AP Psychology Exam Review Notes

AP Psychology Exam Review

Breakdown of Question Categories

  • History (Prologue): 2-4%
  • Methods and Approaches (Chapter 1): 6-8%
  • Biological Bases of Behavior (Chapter 2, 3, 14): 8-10%
  • Sensation and Perception (Chapter 5, 6): 7-9%
  • States of Consciousness (Chapter 7): 2-4%
  • Learning (Chapter 8): 7-9%
  • Cognition (Chapter 9, 10): 8-10%
  • Motivation and Emotion (Chapter 12, 13): 7-9%
  • Developmental Psychology (Chapter 4): 7-9%
  • Personality (Chapter 15): 6-8%
  • Testing and Individual Differences (Chapter 11): 5-7%
  • Abnormal Psychology (Chapter 16): 7-9%
  • Treatment of Psychological Disorders (Chapter 17): 5-7%
  • Social Psychology (Chapter 18): 7-9%

Famous People to Know

  • Frances Galton: Maintained that personality and ability depend almost entirely on genetic inheritance (human traits are inherited).
  • Charles Darwin: Developed the theory of evolution and survival of the fittest, as described in Origin of the Species.
  • William Wundt:
    • Used introspection to study conscious experience.
    • Considered the father of modern or scientific psychology.
    • His approach was structuralism, and his methodology was introspection.
  • John Watson:
    • Founder of behaviorism.
    • Known for generalization.
    • Applied classical conditioning skills to advertising.
    • Famous for the Little Albert experiment, where he conditioned Albert to fear rats and generalize the fear to all small, white animals.
  • Alfred Adler:
    • Neo-Freudian.
    • Believed childhood social tensions, not sexual tensions, are crucial for personality formation.
    • Believed people primarily seek self-esteem and achieving the ideal self.
  • Carl Jung:
    • Disciple of Freud who extended his theories.
    • Believed in a collective unconscious and a personal unconscious.
    • The collective unconscious contains ancient archetypes inherited from ancestors, seen in myths (e.g., young warrior, wise man, loving mother).
    • Coined the terms introversion and extroversion.
  • Gordon Allport:
    • Proposed three levels of traits:
      • Cardinal trait: Dominant trait that characterizes an individual's life.
      • Central trait: Common to all people.
      • Secondary trait: Surfaces in some situations and not in others.
  • Albert Ellis:
    • Father of Rational Emotive Therapy.
    • Focuses on altering irrational thinking patterns to reduce maladaptive behavior and emotion (e.g.,