Question 1Select one
Most textbooks date the beginning of psychology as a separate science to 1879. What happened that year?
Intro psychology credit exam prep
The CLEP Introductory Psychology exam
About 95 five-option questions in 90 minutes, a little under a minute each, on what a one-semester intro psychology course teaches. Some questions are unscored pretest questions, and you cannot tell which.
| Topic | Share | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| History, Approaches, and Methods | 11–12% | History of psychology; biological, biopsychosocial, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic and psychodynamic approaches; experimental, clinical and correlational methods; research ethics |
| Biological Bases of Behavior | 8–9% | Endocrine system, etiology, the nervous system, genetics, neuroanatomy, physiological techniques |
| Sensation and Perception | 7–8% | Attention, the senses, perceptual development and processes, vision and hearing, thresholds and adaptation |
| States of Consciousness | 5–6% | Hypnosis and meditation, psychoactive drugs, sleep and dreaming |
| Learning | 8–9% | Biological bases, classical and operant conditioning, cognitive and observational learning |
| Cognition | 8–9% | Intelligence and creativity, language, memory, thinking and problem solving |
| Motivation and Emotion | 5–6% | Biological bases; hunger, thirst, sex and pain; social motivation; theories of emotion and motivation |
| Developmental Psychology Across the Lifespan | 8–9% | Physical, cognitive, social and moral development; gender; heredity and environment; longitudinal and cross-sectional research; theories |
| Personality | 7–8% | Assessment, growth and adjustment, theories, self-concept and self-esteem |
| Psychological Disorders and Health | 8–9% | Mood, anxiety, dissociative, eating, personality and psychotic disorders; somatic symptoms; stress and coping; theories |
| Treatment of Psychological Disorders | 6–7% | Behavioral, biological, cognitive, community and insight therapies |
| Social Psychology | 9–10% | Aggression, attitudes, attribution, conformity and obedience, groups, attraction, prejudice and helping |
| Statistics, Tests, and Measurement | 3–4% | Descriptive and inferential statistics, intelligence testing, reliability and validity, samples and norms, types of tests |
| Questions | About 95, five options each |
|---|---|
| Time | 90 minutes |
| Exam fee | US$97, plus any test center or remote proctoring fee |
| Terminology | DSM-5 |
What the questions ask
- Knowing terms, principles and theories, such as which neurotransmitter or which theorist.
- Reading a short situation and naming what is going on, such as a schedule of reinforcement or a defense mechanism.
- Applying an idea to something new, such as which study design answers a question.
How to use the topic shares
History and methods and social psychology together are about a fifth of the exam, while statistics is only 3–4%. Spend study time in proportion, but do not skip a topic: every one appears.
Try 2 questions
Question 2Select one
Antianxiety drugs such as benzodiazepines produce calm and drowsiness by boosting the effect of the brain's main inhibitory neurotransmitter. That neurotransmitter is
Next step
Questions people ask
How many questions are on the CLEP Introductory Psychology exam?
About 95, to answer in 90 minutes. Some are pretest questions that are not scored.
What edition of the DSM does the exam use?
College Board says the questions follow the terminology, criteria and classifications of the DSM-5.
What score do I need for credit?
Scores run from 20 to 80. The American Council on Education recommends a credit-granting score of 50, worth 3 semester hours, for Introductory Psychology, but each college sets its own score and the credit it gives, so check your college's CLEP policy.