Developmental Exam
AP Psychology
Sample AP Multiple Choice Questions
1. In developmental research, a(n) period is an age range during which specific experiences must take place if normal development is to occur. This is in contrast to a period, where it is optimal but not necessarily essential for these experiences to occur.
a. Stage; critical
b. Critical; receptive
c. Sensitive; critical
d. Explicit; sensitive
e. Critical; sensitive
2. A reading expert is interested in how reading skills develop across the lifespan and conducts a survey comparing reading skills of people of different ages to address this issue. He recruits participants to be in one of four different age groups: 20 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50 to 59. He has them complete a reading survey, and then analyzes the data to see whether any patterns emerge. This study would be considered an example of a:
a. Double-blind design
b. Cross-sectional design
c. Longitudinal design
d. Sequential design
e. Blind design
3. Which of the following lists the three stages of prenatal development in the proper order (from earliest to latest)?
a. Embryonic, germinal, fetal
b. Germinal, embryonic, fetal
c. Fetal, germinal, embryonic
d. Neonate, embryonic, fetal
e. Germinal, fetal, embryonic
4. The term used to describe any of the wide variety of environmental agents that cause abnormalities in prenatal development is:
a. Antigens
b. Teratogens
c. Toxins
d. Antibodies
e. Antioxygens
5. In young infants, the "rooting reflex" refers to the behavioral process where an infant will:
a. Arch her back and pull her arms back
b. Turn her head and orient toward a sound
c. Suck on a finger that is placed in her mouth
d. Look longer at objects she prefers
e. Turn her head and open her mouth when her cheek is touched
6. Piaget's term refers to the organized patterns of thought that guide a child's interactions with the world.
a. Schema
b. Assimilation
c. Reflex
d. Mental representation
e. Norm
7. A family is driving in the country, and the young boy sees a cow and says, "doggie!" His older sister, who used to do the same thing when she was his age, informs him that this is not a dog but is actually a cow. The younger brother tried to fit the cow into a preexisting schema and so the young brother is using the process of ____. Because the older sister was able to modify her schemas and create a new one for cows, she is demonstrating the use of ______.
a. Cognition; schema structuring
b. Accommodation; accommodation as well
c. Accommodation; assimilation
d. Assimilation; accommodation
e. Assimilation; assimilation as well
8. In Erik Erickson's stage of psychosocial development, how the person perceives that the world answers his needs and how much love they receive from those around them determines the amount of faith that he or she has in the world.
a. Basic trust versus basic mistrust
b. Generativity versus stagnation
c. Initiative versus guilt
d. Industry versus inferiority
e. Autonomy versus shame and doubt
9. After they are born, the tendency for some species of birds and mammals to follow and attach to the first thing that moves is called:
a. Fixating
b. Reaction formation
c. Imprinting
d. Reflex attachment
e. Encoding
10. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross proposed that humans go through stages in dying. Which of the following are the stages in the correct order?
a. Anger, denial, depression, bargaining, and acceptance
b. Depression, anger, bargaining, acceptance, and denial
c. Bargaining, denial, depression, anger, and acceptance
d. Anger, bargaining, denial, depression, and acceptance
e. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance
11. You read in your philosophy class textbook that humans are born “Tabula Rasa” or “blank slates.” As a student of psychology, which of the following responses would you have?
a. The statement is incorrect. Humans may be born without reflexes and instincts, but we are born with the ability to learn them.
b. The statement is correct. Humans are born without instincts or other mechanisms in place to help us survive.
c. The statement is correct. Humans are born with a certain number of neurons, but most develop later as we learn.
d. The statement is incorrect. Humans are born with a set of reflexes that help us survive.
e. The statement is impossible to prove since we cannot infer what babies know or do not know due to their lack of language.
12. You have a cousin named Jeff who flunked out of three expensive private schools and was arrested for wandering the streets of New York using his parents’ credit card. Jeff is intelligent but cannot seem to get motivated toward any career. What conflict would Erikson say Jeff is struggling with?
a. autonomy versus authority
b. identity versus role confusion
c. integrity versus despair
d. industry versus inferiority
e. trust versus isolation
13. Harlow’s experiments with substitute mothers made of wire demonstrated the importance of what aspect of nurturing?
a. feeding
b. responsiveness to needs
c. imprinting
d. touch
e. stranger anxiety
14. The ability to generate several alternate hypotheses in order to explain a phenomenon demonstrates cognition in which of the following Piagetian stages?
a. operational
b. hypothetical-operations
c. syllogistic
d. formal-operations
e. abstract reasoning
15. Which of the following attachments styles did Mary Ainsworth find most often in her research (in about 66% of the cases she studied)?
a. avoidant
b. authoritarian
c. secure
d. anxious/ambivalent
e. authoritative
16. Common to all members of a species, what is the term to describe an inherited characteristic that produces a particular response when an organism is exposed to a particular stimulus?
a. drive
b. instinct
c. habit
d. motive
e. incentive
17. The body’s tendency to maintain an internal state of physiological balance is called:
a. internal consistency
b. stasis
c. homeostasis
d. instinctual consistency
e. equilibrium
18. An approach to motivation called ______proposes that motivated behavior stems from a person’s beliefs that particular behaviors will lead to a goal and from the worth that a person places on that goal.
a. drive theory
b. expectancy x value theory
c. intrinsic motivation theory
d. social exchange theory
e. drive-reduction theory
19. Performing an activity to obtain an external reward or prize is an example of _____ motivation; whereas engaging in an activity for its own sake because it is enjoyable or engaging is called ______motivation.
a. intrinsic; extrinsic
b. instinctual; drive
c. approach; internal
d. deprivation; growth
e. extrinsic; intrinsic
20. Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory theorizes that people must first fulfill their need for ______before they can think about their need for ______.
a. affiliation and love; food
b. self esteem; safety
c. beauty and order; affiliation and love
d. security and safety; affiliation and love
e. spirituality; knowledge and understanding
21. The Behavioral Inhibition System is to Behavioral Activation System as:
a. avoidance is to approach
b. up is to down
c. approach is to avoidance
d. goal is to success
e. achievement is to desire
22. Hunger researchers initially assumed that the __ was a brain region responsible for initiating hunger and eating (“start-eating center”) because when it was electrically stimulated, animals would begin to eat.
a. Ventromedial hypothalamus
b. Reticular formation
c. Paraventricular nucleus
d. Lateral hypothalamus
e. Medulla hypothalamus
23. You are an animal lover and particularly love cats. You are also allergic to many different kinds of animals, particularly cats; the closer you get to them, the worse your sneezing. A lot of the time you see sweet kitties, but you are eventually forced to back off from touching them when you feel your allergies coming on. This example best demonstrates a(n):
a. mixed conflict
b. double approach-approach
c. avoidance-avoidance conflict
d. approach-avoidance conflict
e. approach-approach conflict
24. The muscles of the face may provide information to the brain about the nature and intensity of emotions we are experiencing. This is according to the:
a. social comparison hypothesis
b. muscle feedback theory of emotion
c. facial feedback hypothesis
d. Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
e. somatic feedback hypothesis
25. In his two-factor theory of emotion, Stanley Schachter asserts that the cognitive appraisal of ____ provide(s) essential information to help us determine exactly what emotion we are feeling; whereas our ____ tell(s) us how strongly we are feeling something.
a. facial features; physiological arousal
b. situational cues; facial features
c. situational cues; level of physiological arousal
d. level of physiological arousal; facial features
e. facial features; situational cues
Sample AP Essay Question
1. Explain how a proponent of “instinct theory,” “drive theory,” and “expectancy x value theory” each explains both anorexia and bulimia.
- Instinct theory: explanation for anorexia; explanation for bulimia
- Drive theory: explanation for anorexia; explanation for bulimia
- Expectancy x value theory: explanation for anorexia; explanation for bulimia