AP Psychology · Science
AP Psychology: free lessons and course outline
AP Psychology built lesson by lesson from the College Board course framework. Each of the 57 lessons follows one or two framework topics, quotes the learning objectives and essential knowledge it covers, defines the vocabulary, walks through a real study (method, participants, findings, limits), and ends with worked examples, an exam-focus box, and six practice items with answers. Each unit finishes with a ten-question review in the exam's three item styles, and the two free-response sections let you practice the Article Analysis Question and the Evidence-Based Question against the College Board rubrics.
AP Psychology has five units, and the College Board weights each at 15–25% of the exam, so none is safe to skip. The exam is 2 hours 40 minutes and digital: Section I is 75 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes (66.7% of the score), and Section II is two free-response questions in 70 minutes (33.3%): the Article Analysis Question (25 minutes, including 10 minutes of reading) and the Evidence-Based Question (45 minutes, including 15 minutes of reading), each worth 7 points. Both free-response questions hand you research to read, so the course opens with four lessons on science practices and research methods (asking questions, designing studies, reading data, and interpreting statistics), and every later lesson names the research behind its concepts. Every unit ends with a ten-question review that mixes the exam's three multiple-choice styles: concept application, data analysis, and scientific investigation. The two writing sections at the bottom of the outline hold five AAQ prompts and five EBQ prompts, each with the research summaries, a timed writing space that scores against the official rubric, and a 7/7 model response.
- U1Biological Bases of Behavior15–25%
- U2Cognition15–25%
- U3Development and Learning15–25%
- U4Social Psychology and Personality15–25%
- U5Mental and Physical Health15–25%
Every lesson, unit by unit
U1 is free to read below. The other units open with a free month or a paid plan.
U1 Biological Bases of Behavior 15–25% of the examFREE
- 1.1 Experiments and non-experimental designs
- 1.2 Samples, measurement, and ethics
- 1.3 Describing data: averages, spread, and the normal curve
- 1.4 Correlation, effect size, and statistical significance
- 1.5 Heredity, environment, and the evolutionary perspective
- 1.6 The nervous system and its divisions
- 1.7 Neurons and the firing of an action potential
- 1.8 Neurotransmitters, hormones, and psychoactive drugs
- 1.9 The brain: structures and their functions
- 1.10 Split brains, plasticity, and studying the brain
- 1.11 Consciousness, circadian rhythms, and the stages of sleep
- 1.12 Why we dream, why we sleep, and sleep disorders
- 1.13 Sensation: thresholds, adaptation, and sensory interaction
- 1.14 Vision: the eye, color, and the visual brain
- 1.15 Hearing: sound, the ear, and theories of pitch
- 1.16 Smell, taste, touch, pain, balance, and body position
U2 Cognition 15–25% of the exam
- 2.1 Perception: how the mind organizes sensation
- 2.2 Visual perception: depth, constancy, and apparent motion
- 2.3 Thinking, problem solving, judgment, and decision making
- 2.4 Introduction to memory: types and models
- 2.5 Encoding memories: strategies that work
- 2.6 Storing memories: duration, capacity, and failure
- 2.7 Retrieving memories: cues, context, and practice
- 2.8 Forgetting and the errors of memory
- 2.9 Intelligence: theories and how tests are built
- 2.10 Intelligence, fairness, and achievement
U3 Development and Learning 15–25% of the exam
- 3.1 Themes and methods in developmental psychology
- 3.2 Physical development across the lifespan
- 3.3 Sex, gender, and sexual orientation in development
- 3.4 Cognitive development across the lifespan
- 3.5 Language development
- 3.6 Social-emotional development: family and attachment
- 3.7 Social-emotional development: peers, identity, adulthood
- 3.8 Classical conditioning
- 3.9 Operant conditioning: reinforcement and punishment
- 3.10 Operant conditioning: schedules of reinforcement
- 3.11 Social and cognitive factors in learning
U4 Social Psychology and Personality 15–25% of the exam
- 4.1 Attribution and locus of control
- 4.2 Person perception
- 4.3 Attitudes, stereotypes, and cognitive dissonance
- 4.4 Social influence: norms, persuasion, conformity, obedience
- 4.5 Group behavior and culture
- 4.6 Prosocial behavior and the bystander effect
- 4.7 Psychodynamic and humanistic personality theories
- 4.8 Social-cognitive and trait theories of personality
- 4.9 Motivation
- 4.10 Emotion
U5 Mental and Physical Health 15–25% of the exam
- 5.1 Health psychology: stress, reactions, and coping
- 5.2 Positive psychology
- 5.3 Defining and classifying psychological disorders
- 5.4 Perspectives and models of disorders
- 5.5 Neurodevelopmental and schizophrenic spectrum disorders
- 5.6 Depressive and bipolar disorders
- 5.7 Anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders
- 5.8 Dissociative, trauma, eating, and personality disorders
- 5.9 Psychotherapy: approaches, ethics, and effectiveness
- 5.10 Biological treatments, hypnosis, and group therapy
Keep going in the full AP Psychology course
All of U1 (Biological Bases of Behavior) is free to everyone, with no account. The course has 57 lessons, each with worked examples and practice problems that come with full solutions. A free account can also start a free month of the whole course, with no card.
Open this lesson in the courseSee the whole course