AP® Psychology—Semester A

Not a good psych course. Psych!

  • Course Length: 18 weeks
  • Course Type: AP
  • Category:
    • College Prep
    • History and Social Science
    • High School

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This course has been approved by the College Board, which indicates that the syllabus "has demonstrated that it meets or exceeds the curricular expectations colleges and universities have for your subject." Please contact sales@shmoop.com if you would like to add this course to your official record of AP course offerings.

It has also been granted a-g certification, which means it has met the rigorous iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Courses and will now be honored as part of the requirements for admission into the University of California system.


So you want to learn about mind control—we mean, psychology? Well, you've come to the right place. Human beings are complex creatures; we start wars and create iPhones, but we also come up with religions like the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

But more specifically, psychology is the scientific study of human thought and behavior. In other words, why do we do any of the things we do? Money, power, social approval, food? (Definitely the last one for us at Shmoop—give us a pizza, and we'll pretty much do anything.)

Semester A of Shmoop's AP Psychology course, aligned to College Board standards, will give you the skinny on the invisible forces that influence who you are. We'll not only prepare you for the AP exam, but also give you a few takeaway concepts that you can use in real life…you know, in case you feel like hypnotizing your younger sibling.

Our smorgasbord of thought-provoking readings and activities will let you

  • trace the major contributions of notable figures in the history of psychology.
  • evaluate different research methods and design your own experiment.
  • describe the key functions of the nervous system and specific brain structures.
  • explain how each of the senses function and contribute to an individual's perception of the world.
  • discuss the role of instinct, conditioning, and observational learning in shaping human behavior.
  • explain the process of memory and discuss how memories can be unreliable. 
  • discuss how emotions inspire purposeful behavior through cognitive and physiological feedback loops.
  • analyze how biology and socialization shape an individual.

Technology Requirements


Required Skills



Unit Breakdown

1 AP® Psychology—Semester A - History and Approaches of Psychology

Like superheroes, psychology has an origin story. This unit will trace the rise of psychology from ancient Greek philosophy to a science. We'll pull apart research methods used in psychology, including how one psychologist trained pigeons to play ping-pong. The ultimate superpower, if you ask us...

2 AP® Psychology—Semester A - Biological Bases of Behavior

Welcome the star of the show: the brain. In this unit, we'll look at how neurotransmitters, brain structures, and the nervous system control our behavior. Trust us, you'll be a brainiac by Unit 2's conclusion. Heh heh.

3 AP® Psychology—Semester A - Sensation and Perception

Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Your brain may be the command center of the body, but your senses are the foot soldiers—the brain can't make any decisions without information from the senses. Plus...soft things feel nice, and what are burgers without your taste buds?

4 AP® Psychology—Semester A - States of Consciousness

You are feeling verrry sleepy. Sort of. This unit is about sleep, hypnosis, and psychoactive drugs—things that alter your normal, waking state. Err…but please don't try any of those while you're actually doing the unit.

5 AP® Psychology—Semester A - Learning (Obviously, Shmoop's a Fan of It...)

Learning about learning—so meta, right? Most of your skills actually come from conditioning and observational learning, not flashcards and textbooks. The weird thing? You often learn without realizing that you're learning. Whoa. Meta indeed.

6 AP® Psychology—Semester A - Cognition

Aka the fancy psych term for "thinking." We'll cover memory, problem solving, and language in this unit. Find out what sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom…but also why we're not as rational as we like to think we are. Awks.

7 AP® Psychology—Semester A - Motivation and Emotion

Get ready for all the feels. We'll talk about what drives us to accomplish goals and how we express joy, sadness, anger, and fear (i.e. all the feelings you experience in a Game of Thrones season finale). We'll also have a lesson on stress, which we're guessing you're, uh, mildly familiar with—especially by the end of a semester.


Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 2.13: Why It's Not Always Your Parents' Fault

A forest in Thailand
Nope, not this kind of nature—we're talking about human nature.
(Source)

Okay, so maybe it's a little harsh to blame everything on your parents (as much fun as that can be).

Genetics are a foundation, but they aren't the only thing that determine or predict who we are, what we like, and how we behave. The environment plays a huge role—and we don't just mean "environment" in the sense of sunny weather, but also where you live, how you were raised, and what you eat. Like, your genes might say your skin is a certain shade, but if you move to a tropical island or spend all your free time hiking, it'll probably get darker.

So the question that psychologists have been grappling with since, like, the beginning of psychology is, "Are behavior and personality the result of a person's genes, her environment, or a combination of the two?"

This is called the nature vs. nurture debate.

Obviously, some things like blood type can't be changed by your environment. But when it comes to, say, studying criminal behavior, do we blame biology or environment?

Yeah, the jury is (literally) still out on that.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 2.2.13a: Twin Studies

Normally, a psychologist would answer a dilemma like nature vs. nurture by conducting a controlled experiment. Put one group of people under a control condition, put another group of people under an experimental condition, and see how their behaviors differ.

Boom, problem solved.

One problem…we can't just lock one human baby in a violent home and another baby in a loving home to see how they react. Not the most ethical solution. Plus, there's no way to control for genetic differences unless you somehow alter their DNA. Also not ethical.

Actually, nature may have provided some help in this area: twins. For one, twins share the same genetic information. Two, they're often found in the same living situation. Even if twins are separated, their behavior can still show if genes or environment influence a person more. If they behave similarly after so many years apart, then maybe genes played more of a role, despite the differing environments.

Twin studies estimate the effects of heritability in twins that were raised in the same family, or twins that have been separated by adoption. It's a research tool that's often used in the field of behavioral genetics—which applies the principles of evolutionary theory to study behavior.

However, even twin studies aren't a rock solid way to settle nature vs. nurture—many psychologists criticize their scientific and statistical soundness. For instance, many twin studies are based on the idea that fraternal twins and identical twins are often treated the same. However, recent studies have shown that fraternal twins may be treated more as individuals by teachers and parents than identical twins.

Read this short article from the APA and this article from Slate to explore some of the doubts and criticism around twin studies.

For more on these debates and related studies, check out the following sections in your Myers' Psychology for AP first edition textbook:

  • Nature vs. Nurture: "Nature and Nurture" (page 101)
  • Twin Studies: "Twin and Adoption Studies" (pages 96 – 99)

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 2.2.13b: Nature vs. Nurture

As psychologists and scientists have tried to figure out what makes us us, they've mainly focused on two areas: how our environment influences us, and how our genes influence us.

However, it's almost never that simple—what if genetics and environmental influences work together to create a person?

Or, what if there's some third option in between nature and nurture? (Spoiler alert: there is.)

Listen to this podcast from our friends at RadioLab as they explore all sides of the nature vs. nurture debate. As you're listening to stories of starving Swedes and the ethical dilemma of sterilization, take notes and look for answers to the following questions:

  • What is Lamarckism?
  • What did Lars Olov Bygren's study of the Swedish village reveal?
  • What are methyl groups? How does their presence or absence influence behavior?
  • What are Barbara Harris' arguments for Project Prevention? What are the criticisms?
  • How does the environment influence a person's behavior? How does genetic inheritance affect behavior?

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 2.13: Double-Sided Notebook

We know you dug the reading today. But, uh, what did you really think about it? Download a Response Notebook template. As you revisit the Radiolab podcast "Inheritance", take notes of the choicest quotes from the work—quotes that reflect on psychology both as a science and as a cultural, historical, and ever-evolving field.

Once that's complete, use the evidence you collected (as well as the notes you fill in about context) to write a 250 – 300-ish word analysis where you reflect upon what that reading reveals about the psychological field.

For example, if we were responding to a viewing of the film Do the Right Thing (which is very important in the psychological field, we might add), we'd fill the top half of our sheet with quotes from the film and notes about historical and social context—namely, the riots going on in urban America when the movie was filmed (uh, as well as the riots today), and information about the Bed-Stuy Brooklyn neighborhood in the 1980s.

After noting the film's director, audience, purpose, and tone, we'd start getting into the big questions it asks about psychology: how do people grapple between opposing forces of love and hate? How do crowds and group mind influence our actions?

Finally, we'd head into our analysis. Opening with an engaging hook—perhaps playing on the psychology of riots and brutality, and connecting it to current events—we'd start our breakdown, discussing what the film says about group and individual psychology in two or three structured paragraphs. And obviously, we'd be sure to incorporate all those sweet, sweet quotes we'd collected earlier in the journal.

And now…it's your turn. Complete your graphic organizer, write your analysis in its final box, and then upload your work below.