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Course Description: AP Psychology

Title

AP Psychology (Advanced Placement Psychology)

Audience

High school students (typically grades 11–12) seeking college credit through the College Board's Advanced Placement program. The course is equivalent to a college-level introductory psychology course. Students are intellectually curious, motivated to earn college credit, and preparing for the AP Psychology Exam. No prior psychology coursework is assumed.

Prerequisites

  • None (no prior psychology required)
  • General reading and writing proficiency at the high school level
  • Basic familiarity with biology (helpful but not required — key biological concepts are taught within the course)
  • Basic numeracy (ability to interpret graphs, calculate means, and read data tables)

Topics Covered

The course is organized around five core content domains (APA "pillars") drawn from the College Board AP Psychology Course and Exam Description (CED), Effective Fall 2024:

  1. Biological Bases of Behavior — Heredity and environment, the nervous system, neurons and neural firing, brain structures and functions, sleep, and sensation
  2. Cognition — Perception, thinking and problem-solving, judgment and decision-making, memory (encoding, storing, retrieving, forgetting), and intelligence and achievement
  3. Development and Learning — Developmental themes and methods, physical development across the lifespan, gender and sexual orientation, cognitive development (Piaget, Vygotsky), language development, social-emotional development (Erikson, Kohlberg), classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social/cognitive/neurological factors in learning
  4. Social Psychology and Personality — Attribution theory and person perception, attitude formation and change, psychology of social situations (conformity, obedience, group dynamics), psychodynamic and humanistic theories of personality, social-cognitive and trait theories of personality, motivation, and emotion
  5. Mental and Physical Health — Health psychology and stress, positive psychology, classifying and explaining psychological disorders, ten categories of psychological disorders (neurodevelopmental, schizophrenic spectrum, depressive, bipolar, anxiety, OCD-related, dissociative, trauma-related, eating, and personality disorders), and treatment of psychological disorders
  6. Research Methods (cross-cutting) — Scientific method, experimental and non-experimental research designs, ethical guidelines, statistics (central tendency, variation, percentile rank), data interpretation, and argumentation

Topics NOT Covered

To maintain focus and align with the AP Exam scope, the following topics are explicitly excluded:

  • Specific genetics details (genotype, phenotype, DNA, chromosomes, dominant/recessive gene expression)
  • Sodium-potassium pump (neural biochemistry)
  • Endocrine glands beyond the pituitary gland
  • Psychosexual stage theory (Freud's five stages) in depth
  • Maslow's hierarchy of needs (referenced conceptually; not assessed on AP Exam)
  • Cognitive disability/ability labeling and diagnosis
  • The full DSM-5 and ICD-11 — only representative disorder categories listed in the CED are assessed
  • Clinical diagnostic practice (students do not diagnose; that is left to licensed professionals)
  • Industrial-organizational psychology beyond introductory I/O concepts

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

Remember

  • Recall the five units of the AP Psychology curriculum and the APA pillars they represent
  • Name the major structures of the brain (brain stem, cerebellum, limbic system, cerebral cortex and its lobes) and their primary functions
  • List the eight neurotransmitters in AP Psychology scope (dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, glutamate, GABA, endorphins, substance P, acetylcholine) and the five hormones (adrenaline, leptin, ghrelin, melatonin, oxytocin)
  • Recall the four categories of psychoactive drugs (stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, opioids) and their effects
  • Name Piaget's four stages of cognitive development and their age ranges
  • List Erikson's eight psychosocial stages and their central conflicts
  • Recall the elements of classical conditioning (NS, UCS, UCR, CS, CR) and operant conditioning (positive/negative reinforcement, positive/negative punishment)
  • Name the Big Five (OCEAN) personality traits
  • Recall the DSM disorder categories covered in AP Psychology and representative disorders in each
  • List the major psychological therapy approaches (psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, humanistic, CBT)
  • Identify key historical figures and their contributions (Pavlov, Skinner, Bandura, Freud, Rogers, Milgram, Asch, Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg, Selye, Loftus, and others)

Understand

  • Explain how heredity and environment interact to shape behavior and mental processes
  • Describe how neurons communicate through the process of neural transmission, including the role of neurotransmitters
  • Explain the difference between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and their roles in the stress response
  • Describe how Gestalt principles, schemas, and perceptual sets influence how people perceive the world
  • Explain the multi-store model and working memory model of memory
  • Describe how classical and operant conditioning produce learning, including acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery
  • Explain Piaget's concepts of assimilation, accommodation, object permanence, and conservation
  • Describe the major theories of personality (psychodynamic, humanistic, social-cognitive, and trait)
  • Explain the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) and the biopsychosocial model of psychological disorders
  • Describe the positive and negative consequences of diagnosing psychological disorders, including stigma, racism, and cultural biases
  • Explain evidence-based approaches to the treatment of psychological disorders

Apply

  • Apply psychological perspectives and research findings to novel real-world scenarios
  • Apply knowledge of neurotransmitters and hormones to explain behavioral outcomes in given situations
  • Apply the principles of classical and operant conditioning to design a behavior modification plan
  • Apply Erikson's and Piaget's stage theories to interpret the behavior of individuals at different life stages
  • Apply attribution theory, cognitive dissonance, and persuasion concepts to analyze everyday social behavior
  • Apply knowledge of memory encoding strategies (mnemonics, chunking, spacing effect) to improve studying
  • Apply the criteria for psychological disorders (dysfunction, distress, deviance) to interpret case studies
  • Apply psychological perspectives (behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic, biological, sociocultural) to explain the causes of a given disorder
  • Apply appropriate therapy approaches to treatment scenarios for specific psychological disorders

Analyze

  • Analyze the strengths and limitations of experimental versus non-experimental research designs in psychology
  • Analyze how cultural norms, cognitive biases, and contextual factors influence behavior and mental processes
  • Analyze the ethical implications of classic psychology studies (Milgram, Watson's Little Albert, Stanford Prison Experiment)
  • Distinguish between classical and operant conditioning in complex behavioral scenarios
  • Analyze how group dynamics (conformity, obedience, groupthink, bystander effect) influence individual behavior
  • Differentiate among psychological disorder categories based on diagnostic criteria (e.g., OCD vs. OC personality disorder; Bipolar I vs. II; dissociative amnesia vs. DID)
  • Analyze research data by identifying independent and dependent variables, operational definitions, and potential confounds
  • Analyze how factors such as poverty, discrimination, and educational inequity affect intelligence test scores and psychological health

Evaluate

  • Evaluate the validity and reliability of psychological assessments, including intelligence tests and personality inventories
  • Evaluate whether a described research study followed appropriate APA ethical guidelines (informed consent, debriefing, protection from harm)
  • Evaluate claims about psychological phenomena using evidence from peer-reviewed research summaries
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of psychotherapy versus biological interventions for specific disorders based on meta-analytic evidence
  • Evaluate how cultural humility and therapeutic alliance affect treatment outcomes
  • Evaluate competing theories of emotion, intelligence, motivation, and personality based on empirical evidence
  • Evaluate how the Flynn Effect and sociocultural biases affect the interpretation of IQ scores across groups
  • Evaluate the replicability and generalizability of psychological studies

Create

  • Construct a defensible evidence-based argument (claim + reasoning + evidence) about a psychological concept or research finding
  • Design a hypothetical study using appropriate experimental or non-experimental methodology to investigate a psychological question, including operational definitions and ethical safeguards
  • Create a behavior modification plan using conditioning principles to address a real-world behavior problem
  • Develop a case conceptualization that applies multiple psychological perspectives to explain a disorder and its treatment
  • Synthesize information from multiple research summaries to propose an evidence-based recommendation on a topic in mental or physical health
  • Produce an Article Analysis response that identifies research method, operational definitions, statistics, and ethical guidelines from a peer-reviewed study
  • Design a personal well-being intervention grounded in positive psychology principles (gratitude, signature strengths, resilience)