•  Describing early psychological and biological inquiries that led to contemporary approaches and methods of experimentation

Example: inquiries of Aristotle, John Locke, Wilhelm Wundt, Charles Darwin, William James, and G. Stanley Hall

•  Comparing current biological, behavioral, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives

Examples: discussing how each perspective explains aggression or appetite, describing limitations of each perspective in assessing human behavior

•  Identifying major subfields and career opportunities related to psychology

Examples: identifying and describing independent and dependent variables, identifying confounding variables, describing control and experimental groups

•  Designing an experiment in which all elements are identified

•  Explaining characteristics of surveys, naturalistic observations, case studies, longitudinal studies, and cross-sectional studies

•  Describing the use of descriptive statistics in evaluating research

Examples: calculation of the mean, median, and mode from a set of data; correlational analysis

Examples: use of computerized axial tomography (CAT), positron-emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and the electroencephalogram (EEG) to provide information on the brain; identification of the neuron as the basis for neural communication; identification of the electrochemical process in neural communication

•  Discussing the role of neurotransmitters in behavior

•  Comparing the effect of drugs and toxins on the brain and neurotransmitters

Example: effect of curare and caffeine on acetylcholine receptors

•  Describing how heredity influences behavior

Examples: differentiating between deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), chromosomes, and genes; identifying effects of chromosomal abnormalities

•  Describing effects of the environment on increased survival rate

•  Explaining the role of sensory systems in human behavior

•  Describing the role of Gestalt principles and concepts in perception

Examples: continuity, proximity, similarity

•  Comparing attention needed for demanding and simple tasks

•  Identifying approach-approach, approach-avoidance, and avoidance-avoidance conflicts

•  Describing possible physiological and psychological reactions to stress

Examples: physiological-fight-or-flight response, general adaptation syndrome (GAS), immune system reactions; psychological-impairment of psychological functioning, sharpening of thought processes

•  Identifying positive and negative strategies for coping with stress

•  Discussing physical, cognitive, and social changes in prenatal, infant, child, and adolescent development

•  Describing the role of the caregiver in promoting child development

•  Outlining the stage theories of Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, Carol Gilligan, and Lawrence Kohlberg

•  Describing the impact of technology on the developmental process

Example: describing effects of media violence

•  Distinguishing between surface and deep processing

•  Identifying problems related to incomplete retrieval

•  Comparing processes of short- and long-term memory

•  Identifying strategies used for improving memory

Examples: mnemonic devices, schemas

Example: contributors-Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike, Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner, John B. Watson

•  Identifying biological limitations on learning

•  Describing cultural and environmental constraints on learning opportunities

•  Discussing effects of conditioned response

Examples: describing steps involved in the problem-solving process, describing current theories of language acquisition, tracing physiological language development

•  Identifying mental images and verbal symbols as elements that comprise thought

•  Discussing the effect of culture on language acquisition

•  Identifying basic units of language

Examples: phonemes, morphemes

Examples: comparing nonrapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, comparing theories explaining why people sleep

•  Comparing theories about the use and meaning of dreams

•  Characterizing major categories of psychoactive drugs and their effects

•  Exploring possible uses for hypnosis

Examples: memory recovery, pain control, psychotherapy

•  Describing situational cues that cause emotions such as fear, anger, curiosity, and anxiety

•  Identifying theories that explain motivational processes

Examples: expectancy value, Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs

•  Discussing the role of biological and cultural factors in the development of motives

•  Describing theories of emotion and cognitive theories

•  Describing universal aspects of emotion

•  Describing how personality and intelligence may be influenced by differences in heredity and environment

•  Linking intelligence to cognitive skills and strategies

•  Describing theories of intelligence including Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory, and the traditional psychometric theory

•  Describing limitations of using conventional intelligence tests to predict performance based on capability

Example: explaining how emotional stability or extroversion is used to describe personality

•  Identifying environmental influences on personality development

•  Describing characteristics of psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, and trait approaches to describing human behavior

•  Identifying important contributors and their theories of personality

Examples: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Karen Horney

•  Distinguishing between objective and projective techniques in personality assessment

•  Identifying patterns of behavior that distinguish normal from abnormal behavior

Examples: cultural context, societal labels, neurobiological imbalances

•  Describing abnormal behavior in terms of observable or reportable symptoms that can be classified as nonpsychotic or psychotic

•  Describing biological, psychological, and sociocultural approaches to explaining mental illness

Example: influence of bias and discrimination

•  Identifying the role of social schemas in perception

•  Identifying methods of changing attitudes

Example: persuasive advertising

•  Describing effects of the presence of others on individual behavior

Examples: encouraging social facilitation, creating the "bystander effect"

•  Describing biomedical, psychoanalytical, and social-learning explanations for aggression

Examples: Sigmund Freud's theory of aggressive instinct, effects of testosterone and other hormones on aggression, effects of modeled aggression on behavior

•  Describing internal and external attributes and their effects on human behavior

Example: effects of actor-observer bias