APA Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the APA exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📋 APA Exam Format at a Glance
📚 APA Topics to Study (23)
✍️ Sample APA Questions & Answers
1. What is 'organizational citizenship behavior' (OCB)?
OCBs are discretionary, extra-role behaviors (e.g., helping colleagues, civic virtue) that are not formally rewarded but contribute to organizational functioning.
2. What distinguishes Bipolar I Disorder from Bipolar II Disorder?
Bipolar I is defined by at least one manic episode (which may be severe enough to require hospitalization), while Bipolar II involves hypomanic episodes that never reach full mania.
3. Which term describes the tendency for raters to give all employees ratings clustered near the midpoint of a scale?
Central tendency error occurs when raters avoid extreme ratings and assign everyone scores near the middle of the scale, reducing the ability to differentiate performance levels.
4. Which neurotransmitter is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system?
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS, reducing neuronal excitability throughout the brain and spinal cord.
5. What is a 'structured interview' and why does it have higher validity than an unstructured interview?
Structured interviews use predetermined, job-relevant questions and standardized rating scales, which reduce subjectivity and biases, significantly increasing their predictive validity over unstructured formats.
6. Action potentials in neurons follow the all-or-none principle, which means:
The all-or-none principle states that a neuron either fires at full strength when threshold is reached or does not fire; stimulus intensity is coded by firing rate, not action potential magnitude.