AP Psychology 5.1: Health Psychology
Practice AP Psychology 5.1 questions on stress, general adaptation syndrome, fight-or-flight, exhaustion, coping, and physical health.
- Syllabus
- Effective Fall 2025
- Course
- AP Psychology
Exam points
- Explain how stress, appraisal and coping responses influence psychological and physical health outcomes.
- Apply stress theories and coping strategies to predict behavior, adaptation and wellbeing in context.
Covered syllabus points
5.1.A—Explain how health psychology addresses issues of physical health and wellness as they apply to behavior and…5.1.B—Explain how stress applies to behavior and mental processes5.1.C—Explain how reactions to stress apply to behavior and mental processes5.1.D—Explain how the ways that people cope with stress applies to behavior and mental processes
5.1 Introduction to Health Psychology question 1
Introduction
In this large-scale health psychology study, researchers gathered data about the relationship between personalities and responses to stress. It is commonly thought that some people respond to stress in more healthy ways than others and that this healthy stress response might be related to differences in personality. This study sought to investigate that claim thoroughly with careful psychological and physiological data collection.
Participants
Data for this study was gathered from the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort. This established database consists of 2,414 men and women who were born in the Netherlands in the 1940s. Participants in this cohort are often asked to provide health and psychological data, which are stored in an anonymous database. Participants sign informed consent each time they provide data to be added to the database, and security measures are in place so that no individual's data can be tied to their name or other identifying information.
352 individuals in the cohort responded to a request from the managers of the database to contribute data about their cortisol and cardiovascular reactions to high levels of psychological stress.
Method
The 352 participants in this current analysis reported to participating hospitals or other health centers to participate in a protocol that involved measuring physiological stress responses while experiencing psychological stress tests. Physiological reactions were assessed in two ways:
- Cortisol levels via saliva samples (higher levels of cortisol indicate high levels of physiological arousal)
- Heart rate measurements (measured through standard blood pressure and heart rate tests)
The stress tests consisted of three tasks:
- Stroop task: A computer-based word-reading task in which the color of the word on the screen interfered with reading the word. Participants were told that they were being timed and that speed was essential. Psychological stress was increased by an auditory alarm that would sound when responses exceeded a designated time limit and/or participants made errors.
- Mirror-tracing task: Participants were directed to trace a star pattern in a mirror image, flipping their visual perception left/right. Participants were again told that speed was important, and an alarm sounded when participants made an error.
- Speech task: A videotape was made of participants giving a speech imagining being accused of committing a crime (being pickpockets). They had 3 minutes to defend themselves and were told that the number of times they repeated themselves and any hesitations would count against them. Participants thought that their persuasiveness would be judged by a team of communication experts.
Earlier in their involvement in the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort, these 352 participants took a version of the Big Five personality test (The Big Five Inventory). This personality test measures personality across five traits: extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism.
All elements of this study were approved by the local medical ethics committee and carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants signed informed consent forms.
Researchers completed analydestrodbuctionr associations between physiological reactions to stress and personality traits.
The table below includes data about physiological reaction to the stressful information. These findings indicate that the stressful situations included in the study did indeed raise participants' physiological stress levels.
The main analysis in this study consisted of checking relationships between high or low levels of each of the Big Five personality traits and physiological reaction to stress. The most important findings were uncovered regarding one of the Big Five personality traits: neuroticism.
Figure 1: Neuroticism Scores and Cortisol Levels
Figure 1 shows a relationship between neuroticism levels and physiological reaction to stress. The r-value for this relationship is r= -0.5.
Adapted from Bibbey, A., Carroll, D., Roseboom, T. J., Phillips, A. C., \& de Rooij, S. R. (2013). Personality and physiological reactions to acute psychological stress. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 90, 28-36. 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.10.018
Explain how at least one of the research findings supports or refutes the researchers' hypothesis that there is a relationship between personality and physiological reaction to stress.
5.1 Introduction to Health Psychology question 2
A survey was conducted to determine the state of the physical and psychological health of high school students.
Part A
Some of the survey questions related to student stress levels and student absences due to illness. The data on
these variables are displayed below.
- What is the most appropriate conclusion that can be drawn based on the figure above?
- Explain how the data depicted in the graph are consistent with the exhaustion stage of the general
adaptation syndrome.
experiment. Explain one reason that an institutional review board (IRB) might not approve this new
study.
Explain how the data depicted in the graph are consistent with the exhaustion stage of the general
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