B) self-serving bias
(C) Sex of the children
(C) the fundamental attribution error
(D) Number of groups
(D) the representativeness heuristic
(E) Duration of free play
(E) the just-world hypothesis
72. This research method is best
68. Martin fell off his skateboard and badly bruised
characterized as
his elbow. He immediately began rubbing the
area around the bruise until the pain subsided. (A) experimental
This method of reducing pain can be explained (B) correlational
by which of the following? (C) longitudinal
(D) naturalistic observation
(A) Gate-control theory
(E) case study
(B) Opponent-process theory
(C) Trichromatic theory
(D) Expectancy theory
(E) Phantom pain

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73. John is completing a lengthy test in which he 77. A teacher finds the distribution of scores on
must indicate whether various written statements a final exam to be positively skewed with low
are true or false about himself. He is most likely variability. On the basis of this information, the
taking which of the following? teacher would be most justified in concluding that
(A) A personality inventory (A) a small number of students in the class
(B) A projective test did poorly on the exam
(C) An achievement test (B) the students in her classroom have a very
(D) An intelligence test wide range of intellectual abilities
(E) A neuropsychological test (C) the exam was too difficult
(D) the exam is not a reliable assessment tool
74. Damage to which of the following brain structures (E) most of her students are of above average
may cause the inability to detect the emotional ability
significance of facial expressions, especially
those demonstrating fear? 78. In which of the following techniques do
researchers inject a harmless, radioactive
(A) Hippocampus
substance into the living human brain to
(B) Thalamus
examine activity?
(C) Cerebellum
(D) Hypothalamus (A) Lesioning
(E) Amygdala (B) Electroencephalogram (EEG)
(C) Computerized axial tomography (CAT)
75. Of the following cognitive milestones, (D) Positron-emission tomography (PET)
which ability tends to be acquired last? (E) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
(A) Telegraphic speech
79. An individual who stomps angrily out of a
(B) Use of schemas
restaurant after being kept waiting five extra
(C) Object permanence
minutes for a reserved table may be exhibiting
(D) Hypothetical thinking
symptoms of
(E) Assimilation
(A) schizophrenia
76. Paul Ekman found that when Japanese students (B) antisocial personality disorder
watched films of surgery, they masked their (C) avoidant personality disorder
expressions of disgust with a smile when (D) dependent personality disorder
an authority figure entered the room but not (E) narcissistic personality disorder
when alone. American students maintained
their expressions of disgust both alone 80. Students who enjoyed solving a puzzle were
and in the presence of an authority figure. rewarded for doing so. Later, they played less
Ekman’s findings illustrate what he calls with the puzzle than did their counterparts who
were not rewarded for the same task. This
(A) the facial feedback hypothesis
illustrates which of the following principles?
(B) display rules
(C) phlegmatic personalities (A) Latent learning
(D) the two-factor theory (B) Self-fulfilling prophecy
(E) adaptation-level phenomenon (C) Intermittent reinforcement
(D) The overjustification effect
(E) The law of effect

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81. Jim is better at computer games when his 85. Which procedure can reduce problems associated
friends are watching than when he plays alone. with the use of deception by a researcher?
Researchers would explain Jim’s behavior using
(A) Debriefing
which of the following theories?
(B) Random sampling
(A) Social facilitation (C) Random assignment
(B) Social loafing (D) Using only single-blind studies
(C) Group polarization (E) Using only double-blind studies
(D) Groupthink
(E) Normative social influence 86. Psychologists from which of the following
perspectives of personality are most interested
82. Which of the following theories suggests that in assessing a person’s locus of control?
a physiological need creates a state of tension
(A) Psychoanalytic
that motivates an organism to satisfy the need?
(B) Cognitive
(A) Opponent-process (C) Evolutionary
(B) Drive-reduction (D) Humanistic
(C) Incentive (E) Gestalt
(D) Arousal
(E) Gate-control 87. Elizabeth picks up the clothes from her bedroom
floor and puts them away to avoid her mother’s
83. According to Jean Piaget, children cease to repeated nagging. Elizabeth’s behavior is being
exhibit egocentrism during which of the influenced by
following stages?
(A) classical conditioning
(A) Sensorimotor (B) positive reinforcement
(B) Preoperational (C) negative reinforcement
(C) Concrete operational (D) extinction
(D) Post-conventional (E) punishment
(E) Pre-conventional
88. The diathesis-stress approach would likely
84. The fundamental attribution error occurs when support which of the following statements about
individuals do which of the following? psychological disorders?
(A) Mold their interpretations of the past to fit (A) Disorders are a result of the social and
how events actually turned out economic situations in which people live.
(B) Incorrectly assume that virtually all behavior (B) Disorders are a result of unresolved,
is determined by genetic factors unconscious conflicts between the id and
(C) Underestimate the influence of unconscious the superego.
motivation when trying to explain their own (C) Disorders are a result of negative events that
behavior trigger irrational thoughts.
(D) Overestimate the influence of personal (D) Disorders are a result of whether or not
qualities relative to situational factors when showing emotions is accepted by the
trying to explain the behavior of others individual.
(E) Assume that very attractive people tend to be (E) Disorders are a result of predisposed,
more intelligent and more competent than biological factors triggered by the
people who are somewhat less attractive environment.

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89. John regularly stops at the pharmacy to collect 92. When given a drug that produced general arousal,
pamphlets that list symptoms of different research participants placed in a room with a
illnesses, because he is worried about his health. happy confederate described their emotional state
Each day he carefully monitors his vital signs, and as happy, while those placed in a room with an
he also frequently meets with a physician. On his angry confederate described their emotional state
most recent visit, the physician suggested that as angry. Which theory of emotion best explains
John was perfectly healthy. With which of the these results?
following psychological disorders might John be
(A) James-Lange
diagnosed?
(B) Ekman
(A) Somatization disorder (C) Cannon-Bard
(B) Conversion disorder (D) Schachter-Singer
(C) Hypochondriasis (E) Opponent-process
(D) Generalized anxiety disorder
(E) Dissociative disorder 93. Under hypnosis, Jerry is able to withstand pain
without showing any outward signs of discomfort.
90. The Psychology Aptitude Test (PAT) was However, when asked to signal if some part of his
administered to incoming college psychology consciousness is aware of the pain, he raises his
majors. Their scores were later compared to their hand. Which of the following is a theory that best
performance in the introductory psychology explains Jerry’s behavior?
course, and high scores on the PAT were related
(A) Dissociation
to high grades in the course. Therefore, the PAT
(B) State
has
(C) Role
(A) adequate standardization (D) Social influence
(B) internal consistency (E) Age regression
(C) face validity
(D) predictive validity 94. A person eats a hamburger at a restaurant and
(E) content validity develops a very bad stomachache after finishing
eating. As a result of the sudden illness, the
91. Joseph never sleeps through the night. person cannot eat hamburgers anymore. Just
He wakes up at least once per hour to check thinking about them makes the person feel sick
all the doors and windows in his house to make to the stomach. In this scenario, the thought of
sure they are locked and to check the stove a hamburger is
to make sure it is turned off. Joseph’s behavior
(A) an unconditioned stimulus
would be classified as
(B) an unconditioned response
(A) an obsession (C) a conditioned stimulus
(B) an avolition (D) a conditioned response
(C) a fixation (E) a negative reinforcer
(D) a panic attack
(E) a compulsion

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95. Research on stereotype threat indicates that 97. Which of the following is the best example
students might not do as well as they can of a homeostatic process?
on a test if
(A) Manny decides that he is overweight
(A) they are informed that people of their and goes on a diet.
ethnicity, age, or gender usually do not (B) Cathy drinks a large amount of water
perform well on the tests to reduce thirst after a long race.
(B) the group taking the test is not ethnically (C) Bert eats nothing but fruits and grains
diverse for a week before a huge holiday dinner.
(C) they are forced to take a test that is known (D) Edesa stays up later than normal to study
to have low test-retest reliability for a test.
(D) other students perceive them to be of (E) Lian becomes angry after sitting in traffic
a minority ethnic group for an hour and a half.
(E) the test does not have standardized
administration or scoring procedures 98. Brad hears a report on the evening news that diets
low in carbohydrates are beneficial to one’s
96. When parents set few controls on their children’s health. Considering this advice, he begins such a
television viewing, allowing the children freedom diet. Later he hears another report condemning
to set individual limits, make few demands, and low-carbohydrate diets as harmful to one’s health.
do not punish for improper television viewing, the Based upon research on belief perseverance, how
parents exemplify a parenting style referred to as would Brad respond to this new information?
(A) permissive (A) Decide to begin a low-calorie diet and
(B) authoritative increase his physical activity
(C) authoritarian (B) Believe the second news story and
(D) rejecting-neglecting discontinue his diet
(E) pessimistic (C) Study low-carbohydrate diets on his own
(D) Continue to believe in the beneficial effects
of low-carbohydrate diets
(E) Decide to try a high-carbohydrate diet instead

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Questions 99-100 refer to the illustration below. 99. Which of the following brain regions
is indicated by the arrow?
(A) Cerebellum
(B) Amygdala
(C) Hypothalamus
(D) Hippocampus
(E) Pons

100. What is the primary function of the

brain region indicated by the arrow?
(A) Memory formation
(B) Sleeping, waking, and dreaming
(C) Problem solving
(D) Regulation of body temperature
(E) Emotional responses

END OF SECTION I
IF YOU FINISH BEFORE TIME IS CALLED, YOU MAY
CHECK YOUR WORK ON THIS SECTION.

DO NOT GO ON TO SECTION II UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

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 Section II

Free-Response Questions

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 PSYCHOLOGY
SECTION II
Time—50 minutes
1
Percent of total grade—33
3

Directions: You have 50 minutes to answer BOTH of the following questions. It is not enough to answer a question
by merely listing facts. You should present a cogent argument based on your critical analysis of the questions posed,
using appropriate psychological terminology.

1. The goal of a psychology class project is to have students teach a course concept to their classmates as a review
for a later examination. Students in the class have been randomly assigned to work in small groups on the
project. Each group’s grade for the project will be based on how well the entire class performs on the exam
section that tests knowledge of the concepts each group respectively presents.

A. Explain how each of the psychological concepts below may affect the development of student projects.
• Social loafing
• Mental set
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Extrinsic motivation

B. Explain how each of the following concepts might influence the class’s ability to retain the information
presented by the groups.
• Proactive interference
• Absolute threshold

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PAGE.
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2. James was the lead in the school play. It was opening night. Mr. Ramirez, the director, asked James if he was
ready to go on and reminded him about a few last-minute changes in the script.
A number of thoughts and feelings came over James as the curtain went up. James became anxious when he saw
all the faces of the audience members. Then he saw his mother, who is a professional actress, sitting in the front
row. James could not relax.
At that instant, he saw his psychology teacher in the audience. He knew that he needed to use the concepts
learned in her class to make sense of these thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.

Describe how each of the following concepts might help James give a strong performance.
• State-dependent memory
• Arousal theory
• Positive reinforcement
• Selective attention
• Imagery
• Social facilitation
• Sensory adaptation

STOP

END OF EXAM

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 AP® Psychology
Multiple-Choice Answer Key

Correct Correct Correct Correct

No. Answer No. Answer No. Answer No. Answer
1 C 31 C 61 B 91 E
2 D 32 D 62 D 92 D
3 E 33 C 63 C 93 A
4 C 34 C 64 C 94 C
5 D 35 A 65 D 95 A
6 E 36 C 66 D 96 A
7 B 37 A 67 B 97 B
8 D 38 B 68 A 98 D
9 D 39 C 69 C 99 E
10 C 40 E 70 E 100 B
11 C 41 D 71 B
12 B 42 B 72 A
13 B 43 A 73 A
14 B 44 A 74 E
15 B 45 B 75 D
16 D 46 B 76 B
17 D 47 A 77 C
18 A 48 A 78 D
19 A 49 A 79 E
20 C 50 D 80 D
21 A 51 B 81 A
22 D 52 D 82 B
23 E 53 C 83 B
24 A 54 A 84 D
25 A 55 B 85 A
26 B 56 A 86 B
27 E 57 E 87 C
28 D 58 D 88 E
29 C 59 B 89 C
30 D 60 B 90 D

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 AP® Psychology
Free-Response Scoring Guidelines

Question 1

The goal of a psychology class project is to have students teach a course concept to their classmates as a review
for a later examination. Students in the class have been randomly assigned to work in small groups on the project.
Each group’s grade for the project will be based on how well the entire class performs on the exam section that
tests knowledge of the concepts each group respectively presents.

A. Explain how each of the psychological concepts below may affect the development of student projects.
• Social loafing
• Mental set
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Extrinsic motivation

B. Explain how each of the following concepts might influence the class’s ability to retain the information
presented by the groups.
• Proactive interference
• Absolute threshold

Scoring Criteria

General Considerations

1. Answers must be presented in sentences, and sentences must be cogent enough for the student’s meaning
to come through. Spelling and grammatical mistakes do not reduce a student’s score, but spelling must be
close enough so that the reader is convinced of the word.

2. Within a point, a student will not be penalized for misinformation unless it directly contradicts correct
information that would otherwise have scored a point.

3. A student can only score points if information is presented in the context of the question. For example, it
must be clear to the reader that the student is discussing social loafing to score Point 1. The best way for a
student to establish context is to explicitly state it (e.g., “Social loafing may affect the development of
student project by…”). In the absence of such language, the reader may infer context if the paragraph
structure or order of the answer makes the context clear. However, if a student uses language like,
“individual effort is often reduced on a group project” without identifying this concept as social loafing,
the point cannot be scored because the reader has no way of knowing for sure that the student understands
that this is social loafing.

4. While students may define the concept in question, definitions alone are never sufficient to score the
point. For all points, students must make clear their understanding of the concept through their analysis of
the application of the concept to the group project example.

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 AP® Psychology
Free-Response Scoring Guidelines

Question 1 (continued)

PART A. Psychological concepts that may affect the development of the group projects. All of the
psychological concepts in Part A apply to individuals within a group, not to the group as a whole. Do not
award the point unless this is clear.

Point 1: Social loafing occurs when individual effort is reduced on a group project.

• The student must clearly recognize that social loafing would have a negative effect on the group project.

Example: “Social loafing would lead to poorer group projects because individual members of the group
wouldn’t work as hard.”

Point 2: Mental set is the tendency to approach a problem in a specific way, typically in a way that has worked
in the past.

• Mental set could have either a positive or negative effect on the group project.

Example: “The group members assign each member a part of the project to prepare, as they have in the past.
When one group member does not prepare and present his or her part of the project, the entire group gets a
bad grade. Using an approach that had worked in past projects was ineffective in this case.” (This point only
scores if context is established—see general consideration number 3 above.)

Point 3: Self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a person’s expectation of another person leads that person to
behave in the expected way.

• Self-fulfilling prophecy could have either a positive or negative effect on the group project.

Example: “If the leader of a group expected members of the group to do poorly (or well), the members might
not do as well because of this self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Point 4: Extrinsic motivation occurs when a person has a desire to do something to gain a reward or avoid a
punishment.

• In this case the reward would be the good grade that would result from effectively teaching the concept
assigned to the group. Therefore, extrinsic motivation should have a positive effect on the group project.

Example: “A member of the group might work especially hard because she is extrinsically motivated to earn a
high grade in the class.”

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 AP® Psychology
Free-Response Scoring Guidelines

Question 1 (continued)

PART B. Psychological concepts that might influence the class’s ability to retain information.

Point 5: Proactive interference occurs when an older memory disrupts the ability to recall a newer memory.

• The material presented by an earlier group might make it more difficult for students to remember the
material presented by a later group. Therefore, proactive interference would have a negative effect on the
group project.

Example: “When they take the exam, students in the class might have trouble remembering what a small
group presented because something they had learned earlier interferes with the information.”

Point 6: Absolute threshold is the minimum stimulus strength necessary for a person to detect a stimulus.

• Students in the class must be aware of a small group’s presentation in order to retain the information from
the presentation. If the presentation was too quiet to hear (or if a PowerPoint presentation was not visible
to someone in the class), the students would not be able to retain the information because they never had
an opportunity to encode it.

Example: “Because it was below the student’s absolute threshold, a student in the back of the class couldn’t
hear a small group’s presentation. This student couldn’t retain information that he never heard.”

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 AP® Psychology
Free-Response Scoring Guidelines

Question 2

James was the lead in the school play. It was opening night. Mr. Ramirez, the director, asked James if he was
ready to go on and reminded him about a few last-minute changes in the script.

A number of thoughts and feelings came over James as the curtain went up. James became anxious when he saw
all the faces of the audience members. Then he saw his mother, who is a professional actress, sitting in the front
row. James could not relax.

At that instant, he saw his psychology teacher in the audience. He knew that he needed to use the concepts learned
in her class to make sense of these thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.

Describe how each of the following concepts might help James give a strong performance.
• State-dependent memory
• Arousal theory
• Positive reinforcement
• Selective attention
• Imagery
• Social facilitation
• Sensory adaptation

Scoring Criteria

General Considerations

1. Answers must be presented in sentences, and sentences must be cogent enough for the student’s meaning
to come through. Spelling and grammatical mistakes do not reduce a student’s score, but spelling must be
close enough so that the reader is convinced of the word.

2. Within a point, a student will not be penalized for misinformation unless it directly contradicts correct
information that would otherwise have scored a point.

3. A student can only score points if information is presented in the context of the question. For example, it
must be clear to the reader that the student is discussing state-dependent memory to score Point 1. The
best way for a student to establish context is to explicitly state it (e.g., “State-dependent memory might
help James’s performance in the play because…”). In the absence of such language, the reader may infer
context if the paragraph structure or order of the answer makes the context clear. However, if a student
uses language like, “James may perform better if he’s feeling the same during the performance as he did
during rehearsal” without identifying this concept as state-dependent memory, the point cannot be scored
because the reader has no way of knowing for sure that the student understands that this is state-
dependent memory.

4. While students may define the concept in question, definitions alone are never sufficient to score the
point. For all points, students must make clear their understanding of the concept through their analysis of
the application of the concept to the school play scenario.

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 AP® Psychology
Free-Response Scoring Guidelines

Question 2 (continued)

Point 1: State-dependent memory occurs when recall improves when individuals are in the same psychological
state they were in when they encoded information.

• Here, the student must show how a congruent psychological state (mood, drug state, etc.) during the play
would enhance James’s ability to retain information from the play rehearsal.

Example: “James will do better if he imagines himself in the same emotional state he was in during
rehearsal.” (This point only scores if context is established—see general consideration number 3 above.)

Point 2: Arousal theory. For this point, accept any discussion appropriate to arousal theory. This theory dictates
that optimum performance occurs with moderate levels of arousal.

• The student must relate James’s performance to his arousal level. If he is not sufficiently aroused
(“psyched up”), he should increase his arousal to perform well. If he is too aroused (“freaking out”), he
should decrease his arousal for optimum performance. Since the question indicates that James “became
anxious,” “could not relax,” and “needed to calm his mind,” the student’s answer must recognize the
importance of reducing arousal.

Example: “James sees that he has become too aroused and must get himself calmed down to give his best
performance.”

Point 3: Positive reinforcement is any desired consequence of a behavior that increases the likelihood of that
behavior occurring again in the future.

• The student needs to establish that positive reinforcement for good performance at some point in the past
increases the chance that James will do well on opening night.
• The student may indicate that positive reinforcement for James’s performance this evening may increase
the likelihood that he will participate in a play in the future.

Example: “Mr. Ramirez praises James for a good performance during rehearsal. This positive reinforcement
should increase the likelihood that James will perform well on opening night.”

Point 4: Selective attention is when one focuses on one stimulus to the exclusion of other stimuli.

• The student must identify that there are distractions on opening night that might cause James to make
mistakes, and recognize that he must selectively attend to the cues and his role to perform well.

Example: “James has to block out all of the noise and excitement of opening night and focus on his role. His
ability to selectively attend will help him.”

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 AP® Psychology
Free-Response Scoring Guidelines

Question 2 (continued)

Point 5: Imagery is the use of mental pictures.

• The student may explain how this technique can be used by James as a method for encoding his lines into
memory.
• The student may also explain how imagery can be used as a preparation technique for improving
performance.

Example: “James has been picturing what it would be like to take the stage on opening night. He has been
using mental images to rehearse in advance how the performance should go.”

Point 6: Social facilitation occurs when the presence of others enhances performance.

• The student must recognize that James should do well in a performance situation because the audience
would spark social facilitation.

Example: “The presence of the audience on opening night will cause James to perform better than he would
without the audience.” (This point only scores if context is established—see general consideration number 3
above.)

Point 7: Sensory adaptation is when a response to a stimulus decreases with time.

• The student must argue that James can adapt to some type of sensory stimulation (e.g, stage lights,
audience noise) after being exposed to it for some time.

Example: “The stage lights went off at the end of a scene and James could not see in the darkness. After a few
moments, he could see well enough to find his next place on the stage.” (This point only scores if context is
established—see general consideration number 3 above.)

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 Psychology Practice Exam

From the 2012 Administration

This Practice Exam from the 2012 international administration is provided by the College
Board for AP Exam preparation. Teachers are permitted to download the materials and make
copies to use with their students in a classroom setting only. To maintain the security of this
exam, teachers should collect all materials after their administration and keep them in a
secure location.
Exams may not be posted on school or personal websites, nor electronically redistributed for
any reason. Further distribution of these materials outside of the secure College Board site
disadvantages teachers who rely on uncirculated questions for classroom testing. Any
additional distribution is in violation of the College Board’s copyright policies and may result
in the termination of Practice Exam access for your school as well as the removal of access to
other online services such as the AP Teacher Community and Online Score Reports.

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 B

Section I: Multiple-Choice Questions

This is the multiple-choice section of the 2012 AP exam. It includes cover material and
other administrative instructions to help familiarize students with the mechanics of
the exam. (Note that future exams may differ in look from the following content.)

114
 PSYCHOLOGY
SECTION I
Time— 1 hour and 10 minutes
100 Questions

Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested answers or
completions. Select the one that is best in each case and then fill in the corresponding circle on the answer sheet.

1. A psychotherapist who believes that deviant 4. The area of the brain stem that is important in
behavior can be traced either to genetic anom- controlling breathing is the
alies or to problems in the physical structure of
(A) suprachiasmatic nucleus
the brain most likely subscribes to which of the
(B) cerebellum
following views of abnormality?
(C) limbic system
(A) Cognitive (D) medulla
(B) Behavioral (E) hippocampus
(C) Biomedical
(D) Sociological 5. Egocentrism, animism, and artificialism are
(E) Psychoanalytic characteristic of which of Jean Piaget’s stages
of cognitive development?
2. A person with obsessive-compulsive disorder is
(A) Sensorimotor
best described as an individual who experiences
(B) Preoperational
(A) memory loss (C) Postformal
(B) intense mood swings (D) Concrete operations
(C) extreme fear of open spaces (E) Formal operations
(D) physical symptoms with no known cause
(E) persistent anxiety-provoking thoughts 6. Which of the following would an industrial-
organizational psychologist be LEAST likely
3. A research design involves two randomly to study?
assigned groups of participants. One group
(A) Managerial skills
receives a one-time treatment, and the other does
(B) Employee motivation
not. Later, the two groups are compared to see
(C) Job satisfaction
whether the treatment had an effect. Psychologists
(D) Corporate profitability
call this kind of research
(E) Pay incentive programs
(A) a correlational study
(B) an experiment
(C) a case study
(D) a survey
(E) a cross-sequential study

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7. Vic has unpredictable and repeated attacks of 11. Balance is influenced by the
overwhelming anxiety that frequently leave him
(A) cochlea
dizzy, nauseous, short of breath, and in tears. A
(B) basilar membrane
psychologist is likely to view Vic’s behavior as
(C) eardrum
indicative of
(D) auditory nerve
(A) a panic disorder (E) semicircular canals
(B) a psychotic breakdown
(C) a dissociative reaction 12. Humanistic psychologists believe that the drive
(D) a phobia toward self-actualization is
(E) an obsession
(A) primarily associated with peak experiences
(B) associated with extroversion
8. A stereotype is defined as which of the following?
(C) typical of older individuals
(A) An adjustment of one’s behavior in response (D) innate
to peer pressure (E) a developmental task of adolescence
(B) An action performed in response to authority
(C) A belief that one’s own culture is superior 13. A stubborn individual who accuses peers of being
to all others uncooperative is exhibiting which of the following
(D) A generalization about a social group defense mechanisms?
(E) A negative action taken against someone
(A) Identification
who is a member of a social group
(B) Denial
(C) Projection
9. Rafael has a sleep disorder for which he takes
(D) Reaction formation
medically prescribed amphetamines. For which of
(E) Sublimation
the following sleep disorders is Rafael most likely
being treated?
14. Harry Harlow’s experiments with rhesus monkeys
(A) Sleep apnea suggest which of the following as most important
(B) Narcolepsy for infants when establishing an attachment to
(C) Insomnia their mothers?
(D) Circadian rhythm sleep disorder
(A) The amount of time spent with the mother
(E) Somnambulism
(B) The mother’s ability to protect the infant
from physical harm
10. The perceived pitch of a tone is largely determined
(C) The mother’s ability to provide nourish-
by its
ment to the infant
(A) loudness (D) The tactile characteristics of the mother
(B) timbre (E) The particular vocalizations of the mother
(C) amplitude
(D) complexity
(E) frequency

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15. The biological clock that operates in human 19. The brain scans of people with amnesia are most
beings to adjust their functioning to night-and-day likely to show damage to the
periodicity is referred to as
(A) hippocampus
(A) spontaneous neural activity (B) hypothalamus
(B) the biofeedback monitor (C) medulla
(C) a fixed-interval schedule (D) reticular formation
(D) a circadian rhythm (E) cerebellum
(E) active consciousness
20. In treating a patient for depression, Dr. Pratt
16. Visual acuity is best in the focuses on changing the ways in which the patient
interprets events. Which type of therapy is Dr.
(A) lens
Pratt using?
(B) iris
(C) pupil (A) Cognitive
(D) fovea (B) Self-efficacy
(E) cornea (C) Biomedical
(D) Learning
17. Individuals who believe that an unpleasant (E) Psychodynamic
experience is unavoidable and therefore do
nothing to change the course of events are 21. Understanding that things continue to exist even
exhibiting when they are not within view is called
(A) self-actualization attributes (A) mental representation
(B) the fight-or-flight response (B) deep structure
(C) attributional deficits (C) a schema
(D) cognitive dissonance (D) object permanence
(E) learned helplessness (E) assimilation

18. Which of the following systems produces, 22. When is it permissible for a psychologist to share
circulates, and regulates levels of hormones in a client’s test scores with another person?
the body?
(A) When an employer inquires about the mental
(A) Circulatory system health status of the client
(B) Endocrine system (B) When the client provides written permission
(C) Limbic system to share results
(D) Sympathetic nervous system (C) When a school official requests the test
(E) Parasympathetic nervous system scores to aid in a college admission decision
(D) When the test scores are within the normal
range
(E) Never

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23. Community psychologists intervene at the 26. The rationale underlying the use of projective
primary level when they personality tests, such as the Rorschach Test and
the Thematic Apperception Test, is that they
(A) design prevention programs for potential
problems before the problems actually (A) can be efficiently administered in groups and
occur scored by computer
(B) deinstitutionalize individuals through the (B) can be given by almost anyone, since they are
use of halfway houses simple to administer and score
(C) treat currently existing problems before (C) reveal the subjects’ personalities by eliciting
they reach epidemic proportions responses to vague, ambiguous stimuli
(D) treat currently existing problems only after (D) provide clues to the subjects’ personalities
they have reached epidemic proportions based on behavioral theory
(E) treat a disease in an attempt to slow the (E) reveal patterns of the subjects’ personality
spread of it traits by requiring responses to a large
number of objective questions
24. On individual intelligence tests such as the
Stanford-Binet and Wechsler scales, an IQ of 27. The tendency to develop a positive attitude
100 indicates that the test taker toward a product that has been advertised
repeatedly in the media is referred to as
(A) correctly answered all of the items on the test
(B) obtained the highest scores in the standard- (A) impression management
ization sample (B) the Purkinje shift
(C) scored at the average level for test takers (C) the mere-exposure effect
of the same age (D) reaction formation
(D) scored above the level of the average (E) subliminal suggestion
American adult
(E) took as long as the average test taker to 28. As you watch a friend walk away from you, your
answer the test items retinal image of your friend gets smaller. Despite
this, you do not perceive him to be shrinking. This
25. Which of the following is LEAST likely to affect is an example of
the immune system’s ability to ward off illness?
(A) motion parallax
(A) Exposure to stress associated with final (B) retinal disparity
examination week (C) size constancy
(B) Having a serious argument with a close friend (D) continuity
(C) Experiencing the death of a loved one (E) common fate
(D) Being around someone who has a serious
case of the flu
(E) Suffering sleep deprivation due to staying up
for several nights writing a research paper

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29. Which of the following is the correct sequence 32. When a newborn infant is touched on the cheek,
of the neural chain of events set in motion by the infant will turn its head toward the source of
an environmental stimulus? stimulation. This behavior is known as
(A) Receptors, afferent neurons, interneurons, (A) rooting
efferent neurons, effectors (B) suckling
(B) Receptors, efferent neurons, interneurons, (C) the patellar reflex
afferent neurons, effectors (D) the Moro reflex
(C) Interneurons, effectors, receptors, afferent (E) the Babinski reflex
neurons, efferent neurons
(D) Effectors, interneurons, receptors, afferent 33. Neurotransmitters are typically stored in which of
neurons, efferent neurons the following parts of a neuron?
(E) Effectors, receptors, afferent neurons, effer-
(A) The nodes of Ranvier
ent neurons, interneurons
(B) The myelin sheath
(C) The terminal buttons
30. An advantage of group therapy over individual
(D) The soma
therapy is that group therapy
(E) The axon
(A) requires less commitment from the client
(B) achieves results more quickly 34. In order to yield information that is generalizable to
(C) produces a significantly higher recovery rate the population from which it was drawn, a sample
(D) produces a higher rate of spontaneous must be
remission
(A) made up of at least 30 members of the popu-
(E) enables clients to realize that their problems
lation
are not unique
(B) as large as possible
(C) normally distributed
31. A study can be regarded as scientific only if
(D) representative of the population
(A) it utilizes an effective placebo (E) made up of at least 50 percent of the members
(B) its findings are accepted by experts in the of the population
field
(C) its findings are consistent with established
theories
(D) its conclusions are based on strong correla-
tional data
(E) its conclusions can be verified or refuted by
subsequent studies

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35. Individuals exhibiting a hostile type A personality 39. According to Freudian theory, the component
pattern are at an increased risk for of the personality that is “blind, impulsive, and
irrational” is the
(A) Alzheimer’s disease
(B) cardiovascular disease (A) ego
(C) schizophrenia (B) ego-ideal
(D) substance abuse (C) id
(E) anorexia nervosa (D) libido
(E) superego
36. The factors chiefly responsible for interpersonal
attraction include 40. In a research study, informed consent is a
concern of
(A) proximity and similarity
(B) contrasting values (A) replicability
(C) similar tendencies to dominate or submit (B) ethics
(D) similar attitudes toward authority (C) statistical significance
(E) shared attributional biases (D) practical applicability
(E) cross-cultural representativeness
37. In a memory study, the experimenter reads
the same list of words to two groups. She asks 41. The correlation between two measures obtained
group A to count the letters in each word, and on a group of individuals is graphically
she asks group B to focus on the meaning of each represented as a
word for a later memory quiz. During a recall test,
(A) bar graph
participants in group B recall significantly more
(B) normal distribution
words than participants in group A. Memory
(C) histogram
researchers attribute this effect to differences in
(D) scatterplot
(A) priming (E) frequency polygon
(B) levels of processing
(C) proactive interference 42. The concept of habituation is best exemplified by
(D) procedural memory which of the following situations?
(E) episodic memory
(A) An infant recognizes her father’s voice.
(B) A college student is no longer kept awake by
38. Rational-emotive behavior therapy assumes that
her roommate’s late-night typing.
abnormal functioning results from which of the
(C) A kitten avoids a couch after being
following?
reprimanded for sitting on it.
(A) Repression of unpleasant emotions (D) A rat learns to press a bar for food when a red
(B) Malfunctions of the body light is flashed.
(C) Unconscious conflict (E) A motorist drives at the speed limit when there
(D) Inadequate reinforcement is a police officer in sight on the highway.
(E) Unreasonable beliefs or assumptions

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 46. David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel’s research
on responses of the brain to visual stimuli
showed that
(A) patterns are recognized exclusively by
template matching
(B) many cortical cells respond most strongly to
specific visual information
(C) pattern recognition occurs in the lateral
43. The reversible figure above illustrates the Gestalt geniculate nucleus
organizing principle of (D) the retinal image must be upside down to be
recognized
(A) proximity (E) pattern recognition is better in normal-sighted
(B) figure-ground individuals than in nearsighted or farsighted
(C) closure individuals
(D) common fate
(E) simplicity 47. Judy believes that her fate is determined by her
own actions. Judy’s belief best illustrates
44. Staff members at a mental health hospital do not
respond to patients who use threats, but praise (A) self-actualization
patients who are courteous. Which of the (B) psychological reactance
following psychotherapeutic approaches is (C) a preoperational schema
being used? (D) the basis for psychological determinism
(E) an internal locus of control
(A) Assertiveness training
(B) Cognitive therapy 48. An instructor conducted an experiment to deter-
(C) Behavioral therapy mine the effects of two different methods of study
(D) Humanistic therapy on the amount students learned in introductory
(E) Psychoanalytic therapy physics. The results showed that the average
amount learned by the group using one method
45. Which of the following is the best example of was greater than the average amount learned by
shaping? the group using the other. However, the difference
(A) A child receives five dollars each time he was not statistically significant. Which of the
cleans his room. following is the most appropriate conclusion to be
(B) An employee receives a termination notice drawn?
after coming to work late every day over a (A) The group of students attaining the higher
period of three months. mean score had studied more than the other
(C) A child gets candy from a dispenser one time group.
but gets nothing from the dispenser the next (B) The better study method will have different
two times. effects for students of varying levels of
(D) A teacher rewards a student for sitting quietly ability.
for ten minutes on Monday, fifteen minutes (C) Neither group learned a significant amount.
on Tuesday, twenty minutes on Wednesday, (D) There is a positive correlation between the
and thirty minutes on Thursday. results of the two methods.
(E) A rat receives a mild shock each time it tries (E) There is a possibility that the difference
to open the door of its cage. between the two groups occurred by chance.

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49. A student’s test score of 86 is at the 42nd per- 53. For extinction to occur, which of the following
centile. This means that this student has must be true of the conditioned response (CR), the
conditioned stimulus (CS), and the unconditioned
(A) received the 42nd highest score
stimulus (UCS) ?
(B) answered 86 percent of the test items
correctly (A) The CR occurs after the CS but does not
(C) scored the same as 42 of her fellow students occur after other stimuli.
(D) scored the same as or higher than 42 percent (B) The CR occurs after a stimulus that is similar
of her fellow students to the CS.
(E) scored the same as or higher than 58 percent (C) The CS and the UCS are repeatedly paired,
of her fellow students and the CR gains strength.
(D) The CS is repeatedly presented in the absence
50. Which of the following provides information of the UCS, and the CR loses strength.
regarding brain function by monitoring the brain (E) When the CR loses strength, a rest period
at work through metabolism of glucose? is given, after which the CS again elicits
the CR.
(A) Computed tomography (CT)
(B) Electrooculography (EOG)
54. Which of the following behaviors is most closely
(C) Electroencephalography (EEG)
associated with the foot-in-the-door phenomenon?
(D) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
(E) Positron emission tomography (PET) (A) Beth continues to participate in class because
she is positively reinforced.
51. A person assembling a tool one week after reading (B) Adam is sleeping while the rest of his
the instructions can remember the first and last classmates are working on their group
steps of the procedure but not the middle ones. project.
This best illustrates which of the following? (C) Sutan asks his father for $5, and when he
agrees, Sutan asks him for $15 more.
(A) Encoding failure
(D) James feels pressure to go to the movies with
(B) Social facilitation
his friends even though he prefers to go
(C) Retrograde amnesia
bowling.
(D) Repression
(E) Diana feels guilty because she did not help
(E) The serial position effect
her family clear the table after dinner.
52. Carol Gilligan’s critique of Lawrence Kohlberg’s
55. A child who learns that spoons are tableware and
stages of moral development focuses primarily on
then correctly calls forks and knives tableware is
(A) the order in which stages of moral develop- demonstrating
ment occur
(A) rote learning
(B) the key events that mark the transitions
(B) imitation training
between stages of moral development
(C) discrimination training
(C) the number of stages in moral development
(D) stimulus generalization
(D) how the course of moral development might
(E) classical conditioning
be altered within certain cultures
(E) differences between males and females in the
course of moral development

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56. Which of the following best describes the response 60. John B. Watson is best known as the founder of
of members of the American Psychological
(A) behaviorism
Association to ethical issues in research?
(B) functionalism
(A) They have just begun to address such issues. (C) rationalism
(B) They disclaim ethical concerns regarding (D) structuralism
research. (E) mechanism
(C) They have developed codes of ethics for
research with human participants only. 61. Photoreceptors relay visual information to the
(D) They have developed codes of ethics for brain through which of the following cells?
research with animal subjects only.
(A) Trigeminal and vestibular
(E) They have developed codes of ethics for
(B) Ganglion and vestibular
research with both human participants and
(C) Bipolar and vestibular
animal subjects.
(D) Bipolar and Schwann
(E) Bipolar and ganglion
57. Lithium carbonate has been useful in some
instances in the treatment of
62. Robert Rescorla’s contingency model of classical
(A) bipolar disorder conditioning states that
(B) dissociative identity disorder
(A) conditioning occurs only when one event
(C) autistic disorder
reliably predicts another
(D) hypochondriasis
(B) contiguity of stimuli is sufficient for condi-
(E) anorexia nervosa
tioning to occur
(C) reinforcement contingencies predict
58. Which of the following is an example of a
extinction
prelinguistic event?
(D) any stimulus can become conditioned when
(A) Telegraphic speech paired with an unconditioned stimulus
(B) Motherese (E) the only difference between the conditioned
(C) Babbling response and the unconditioned response is
(D) Holophrasing the stimulus used to elicit them
(E) Paraphrasing
63. Which of the following types of validity is estab-
59. All of the following are reasons for requiring lished by demonstrating that there is a correlation
clearly specified procedures for the administration between scores on a test and later academic
and scoring of assessment measures, such as performance?
standardized tests, EXCEPT to
(A) Content
(A) allow comparisons among scores of various (B) Predictive
test takers (C) Face
(B) reduce the possible effects of extraneous (D) Concurrent
variables on scores (E) Test-retest
(C) increase the reliability and validity of the
test scores
(D) decrease the amount of time needed to
administer the test
(E) increase the objectivity of the scoring
procedures used

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64. Which of the following best supports the hypo- 67. Developmental research on the formation of
thesis that basic human emotions, such as sadness, attachment indicates that a child’s secure
are innate? attachment to its mother during infancy is
predictive of which of the following during
(A) Individuals typically experience a rise in
its toddler years?
blood pressure when they are afraid or
angry. (A) Social rejection
(B) Most individuals can distinguish between (B) Impulsive behavior
expressions of different basic emotions (C) Social competence
during the sensorimotor period. (D) Divergent thinking
(C) Basic emotions are understood and expressed (E) Shyness
in a similar fashion by individuals from
diverse cultures. 68. Hallucinations are characteristic of
(D) Most individuals can identify their own
(A) fugue
emotional states from their physiological
(B) clinical depression
symptoms and the context of their present
(C) panic attacks
situation.
(D) psychotic disorders
(E) Infants and young animals cry when they are
(E) personality disorders
hungry.
69. Alfred Binet’s efforts to measure intelligence
65. In studying the behavior of five year olds in free-
were directed at
play situations, a cognitive psychologist would be
most interested in the children’s (A) testing the worth of various theoretical
definitions
(A) problem-solving strategies
(B) operationally defining one theory of
(B) toy preferences
intelligence
(C) degree of cooperative behavior
(C) predicting children’s success in school
(D) prosocial play activities
(D) selecting workers for successful job
(E) choice of playmates
performance
(E) establishing the learning potential of French
66. Which of the following results of correlational
military recruits
studies implies that environment contributes to
the determination of IQ?
70. Training in the construction of an anxiety hierarchy
(A) Correlations are higher for identical twins and in relaxation techniques is likely to be part of
than for fraternal twins. the treatment for which of the following?
(B) Correlations are higher for children and their
(A) Schizophrenia
biological parents than for children and their
(B) Bipolar disorder
adoptive parents.
(C) Specific phobia
(C) Correlations are higher for parents and their
(D) Obsessive-compulsive disorder
children than for husbands and wives.
(E) Dissociative identity disorder
(D) Correlations for two children in the same
family are lower when one of the children is
adopted than when both are the biological
offspring of the parents.
(E) Correlations for children and their adoptive
parents are statistically significant and
positive.

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71. A supervisor who doubts the competence of a new 75. Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer view
employee unwittingly criticizes everything the emotion as resulting from
new employee does. If the new employee
(A) biochemical changes in the pituitary
consequently performs poorly, which of the
(B) cognitive labels of physiological changes
following will most likely have occurred?
(C) instinctual behavior
(A) Latent learning (D) level of arousal
(B) Pluralistic ignorance (E) need for affiliation
(C) A self-fulfilling prophecy
(D) The halo effect 76. The tendency to believe that another person’s
(E) The Hawthorne effect behavior is caused by dispositional factors rather
than by environmental factors is called
72. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of
(A) situational attribution
needs, the need to have respect for ourselves
(B) impression management
and to be valued by others is classified within
(C) the fundamental attribution error
the category of
(D) an implicit personality theory
(A) physiological needs (E) identification
(B) safety needs
(C) belongingness needs 77. An individual who drinks alcohol daily finds it
(D) esteem needs necessary to drink increasing amounts to achieve
(E) self-actualization needs the state of well-being attained in the past. This
individual is showing
73. Which part of the nervous system is most
(A) withdrawal symptoms
immediately activated by sudden fear?
(B) alcohol-induced psychosis
(A) Parasympathetic (C) state-dependent learning
(B) Sympathetic (D) alcohol tolerance
(C) Neostriatum (E) delirium tremens
(D) Somatic
(E) Cortical 78. Which of the following most accurately describes
a dependent variable?
74. Alicia has started a new and very different job but
(A) Some characteristic of research participants
believes in her skills and ability to carry out the
that is constant, such as gender
tasks required of her. Albert Bandura would refer
(B) Some aspect of a participant’s response that
to Alicia’s sense of confidence as which of the
is measured in an experiment
following?
(C) A factor that is manipulated by the experi-
(A) Reciprocal determinism menter in order to observe its effects on
(B) Self-determination some other factor
(C) Psychic determinism (D) A factor that can be used to predict how
(D) Self-efficacy people in an experiment will respond
(E) Phenomenology (E) A factor that is equated for the experimental
and the control group

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79. All human languages have several basic sounds in 81. A technique that enables a person to control
common called physiological responses that are normally
involuntary, such as level of blood pressure,
(A) pheromones
is known as
(B) semantic units
(C) syntactic units (A) general adaptation
(D) morphemes (B) positive reinforcement
(E) phonemes (C) reward training
(D) modeling
80. The sequence of shifts in the electrical charge of a (E) biofeedback
neuron is called
(A) neural integration
(B) refraction
(C) synaptic transmission
(D) the action potential
(E) differential conduction

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126
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 82. Which of the following is the best interpretation of
Solomon Asch’s findings, pictured above, concerning
conformity in perceptual judgments?
(A) The larger the group, the greater the conformity of group
members.
(B) The smaller the group, the greater the conformity of
group members.
(C) Conformity increases as group size increases to about
four persons.
(D) Conformity decreases as group size decreases to about
four persons.
(E) There is no relationship between group size and
conformity.

83. Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that help solve 84. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
problems and reduce mental effort are called is used primarily to provide information about
which of the following?
(A) heuristics
(B) algorithms (A) Achievement
(C) syllogisms (B) Communication skills
(D) propositions (C) Intelligence
(E) concepts (D) Body image
(E) Clinical disorders

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127
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85. Which of the following is true of the frequency distributions shown in the graphs above?
(A) Distribution A has more variation than distributions B or C.
(B) Distribution B has more variation than distributions A or C.
(C) Distribution B and distribution C have the same variation.
(D) The standard deviation of distribution A is infinite.
(E) The standard deviation of distribution B is zero.

86. Which of the following is a partial reinforcement 88. Which of the following concepts provides the best
schedule that is most resistant to extinction? explanation for why people seek to put on warmer
clothing when they start to feel cold?
(A) Noncontingent
(B) Shaping (A) Set-point theory
(C) Variable ratio (B) Homeostasis
(D) Fixed ratio (C) Self-serving bias
(E) Fixed interval (D) Refractory period
(E) Assimilation
87. A young child shown a nine-inch round bowl and
a six-inch round bowl containing equal amounts
of popcorn says he is certain the smaller bowl has
89. The linguistic relativity hypothesis of
more popcorn than the larger bowl. This child has
Benjamin Whorf suggests which of the
yet to acquire what Jean Piaget called
following?
(A) object permanence
(A) People of different cultures use similar
(B) equilibrium
words for common objects.
(C) functional fixedness
(B) Languages with many words to describe
(D) conservation
certain phenomena lack deep structure.
(E) circular reactions
(C) The number of phonemes used in spoken
language is universal across cultures.
(D) People of cultures with few words
to describe certain phenomena are more
precise in their descriptions.
(E) Speakers of different languages think
differently due to the differences in their
languages.

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128
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90. An individual diagnosed as having a somatoform 93. Memory for automatic activities, such as bike
disorder would be most likely to show riding and handwriting, is known as
(A) an irrational fear of social situations (A) declarative
(B) an inability to recall important life events (B) semantic
(C) a biologically unfounded loss of bodily func- (C) sensory
tioning (D) procedural
(D) a complete disregard for social mores (E) repressed
(E) a tendency to engage in ritualistic behavior to
avoid illness 94. After discussing a topic, a group makes a decision
that is more extreme than the average position of
91. “It belongs to human nature to hate those you all of the group members prior to discussion. The
have injured.” This belief is best explained by group’s action is an example of
(A) cognitive dissonance theory (A) group consensus
(B) the two-factor theory of emotion (B) group polarization
(C) evolutionary psychology (C) group consistency
(D) the availability heuristic (D) the mere-exposure effect
(E) drive-reduction theory (E) diffusion of responsibility

92. To score high on a test of creativity, a person’s 95. Brain damage that leaves a person capable of
answers should be understanding speech but with an impaired ability
to produce speech most likely indicates injury to
(A) original and valuable
which of the following?
(B) normative and divergent
(C) normative and convergent (A) The basal ganglia
(D) unconscious and illogical (B) Wernicke’s area
(E) simple and contextual (C) The substantia nigra
(D) Broca’s area
(E) The inferior colliculi

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129
96. Gender differences have most often been found 97. Which of the following statements best depicts
in which of the following? the concept of incentive theory?
(A) Aggression (A) Roger has not eaten all day; therefore,
(B) Short-term memory he daydreams about pizza.
(C) Auditory discrimination (B) Pam was extremely thirsty and drank
(D) Visual acuity two bottles of water after running two miles.
(E) Pattern matching (C) Jennifer studies hard because her parents
reward her by paying $20 for each superior
grade that she brings home.
(D) Despite low grades, Fred continues to study
because he is interested in the material.
(E) Kevin says that he is constantly hungry and
eats at least five meals a day to reduce his
hunger.

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130
98. The correlation between scores obtained on two 100. Failure to recognize that an object typically not
halves of a single test yields information about used for a particular purpose can, in fact, serve
the test’s that purpose illustrates which of the following?
(A) reliability (A) Schema
(B) validity (B) Functional fixedness
(C) frequency distribution of scores (C) Availability
(D) central tendency of scores (D) Insight
(E) standard error of measurement (E) Confirmation bias

99. Vance is a popular honors student who, unlike his

reference group, writes his best papers sitting on
his motorcycle in the basement of his college dor-
mitory. His behavior can be considered abnormal
only if abnormality is defined as
(A) the need to rebel against authority
(B) disinterest in the opinion of others
(C) the perception of one’s self as different
(D) deviation from cultural norms
(E) the inability to work in a group

END OF SECTION I
IF YOU FINISH BEFORE TIME IS CALLED, YOU MAY
CHECK YOUR WORK ON THIS SECTION.

DO NOT GO ON TO SECTION II UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DONE THE FOLLOWING.

PLACED YOUR AP NUMBER LABEL ON YOUR ANSWER SHEET

WRITTEN AND GRIDDED YOUR AP NUMBER CORRECTLY ON YOUR

ANSWER SHEET

TAKEN THE AP EXAM LABEL FROM THE FRONT OF THIS BOOKLET

AND PLACED IT ON YOUR ANSWER SHEET

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-20-
 B

Section II: Free-Response Questions

This is the free-response section of the 2012 AP exam. It includes cover material and
other administrative instructions to help familiarize students with the mechanics of
the exam. (Note that future exams may differ in look from the following content.)

132
Question 1 is reprinted for your convenience.

1. Psychological research methodologies and statistics are characterized by strengths and weaknesses in
investigating behavior. Each method or statistic is best suited for certain research questions. For each pair
below, describe a condition under which one is more appropriate than the other.

Mean, median
Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics
Longitudinal study, cross-sectional study
Single-blind technique, double-blind technique
Random assignment, random selection
Survey, case study
Correlational study, experiment

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-6-
133
2. Lauren loves her parents very much but is so committed to playing the violin that she transferred from her
original college to a music school against their wishes. Lauren practices and studies violin with a group of
talented students. She aspires to a life as a concert musician.
A. Explain how the concept of approach-approach conflict may have contributed to Lauren’s decision
to change schools.
B. Explain how self-actualization may contribute to Lauren’s desire to play the violin.
C. Using the following psychological terms, describe why Lauren plays the violin.
Intrinsic motivation
Social learning theory
D. Explain how each of the following can affect Lauren as she plays the violin.
Acetylcholine
Difference threshold
Social facilitation

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134
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-8-
 Answer Key for AP Psychology
Practice Exam, Section I

Multiple-Choice Questions 50 E
Question # Key 51 E
1 C 52 E
2 E 53 D
3 B 54 C
4 D 55 D
5 B 56 E
6 D 57 A
7 A 58 C
8 D 59 D
9 B 60 A
10 E 61 E
11 E 62 A
12 D 63 B
13 C 64 C
14 D 65 A
15 D 66 E
16 D 67 C
17 E 68 D
18 B 69 C
19 A 70 C
20 A 71 C
21 D 72 D
22 B 73 B
23 A 74 D
24 C 75 B
25 D 76 C
26 C 77 D
27 C 78 B
28 C 79 E
29 A 80 D
30 E 81 E
31 E 82 C
32 A 83 A
33 C 84 E
34 D 85 B
35 B 86 C
36 A 87 D
37 B 88 B
38 E 89 E
39 C 90 C
40 B 91 A
41 D 92 A
42 B 93 D
43 B 94 B
44 C 95 D
45 D 96 A
46 B 97 C
47 E 98 A
48 E 99 D
49 D 100 B 135
 AP® Psychology
2012 SCORING GUIDELINES
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONAL

Question 1

Psychological research methodologies and statistics are characterized by strengths and weaknesses in
investigating behavior. Each method or statistic is best suited for certain research questions. For each pair
below, describe a condition under which one is more appropriate than the other.
• Mean, median
• Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics
• Longitudinal study, cross-sectional study
• Single-blind technique, double-blind technique
• Random assignment, random selection
• Survey, case study
• Correlational study, experiment

General Considerations

1. The student’s answer MUST establish the context of the question in order to score. For example,
definitions alone will not score. There must be a direct or implied comparison (e.g., “better”) between the
two terms in order to establish “more appropriate.”

2. If the student answers both terms of the pair and gets only one correct, score the point UNLESS the
second answer directly contradicts the first.

Point 1: Mean, median

The mean is more appropriate when data are not skewed OR are normally distributed.
The median is more appropriate when data are skewed OR there are extreme scores.

Point 2: Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics

Descriptive statistics are more appropriate for summarizing, organizing, characterizing data/sample. Students can
list/imply a relevant statistic (e.g., mean, variability, correlation). (DO NOT score “describe” or “describing”
without additional clarification).
Inferential statistics are more appropriate for comparing differences OR finding statistical significance OR
drawing conclusions OR interpreting OR finding if events happened by chance. (DO NOT score “infer” or
“inferring” without additional clarification).

Point 3: Longitudinal study, cross-sectional study

Longitudinal study is more appropriate for following the same people/cohort over time OR avoiding confounding
variable(s) from cross-sectional research. Can refer to an individual if the focus is over time.
Cross-sectional study is more appropriate to look at differences among different age groups at the same time OR
more appropriate if there are time or money limitations (easier than longitudinal because …) OR to avoid the
problem of all research participants having grown up in the same era OR to avoid attrition problem of longitudinal
studies.

Point 4: Single-blind technique, double-blind technique

Single-blind technique is more appropriate when the experimenter is using a variable that makes blinding
impossible (e.g., race, sex).
Double-blind technique is more appropriate to eliminate experimenter bias OR both experimenter and participant
bias.
DO NOT SCORE: Both techniques can eliminate placebo/expectation effect … neither is more appropriate for
this reason.

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 AP® Psychology
2012 SCORING GUIDELINES
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONAL

Point 5: Random assignment, random selection

Random assignment is more appropriate if a researcher is more concerned with creating equal/equivalent samples
OR ensuring subjects have equal likelihood of being put in either group.
Random selection is more appropriate when a researcher wants a representative/generalizable sample.

Point 6: Survey, case study

Survey is more appropriate when a researcher has many participants/people OR wants information from many
people OR wants to maintain anonymity.
Case study is more appropriate when a researcher has only one participant OR wants in-depth information. Do
not rule out case studies on groups IF it is clear the data collection comes from individuals. Look for in-depth
information, not “over time.”

Point 7: Correlational study, experiment

Correlational study is more appropriate to measure relationships between/among variables OR when a variable
cannot or should not (ethically) be manipulated.
Experiment is more appropriate to find cause-and-effect explanations.
DO NOT SCORE: “Correlation does not equal causation” by itself.

© 2012 The College Board. 137

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 AP® Psychology
2012 SCORING GUIDELINES
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONAL

Question 2

Lauren loves her parents very much but is so committed to playing the violin that she transferred from her original
college to a music school against their wishes. Lauren practices and studies violin with a group of talented
students. She aspires to a life as a concert musician.

A. Explain how the concept of approach-approach conflict may have contributed to Lauren’s decision
to change schools.
B. Explain how self-actualization may contribute to Lauren’s desire to play the violin.
C. Using the following psychological terms, describe why Lauren plays the violin.
• Intrinsic motivation
• Social learning theory
D. Explain how each of the following can affect Lauren as she plays the violin.
• Acetylcholine
• Difference threshold
• Social facilitation

General Considerations
1. All responses must relate back to the prompt.
2. Students may not use circular definitions to describe terms.
3. Points will not be taken away from a student for incorrect information unless there is a direct
contradiction.
4. Students need not answer the question in order. However, if responses are presented out of order,
students need to create context for the portion of the question they are answering.
5. Definitions alone do not score. However, they may be used as a consideration to support the information
in the application portion of the response.
6. Responses must be presented in complete sentences.

Point 1: Explain how the concept of approach-approach conflict may have contributed to Lauren’s
decision to change schools.
Students must indicate both the presence of a conflict involving two positive goals or options and the indication
that these two options/goals result in conflict or tension.
• Lauren loves her parents and wants to continue to live with them, but she also loves music and wants to
go to the best school in the nation, which is hours away from her parents’ home.
• Lauren feels tension and anxiety over the choice she will need to make between two positive outcomes.

Point 2: Explain how self-actualization may contribute to Lauren’s desire to play the violin.
• If Lauren focuses on becoming the best violinist that she can be she will move towards self-actualization.
• If Lauren practices as hard as she can she is working toward reaching her full potential as a musician.
• Lauren is working toward mastery of the playing of the violin.

(DO NOT Score: Lauren tries hard if there is no indication of trying to be the best that she can be.)

Point 3: Intrinsic motivation

• Lauren is motivated by her love of music and the personal satisfaction she feels when performing a piece
well.

Point 4: Social learning theory

© 2012 The College Board. 138

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 AP® Psychology
2012 SCORING GUIDELINES
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONAL

Students must include both the observation of the behavior and the corresponding change in behavior or
cognition to receive this point.
• At her new school, Lauren sees the rewards that others receive for their playing. She follows in their
footsteps and practices after seeing them practice.
• Lauren models the violin playing of her classmates.
• Lauren is vicariously reinforced for playing her violin and therefore is motivated to practice more
intensely.

(DO NOT Score examples which are clearly examples of conformity.)

Point 5: Acetylcholine
Students may address those functions enhanced or aided by adequate levels of acetylcholine or those that are
inhibited by a lack of acetylcholine. However, the direction of the relationship to acetylcholine must be correct.
Pathway A: Adequate Levels
(Involved with: Learning, memory, arousal, attention and movement)
• The neurotransmitter acetylcholine helps Lauren to make the fine movements with her hands, which
allows her to play the proper notes on the strings of her violin.
• It also assists her in remembering how to play the notes when she plays the tune again.
• Acetylcholine can help Lauren stay alert and focused while she plays the violin.

Pathway B: Absence of Acetylcholine

(Lack of acetylcholine may result in Alzheimer’s or lack of fine motor coordination)
• If Lauren does not produce enough Acetylcholine, she may forget the music or have difficulty with
the coordination necessary to complete the musical notes correctly.

Point 6: Difference threshold

Students can discuss Just Noticeable Difference (JNDs) OR Difference Thresholds: The ability to detect a
difference or change (regardless of how large or small the difference.)
• The difference threshold allows Lauren to detect the difference between pitches and tones on her
violin; this allows her to produce accurate notes.

(DO NOT Score examples of absolute thresholds.)

Point 7: Social facilitation

Students may discuss either the increase in performance in the presence of others or the decrease in performance
when alone.
• Lauren performs better during recitals, which draw a larger crowd than when she practices alone.
• For well-practiced tasks or tasks in which Lauren excels, she should perform better with an audience.
• For tasks which are not well practiced or for tasks she finds difficult, Lauren’s performance may decrease
in the presence of others.

(DO NOT score examples that indicate tasks are easier but do not lead to increased performance.)

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 2012 AP Psychology Scoring Worksheet

Section I: Multiple Choice

______________ × 1.0000 = _____________________

Number Correct Weighted Section I Score
(out of 100) (Do not round)

Section II: Free Response

Question 1 ___________ × 3.5714 = ____________

(out of 7) (Do not round)

Question 2 ___________ × 3.5714 = ____________

(out of 7) (Do not round)

Sum = ____________
Weighted
Section II
Score
(Do not round)

Composite Score

________________ + ________________ = _______________

Weighted Weighted Composite Score
Section I Score Section II Score (Round to nearest
whole number)

AP Score Conversion Chart

Psychology
Composite
Score Range AP Score
112-150 5
94-111 4
79-93 3
65-78 2
0-64 1

140