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Library Catalogue History & Social Science AP Psychology
⁂   History & Social Science · AP Exam

Psychology Study Library.

From biological bases of behavior to mental health — expert-authored unit guides covering neuroscience, cognition, development, social psychology, and psychological disorders. Redesigned in 2025 with a new 5-unit structure and two FRQ formats.

5 units standard track 160 minutes
Total Time 160 minutes
MCQ 75 multiple-choice questions
FRQ 2 free-response questions
Score Scale 1–5 70.5% scored 3+ (334,038 candidates)
Exam Structure

What the exam looks like.

Section Format Weight Time
Section I — Multiple Choice 75 MCQ · 4 answer choices · no calculator · covers all 5 units 66.7% 70 min
Section II — Free Response 2 FRQs: (1) Concept Application — apply psychological concepts to a described scenario; (2) Research Design — design or evaluate a study using psychological research methods 33.3% 50 min
Curriculum

Study by unit.

1.
Biological Bases of Behavior
Heredity and environment: nature vs. nurture, behavior genetics, twin and adoption studies, epigenetics · Nervous system structure: central vs. peripheral, somatic vs. autonomic, sympathetic vs. parasympathetic divisions · Neural communication: neuron anatomy (dendrites, axon, myelin, nodes of Ranvier), action potential, all-or-none law, synaptic transmission · Neurotransmitters and associated disorders: dopamine (reward, Parkinson's), serotonin (mood), acetylcholine (memory), GABA (inhibition), glutamate (excitation), norepinephrine (arousal), endorphins (pain relief) · Brain regions and function: medulla, cerebellum, limbic system, hypothalamus, thalamus, cerebral cortex, lobes (frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital) · Neuroplasticity and the developing brain · States of consciousness: sleep stages (NREM 1-3, REM), sleep disorders, circadian rhythms, psychoactive drugs
standard track
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2.
Cognition
Attention and consciousness: selective attention, inattentional blindness, change blindness · Memory systems: sensory memory, short-term/working memory (Miller's 7±2), long-term memory (explicit: episodic and semantic; implicit: procedural and priming) · Encoding strategies: levels of processing, elaborative rehearsal, chunking, mnemonics · Storage and retrieval: recognition vs. recall, context-dependent memory, state-dependent memory · Forgetting: encoding failure, storage decay, retrieval failure, proactive and retroactive interference, motivated forgetting; Ebbinghaus forgetting curve · Language: Chomsky's universal grammar, Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis · Thinking and problem-solving: algorithms, heuristics, mental sets, functional fixedness, confirmation bias · Intelligence: Spearman's g factor, Gardner's multiple intelligences, Sternberg's triarchic theory, standardization and normal distribution, reliability and validity
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3.
Development and Learning
Developmental research methods: cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cohort-sequential designs · Physical development: prenatal stages, teratogens, infant reflexes, brain development, puberty, aging · Cognitive development: Piaget's stages (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational); schemas, assimilation, accommodation, object permanence, conservation · Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and scaffolding · Language development: critical period hypothesis, stages (babbling, one-word, two-word, telegraphic speech) · Social-emotional development: Erikson's 8 stages, Harlow's attachment studies, Ainsworth's strange situation (secure, anxious-avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, disorganized) · Classical conditioning: Pavlov, unconditioned/conditioned stimulus and response, acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination · Operant conditioning: Thorndike's law of effect, Skinner, positive/negative reinforcement and punishment, schedules of reinforcement (fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, variable interval) · Observational learning: Bandura's Bobo doll studies, modeling, vicarious reinforcement
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4.
Social Psychology and Personality
Attribution theory: Heider, fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias, actor-observer bias · Attitudes and persuasion: central vs. peripheral route (elaboration likelihood model), cognitive dissonance (Festinger) · Conformity: Asch line studies · Compliance techniques: foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face, reciprocity norm · Obedience: Milgram's shock studies · Group dynamics: social facilitation, social loafing, groupthink, deindividuation, group polarization · Prejudice and discrimination: in-group/out-group bias, stereotypes, implicit bias, scapegoat theory, just-world hypothesis · Personality theories: psychoanalytic (Freud — id, ego, superego; defense mechanisms), humanistic (Maslow's hierarchy of needs; Rogers' unconditional positive regard), trait theories (Big Five: OCEAN — Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism), social-cognitive (Bandura's reciprocal determinism, locus of control)
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15–25% of exam
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5.
Mental and Physical Health
Stress: stressors (life events, daily hassles, catastrophes), cognitive appraisal, physiological stress response, general adaptation syndrome (Selye: alarm, resistance, exhaustion), HPA axis, cortisol, psychoneuroimmunology · Coping: problem-focused vs. emotion-focused coping, resilience, social support, positive psychology (Seligman, Csikszentmihalyi — flow) · Psychological disorders classification: DSM-5-TR, medical model vs. biopsychosocial model, culture-bound syndromes · Anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety, specific phobias, social anxiety, panic disorder, OCD, PTSD · Mood disorders: major depressive disorder (biological and cognitive models), bipolar disorder · Schizophrenia: positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions) and negative symptoms (flat affect, alogia) · Treatment approaches: psychoanalytic, humanistic (client-centered therapy), behavioral (exposure, systematic desensitization), cognitive (CBT, Beck's cognitive triad), biomedical (drug classes: SSRIs, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, benzodiazepines, ECT)
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15–25% of exam
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Worked Solutions

FRQ solution vault.

Browse the full FRQ Vault ›

Original, rubric-annotated worked solutions for AP free-response questions — each deep-linking the official College Board PDF. We index and annotate; we never reproduce question text. Solutions cover SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ formats with full rubric breakdowns.

Exam Strategy

How to score higher.

Strategy 1
Use Precise Psychological Terminology
FRQ scoring rubrics require specific vocabulary. 'Dopamine' earns the point; 'brain chemical' does not. 'Operant conditioning' earns the point; 'learning by reward' does not. Study each unit's key terms so you can deploy them precisely in FRQ responses.
Strategy 2
Concept Application: Apply, Don't Just Define
In Concept Application FRQs, you are scored on correctly applying a concept to the scenario — not on defining it. Write: 'This is an example of [concept] because [specific detail from the scenario connects to [specific feature of the concept].'
Strategy 3
Research Design: Know the Four Main Designs
Research Design FRQs test correlational, experimental, survey, and case study designs. Know: independent vs. dependent variables, operational definitions, random assignment vs. random sampling, and why each design can or cannot establish causation.
Strategy 4
Correlate Across Units
Many FRQ scenarios require you to apply concepts from multiple units. A scenario about stress and health might require Unit 1 (biological stress response), Unit 4 (social support), and Unit 5 (coping strategies). Practice connecting concepts across units rather than treating each as isolated content.
Our worked solutions and practice questions are original instructional content created by Tian2 AP. They are aligned to the concepts and skills described in College Board’s Course and Exam Description and are not reproductions of, or affiliated with, College Board’s official materials.