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150 multiple-choice questions and 150 flashcards, organised into 13 chapters, written to the Standard HS Psychology course content blueprint. Every question carries a full rationale.
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Standard HS Psychology course content (non-AP introductory psychology). Topics include: history and approaches, research methods, biological bases of behavior (brain, neurons, neurotransmitters), sensation & perception, consciousness, learning (classical/operant conditioning), memory, cognition, motivation/emotion, lifespan development, personality theories, social psychology, psychological disorders, and treatments. MCQs reference widely accepted psychological concepts from public educational sources.
CoStudy's HS Psychology bank holds 300 items organised into 13 chapters that follow the published blueprint. Every multiple-choice question carries a written rationale explaining why the correct answer is correct and why each distractor is tempting but wrong.
Each chapter follows a domain of the published exam outline. Practise one on its own:
A sample of 12 multiple-choice questions from the bank, with the full rationale shown.
Theories of emotion:
Answer: A — James-Lange (body reactions cause emotion), Cannon-Bard (body and emotion occur simultaneously), Schachter-Singer two-factor (arousal + cognitive label), cognitive appraisal (interpretation determines emotion) — each captures aspects of complex emotional process
A) Standard theories. B/C/D) Each is incomplete.
According to the Atkinson-Shiffrin model, the three main memory stores are:
Answer: B — Sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory
The classic three-store model: information passes from sensory memory (briefly) → short-term/working memory → long-term memory through attention and rehearsal.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) primarily focuses on:
Answer: C — Identifying and changing distorted thoughts and maladaptive behaviors
CBT helps clients recognize and restructure cognitive distortions while changing reinforcing behaviors. It's one of the most empirically supported therapies.
REM sleep is most associated with:
Answer: B — Vivid dreaming, rapid eye movement, and brain activity similar to wakefulness
REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep features brain activity similar to wakefulness, muscle atonia, and most vivid dreaming. Slow-wave sleep is non-REM Stage 3.
AP Psychology exam format:
Answer: D — 100 MC (70 min) + 2 FRQ (50 min); 9 units covered; calculator not allowed
D) Standard. A/B/C) Each is incorrect.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to:
Answer: D — Search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one's preexisting beliefs
Confirmation bias is a pervasive cognitive bias where people preferentially attend to belief-confirming information and discount disconfirming evidence.
Erik Erikson's psychosocial stages:
Answer: E — Eight stages across lifespan, each with developmental crisis (trust vs. mistrust → autonomy vs. shame → industry vs. inferiority → identity vs. role confusion → intimacy vs. isolation → generativity vs. stagnation → integrity vs. despair)
Erikson (1902-1994): expanded Freud's focus on early childhood to lifelong development. 8 stages, each presenting psychosocial 'crisis'. Successful resolution → virtues. Stage 5 (identity vs. role confusion) particularly relevant to adolescence. Cross-cultural variation in details.
According to Erikson, the central crisis of adolescence is:
Answer: C — Identity vs role confusion
C) Identity vs role confusion is the adolescent stage. A) Infancy. B) School-age. D) Young adulthood — a common trick distractor because it's the next stage.
The Big Five personality traits are:
Answer: C — Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (OCEAN)
C) Trait model dominant in modern personality research. A) Ancient Greek humors. B) Freudian structure. D) Cognitive domains.
Which is a MONOCULAR depth cue?
Answer: C — Linear perspective
C) Linear perspective (parallel lines converging in the distance) needs only one eye. A/B/D) All require both eyes (binocular cues).
Psychology careers:
Answer: D — Clinical psychologist (PhD/PsyD), counselor (LPC, LMFT), school psychologist, neuropsychologist, sport psychologist, I/O psychologist, forensic psychologist, social worker, psychiatrist (MD), researcher, professor; education paths vary; growing demand for mental health professionals
D) Standard. A/B/C) Each is incomplete.
Three main types of memory:
Answer: B — Sensory (brief, large), short-term/working (~7±2 items, ~20s), long-term (vast capacity, potentially permanent); proposed by Atkinson-Shiffrin model
Memory stages: sensory (iconic visual, echoic auditory; brief), short-term/working memory (limited capacity ~7±2, ~20 sec unless rehearsed), long-term (permanent storage if encoded). Modern: working memory more complex (Baddeley model). Long-term subtypes: declarative (explicit) vs. procedural (implicit).
6 sample cards from the 150 in the bank.
Major neurotransmitters?
Dopamine (reward), serotonin (mood), GABA (inhibitory), glutamate (excitatory), acetylcholine, norepinephrine, endorphins.
Humanistic therapy?
Client-centered (Rogers). Unconditional positive regard. Help self-actualize.
Object permanence?
Understanding things exist when out of sight. Develops sensorimotor stage.
Frontal lobe function?
Decision-making, planning, personality, voluntary movement, language production.
Retrieval cues?
Triggers help memory access. Context-dependent + state-dependent memory.
Short-term memory capacity?
About 7 ± 2 items (Miller, 1956). Lasts 20-30 seconds without rehearsal.
These samples are a small slice. The full bank runs flashcards, multiple choice and timed mock exams with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.
The HS Psychology bank holds 300 items: 150 multiple-choice questions, 150 flashcards. 18 of them are on this page to read free, with no signup.
Yes. Every multiple-choice item carries a written rationale that states the controlling principle behind the correct answer and then addresses each wrong option in turn — why it tempts and precisely where it fails. Knowing why the plausible answer was wrong is worth more than knowing which letter was right.
It is organised into 13 chapters that follow the published exam blueprint: History and Approaches to Psychology; Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology; Biological Bases of Behavior (Brain + Neurons); Sensation and Perception; States of Consciousness (Sleep, Drugs); Learning: Classical and Operant Conditioning; Memory, Cognition, and Language; Motivation, Emotion, and Stress; Developmental Psychology (Lifespan); Personality Theories and Assessment; Psychological Disorders; Treatment of Psychological Disorders; Social Psychology. The number of questions in each chapter is proportional to that domain's published weight, so working through the bank exposes you to roughly the mix the real exam uses.
Standard HS Psychology course content (non-AP introductory psychology). Topics include: history and approaches, research methods, biological bases of behavior (brain, neurons, neurotransmitters), sensation & perception, consciousness, learning (classical/operant conditioning), memory, cognition, motivation/emotion, lifespan development, personality theories, social psychology, psychological disorders, and treatments. MCQs reference widely accepted psychological concepts from public educational sources.
The samples on this page are free to read in full, rationales included, with no account. The complete 300-item bank, the timed mock exams and per-chapter progress tracking are part of CoStudy on the web and in the iOS app.
Last reviewed 2026-08-22. Banks are written against the certifying body's published exam outline and re-checked when that outline changes — exams get renumbered, retired and reweighted, and a bank written to a superseded outline teaches the wrong proportions. Figures that are re-indexed annually are deliberately not asserted as rules; the questions test the governing principle instead.