AP Psychology: Positive Psychology (Drill 26)

Question 1. Luis coaches youth soccer on weekends. When he is coaching, he loses track of time, feels deeply absorbed in the moment, and is working at a level that pushes his skills without overwhelming him. Afterward he describes the experience as effortless and energizing. Which psychological construct best describes what Luis is experiencing?

• A) Intrinsic motivation
• B) Flow ✓
• C) Hedonic adaptation
• D) Self-efficacy

Explanation: Csikszentmihalyi's concept of flow specifically describes the state Luis is in, full absorption, loss of time awareness, and a match between challenge level and skill level that makes the activity feel effortless. (A) is the true-but-irrelevant distractor: Luis probably is intrinsically motivated to coach, but intrinsic motivation just means doing something for its own sake rather than for external reward; it does not capture the specific absorbed, time-distorted experience the question describes. (D) refers to belief in one's ability to succeed at a task, which is related but is a belief, not an in-the-moment experience. [Practice 1]

Question 2. After winning a large cash prize, Ana feels intensely happy for several weeks. Six months later, however, her day-to-day happiness has returned to roughly the same level it was before she won. Which positive psychology concept best explains this pattern?

• A) The Yerkes-Dodson law
• B) Learned optimism
• C) Hedonic adaptation ✓
• D) Broaden-and-build theory

Explanation: Ana's pattern, a sharp spike in happiness followed by a return to her prior baseline, is the textbook definition of hedonic adaptation (sometimes called the hedonic treadmill), in which people tend to drift back toward a set level of subjective well-being after major positive or negative events. (A) describes the relationship between arousal and performance and has nothing to do with long-term happiness trajectories. (B) refers to Seligman's idea that optimistic explanatory style can be developed, which is not what is happening here. (D) is a true-but-irrelevant distractor; Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory is a real positive psychology framework about how positive emotions expand thought-action repertoires, but it does not predict the specific return-to-baseline pattern described. [Practice 1]

Question 3. A researcher randomly assigns 120 adults to one of three groups for four weeks. Group 1 writes nightly about three good things that happened that day. Group 2 writes nightly about daily hassles. Group 3 writes nightly about neutral events. All participants complete the same validated life-satisfaction questionnaire before and after the four weeks. Which of the following is the strongest reason this design allows the researcher to make a causal claim about gratitude journaling?

• A) The sample size is large enough to generalize to the wider population.
• B) The life-satisfaction questionnaire has been validated in previous research.
• C) Participants were randomly assigned to conditions, which controls for preexisting differences between groups. ✓
• D) The study uses a pre-test and post-test, which eliminates all confounding variables.

Explanation: Random assignment is the specific feature that allows a causal inference; it distributes preexisting differences (mood baseline, personality, life circumstances) roughly evenly across groups, so any post-study difference can be attributed to the writing condition rather than to who ended up in which group. (A) concerns generalizability, not causality, a large sample without random assignment still cannot support causal claims. (B) is the true-but-irrelevant distractor: a validated questionnaire matters for measurement quality, but validity of the DV does not by itself justify a causal claim. (D) overstates what pre-post measurement does; pre-post testing helps track change but does not eliminate all confounds, especially in a between-groups design. [Practice 2]

Question 4. A researcher surveys 500 adults, asking each to rate life satisfaction on a 1–10 scale and to report how often per week they perform acts of kindness for others. The results are summarized below.

Acts of kindness per week	Mean life-satisfaction rating
0–1	5.8
2–4	6.7
5–7	7.5
8+	7.6

Which statement is most strongly supported by the data?

• A) Performing more acts of kindness causes higher life satisfaction.
• B) Life satisfaction is positively associated with frequency of kind acts, but the relationship appears to level off at higher frequencies. ✓
• C) There is no meaningful relationship between acts of kindness and life satisfaction in this sample.
• D) People high in life satisfaction are genetically predisposed to perform more kind acts.

Explanation: The table shows life-satisfaction ratings rising steadily from 5.8 to 7.5 as kindness frequency increases, then nearly flattening between the 5–7 and 8+ groups, that is a positive association with a plateau, which is what (B) describes. (A) overreaches because this is a correlational survey with no manipulation or random assignment, so causation cannot be inferred. (C) contradicts the visible upward trend across most of the table. (D) is the true-but-irrelevant distractor; there really is a heritable component to well-being in the broader research literature, but the data in this specific table contain no genetic information and cannot support that claim. [Practice 3]

Question 5. Dr. Chen studies employees who survived a serious workplace accident. One year later, some report nightmares, intrusive memories, and avoidance of the work site. Others, however, report increased appreciation for life, deeper relationships, and a stronger sense of personal meaning since the accident. Which of the following most accurately describes what Dr. Chen is observing in the second group?

• A) Hedonic adaptation, in which people return to baseline happiness after a major life event
• B) Learned helplessness, produced by uncontrollable negative events
• C) The same symptom pattern seen in post-traumatic stress disorder, just described in positive language in this clinical example
• D) Posttraumatic growth, a pattern of positive psychological change that some people report following adversity ✓

Explanation: Posttraumatic growth describes exactly what the second group is reporting, positive changes in outlook, relationships, and sense of meaning following a traumatic event, and it is a distinct phenomenon from PTSD, not a relabeling of it. (C) is a common misconception that PTG and PTSD are the same thing; they can co-occur, but they are separate outcomes with different features. (B) reverses the emotional direction entirely and applies to a different paradigm (Seligman's early work). (A) is the true-but-irrelevant distractor: hedonic adaptation is a real and important positive-psychology concept, but it predicts a return to baseline, not the lasting upward shift in meaning and relationships that posttraumatic growth describes. [Practice 1]