AP Psychology Final Project

I. Proposal
1. Form a group up to, but no more than 4 people.
2. Find some questions about human behavior that interest your group.
3. Decide as a group on a focal behavior to study scientifically. Research previous studies on this
topic to help generate ideas. You may also replicate an earlier study or experiment.
4. Seek topic approval from the instructor before proceeding to the next step. No two groups in the
same class may have the same topic.
II. Hypothesis and Methodology
1. Generate some hypotheses about your focal behavior.
2. Decide if your project will be a descriptive study, correlation study, or an experiment.
3. Provide an operational definition.
Explain your terms, variables, and correlation factors and tell how you defined them.

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If your project is an experiment, you need to identify the independent variable and
dependent variable.
Explain how you will get your sample and how you will control for experimenters bias.
Explain your specific procedures.
Tell exactly when, where, and how you will conduct your study.
Plan how you will collect the data.
Seek approval from the instructor before proceeding to the next step.

III. Data Collection and Analysis

1. Note any problems and mistakes and how you worked to correct them. Tell about any
confounding variables that you didnt control for or that you tried to control for.
Talk about surprises that you encountered.
2. Submit raw data and present your statistics in graph form (descriptive statistics). Tell what your
numbers indicate (inferential statistics).
IV. Conclusion
1. Tell what your findings show about your original hypothesis. Is it valid?
2. Explain if your findings are reliable and if other researchers could replicate your study.
3. Explain how your findings could be used to explain and predict behavior.
All groups should submit a typed written description of their study addressing the above
questions following the headings II-IV.
IV. Presentation
1.

All presentations should be in the form of a creative, dynamic video 3-7 minutes in length. The
video may be edited original footage of your research or a recreation of the key ideas.

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II.

Proposal
Form a group up to, but no more than 4 people.
Decide on a psychological disorder your group would like to study in depth. No two groups may
study the same disorder in any given class.
Research

1. Research your disorder, including recent scientific studies examining the causes, symptoms, and
treatment of the disorder and any appropriate case studies. Summarize on interesting case study.
III.

Analysis
1. Provide an explanation of the disorder from any TWO of the following schools:
psychodynamic (Freudian) humanist, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, socio-cultural,
evolutionary, and biological.

2. Explain how any TWO of the following schools may provide treatment: psychoanalytic (Freudian
or neo-Freudian), humanist, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and biological/medical. Be specific
in explaining a specific treatment reflecting the ideas of that school.
All groups should submit a typed written report addressing the questions above
IV. Presentation

1. Analyze one fictional character in literature, movies, or television depicted with this disorder. Be
sure to gain approval regarding the scene you want to show. Do you think this is a good portrayal
of the disorder? Explain why or why not. All presentations should be less than 10 minutes.

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