Myers' Psychology for the AP Course

In this third edition of his ground-breaking AP® program, Dr. David Myers welcomes a new co-author, Dr. Nathan DeWall from the University of Kentucky. Drs. Myers and DeWall share a passion for the teaching of psychological science through wit, humor, and the telling of poignant personal stories (individually identified in the text by the use of each author’s initials [DM and ND]). Through close collaboration, these authors produce a unified voice that will teach, illuminate, and inspire your AP® students.

Unit I Psychologys History and Approaches
(1) Psychology and Its History
(2) Today’s Psychology and Its Approaches
(3) Subfields in Psychology

Unit II Research Methods: Thinking Critically With Psychological Science
(4) The Need for Psychological Science
(5) The Scientific Method and Description
(6) Correlation and Experimentation
(7) Research Design and Ethics in Psychology
(8) Statistical Reasoning in Everyday Life

Unit III Biological Bases of Behavior
(9) Biological Psychology and Neurotransmission
(10) The Nervous and Endocrine Systems
(11) Studying the Brain, and Older Brain Structures
(12) The Cerebral Cortex
(13) Brain Hemisphere Organization and the Biology of Consciousness
(14) Behavior Genetics: Predicting Individual Differences
(15) Evolutionary Psychology: Understanding Human Nature

Unit IV Sensation and Perception
(16) Basic Concepts of Sensation and Perception
(17) Influences on Perception
(18) Vision: Sensory and Perceptual Processing
(19) Visual Organization and Interpretation
(20) Hearing
(21) The Other Senses

Unit V Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind
(22) Understanding Consciousness and Hypnosis
(23) Sleep Patterns and Sleep Theories
(24) Sleep Deprivation, Sleep Disorders, and Dreams
(25) Psychoactive Drugs

Unit VI Learning
(26) How We Learn and Classical Conditioning
(27) Operant Conditioning
(28) Operant Conditioning’s Applications, and Comparison to Classical Conditioning
(29) Biology, Cognition, and Learning
(30) Observational Learning

Unit VII Cognition
(31) Studying and Encoding Memories
(32) Storing and Retrieving Memories
(33) Forgetting, Memory Construction, and Improving Memory
(34) Thinking, Concepts, and Creativity
(35) Solving Problems and Making Decisions
(36) Thinking and Language

Unit VIII Motivation, Emotion, and Stress
(37) Motivational Concepts
(38) Hunger Motivation
(39) Sexual Motivation
(40) Affiliation and Achievement
(41) Theories and Physiology of Emotion
(42) Expressing Emotion
(43) Stress and Illness
(44) Health and Happiness

Unit IX Developmental Psychology
(45) Developmental Issues, Prenatal Development, and the Newborn
(46) Infancy and Childhood: Physical Development
(47) Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
(48) Infancy and Childhood: Social Development
(49) Gender Development
(50) Parents, Peers, and Early Experiences
(51) Adolescence: Physical and Cognitive Development
(52) Adolescence: Social Development and Emerging Adulthood
(53) Sexual Development
(54) Adulthood: Physical, Cognitive, and Social Development

Unit X Personality
(55) Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Theories
(56) Humanistic Theories
(57) Trait Theories
(58) Social-Cognitive Theories
(59) Exploring the Self

Unit XI Testing and Individual Differences
(60) Introduction to Intelligence
(61) Assessing Intelligence
(62) The Dynamics of Intelligence
(63) Studying Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence
(64) Group Differences and the Question of Bias

Unit XII Abnormal Behavior
(65) Introduction to Psychological Disorders
(66) Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
(67) Depressive Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, Suicide, and Self-Injury
(68) Schizophrenia
(69) Other Disorders

Unit XIII Treatment of Abnormal Behavior
(70) Introduction to Therapy, and Psychodynamic and Humanistic Therapies
(71) Behavior, Cognitive, and Group Therapies
(72) Evaluating Psychotherapies
(73) The Biomedical Therapies and Preventing Psychological Disorders

Unit XIV Social Psychology
(74) Attribution, Attitudes, and Actions
(75) Conformity and Obedience
(76) Group Behavior
(77) Prejudice and Discrimination
(78) Aggression
(79) Attraction
(80) Altruism, Conflict, and Peacemaking

Enrichment Modules
(81) Influences on Drug Use
(82) Psychology at Work
(83) Animal Thinking and Language

Appendix A: Practice AP-Style Exam
Appendix B: AP Tips
Appendix C: Psychological Science’s Key Contributors
Appendix D: Preparing for Further Psychology Studies
Appendix E: Answers to Test Yourself Questions