AP Psychology: Motivation and Emotion — Drill 24

About This Drill

AP Psychology: Motivation and Emotion — Drill 24 is a Multiple Choice practice drill covering Unit 4: Social Psychology and Personality. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

AP Psychology practice questions on motivation and emotion, covering drive-reduction theory, arousal theory, Maslow's hierarchy, the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, and Schachter-Singer theories of emotion, and the facial feedback hypothesis. Five AP exam prep questions with research design and data interpretation components.

Questions in This Drill

1. During a hiking trip, Daniel steps on what he initially thinks is a snake. His heart races, he feels his muscles tense, and almost simultaneously he becomes aware of feeling intense fear. He then realizes the "snake" was a coiled rope. According to the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, which of the following best describes what occurred?
2. A researcher wants to test whether physiological arousal alone, without cognitive interpretation, is sufficient to produce a specific emotion like anger or joy. Participants are injected with epinephrine (which produces arousal) and then placed in either a room with a confederate acting euphorically or a room with a confederate acting irritably. This design most directly tests:
3. Maya is preparing for a high-stakes music recital. In the weeks leading up to the performance, she reports feeling low motivation and often skips practice. A performance psychologist suggests that, according to arousal theory, Maya's current arousal level may be too low for optimal performance on her task. Which concept best supports this interpretation?
4. Suppose a researcher designs an experiment in which participants are asked to hold a pencil in a way that contracts the muscles typically involved in smiling, while a control group holds the pencil in a way that prevents those muscles from contracting. Both groups rate the same set of cartoons for humor. If participants in the first group rate the cartoons as funnier on average, this result would provide evidence for:
5. A study measures two variables across 100 college students over a semester: (1) hours spent engaging in a self-selected hobby, and (2) self-reported well-being. The correlation between hobby time and well-being is r = 0.42. A second study offers students a cash payment for every hour spent on their hobby and finds that, over the following month, average hobby time decreases. Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the combined results?