🧠AP Psychology – 2023 Cheat Sheet | 👉🏽 See all AP Psych study guides | @thinkfiveable

🔎Unit 1
Scientific Foundations of Psychology
🧠Unit 2
Biological Basis of Behavior
👀 Unit 3
Sensation & Perception

● Nature (genetics) vs. Nurture (environment) debate

● Structuralism and introspection vs. functionalism ● Sensation (Bottom-up. vs. Top-down Processing)
● The endocrine system: pituitary gland (master gland),
● Approaches: psychoanalytic, humanistic, evolutionary, ● Sensory adaptation, sensory habituation, gestalt principles
hypothalamus, release of hormones into the bloodstream
biological, cognitive, biopsychosocial, sociocultural ● Sensory transduction: receive, transform, deliver
● The nervous system: faster but shorter lasting than hormones
● Research Methods: ● Signal detection theory: absolute threshold & subliminal
● Central (CNS) - brain and spine
● Experiment: can prove cause and effect; uses ● Difference thres. /just-noticeable difference, Weber’s Law
● Peripheral (PNS) - somatic (voluntary) vs. autonomic
random assignment and a random sample ● Perception (your perceptual set set by schemas [concepts])
○ Autonomic → Sympathetic vs. Parasympathetic
● Correlational study: only shows correlation ● Attention: selective, cocktail party effect, inattentional vs.
● Neurons - nerve cells, made up of dendrite (receives info),
● Survey: info reported by ppl change blindness
soma (processes info), axon (passes info), myelin sheath
● Naturalistic observations: observe wo intervening ● Monocular cues: interposition, relative height, motion, size
(speeds signal), & terminal branches (sends off info)
● Case study: detailed study of a person/small group ● Binocular cues: retinal disparity (diff bw two images)
● Neurotransmitters (agonist vs. antagonist): ACh,
● Longitudinal study: same ppl studied over time ● Visual pathway: cornea, pupil/iris, lens & accommodation, retina
dopamine, serotonin, GABA, glutamate, endorphins,
● Cross-sectional study: diff ppl studied at same (transduction, rods vs. cones, bipolar, ganglion), optic nerve
epinephrine, norepinephrine, oxytocin
time ● Trichromatic Theory (RBG) and Opponent-Process Theory
● Sensory/afferent vs. motor/efferent neurons
● The Scientific Method: theory, hypothesis (operational ● Auditory pathway: pinna, auditory cannel, eardrum, hammer,
● Action potential - threshold, depolarization, all-or-none
definition used), indept var (changes), depen var anvil, stirrup, oval window, cochlea, auditory nerve
● Brain structure - Brainstem (midbrain, pons, medulla),
(effect), confounding var (unforseen effect) ● Sensorineural hearing loss vs. conduction hearing loss
Thalamus, Cerebellum, Limbic System (emotions & memory),
● Measures of Central Tendency (mean, median, mode) ● Place (high-pitched) vs. frequency (low-pitched) theories
Cerebrum (lobes and cortices), Corpus Callosum
vs. Measures of Variation (st. dev, range) ● Chemical senses: gustation/taste (sweet, sour, salty, bitter,
● Split brain: left hemisphere (thinking) vs. right (creative)
● Normal curve, skews, correlation umami) and olfaction/smell
● Tools: EEG, PET, CT, MRI, fMRI
● Ethical Guidelines: informed consent, no harm, ● Body senses: somatosensation (touch), pain (gate-control
● Consciousness and sleep (NREM1-3, REM), sleep disorders
anonymity, debriefing, voluntary, explain possible risk theory), vestibular (movement), kinesthesis, proprioception
● Dreaming: manifest vs. latent content (Freud)

📚Unit 4
Learning
🤔Unit 5
Cognitive Psychology
👶🏽Unit 6
Developmental Psychology

● Effortful (active) vs. automatic (unconscious) processing

● Prenatal dev: zygote → embryo → fetus, teratogens & FAS
● Deep (meaning) vs. shallow (surface) processing
● Classical Conditioning: neutral stimulus associated with ● Habituation, reflexes, neural networks, maturation
● Encoding: first step in memory; visual, acoustic, semantic
natural response ● Social dev: Harlow’s attachment theory with monkey
encoding; maintenance vs. elaborative rehearsal
● Pavlov (dog and bell), Watson (little Albert) experiment, Lorenz’s imprinting theory with a critical period,
● Storing: second step; sensory memory (iconic vs. echoic);
● UCR, USC, CR, CS Ainsworth’s attachment styles (secure, insecure, anxious,
short-term memory (chunking, mnemonics); long-term
● Acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, avoidant), Baumrind’s parenting styles (authoritarian,
memory (explicit vs. implicit); hierarchies, schemas, prototypes
generalization, discrimination authoritative, permissive), Freud’s psychoanalytic theory,
● Retrieving: third step; recall, recognition, relearning;
● Operant Conditioning: response increased/decreased Erikson’s 8 psychosocial stages
serial-position effect, method of loci, priming, dependency
due to reinforcement or punishment ● Cognitive dev:
● Forgetting: Ebbinghaus curve, retroactive vs. proactive
● B.F. Skinner and Skinner Box ● Piaget’s 4 stages with assimilation, accommodation, and
interference, retrograde vs. anterograde amnesia, repression
● Positive & negative reinforcement and punishment fine-tuning: sensorimotor (object permanence, stranger
● Thinking: algorithm vs. heuristics, mental set, functional
● Reinf. schedules: fixed, variable, interval, ratio anxiety), preoperational (egocentrism), concrete
fixedness, intuition, insight, inductive vs. deductive reasoning,
● Observational Learning: learning through observation operational (conservation), formal operational
convergent vs. divergent thinking, diff types of bias, framing
and imitation of others ● Vygotsky’s language acquisition theory, scaffolding, ZPD
● Intelligence: general intelligence (g), Thurstone’s 7, Gardner’s
● Albert Bandura and modeling (Bobo experiment) ● Moral dev: Kohlberg’s preconventional, conventional,
8, Sternberg’s 3, Cattell’s 2 (fluid vs. crystallized), Flynn effect
● Attention, retention, reproduction, motivation postconventional morality vs. Gilligan
● Good test must be standardized, reliable, & valid
● Mirror neurons in the frontal lobe ● Gender & Sexual Orientation: gender roles & identity
● Language: syntax, grammar, lexicon, phonemes, morphemes
● Prosocial vs. antisocial modeling ● Adulthood and aging: reaction time decreases, memory
● Acquisition: LAD, critical period, babbling stage, one-word
worsens, physiological impact
stage, two-ord stage, broca’s vs. wernicke’s area
 🧠AP Psychology – 2023 Cheat Sheet | 👉🏽 See all AP Psych study guides | @thinkfiveable

🤪 Unit 7
Motivation, Emotion, & Personality
🛋Unit 8
Clinical Psychology
👫Unit 9
Social Psychology

● DSM-5: defines guidelines and symptom lists ● Attribution theory: we explain someone’s behavior by looking at
Neurodevelopmental & Schizophrenic Disorders personality or circumstances
● Motivation: instincts, incentives, intrinsic vs. extrinsic,
● Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ● Fundamental attribution error
overjustification effect, achievement motivation
● Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) ● Just-world hypothesis
● Evolutionary instinct theory vs. biological
● Marked by inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity ● Self-serving bias
drive-reduction theory vs. optimal arousal theory
● Intellectual disability - IQ below 70 ● Perceiving others: false-consensus effect, confirmation bias,
vs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
● Schizophrenia - psychosis halo effect, self-fulfilling prophecy
● Hunger motivation, sexual motivation, social
● Acute schizophrenia: positive symptoms (delusions and ● Persuasion: central route vs. peripheral route
motivation
hallucinations) ● Attitudes: foot in the door vs. door in the face phenomena
● Emotion: response involving physiological arousal,
● Chronic schizophrenia: negative symptoms (catatonia, ● Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory
behaviors, and conscious experience. Theories include:
flat affect, inability to feel emotion, impaired attention) ● Conformity: adjusting our behaviors to mold to a standard
● Common sense (emotion->response)
Mood and Anxiety Disorders ● Informational vs. normative social influence
● James-Lange (response->emotion)
● Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) ● Asch experiment
● Cannon-Bard (response+emotion)
● Depressed mood & loss of interest for sustained period ● Groupthink
● Schachter-Singer (response+thoughts->emotion)
● Persistent depression (2+ years) = dysthymic disorder ● Compliance and adoption of roles (Stanford Prison experiment)
● Zajonc-LeDoux (emotion separate from thoughts)
● Bipolar disorder (BP) - swings b/w depression & mania ● Obedience (Milgram experiment)
● Stress: how we respond to stressors
● Panic disorder - physiological and fear-based anxiety ● Group Influences on Behavior
● Fight or flight response (sympathetic NS)
● Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) ● Social loafing: putting less effort in a group
● Seyle’s general adaptation syndrome (alarm,
● Obsessions (repetitive thoughts) ● Social facilitation vs. inhibition
resistance, exhaustion)
● Compulsions (repetitive behaviors) ● Group polarization and bias
● Motivation conflict theory (approach & avoidance)
● Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) - consistent anxiety ● Deindividuation: losing self-restraint in groups
● Psychoanalytic theories of personality: Freud
● Phobias - disruptive fears of any specific source ● Helping others: bystander effect, reciprocity norm
● The unconscious, preconscious, and conscious
Trauma, Stressor, and Somatic Related Disorders ● Biases and Stereotypes
● The id, ego, and superego
● Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) ● Prejudice: ingroups vs. outgroups
● Psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic (oedipus or
● Conversion Disorder - experiencing physical symptoms w/ no ● Ethnocentrism, just-world phenomenon, scapegoat theory
electra complex), latency, genital
reason (makes no physiological sense) ● Confirmation bias, availability heuristic, hindsight bias
● Defense mechanisms: repression, regression,
● Illness Anxiety Disorder - interpreting physical symptoms as ● Discrimination and the mere-exposure effect
reaction formation, projection, rationalization,
signs of disease (hypochondriasis) ● Altruism: unselfish concern for the welfare of others
displacement, sublimation, denial
● Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) - presence of several ● Aggression: based on genetics, outside influences, biochemical
● Psychodynamic theories: Carl Jung & Alfred Adler
distinct personality states influences, social scripts, + the frustration-aggression principle
● Social-cognitive theories:
Feeding, Substance, and Personality Disorders ● Attraction: based on exposure, impression, and similarity
● Reciprocal determinism (Bandura)
● Anorexia Nervosa - restriction of food, unhealthy obsessions ● Passionate vs. compassionate love
● Locus of Control (internal vs. external)
and compulsions regard weight, malnutrition

💎FRQ Tips
● Optimism vs. pessimism
● Bulimia Nervosa - cycles of binge eating and purging to lose
● Self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-serving bias
weight, often fluctuating weight
● Behavioral theories: Skinner
● Binge eating - hunger regulation is low/nonexistent due to
● Humanistic theories: self-esteem and self-concept
issues in the hypothalamus ● FRQ Writing Strategies:
● Maslow - hierarchy of needs
● Personality disorders: categorized into three clusters (A,B,C) ● Spacing: skip a line between each answer
● Rogers - genuineness, acceptance, empathy →
Treatment of DIsorders: based on psychological perspective ● Order: answer frq in the order the terms are given
unconditional positive regard
● Behavioral: uses counterconditioning and systematic ● Definitions: define each term
● Trait theories: Allport, Eysenck, Myers & Briggs, Cattell
desensitization (using hierarchies of exposure) ● Application: always apply the term to the given scenario
● Costa and McCrea’s Big Five (Openness,
● Cognitive: uses rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) ● Synonyms: find another word that means the same thing
Consciousness, Agreeableness, Extroverison,
● Humanistic: uses client-centered talk therapy (focused on not already used in the definition.
Neuroticism)
active listening and unconditional positive regard) ● 4 Golden Rules:
● Measuring Personality:
● Psychodynamic: uses free association ● Always write in complete sentences
● Projective tests: Rorschach inkblot and TAT
● Cognitive-behavioral: uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) ● Write in paragraph form
● Personality inventories: self-report and MMPI
● Other treatments: antidepressants, anti-anxiety, mood ● Always reference the given scenario
stabilizers, antipsychotic drugs, ECT, rTMC ● Always define key terms