AP Psychology : AP Psychology

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Psychology

varsity tutors app store varsity tutors android store

Example Questions

Example Question #41 : Influential Psychologists

Which of the following is one of William Wundt's major contributions to psychology?

Possible Answers:

Linguistic relativity

Client-centered therapy

Establishment of psychology as a science

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Nativist theory of language

Correct answer:

Establishment of psychology as a science

Explanation:

William Wundt was a psychologist who is considered by some to be the father of psychology because he started to separate psychology from philosophy by showing that psychology, like other branches of science, can use the experimental method to get empirical results. Wundt also focused his research on introspection and structuralism, which is the study of the different components of the mind.

Carl Rogers was a humanistic psychologist who is most famous for the development of client-centered therapy, a type of therapy that involves clients trying to reach self-realization themselves (rather than being told answers by the therapists) and the therapist treating the client with unconditional positive regard.

Philip Zimbardo is a psychologist most famous for the “Stanford Prison Experiment” in which a group of male subjects were randomly assigned to be either prison guards or inmates. The study found that after only a few days, the prison guards were sadistic and the inmates desolate, indicating how strongly people respond to situational factors.

Noam Chomsky is a cognitive psychologist and linguist who is most famous for his nativist theory of language. This theory rests on a critique of Skinner’s idea that language is learned through conditioning and instead suggests that children are born with a language acquisition device that allows them to learn language from birth.

Benjamin Lee Whorf is a cognitive linguist who is most famous for his idea that the language you speak affects the way that you view and think about the world, otherwise known as linguistic relativity or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Example Question #45 : Influential Psychologists

Which of the following is one of Philip Zimbardo's major contributions to psychology?

Possible Answers:

Nativist theory of language

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Establishment of psychology as a science

Linguistic relativity

Client-centered therapy

Correct answer:

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Explanation:

Philip Zimbardo is a psychologist most famous for the “Stanford Prison Experiment” in which a group of male subjects were randomly assigned to be either prison guards or inmates. The study found that after only a few days, the prison guards were sadistic and the inmates desolate, indicating how strongly people respond to situational factors.

Carl Rogers was a humanistic psychologist who is most famous for the development of client-centered therapy, a type of therapy that involves clients trying to reach self-realization themselves (rather than being told answers by the therapists) and the therapist treating the client with unconditional positive regard.

William Wundt was a psychologist who is considered by some to be the father of psychology because he started to separate psychology from philosophy by showing that psychology, like other branches of science, can use the experimental method to get empirical results. Wundt also focused his research on introspection and structuralism, which is the study of the different components of the mind.

Noam Chomsky is a cognitive psychologist and linguist who is most famous for his nativist theory of language. This theory rests on a critique of Skinner’s idea that language is learned through conditioning and instead suggests that children are born with a language acquisition device that allows them to learn language from birth.

Benjamin Lee Whorf is a cognitive linguist who is most famous for his idea that the language you speak affects the way that you view and think about the world, otherwise known as linguistic relativity or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Example Question #51 : Influential Psychologists

Which of the following is one of Chomsky’s major contributions to psychology? 

Possible Answers:

Linguistic relativity

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Establishment of psychology as a science

Nativist theory of language

Client-centered therapy

Correct answer:

Nativist theory of language

Explanation:

Noam Chomsky is a cognitive psychologist and linguist who is most famous for his nativist theory of language. This theory rests on a critique of Skinner’s idea that language is learned through conditioning and instead suggests that children are born with a language acquisition device that allows them to learn language from birth.

Carl Rogers was a humanistic psychologist who is most famous for the development of client-centered therapy, a type of therapy that involves clients trying to reach self-realization themselves (rather than being told answers by the therapists) and the therapist treating the client with unconditional positive regard.

William Wundt was a psychologist who is considered by some to be the father of psychology because he started to separate psychology from philosophy by showing that psychology, like other branches of science, can use the experimental method to get empirical results. Wundt also focused his research on introspection and structuralism, which is the study of the different components of the mind.

Philip Zimbardo is a psychologist most famous for the “Stanford Prison Experiment” in which a group of male subjects were randomly assigned to be either prison guards or inmates. The study found that after only a few days, the prison guards were sadistic and the inmates desolate, indicating how strongly people respond to situational factors.

Benjamin Lee Whorf is a cognitive linguist who is most famous for his idea that the language you speak affects the way that you view and think about the world, otherwise known as linguistic relativity or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Example Question #52 : Influential Psychologists

 Which of the following is one of Benjamin Whorf’s major contributions to psychology? 

Possible Answers:

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Linguistic relativity

Client-centered therapy

Nativist theory of language

Establishment of psychology as a science

Correct answer:

Linguistic relativity

Explanation:

Benjamin Lee Whorf is a cognitive linguist who is most famous for his idea that the language you speak affects the way that you view and think about the world, otherwise known as linguistic relativity or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Carl Rogers was a humanistic psychologist who is most famous for the development of client-centered therapy, a type of therapy that involves clients trying to reach self-realization themselves (rather than being told answers by the therapists) and the therapist treating the client with unconditional positive regard.

William Wundt was a psychologist who is considered by some to be the father of psychology because he started to separate psychology from philosophy by showing that psychology, like other branches of science, can use the experimental method to get empirical results. Wundt also focused his research on introspection and structuralism, which is the study of the different components of the mind.

Philip Zimbardo is a psychologist most famous for the “Stanford Prison Experiment” in which a group of male subjects were randomly assigned to be either prison guards or inmates. The study found that after only a few days, the prison guards were sadistic and the inmates desolate, indicating how strongly people respond to situational factors.

Noam Chomsky is a cognitive psychologist and linguist who is most famous for his nativist theory of language. This theory rests on a critique of Skinner’s idea that language is learned through conditioning and instead suggests that children are born with a language acquisition device that allows them to learn language from birth.

 

Example Question #51 : Influential Psychologists

Which of the following pairs of people made important contributions to psychology that involved cognition and linguistics?

Possible Answers:

Whorf and Rogers

Chomsky and Rogers

Chomsky and Wundt

Wundt and Zimbardo

Chomsky and Whorf

Correct answer:

Chomsky and Whorf

Explanation:

Noam Chomsky is a cognitive psychologist and linguist who is most famous for his nativist theory of language. This theory rests on a critique of Skinner’s idea that language is learned through conditioning and instead suggests that children are born with a language acquisition device that allows them to learn language from birth. in a similar vein, Benjamin Lee Whorf is a cognitive linguist who is most famous for his idea that the language you speak affects the way that you view and think about the world, otherwise known as linguistic relativity or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Example Question #52 : Influential Psychologists

Which of the following pairs of people made their contributions primarily to the branch of developmental psychology?

Possible Answers:

Rogers and Piaget

Wundt and Zimbardo

Erikson and Piaget

Erikson and Rogers

Zimbardo and Piaget

Correct answer:

Erikson and Piaget

Explanation:

Erik Erikson was a developmental psychologist who is famous for developing the psychosocial stages of development, each of which involved a conflict or crisis between the wants of the individual and the wants of the society, such as trust vs. distrust in infancy. In a similar way, Jean Piaget was a developmental psychologist who is famous for developing a cognitive theory of development, which centered around figuring out why and how people (particularly children) make mistakes as a way of figuring out their ways of thinking. Based on that research, Piaget came up with stages of cognitive development—sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

Example Question #1731 : Ap Psychology

In 1921, which of the following scientists discovered the first neurotransmitter through experimentation with frog hearts?

Possible Answers:

Aristotle 

Pierre Broca 

Otto Lowei

Santiago Ramon y Cajal 

Josef Breuer 

Correct answer:

Otto Lowei

Explanation:

In 1921, Otto Lowei discovered the first neurotransmitter. He dissected a frog heart with the vagas nerve still attached in order to allow the heart to beat. He ran an electrical current through the heart and was able to slow the heartbeat. Lowei then dissected out another frog heart in the same manner. He poured liquid obtained from the first, slowed frog heart into the dish containing the newly dissected heart. Immediately, the second heart’s beat slowed down. Lowei had provided evidence for the existence of neurons—which were discovered by Santiago Ramon y Cajal—and demonstrated neural communication by way of neurotransmitters.

Example Question #1734 : Ap Psychology

in 1912, Carl Jung, a young apprentice of Sigmund Freud, split apart from Freud after a close friendship over differences regarding psychoanalytic theory. What was the main difference between Freud and Jung's psychoanalytic philosophies?

Possible Answers:

Jung thought Freud didn't give enough emphasis on sexuality as a motivating force

Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as too negative and incomplete

Jung thought neurosis was a personal disorder, while Freud believed it was a universal, transcendental disorder. 

Jung disagreed with Freud's main focus of therapy being to heal the soul

Jung disagreed with Freud's belief of behavior being caused by future aspirations as well as childhood motivations

Correct answer:

Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as too negative and incomplete

Explanation:

The main difference between Freud and Jung's psychoanalytic philosophies was that Freud's conception of the unconscious. Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as too negative and incomplete. Jung believed that the unconscious was not only a source of creativity and positivity, but also that there were two unconscious levels. He believed that there was a personal level of unconscious as well as an ancestral level of unconscious called the collective unconscious. These were the primary conflicts between Freud and Jung. The other answers given are incorrect, because all of the listed tenets were Jung’s beliefs, not Freud’s. 

Example Question #54 : Influential Psychologists

Which of the following leaders in the field of psychology is incorrectly matched with his contribution?

Possible Answers:

Asch: conformity

Skinner: classical conditioning

Binet: IQ testing

Milgram: obedience

Kohlberg: moral reasoning

Correct answer:

Skinner: classical conditioning

Explanation:

Lawrence Kohlberg's moral reasoning theory stated that there are three levels of moral reasoning, including preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Alfred Binet developed the first intelligence test. The current Stanford-Binet 5 (SB5) is based on his work. Solomon Asch studied conformity by having research participants estimate the length of a series of lines in front of a group. Stanley Milgram studied obedience to authority by having research participants believe they were delivering electric shocks to confederates. B.F. Skinner is the only theorist that is incorrectly matched. Skinner is associated with operant conditioning, which looks at the influence of reinforcement and punishment on people's behaviors. Ivan Pavlov and John Watson are associated with classical conditioning. 

Example Question #1740 : Ap Psychology

Which of the following psychologists was the first to use introspection?

Possible Answers:

Max Wertheimer 

Wilhelm Wundt 

William James

Sigmund Freud

Correct answer:

Wilhelm Wundt 

Explanation:

Wilhelm Wundt was the first to set up a psychology lab in order to train subjects in introspection. This process consisted of asking subjects to record their cognitive reactions to simple stimuli.   

Learning Tools by Varsity Tutors