Download AP Psychology: Focus areas per unit/standard Unit One

AP Psychology: Focus areas per unit/standard
Unit One:
Perspectives and
History
(2-4%)
Unit Two:
Research and
Statistics
(8-10%)
Unit Three:
Biological Bases
(8-10%)
Unit Four: Sensation
and Perception
(6-8%)
- One question about a person in psychology’s history (typically about Wundt and introspection, William James and
his study of consciousness or John B. Watson and behaviorism)
- One question about occupations (has historically been human factors or industrial-organizational psychologists)
- Two questions on perspectives (Structuralism, evolutionary, humanistic, cognitive, Gestalt, etc.…)
- One question about experiments vs. correlation (Remember correlation DOES NOT equal causation.)
- One question about identifying the independent or dependent variable
- One question about random assignment (Remember RACE = R.(andom) A.(ssignment) C. (control/cause) E.
(experimental/effect))
- Two questions about other methodology (case studies, surveys, sampling bias, Hawthorne effect, sample being
representative of the population, double-blind procedures, confounding variables, operational definitions, etc.)
- One question on descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, standard deviation, range, etc.)
- One question on inferential statistics (statistical significance…95% likely results DID NOT OCCUR BY CHANCE)
- One question about ethics (privacy, withdrawal, protection from harm, informed consent, debriefing)
- ONE OF THE FRQS WILL BE ON THIS UNIT…REMEMBER THEY WILL ASK YOU TO DESIGN, ANALYZE OR CRITIQUE AN
EXPERIMENT. DON’T BE SCARED IF THEY ASK YOU TO DRAW/CREATE A CHART!!!!
- One questions on imaging techniques (structure vs. function; i.e. CT, MRI, EEG, PET, fMRI)
- One question on the structure and/or function of a neuron (dendrites, axon, terminal buttons, synapse, etc.)
- One question on the organization and function of the nervous system (central/peripheral, somatic/autonomic,
sympathetic/parasympathetic)
- One question on specific transmitters like dopamine, acetylcholine, GABA, etc. or the action potential process
(polarized/depolarized, sodium pump, refractory period, etc.) or afferent(sensory)/interneurons/efferent(motor) and
their role in the reflex arc
- One question on neuroplasticity (neural plasticity or just plasticity; remember it physically happens because the
dendritic spines grow/expand…remember, the younger you are the more plastic your brain)
- One question about the endocrine system
- Two questions about specific parts/regions of your brain and what they do.
- One question on genetics (genotypes/phenotypes, recessive v. dominant, SEE HANDOUT)
- One question on evolution (natural selection, Darwinism, blah, blah, blah)
- One question on psychophysics (absolute/difference thresholds, signal detection, sensory adaptation, Weber’s law)
- Two questions on physical sensory mechanisms (eyes, ears, etc.)…typically it’ll be something in the retina (cones,
rods, fovea, ganglion, bipolar, blind spot) or cochlea (basilar membrane, hair cells) or the semicircular canals
(vestibular sense)….olfaction (smell) and gustatory (taste) are the chemical senses but less common as questions.
- Feature detectors, frequency v. amplitude (light and sound), the theories of color and sound, gate-control theory
and color blindness/two types of deafness (conductive and sensorineural) are common questions.
- One question on attention and behavior (selective attention, cocktail party phenomenon, inattentional/change
blindness)
- One question on Gestalt organizing principles (closure, proximity, figure-ground, etc.)
- One question on monocular v. binocular cues (linear perspective, relative size, retinal disparity, etc…very, very
common test question here)
- One question about the constancies (shape, color, size) or how context influences perception (esp. perceptual set)
- Make sure you know the difference between bottom-up (sensation) and top-down (perception) processing.
Unit Five: States of
- One question about the stages/characteristics of sleep (usually REM or stage 2 sleep spindles or the circadian
Consciousness
rhythm)
(2-4%)
- One question about sleep disorders and/or treatment of those disorders
- One question about hypnosis (usually dissociation, the “hidden observer” or suggestibility)
- One question about classifying or explaining the effects of specific drugs (stimulants, depressants, opiates or
hallucinogens)
Unit Six: Learning
- Two questions on classical conditioning (identifying UCS, UCR, CS, CR)…effectiveness (Don’t Try Soggy Bacon),
(7-9%)
acquisition, higher-order learning…extinction…generalization…discrimination, spontaneous recovery…taste aversion.
- One question on COGNITION in classical conditioning (learned helplessness or Rescorla’s CONTINGENCY model)
- Two questions on operant conditioning (shaping, positive v. negative reinforcement, punishment, primary v.
secondary reinforcers, law of effect, schedules of reinforcement)
- One question on COGNITION in operant conditioning (non-contingent/superstitions, latent learning,
overjustification, etc.)
- Two questions on observational or social learning theory…Bandura’s name is VERY common…look for key words like
“imitate, mimic, observe, vicarious, etc…” (also, mirror neurons are becoming more common on the exam)
- BIOFEEDBACK is guaranteed to be on the test…know what it is and how it works.
Unit Seven: Cognition - Three or four questions on the memory system…
(8-10%)
ONE will ask you to identify a TYPE of memory (i.e. sensory, short-term, long-term, declarative (explicit), procedural
(implicit), episodic, flashbulb, semantic etc.)…
ONE will ask about the three stage model (encoding, storage, retrieval)…
ONE will ask about forgetting (usually proactive or retroactive interference or a type of amnesia (retrograde,
anterograde, source, infantile)…
One will be about WHY we remember some things and not others (serial position or spacing effect…levels of
processing…maintenance v. elaborative rehearsal, priming (context-dependent, mood-congruent, state-dependent))…
Unit Eight:
Motivation and
Emotion (6-8%)
Unit Nine:
Development
(7-9%)
- Maybe one question on the physiology of memory: explicit memories stored in hippocampus; implicit in the
cerebellum…maybe long-term potentiation (LTP).
- Two or three questions on language
ONE will be about the stages of language development (babbling, holophase, telegraphic speech, overgeneralization)
ONE will be about the theories of language (Chomsky (nature/nativist), Skinner (nurture/reinforcement) or the
relative linguistic hypothesis(Whorf))
ONE will be about the building blocks of a language (phonemes, morphemes, syntax, etc.)
- Two or three questions on thinking (VERY COMMON FRQ terms here)…availability heuristic, algorithm, confirmation
bias, deductive/inductive reasoning, mental set, framing, belief perseverance, gambler’s fallacy, etc.….KNOW THE
WHOLE LIST.
- One question on divergent or creative thought/problem solving (how it differs from convergent; or overcoming
functional fixedness)
- One question on motivational theories (usually drive-reduction or arousal theory, but could be instinct, incentive or
Maslow)
- One question on EXTRINSIC V. INTRINSIC motivation
- One question on hunger (glucose…insulin…parts of the hypothalamus (ventromedial v. lateral) and set point theory)
- One question on social motivation (belonging, social affiliation, ostracism, etc.) or sexual motivation (know the
stages of the sexual response cycle)
- Two questions on the theories of emotion (James Lange, Cannon-Bard and two factor)…facial feedback and display
rules are common topics from this unit.
- One question about stress (General Adaptation Syndrome…KNOW IT) or Type A/Type B
- One question comparing advantages/disadvantages of cross-sectional v. longitudinal studies.
- One question about maturation (from conception to reflexes to motor skills to habituation, etc.)
- One question addressing nature v. nurture controversy
- Usually there are two questions on Piaget’s stages…know the Piaget vocab
- One of Erikson’s stages will be in multiple-choice question; which one I do not know.
- Kohlberg’s level of morality (pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional…also Carol Gilligan is common)
- One question on attachment (Harlow and touch comfort, Ainsworth and secure/insecure attachment, imprinting or
Baumrind’s parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive))
- The conflicts (approach-approach, approach-avoidance, avoidance-avoidance) and the types of intelligences (fluid v.
crystallized) are common on both the multiple-choice and free response sections.
Unit Ten:
Personality
(5-7%)
Unit Eleven
Intelligence
(5-7%)
Unit Twelve:
Abnormal Behavior
(7-9%)
Unit Thirteen:
Treatment of
Abnormal Behavior
(5-7%)
- One question on Freud…usually the id, ego or superego…could be about a Neo-Freudian (Jung, Adler, Horney)
- One question on a defense mechanism (projection, repression, displacement, etc.)
- One question about social-cognitive perspective – (reciprocal determinism, self-efficacy, internal v. external locus of
control)…Skinner’s response tendencies are less common…but have shown up.
- One question about Trait Theory…usually the CONSTITENCY or CONSTANCY of traits…or identifying one of the BIG
FIVE traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism)
- Humanism as far as self-actualization, congruency of self, empathy, free will…all those buzz words.
-Two questions about personality tests (self-report inventories v. projective…make sure you know the MMPI, TAT and
Rorschach tests…)
- One question about the history of intelligence testing (Binet, Terman, Wechsler, Spearman’s “g” factor, etc.)
- Two questions on VALIDITY and RELIABILITY…you MUST KNOW THE DIFFERENT TYPES…be able to identify.
- One question about cultural bias in testing (usually something to do with wording effects or stereotype threat)
- One question on standardization practices…know your numbers for the normal bell curve…100 is average…know the
standard deviations and percentages…68-95-99.7…and percentile scores.
- Nature v. Nurture for intelligence (identical twins studies, adoption studies, PKU, the Flynn effect)
- Specific types of multiple intelligences are common …Sternberg’s “Triarchic” (3) and Gardner’s (9)
- One question about perspectives…how each perspective views abnormal behavior…see handout.
- One question about classification and diagnosis of disorders (medical model, diathesis-stress, DSM-V, Rosenhan
study)
- The questions here about specific disorders are anyone’s guess…make sure you know the symptoms of each.
- Usually one question on a specific personality disorder…one specific question on symptoms of schizophrenia and
somatic disorders are common too (usually conversion disorder)
- One question about free association, transference, dream analysis or resistance.
- One question about the purpose behind and methods of client-centered therapy.
- I can guarantee that community psychologists will be on the test…they’re on there every year.
- One question on systematic desensitization, aversive therapy or token economies.
- One question about cognitive therapy (usually Ellis’ REBT but Aaron Beck could be used)
- TWO questions on biomedical therapy…usually lithium for bipolar disorder and electroconvulsive, but could be any
of them.
Remember in this unit they want you to classify each treatment with its perspective (REBT = cognitive, flooding =
behavioral)
Unit Fourteen:
Social Psychology
(8-10%)
- One question on group dynamics (deindividuation, groupthink, social loafing, social facilitation, group polarization)
- One question on obedience, compliance or conformity (experiments of Milgram and Asch…types of social influence
(normative and informational))
- Altruism…bystander effect/diffusion of responsibility is a common term on the test; maybe Social Exchange Theory
- Attribution theory – dispositional/situation…fundamental attribution error…always on the test
- Attitude formation and persuasion: 1. Foot-in-the-door 2. Central v. peripheral route to persuasion 3. Cognitive
dissonance 4. Self-fulfilling prophecies (one or more will be on there)
- Prejudice and discrimination: usually a question about contact theory/superordinate goals (Robber’s Cave Camp)
- Aggression: Hostile v. Instrumental aggression
- Attraction: Three keys: 1. Proximity 2. Similarity 3. Physical attractiveness; Halo Effect (pretty people are perceived
to have other attractive qualities); mere-exposure effect…Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Love