AP Psychology : History and Research

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Psychology

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Example Questions

Example Question #51 : Influential Psychologists

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

Possible Answers:

Chomsky and Whorf

Chomsky and Rogers

Whorf and Rogers

Chomsky and Wundt

Wundt and Zimbardo

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

Erikson and Piaget

Wundt and Zimbardo

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 #53 : Influential Psychologists

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

Possible Answers:

Josef Breuer 

Aristotle 

Otto Lowei

Pierre Broca 

Santiago Ramon y Cajal 

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 #231 : History And Research

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

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

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:

Binet: IQ testing

Kohlberg: moral reasoning

Skinner: classical conditioning

Milgram: obedience

Asch: conformity

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.   

Example Question #1741 : Ap Psychology

Which of the following intelligence theorists is incorrectly matched to their corresponding theory or contribution?

Possible Answers:

Louis Thurstone: concept of g factor

Daniel Goleman: concept of emotional intelligence

Alfred Binet: developed first intelligence test

Robert Sternberg: 3 components of intelligence

Howard Gardner: 8 types of intelligence

Correct answer:

Louis Thurstone: concept of g factor

Explanation:

Charles Spearman, not Louis Thurstone, developed the concept of the g factor. The g factor refers to a person's general intelligence that can be reflected in an IQ score. General intelligence is believed to impact a person's performance on cognitive tasks. Louis Thurstone is credited with diverging from the idea of general intelligence and proposing 7 types of primary mental abilities, including verbal comprehension, reasoning, perceptual speed, numerical ability, word fluency, associative memory, and spatial visualization. Daniel Goleman proposed the idea of emotional intelligence, which is the ability to process and understand emotions. Howard Sternberg proposed three components of intelligence: analytical (e.g. problem-solving ability), practical (e.g ability to adapt to change), and creative (e.g. ability to deal with new situations). Howard Gardner identified the following 8 types of intelligence: visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, musical, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. Last, Alfred Binet developed the first reliable intelligence test when working with children.

Example Question #51 : Influential Psychologists

Which psychologist used nonsense, three-letter words to study memory and concluded that forgetting has a curvilinear relationship with time and ultimately plateaus or levels off?

Possible Answers:

Noam Chomsky

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Elizabeth Loftus

B. F. Skinner

Correct answer:

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Explanation:

The correct answer is "Hermann Ebbinghaus." He was the first known psychologist to conduct scientific studies on memory. His research began around 1878 and (as briefly explained in the question) involved studying how long an individual could recall nonsense, three-letter words after they were initially studied. Interestingly, Ebbinghaus used himself as his only subject. He repeated the list of meaningless words to himself, waited for a certain amount of time to elapse, and then attempted to recall the full list. He found that he forgot a large amount of the information within an hour and even more within a day; however, after that point, the amount forgotten decreased significantly—that is, if he remembered it for a certain length of time (e.g. about a day), then he would remember it for the relative “long haul.”

Example Question #1743 : Ap Psychology

Abraham Maslow is best known for developing which of the following theories?

Possible Answers:

Hierarchy of needs

Operant conditioning

Attachment theory

Universal archetypes

Correct answer:

Hierarchy of needs

Explanation:

Maslow was responsible for the Maslow hierarchy of needs: an ordering of human needs from most pressing to least pressing, often presented as a pyramid. According to Maslow, needs can be grouped into the following categories, from lowest to highest: physiological needs; safety and security; love and belongingness; self-worth and self-esteem; and self-actualization (sometimes subdivided into knowledge and understanding, aesthetic needs, and then self-actualization). The idea is that an individual will focus on filling simpler, more “primitive” needs before moving onto the more abstract human need for growth and development. Physiological needs are things like food, shelter, and water. Safety and security refers to achieving a secure, low fear state in which one feels physically, financially, and emotionally safe and stable. Love and belongingness needs are next, and they are described as the human need for companionship and social relationships. The self-worth and self-esteem tier consists of people’s needs for positive feelings about themselves and their positions in society; it is essentially the desire to be valued as a contributing member of one’s community. Self-actualization is a somewhat abstract concept which is best summarized as “being the absolute best you can be." Maslow thought very few, if any, people ever actually achieved self-actualization. As for the other answer choices, Mary Ainsworth was responsible for attachment theory in small children; Carl Jung, for the concept of archetypes; B. F. Skinner, for operant conditioning.

Example Question #1742 : Ap Psychology

Which of the following psychologists is known for pioneering research associated with measuring intelligence?

Possible Answers:

Sigmund Freud

Alfred Binet

Stanley Milgram

Carl Jung

William James

Correct answer:

Alfred Binet

Explanation:

"Alfred Binet" created the first practical intelligence test by assessing the diverse abilities of Parisian schoolchildren in the 19th century. Even in modern times, his work is still influential. For example, the Stanford-Binet intelligence measure is one of the most popular cognitive tests that is still used today.

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