AP Exams (Advanced Placement) AP Arts and Electives (Art History, Music Theory, Psychology, Economics) Syllabus

AP Arts and Electives (Art History, Music Theory, Psychology, Economics) syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for AP Arts and Electives (Art History, Music Theory, Psychology, Economics) in AP Exams (Advanced Placement), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   AP Art History

   6 topics

   • Global Prehistory and Ancient Mediterranean
   • Early Europe, Colonial Americas, and Islamic Art
   • Asian, African, and Pacific Traditions
   • Later Europe and the Americas (1750-1980)
   • Contemporary and Global Art Since 1980
   • Visual Analysis and Attribution Skills
2. 2

   AP Music Theory

   5 topics

   • Pitch, Scales, and Key Signatures
   • Intervals and Chords
     • Triads and seventh chords
     • Inversions and figured bass
   • Rhythm and Meter
   • Harmony and Voice Leading
     • Part-writing rules
     • Cadences and harmonic progression
   • Aural Skills and Sight-Singing
3. 3

   AP Psychology

   6 topics

   • Biological Bases of Behavior
     • Neurons and the nervous system
     • Brain structures
   • Cognition
     • Memory and learning
     • Thinking and problem solving
   • Developmental and Social Psychology
   • Personality and Motivation
   • Clinical: Disorders and Treatment
     • Diagnosis and classification
     • Therapeutic approaches
   • Research Methods and Statistics
4. 4

   AP Microeconomics

   5 topics

   • Basic Economic Concepts
     • Scarcity and opportunity cost
     • Comparative advantage
   • Supply, Demand, and Elasticity
   • Production, Cost, and Market Structures
     • Perfect competition and monopoly
     • Oligopoly and monopolistic competition
   • Factor Markets
   • Market Failure and the Role of Government
5. 5

   AP Macroeconomics

   5 topics

   • Measuring Economic Performance
     • GDP, inflation, and unemployment
   • Aggregate Demand and Supply
   • Fiscal Policy
   • Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy
     • The Federal Reserve
     • Money market and loanable funds
   • International Trade and Finance

AP Arts and Electives (Art History, Music Theory, Psychology, Economics) flashcards for AP Exams (Advanced Placement)

18 of 53 cards from the AP Arts and Electives (Art History, Music Theory, Psychology, Economics) deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. In art history, what is the 'twisted perspective' (composite view) seen in Paleolithic cave paintings like Lascaux?

   A convention where the animal's body is shown in profile but its horns or hooves are turned to a frontal view, combining the most recognizable angle of each body part in one image.

2. What architectural and artistic innovation distinguishes Classical Greek sculpture (e.g., Doryphoros) from earlier Archaic kouroi?

   Contrapposto—a naturalistic weight shift where the figure stands with most weight on one leg, creating an S-curve and a sense of potential movement, replacing the rigid frontal stance.

3. What are the three Classical Greek architectural orders, distinguished by their columns?

   Doric (plain capital, no base), Ionic (scroll/volute capital), and Corinthian (ornate acanthus-leaf capital).

4. What technique defines Byzantine and Early Christian wall decoration such as in San Vitale, Ravenna?

   Mosaic—images built from small tesserae of colored glass and gold, set on flat gold grounds to create otherworldly, non-illusionistic spiritual imagery.

5. What is the key feature of Islamic religious art that shaped its decorative style?

   Aniconism—the avoidance of figural imagery in religious contexts, leading to emphasis on calligraphy, geometric patterns, and arabesque (vegetal) ornamentation.

6. What painting technique used in the Northern Renaissance (e.g., Jan van Eyck) allowed unprecedented detail and luminosity?

   Oil paint, applied in thin translucent glazes, enabling fine detail, rich color, and realistic light effects compared to fast-drying tempera.

7. In Chinese landscape painting, what philosophy underlies the depiction of vast mountains and tiny human figures?

   Daoism—nature is shown as immense and harmonious, with humans as small parts of the cosmos, often using shifting/atmospheric perspective rather than fixed viewpoint.

8. What is a defining feature of Japanese ukiyo-e prints such as Hokusai's 'Great Wave'?

   Woodblock printing of 'images of the floating world'—flat planes of color, bold outlines, and asymmetrical compositions depicting everyday/popular scenes.

9. What role did African masks (e.g., among the Bwa or Dan) traditionally serve?

   They were performed in masquerades for spiritual, social, and ceremonial functions—embodying ancestors or spirits during ritual, not made primarily as static art objects.

10. What art movement, exemplified by Monet's 'Impression, Sunrise,' emphasized capturing fleeting light and atmosphere with visible brushstrokes?

    Impressionism (1870s France), characterized by plein-air painting, broken color, and ordinary modern-life subjects.

11. What did Picasso and Braque's Analytic Cubism do to the depiction of form?

    It fragmented objects into multiple simultaneous viewpoints rendered as geometric facets on a shallow, near-monochrome picture plane, rejecting single-point perspective.

12. What characterizes Abstract Expressionism, as seen in Jackson Pollock's drip paintings?

    Large-scale, gestural or color-field abstraction emphasizing spontaneous, physical action and the artist's emotional expression (mid-20th-century American movement).

13. In contemporary art since 1980, what is 'appropriation' (e.g., Sherrie Levine, Barbara Kruger)?

    The deliberate reuse of existing images or objects to create new meaning, often to critique authorship, originality, consumerism, or media culture.

14. What is 'installation art' as a contemporary form?

    A three-dimensional, often site-specific work that the viewer enters or moves through, designed to transform the perception of a whole space.

15. When analyzing a painting, what is the difference between 'iconography' and 'composition'?

    Iconography is the study of subject matter and symbolic meaning of images; composition is the arrangement of visual elements (line, shape, space, balance) within the work.

16. What contextual clues help attribute an unsigned artwork to a culture or period?

    Style, materials/technique, iconography, scale, and provenance—comparing formal traits to securely documented works from a given time and place.

17. How many half steps are in a chromatic octave, and what does that imply about enharmonic spelling?

    Twelve half steps; the same pitch can be spelled two ways (e.g., F# = Gb), called enharmonic equivalents.

18. What is the pattern of whole (W) and half (H) steps in a major scale?

    W–W–H–W–W–W–H.

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