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AP Psychology Social Psychology Study Guide

Unofficial study guide and practice test for AP Psychology social psychology: attribution, attitudes and social situations, Topics 4.1 to 4.3.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the College Board. Bank checked October 14, 2026.

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Topic 4.1: Attributions and explanatory style 10

  • A student decides that a classmate who gave a dull talk is simply a boring person, forgetting that the topic was assigned. A second student says he failed one quiz because it was unfair and aced the next because he is smart. Which biases are shown, in order? Answer: The fundamental attribution error, then the self-serving bias. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "fundamental attribution error" and "self-serving bias"; course topic 4.1
  • A teammate misses an easy shot. Which explanation is a dispositional attribution? Answer: She has never been a careful shooter. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "dispositional attribution"; course topic 4.1
  • According to the APA Dictionary, what is the self-serving bias designed to maintain? Answer: High self-esteem. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "self-serving bias"; course topic 4.1
  • After a rejected job application Noor thinks, "That interview went badly, but the next one is a new chance." Paul thinks, "I always fail and I always will." How do their explanatory styles differ? Answer: Noor's is optimistic and Paul's is pessimistic. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "optimism" and "pessimism"; course topic 4.1 (essential knowledge 4.1.A.2)
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Topic 4.1: Attributions and explanatory style, continued

  • The APA Dictionary notes one limit on the fundamental attribution error. What is it? Answer: It is more common in some societies than in others. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "fundamental attribution error"; course topic 4.1
  • By the actor-observer bias, how does a person tend to explain her own behavior, compared with the same behavior in someone else? Answer: Her own by the situation, the other person's by personality. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "actor–observer effect"; course topic 4.1
  • Explanatory style, as the course uses the term, describes what? Answer: A person's predictable pattern of explaining good and bad events. Source: College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 4.1, essential knowledge 4.1.A.2
  • "I lost the match because my opponent got lucky with the wind." Which kind of attribution is this? Answer: Situational. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "situational attribution"; course topic 4.1
  • "There's no point in studying. Grades depend on which teacher you happen to get." Which outlook does this show? Answer: An external locus of control. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "locus of control"; course topic 4.1
  • What do psychologists mean by an attribution? Answer: An inference about the cause of a behavior or event. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "attribution"; course topic 4.1

Topic 4.1: Person perception and social comparison 7

  • A new jingle plays every hour on the radio. For which listener is the repetition least likely to produce liking? Answer: One who disliked the jingle from the first hearing. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "mere-exposure effect"; course topic 4.1
  • After placing third, a swimmer keeps measuring her time against the winner's and resolves to train harder. What kind of social comparison is this? Answer: Upward. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "social comparison theory"; course topic 4.1
  • By social comparison theory, why do people compare themselves with others? Answer: To evaluate their own abilities and attitudes. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "social comparison theory"; course topic 4.1
  • In a self-fulfilling prophecy, what turns an expectation into an outcome? Answer: The behavior of the person who holds the expectation. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "self-fulfilling prophecy"; course topic 4.1 (essential knowledge 4.1.C.2)
  • Studies of morale in the U.S. Army during World War II found soldiers dissatisfied when they believed their peers were receiving more rewards than they were. Which concept came out of those studies? Answer: Relative deprivation. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "relative deprivation"; course topic 4.1
  • When does the APA Dictionary say the mere-exposure effect tends to be strongest? Answer: When the person is not consciously aware of the repeated presentations. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "mere-exposure effect"; course topic 4.1
  • Which statement about relative deprivation is accurate? Answer: It depends on a comparison standard, not on how much a person has. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "relative deprivation"; course topic 4.1

Topic 4.2: Stereotypes, prejudice and bias 8

  • A man who believes that teenagers are careless drivers rides with several careful teenage drivers and still holds the belief. Which feature of stereotypes does this show? Answer: They resist revision even when individuals do not fit them. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "stereotype"; course topic 4.2
  • A traveler judges every meal abroad by how closely it matches the food at home and calls anything different "wrong". Which bias is this? Answer: Ethnocentrism. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "ethnocentrism"; course topic 4.2
  • At the level of a region, a culture or a nation, what is in-group bias often called? Answer: Ethnocentrism. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "ingroup bias"; course topic 4.2
  • Belief in a just world makes life seem stable and predictable. According to the APA Dictionary, what can the belief cost? Answer: It can lead to blaming an innocent victim. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "just-world hypothesis"; course topic 4.2
  • The course says stereotypes can help reduce cognitive load. What does that mean? Answer: They cut the mental effort that a judgment takes. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "cognitive load" and "stereotype"; course topic 4.2
  • In the APA Dictionary's terms, what are a stereotype, a prejudice and discrimination, in that order? Answer: A set of beliefs, an attitude, a way of treating people. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "stereotype" and "prejudice" and "discrimination"; course topic 4.2
  • On a survey Lee says he has no preference between two neighborhoods, yet a reaction-time task suggests that he favors one. Which attitudes are the survey and the task picking up, in order? Answer: An explicit attitude, then an implicit attitude. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "explicit attitude" and "implicit attitude"; course topic 4.2
  • Out-group homogeneity bias leads people to see which group as the more varied? Answer: Their own group. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "outgroup homogeneity bias"; course topic 4.2

Topic 4.2: Beliefs and attitude change 7

  • A researcher who expects a new study method to work writes down only the sessions in which students improved. Which bias has entered her records? Answer: Confirmation bias. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "confirmation bias"; course topic 4.2
  • According to the course, how are belief perseverance and confirmation bias connected? Answer: People holding on to a belief may use confirmation bias to keep it. Source: College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 4.2, essential knowledge 4.2.B.1
  • The APA Dictionary compares cognitive dissonance to hunger. What is the point of the comparison? Answer: Both are unpleasant states that push a person to reduce them. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "cognitive dissonance"; course topic 4.2
  • Asked to argue in class for a school rule he opposes, Eli gives the speech and afterward finds that he opposes the rule less. What does the APA Dictionary call this shift? Answer: The forced compliance effect. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "forced compliance effect"; course topic 4.2
  • Maya cares about clean air but drives a large truck to work, and the conflict bothers her. Which step would reduce her discomfort by changing an action, not an attitude? Answer: Taking the bus to work. Source: College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 4.2, essential knowledge 4.2.B.2
  • What separates belief perseverance from confirmation bias? Answer: Perseverance keeps a refuted belief; confirmation bias seeks only support. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "belief perseverance" and "confirmation bias"; course topic 4.2
  • Which thought reduces dissonance by making an inconsistent element seem less important? Answer: "Skipping one workout hardly matters in a whole year.". Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "dissonance reduction"; course topic 4.2

Topic 4.3: Norms, persuasion, conformity and obedience 13

  • A fundraiser plans to ask each household for a very large gift and then for a small one. For the plan to work as the door-in-the-face technique, what must happen to the first request? Answer: It must be turned down. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "door-in-the-face technique"; course topic 4.3
  • A viewer who is barely paying attention decides to buy a phone because a favorite athlete holds it in the advertisement. Which route to persuasion is this? Answer: The peripheral route. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "peripheral route to persuasion"; course topic 4.3
  • By the APA Dictionary's account of normative influence, what often happens to members who keep violating a group's norms? Answer: They face ostracism, ridicule or punishment. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "normative influence"; course topic 4.3
  • The elaboration likelihood model sorts persuasion by what? Answer: How much careful thought the audience gives the message. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "elaboration-likelihood model (ELM)"; course topic 4.3 (essential knowledge 4.3.A.3.i)
  • In that obedience study the "learners" were confederates who received no shocks. Which research practice is this, and what does it call for once the study ends? Answer: Deception, followed by debriefing. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "deception" and "debriefing"; course topic 4.3
  • In the Asch situation, who are the confederates? Answer: Group members who give wrong answers on purpose on certain trials. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "Asch situation" and "confederate"; course topic 4.3
  • In the study of obedience carried out in the 1960s and described in the APA Dictionary, what share of participants were completely obedient? Answer: 65%. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "behavioral study of obedience"; course topic 4.3
  • In which situation is informational social influence most likely? Answer: A new employee, unsure how to file a report, copies a veteran coworker. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "informational influence"; course topic 4.3
  • Unlike a statistical average, a social norm carries a judgment. What happens to people who break one and cannot give an acceptable explanation? Answer: They are evaluated negatively. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "social norm"; course topic 4.3
  • What do social norms define, in the course's wording? Answer: The expectations and roles a society has for its members. Source: College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 4.3, essential knowledge 4.3.A.1
  • What do the foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face techniques have in common? Answer: Each uses a first request to win agreement to a second one. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "foot-in-the-door technique" and "door-in-the-face technique"; course topic 4.3
  • What does the Asch situation measure? Answer: How far participants publicly agree with a group judgment that is wrong. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "Asch situation"; course topic 4.3
  • What separates obedience from conformity? Answer: Obedience follows a direct command; conformity matches a group without one. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "obedience" and "conformity"; course topic 4.3

Topic 4.3: Behavior in groups 12

  • A beginner who is still learning a hard piano piece plays it for an audience. By the APA Dictionary's account, what is likely? Answer: Her playing suffers, because the piece is not yet well learned. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "social facilitation"; course topic 4.3
  • A city in which several cultural groups have equal status and each keeps its own identity and customs fits which term? Answer: Multiculturalism. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "multiculturalism"; course topic 4.3
  • An outlook that stresses the individual, personal rights and independence is called what? Answer: Individualism. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "individualism"; course topic 4.3
  • The APA Dictionary proposes diffusion of responsibility as a possible mediator of several group effects. Which list matches it? Answer: The bystander effect, deindividuation and social loafing. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "diffusion of responsibility"; course topic 4.3
  • Asked to describe herself, Ana begins, "I am a daughter and a member of my school's choir." Ben begins, "I am ambitious and independent." Whose answer reflects a collectivist outlook? Answer: Ana's, because she defines herself through her groups. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "collectivism"; course topic 4.3
  • Forty people see smoke coming from a parked car, and each assumes that someone else has already called for help. What explains the delay? Answer: Diffusion of responsibility. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "diffusion of responsibility"; course topic 4.3
  • In a study, students clap as loudly as they can, first alone and then in groups of six, while a meter records each person's loudness. Loudness per person is lower in the groups. What is the independent variable? Answer: Whether a student claps alone or in a group. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "independent variable (IV)" and "social loafing"; course topic 4.3
  • What is the key difference between group polarization and groupthink? Answer: Polarization makes shared views more extreme; groupthink silences doubt to keep agreement. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "group polarization" and "groupthink"; course topic 4.3
  • Which condition makes groupthink more likely? Answer: A close-knit group cut off from outside views. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "groupthink"; course topic 4.3
  • Which of these does the APA Dictionary list as a symptom of groupthink? Answer: Self-censorship. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "groupthink"; course topic 4.3
  • Which two conditions does the APA Dictionary name as causes of deindividuation? Answer: A sense of anonymity and being submerged in a group. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "deindividuation"; course topic 4.3
  • Why do people fall for the false consensus effect, by the APA Dictionary's account? Answer: They want to see their own views as normal and correct. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "false-consensus effect"; course topic 4.3

Topic 4.3: Helping, cooperation and work 10

  • A company hires a psychologist to redesign its hiring interviews and to study why so many night-shift workers quit. Which specialty is this? Answer: Industrial-organizational psychology. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "industrial and organizational psychology (I/O psychology)"; course topic 4.3
  • A passer-by helps a lost child find her parent and expects nothing back, because "you help people who need it". Which norm is she following? Answer: The social responsibility norm. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "social responsibility norm" and "reciprocity norm"; course topic 4.3
  • After two years of heavy caseloads, a social worker feels exhausted, has stopped caring about her results and has turned negative toward her clients. What is this state called? Answer: Burnout. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "burnout"; course topic 4.3
  • Besides diffusion of responsibility, which process does the APA Dictionary say keeps bystanders from helping in an emergency? Answer: Reading other people's calm as a sign that no help is needed. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "bystander effect"; course topic 4.3
  • Each commuter saves a few minutes by driving alone, and together they create a traffic jam that slows everyone. Why is this a social trap? Answer: Acting on self-interest harms the whole group, each driver included. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "social trap"; course topic 4.3 (essential knowledge 4.3.B.5)
  • In the Robbers Cave experiment, what was introduced to reduce the conflict between the two groups of boys? Answer: Emergencies that could be solved only if both groups worked together. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "superordinate goal"; course topic 4.3
  • In which kind of work does the APA Dictionary say burnout is most often observed? Answer: Service-oriented professions with chronic high stress. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "burnout"; course topic 4.3
  • Which act best fits the definition of altruism? Answer: Secretly paying off a stranger's overdue lunch bill. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "altruism"; course topic 4.3
  • Which term covers any behavior that benefits other people, whether or not it is selfless? Answer: Prosocial behavior. Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology, "prosocial"; course topic 4.3
  • Why do some researchers doubt that helping is purely selfless, in the course's account? Answer: People may help because of social debt. Source: College Board, AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, topic 4.3, essential knowledge 4.3.C.1

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the social psychology topics of Unit 4 of the College Board's AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-psychology-course-and-exam-description.pdf, read 2026-10-14: topics 4.1 (Attribution Theory and Person Perception), 4.2 (Attitude Formation and Attitude Change) and 4.3 (Psychology of Social Situations). Each fact was read on 2026-10-14 in the entry of the APA Dictionary of Psychology (American Psychological Association, https://dictionary.apa.org) named under its question, or in the essential knowledge statement of the course description named there. Licence: Own work.

How it works

This AP Psychology social psychology study guide works as a practice test: 67 questions of our own on attribution, attitudes, persuasion, conformity, obedience and group behavior. It is unofficial and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the College Board.

Read the full guide

Where social psychology sits

The College Board's course description, read October 14, 2026, puts social psychology in Unit 4 as Topics 4.1 to 4.3. Seven sets follow them: attributions and explanatory style (10 questions), person perception and social comparison (7), stereotypes, prejudice and bias (8), beliefs and attitude change (7), norms, persuasion, conformity and obedience (13), behavior in groups (12), and helping, cooperation and work (10). The counts are ours.

How this differs from the Unit 4 test

Our Unit 4 practice test gives one scenario for each term. These questions go behind the terms: what limits an effect, how two look-alike ideas differ, what a classic study measured, and which research term fits.

Sources you can open

Each explanation links the APA Dictionary of Psychology entry, or the course description statement, behind its answer.

  • Conformity has no order behind it. Obedience answers a direct command.
  • Foot-in-the-door starts small and gets a yes. Door-in-the-face starts huge and gets a no.
  • Group polarization sharpens what a group already thinks. Groupthink hides what some members doubt.

Questions and answers

What unit is social psychology in AP Psych?

Unit 4, Social Psychology and Personality. Social psychology is its first three topics: 4.1 Attribution Theory and Person Perception, 4.2 Attitude Formation and Attitude Change, and 4.3 Psychology of Social Situations.

What is on an AP Psychology practice test for social psychology?

Attributions and their biases, explanatory style, locus of control, social comparison, stereotypes and implicit attitudes, cognitive dissonance, persuasion, conformity, obedience, group effects such as groupthink and social loafing, helping, and industrial-organizational psychology.

How much of the AP Psychology exam is social psychology?

The College Board gives no figure for a topic. Unit 4, which also holds personality, motivation and emotion, carries 15 to 25% of the 75 multiple-choice questions.

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