AP Psychology — Unit 5: Mental and Physical Health
Practice questions, answers, and key terms for Unit 5, aligned to the College Board CED.
Exam weighting: Unit 5 is 13-17% of the AP Psychology exam.
What AP Psychology Unit 5 covers
The College Board Course and Exam Description breaks Unit 5 into 4 topics:
- 5.1 Introduction to Psychological Disorders
- 5.2 Psychological Disorder Categories
- 5.3 Treatment of Psychological Disorders
- 5.4 Health and Stress
AP Psychology Unit 5 practice questions
Someone stays stressed about a difficult living situation for months. They don't get sick during the stressful period — but two weeks after it finally resolves, they get a bad cold. Why then?
Exhaustion phase of the General Adaptation Syndrome — resources are depleted. Immune suppression is greatest after prolonged stress ends.
A researcher describes three stages: initial shock response, then active coping, then a breakdown if stress persists too long. Which model are they describing — and what are the three stages called?
General Adaptation Syndrome — alarm, resistance, exhaustion. Alarm = fight-flight-freeze, resistance = coping, exhaustion = depleted.
Under extreme stress, some people isolate and fight. Others call their friends and take care of family members. Research finds this second pattern appears more often in women — and a specific hormone seems to drive it. What is this response called?
Tend-and-befriend response — oxytocin-driven nurturing and social bonding under stress. It's observed more often in women.
Student A fails a test and rewrites their notes and makes a study schedule. Student B fails and goes for a long run to clear their head and calls a friend to vent. Both are coping effectively — but how do their strategies differ?
Problem-focused vs. emotion-focused coping. A tackles the stressor directly; B manages the emotional response.
A researcher has one group write down three things they're grateful for each week. After eight weeks, that group reports higher life satisfaction than a control group. Which positive psychology concept is at work?
Gratitude practice — a positive experience that lifts well-being. Expressing gratitude measurably increases subjective well-being.
A person survives a serious car accident and, months later, reports feeling closer to loved ones, more purposeful, and mentally stronger than before the accident. This isn't just survival — what positive psychology concept does it represent?
Post-traumatic growth — positive change after struggling with trauma. It surpasses baseline, unlike resilience, which returns to it.
A meditating monk (atypical but content), a grieving widow (suffering but coping), a man who checks locks 200 times nightly and misses work. Only one trips every clinical criterion for a disorder. Which one — and name the three criteria?
The lock-checker — he hits all three: deviance, distress, and dysfunction. The monk lacks distress and dysfunction; the widow lacks dysfunction.
Talking to yourself while problem-solving is normal. Hearing clear voices that no one else can hear might indicate schizophrenia. Both involve 'hearing' something — so what's the actual line between normal and disordered behavior?
Context, culture, and whether it causes dysfunction or distress. The DSM uses these to distinguish normal variation from disorder.
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Key terms in Unit 5
These 12 terms show up in the Unit 5 cards. Each one links to its definition in the AP Psychology key-term reference.
Drill all of Unit 5 with spaced repetition
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