AP PSYCHOLOGY ALL SET QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS SET A+
✔✔polygraph - ✔✔a machine, commonly used in attempts to detect lies, that measures
several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion
✔✔catharsis - ✔✔emotional release. In psychology, the catharsis hypothesis maintains
that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
✔✔feel-good, do-good phenomenon - ✔✔people's tendency to be helpful when already
in a good mood
✔✔subjective well-being - ✔✔self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used
along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic
indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life.
✔✔adaptation-level phenomenon - ✔✔our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of
lights, of income) relative to a "neutral" level defined by our prior experience
✔✔relative deprivation - ✔✔the perception that one is worse off relative to those with
whom one compares oneself
✔✔personality - ✔✔an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
✔✔free association - ✔✔in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in
which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or
embarrassing.
✔✔psychoanalysis - ✔✔Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and
actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating
psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
, ✔✔unconscious - ✔✔according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts,
wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information
processing of which we are unaware
✔✔preconscious - ✔✔Information that is not conscious but is retrievable into conscious
awareness
✔✔id - ✔✔contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud,
strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure
principle, demanding immediate gratification.
✔✔ego - ✔✔the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to
Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates
on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring
pleasure rather than pain
✔✔superego - ✔✔the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents
internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future
aspirations
✔✔psychosexual stages - ✔✔the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic,
latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies
focus on distinct erogenous zones
✔✔Oedipus complex - ✔✔according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother
and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
✔✔Electra complex - ✔✔counterpart to the Oedipus complex for females
✔✔identification - ✔✔the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate
their parents' values into their developing superegos
✔✔fixation - ✔✔according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at
an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
✔✔defense mechanisms - ✔✔in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of
reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
✔✔repression - ✔✔in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that
banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
✔✔regression - ✔✔defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety
retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains
fixated (ie thumb sucking)
ANSWERS SET A+
✔✔polygraph - ✔✔a machine, commonly used in attempts to detect lies, that measures
several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion
✔✔catharsis - ✔✔emotional release. In psychology, the catharsis hypothesis maintains
that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
✔✔feel-good, do-good phenomenon - ✔✔people's tendency to be helpful when already
in a good mood
✔✔subjective well-being - ✔✔self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used
along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic
indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life.
✔✔adaptation-level phenomenon - ✔✔our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of
lights, of income) relative to a "neutral" level defined by our prior experience
✔✔relative deprivation - ✔✔the perception that one is worse off relative to those with
whom one compares oneself
✔✔personality - ✔✔an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
✔✔free association - ✔✔in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in
which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or
embarrassing.
✔✔psychoanalysis - ✔✔Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and
actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating
psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
, ✔✔unconscious - ✔✔according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts,
wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information
processing of which we are unaware
✔✔preconscious - ✔✔Information that is not conscious but is retrievable into conscious
awareness
✔✔id - ✔✔contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud,
strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure
principle, demanding immediate gratification.
✔✔ego - ✔✔the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to
Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates
on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring
pleasure rather than pain
✔✔superego - ✔✔the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents
internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future
aspirations
✔✔psychosexual stages - ✔✔the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic,
latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies
focus on distinct erogenous zones
✔✔Oedipus complex - ✔✔according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother
and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
✔✔Electra complex - ✔✔counterpart to the Oedipus complex for females
✔✔identification - ✔✔the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate
their parents' values into their developing superegos
✔✔fixation - ✔✔according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at
an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
✔✔defense mechanisms - ✔✔in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of
reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
✔✔repression - ✔✔in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that
banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
✔✔regression - ✔✔defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety
retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains
fixated (ie thumb sucking)
