Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Psychopathology Paper Essay Example for Free

Psychopathology Paper Essay Over the  years,  scientists and mental health professionals have made great strides in the treatment of psychological disorders. For example, advances in psychopharmacology have led to the development of drugs that relieve severe symptoms of mental illness. Clinical psychology  is dedicated to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illnesses and other emotional or behavioral disorders. More psychologists work in this field than in any other branch of psychology. In hospitals, community clinics, schools, and in private practice, they use interviews and tests to diagnose depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses. People with these psychological disorders often suffer terribly. They experience disturbing symptoms that make it difficult for them to work, relate to others, and cope with the demands of everyday life.    Clinical psychologists usually cannot prescribe drugs, but they often work in collaboration with a patient’s physician. Drug treatment is often combined with psychotherapy, a form of intervention that relies primarily on verbal communication to treat emotional or behavioral problems. Over the years, psychologists have developed many different forms of psychotherapy. Some forms, such as psychoanalysis, focus on resolving internal, unconscious conflicts stemming from childhood and past experiences. Other forms, such as cognitive and behavioral therapies, focus more on the person’s current level of functioning and try to help the individual change distressing thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.    The field  of  counseling psychology is closely related to clinical psychology. Counseling psychologists may treat mental disorders, but they more commonly treat people with less-severe adjustment problems related to marriage, family, school, or career. Many other types of professionals care for and treat people with psychological disorders, including psychiatrists, psychiatric social workers, and psychiatric nurses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As a psychiatric health nurse we works closely with other disciplines to arrive at the most appropriate plan of care for the client and the family. The physician’s responsibility is to make a medical diagnosis when there is sufficient support to determine that a psychiatric problem is present. The taxonomy used to make the medical diagnosis is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, commonly called the DSM-III-R of the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM-III-R uses a biopsychosocial perspective but is considered atheoretical, so that it can be readily accepted and used by all who diagnose the psychiatric client. The nurse assists the process by sharing important information about the client from the nursing history, mental status assessment, and daily observations. A working knowledge of the DSM-III-R is important in maximizing the team effort to help the client. Knowledge of the criteria will help the nurse for deciding on a particular medical diagnosis found in the DSM III-R may help the nurse in making a clinical condition about a nursing diagnosis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The DSM-III-R is a multiaxial system. The diagnostic criteria are inclusive for each diagnosis and allow room for individual differences within a pattern of behavior by including phrases such as â€Å"at least one of the following† or ‘for at least 6 months†. Five axes constitute the format for a complete psychiatric diagnosis. A five digit coding system is used for the first three axes. Axis I comprises the major mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar illness, and substance abuse disorders. A disorder of this nature is usually the main reason the client is seeking help. On the other hand, Axis II comprises the personality disorders and developmental disorders such as paranoid personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. This axis separates the patterns of lifestyle and coping that have developed from childhood from the more acute manifestation of behavior in the major mental disorders. Axis III indicates the related physical disorders and conditions that may be influencing the client’s response to the psychiatric problems such fro example, asthma, gastric ulcer, or diabetes. Axis IV indicates the severity of the psychosocial stressors over the past year such as anticipated retirement, natural disaster and change in residence with loss of contact with friends. The Axis V represents the global assessment functioning (GAF) both currently and over the preceding year.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   So how does Axis I differ from Axis II? Now let’s try to compare and contrast their similarities as well as their differences. Under Class A Axis II are the personality disorders; paranoid personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder. Personality is vital to defining who we are as individuals. It involves a unique blend of traits—including attitudes, thoughts, behaviors, and moods—as well as how we express these traits in our contacts with other people and the world around us. Some characteristics of an individual’s personality are inherited, and some are shaped by life events and experiences. A personality disorder can develop if certain personality traits become too rigid and inflexible. People with personality disorders have long-standing patterns of thinking and acting that differ from what society considers usual or normal. The inflexibility of their personality can cause great distress, and can interfere with many areas of life, including social and work functioning. People with personality disorders generally also have poor coping skills and difficulty forming healthy relationships. Unlike people with anxiety disorders, who know they have a problem but are unable to control it, people with personality disorders generally are not aware that they have a problem and do not believe they have anything to control. Because they do not believe they have a disorder, people with personality disorders often do not seek treatment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A paranoid personality disorder applies to a person who displays pervasive and long-standing suspiciousness. This suspicious pattern affects perceptual, cognitive, affective and behavioral functions in specific ways. In person’s with paranoid personalities, perception is extremely acute, intense and narrowly focused in search of clues or the real meaning behind other’s behavior or life events in general. In a cognitive side, the great perceptual distortion is present in paranoid personality. Cognitive disturbances may range from transient ideas of reference, in which a person believe others are giving them special attention or gossiping about them unlike Manic disorder the client is easy going and friendly. The paranoid person’s affective domain reflects a lack of basic trust, extreme suspiciousness, vigilant mistrust, guardedness and hostility. Typically, paranoid person assume a callous, unsympathetic approach to others in an effort to purge themselves of any tendencies to experience humor or affectionate and tender feelings.   For the most part, they remain coldly reserved and on the periphery of events, seldom mixing smoothly with people in social situation, remaining withdrawn, distant and secretive instead.   Rarely do they seem relaxed and unguarded. Unlike with Axis I manic bipolar disorder, Manic clients are self-satisfied, confident and aggressive and feel on top of the world and in control of their destinies, paranoid patient are reserved type while manic is transparent, the manic clients remarks are very similar to free associations, disorganized and incoherent. Manic client is full of ambitious schemes and exaggerations while a paranoid person often engages in verbal interchanges designed to test others honesty. The content of their verbalization usually reflects themes of blame, deceit, control, persecution and self-aggrandizement. Similarities of manic and paranoid personality disorder are that they appear hypervigilant, mobilized and prepared for attack.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Socially detached, shy and introverted persons may be described as having schizoid personality disorder while Schizophrenia is psychotic disorder characterized by disturbances in thought, perception, affect, behavior and communication lasting longer than 6 months. Schizoid refers to persons exhibiting perceptual, cognitive, affective and behavioral patterns that fall within the healthier end of the schizophrenic spectrum. This personality disorder differs from schizotypal personality disorder in that the latter’s symptomatology more closely resembles schizophrenia. In contrast to both schizotypals and schizophrenics, schizoid personalities do not demonstrate odd or eccentric perceptual, cognitive and behavioral patterns.   Persons with schizoid personalities exhibit a distorted pattern of perception, characterized by a reduced ability to attend, select, differentiate and discriminate adequately between and among interpersonal and social sensory inputs while the perception of Depressive disorder clients may be distorted too because of their intense affective states. They perceive the world as strange and unnatural. For instance, a client with deep guilt feelings may interpret the sound of wind in the trees as reproaching voices (illusion) the severely depressed client may less frequently experience hallucinations. Auditory hallucination may be present such as a client may hear voices blaming her or telling her that she is worthless. Illusion and hallucination do not occur in Schizoid personality disorder. They are able to recognize reality despite their faulty interpersonal or social perception. Schizotypal personality disorder is one of a group of conditions called eccentric personality disorders. People with these disorders often appear odd or peculiar. They might display unusual thinking patterns, behaviors, or appearances. People with schizotypal personality disorder might have odd beliefs or superstitions. These individuals are unable to form close relationships and tend to distort reality. In this respect, schizotypal personality disorder can seem like a mild form of schizophrenia—a serious brain disorder that distorts the way a person thinks, acts, expresses emotions, perceives reality, and relates to others. In rare cases, people with schizotypal personality disorder can eventually develop schizophrenia. Additional traits of people with this disorder include the following; dressing, speaking, or acting in an odd or peculiar way, being suspicious and paranoid, being uncomfortable or anxious in social situations because of their distrust of others, having few friends and being extremely uncomfortable with intimacy, tending to misinterpret reality or to have distorted perceptions (for example, mistaking noises for voices), having odd beliefs or magical thinking (for example, being overly superstitious or thinking of themselves as psychic), Being preoccupied with fantasy and daydreaming, tending to be stiff and awkward when relating to others, coming across as emotionally distant, aloof, or cold. Hallucination, and illusion may not be present in schizotypal personality disorder but it is always present in Schizophrenia. There is lack deterioration of functioning in schizopherenia while their no huge deterioration is schizotypal personality, they are also in touch with reality and they are aware of their eccentricities and their deterioration is occurring within a time frame while Schizophrenia is usually diagnosed in people  aged 17-35 years, delusions, false personal beliefs held with conviction in spite of reason or evidence to the contrary, not explained by  that persons cultural context  is present. Their is hallucinations,  perceptions (can be  sound, sight, touch, smell, or taste) that occur in the absence of an actual external stimulus  (Auditory hallucinations, those of voice or other sounds,  are the most common type of hallucinations  in schizophrenia, disorganized, thoughts and behaviors, disorganized speech, catatonic behavior are also manifested. Literature Cited: Million, Theodore Davis Roger. (1996). Disorders of Personality: DSM IV and Beyond. Published by Wiley. Kaplan, Harold, M.D Saddock, Benjamin, M.D. (1990). Modern Synopsis of Psychiatry. Maryland USA. The Williams and Wilkins Company Introduction to Personality Disorder. Capella University. Retrieved March 11, 2008 from http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/center_index.php?id=8 Personality Disorder. MayoClinic.com. Retrieved March 11, 2008 from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/personality-disorders/DS00562/DSECTION=2 Schizophrenia. PSY web. Retrieved March 11, 2008 from http://psyweb.com/Mdisord/jsp/schid.jsp About Clinical Psychology. American Psychological Association. Retrieved March 13,2008 from http://www.apa.org/divisions/div12/aboutcp.html

Monday, January 20, 2020

Henry James And the Art Of Fiction :: essays research papers

â€Å"The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.† Stated Henry James in â€Å"The Art of Fiction† page 437. I agree with Mr. James that feelings and ambitions formed in characters do represent life. The idea of characters and how real they should is represented in page 440. Characters, in my opinion, form the novel itself. It is the characters and incidents corresponding in a novel, which make a good one. There are two kinds of characters: the round character, and the flat character. The round one has contradictions and develops with the progress of the novel. The flat character does not change; if it is good then that is the way it will stay, or if it is bad it will also stay as it is with no progress in it. There are as well minor characters, which are there to help the novel to develop, and make incidents more reasonable. Characters form actions, in my opinion, and actions form the incidents of a novel. In page 438, Mr. James stated that â€Å"the action of men† is â€Å"the task† of writers. It is not only important to show characters’ feelings, but also to see them in action. A novel I would refer to that may get to be the opposite of that statement would be To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. The novel does not have much action, but shows a lot of inner thoughts and feelings of the characters. The time passes by slowly at the beginning of the novel, which may make you feel dull. The story still is a genius one. These form of novels are called â€Å"the stream of consciousness†, and its form goes by hearing characters’ thoughts and their inner emotions. Mr. James prefers, as I interpret, that a novel should have characters combined with the actions they go through. I agree with him, since I find much pleasure in reading such works of fiction. That is of course my own taste, and not my own opinion, since an opinion should be objective. In conclusion, life can be seen in characters, which are in action. Also in corresponding of incidents that can be thought to be logical. If any work of fiction has logical events, and can be taken to be true, then it is a successful one. Any novel does not have to be only a copy of real life.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

The Federal Minimum Wage

The federal minimum wage is a hotly debated topic and a main point that invariably separates the beliefs of the Democratic Party platform from the Republican Party platform. Today's federal minimum wage is $7.25 (Jamieson, 2018). The federal minimum wage is determined by the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), and has not been adjusted from a $7.25 hourly wage since July of 2009. Because of the lack of advancement, many states have developed their own methods for determining minimum wage, but federally, any addition or subtraction must first pass directly through the FLSA (United States Department of Labor, 2018). States determine their minimum wage by analyzing their costs of living which differs depending on location, and analyzing their GDP (gross domestic product) per capita (Stoll, 2014). For example, the minimum wage in Montana as of January 1, 2018 is $8.30 per hour whereas in Massachusetts, where the cost of living is greatly increased, the hourly minimum wage is $11.00. There are 29 states that have an increased minimum wage adjusted specifically to the state's cost of living. The wages in these states range from $7.50 to $12.50 per hour (United States Department of Labor, 2018). Even though many states already increase their minimum wage many people living in the United States claim that the federal minimum wage is entirely too low. The preponderance of evidence suggests that increasing the federal minimum wage would have little effect on poverty and would in time reduce job security and increase unemployment. Other factors that could potentially be affected by an increase in the federal minimum wage include consumer prices, suppressed wages for higher skilled workers, and an increase in outsourcing. Prior to the 2016 election the Democratic Party platform was updated and members decided to adopt a $15 per hour minimum wage. They claim that $15 an hour is the only way that American workers can survive and support their families. The push towards an increase in federal minimum wage began in New York City four years ago when a group of fast-food workers went on strike. The movement caught the attention of many popular political figures and eventually the members grouped together to form the #fightfor15 movement (Seitz-Wald, 2016). Experts that claim the federal minimum wage is not sufficient to support a family and live comfortably argue that an increase to the federal minimum wage would provide an â€Å"important lift† to over 2.2 million people in the United States (Lu, 2017). Usually these experts begin their arguments stating that the federal minimum wage real amounts have eroded nearly 25% since 1968 (Scott & Perez, 2017). The federal minimum wage amounts to only $15,080 annually for full time employment. $15,080 is such a low annual income, experts predict that it is one of the main reasons why living standards have declined nationwide. This number may also contribute to the decline in economic stability, and the shrinking middle class (Lu, 2017). On a national level, supporters of the minimum wage increase provide data that proves the federal minimum wage should be at least $12.00 per hour based on the United States' GDP. A poll taken by The Economist reports that over 1.3 million people work at minimum wage, and nearly 1.7 million work below it, thus meaning these employees are not paid hourly rather are tipped employees (Komlos, 2015). Many people would associate a push for minimum wage strictly with larger cities and areas where the cost of living is significantly above average, however even in Montana, a republican dominated state, many citizens still are pushing for a higher minimum wage. Swartz, a home care worker residing in Great Falls, Montana claims that the amount she makes working for three caregiving agencies is simply not enough to support herself comfortably. The three agencies all pay over both the federal minimum wage and Montana's state minimum wage but due to the inconsistency of job hours she claims that making ends meet every month can be a difficult task. Swartz claims that typically some parts of low-wage workers are â€Å"overlooked†. People who do not make low wages and are not forced to work 70+ hour work weeks do not understand the struggle. Swartz also states that â€Å"Home-care workers, who help people stay in their homes and live with dignity, deserve a $15-an-hour minimum wage.† Attached to Swartz's article is a report published by The Alliance for a Just Society, which claims that the living wage in Montana is $14.36 an hour for a single person with no dependents. Montana determines their state minimum wage using the Consumer Price Index, and updates it annually according to the index. Still however, 3,329 Montana employees earn minimum wage which makes up about 1.2% of the entire workforce. Over half of Montana's minimum wage workers are older than 25 and over 60% are women (Jay, 2016). Beginning January 1, 2018 Montana again raised its minimum wage standard to $8.30 per hour. Governor Steve Bullock addressed the issue in an email that read â€Å"People who work full time for a living shouldn't be living in poverty. This modest increase in minimum wage means more Montana workers will have a little extra money in their pockets,† The workers who Bullock may have been addressing include workers in the accommodations and food industry and also the retail trade industry who are recurrently the largest number of workers that receive minimum wage (Tribune Capital Bureau, 2017). On the contrary, many experts counterclaim that an increase in minimum wage is not the extreme â€Å"poverty tool† that the Democratic Party is hoping for. In fact, one of the biggest arguments against raising minimum wage is the idea of individual states already taking care of the low wage issue. As stated previously Montana, is one of 29 states that already adopted a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage, and many experts believe that if states were to adjust their incomes according to their cost of living, etc. that would be better fitting rather than adjusting the entire nation's minimum wage. Dr. Simon Johnson, MIT Sloan expert, claims that raising the federal minimum wage would actually have unintended consequences, in the sense of reducing hiring and potentially increasing unemployment. He states â€Å"It is unlikely that states with lower living costs would be able to support a $15 per hour minimum wage increase, while keeping hiring processes and current employment rates the same.† He proposes a gradual, stepwise increase to the minimum wage that would occur over time. A drastic increase to $15 per hour would be too abrupt and would have career-changing consequences. A study completed by Harvard's Economic Department points out that most minimum wage earners are second or third job holders in households with other income sources. This could include teenagers, summer employees, etc. Another group that comes to mind when thinking about minimum wage workers is retirees who already receive financial benefits from savings and social security. It is unlikely that an increase in minimum wage would truly benefit the nation, simply because some people working for minimum wage are not attempting to support dependents or themselves entirely. Usually, they are people who are looking for a little extra money rather than needing money to pay for utilities, a house, a car, etc. An even more concerning drawback of raising minimum wage is the elimination of jobs. If the United States government were to demand businesses to pay entry-level workers $15 an hour there would be a huge decrease in job security and job availability. Because, most businesses do not pay entry-level workers at this wage, if they were required to do so, they may attempt to find other means of labor including robots, computers, or other advanced technology. In fact, the Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that former President Obama's proposed $10.10 minimum wage, once fully implemented and in use, â€Å"would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers.† Below is a political cartoon that shows the adverse effects of raising the current minimum wage. Although, many low-wage workers support and advocate for the idea of earning a $15 per hour wage, its effects could actually be deteriorating. Statistics show that raising the federal minimum wage to $15.00 per hour the United States risks eliminating roughly 550,000 part-time jobs and even if the minimum wage was raised to only $9.50 per hour nearly 1.3 million jobs could be lost. Previously, the United States has raised the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25, and adversely only 15 percent of the workers who were expected to gain from it lived in poor households. If the minimum wage today were to be raised to $9.50 per hour, only 11 percent of current minimum wage workers living in poverty would gain from this increase. In 2012, a study completed by the Wilson Review claims that both state and federal minimum wage increases between 2003 and 2007 had no effect on state poverty rates. Thus, proving the idea that increasing minimum wage does not provide a tool for lowering poverty levels. David Neumark and William Wascher performed over 100 minimum wage studies and found that about two-thirds of the studies had negative effects on unemployment. Thus, meaning that with an increase in minimum wage business owners and corporations would be forced to decrease their labor force and potentially cut long-time in employees in order to compensate for the wage increase. Half of the country's workforce is employed by small businesses. Raising the federal minimum wage is often cast largely as a necessity to ensure that many workers are able to earn a decent living, but in reality it's a complex issue. An example of this complexity has occurred in Oakland California in March of 2015 after they increased their statewide minimum wage by 36%, from $9.00 to $12.25 per hour. The effects are varying but some restaurants have raised their food pricing by nearly 20%, or adding a mandatory service charge and doing away with voluntary tips. The issue, business owners recognize and are working hard to resolve is finding the balance between paying a decent wage and keeping customers rather than driving them away. Some people claim that aside from the direct cost of doing business from salaries, they are also paying more for goods and services in their own communities. They question whether or not a higher wage will raise the cost of living for all employees, including those who currently earn a high-wage. Critics who are against raising the minimum wage also claim that if every entry-level worker was paid $15 an hour to begin with, many would lose incentive to get an education and move up to a higher-paying jobs. Ira Stoll, a minimum wage evaluator, states that † The lower the minimum wage, the more eager a minimum wage worker would be to enroll in a community college course at night, improve his/her skills, and apply for a higher-paying job.† Stoll also states that, â€Å"Making the entry-level jobs higher paying increases the risk that workers will get stuck in them for longer instead of moving on to something more rewarding. â€Å"Another point that many supporters fail to bring about is the idea of freedom of contract. This freedom is not directly protected by the constitution, but it as seen as a â€Å"natural right† and should be exercised. President Kennedy once said â€Å"The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. † Thus, meaning that if two free people want to enter into a voluntary contract or agreement that does not infringe on anyone else's rights or wellbeing the government has no right to step in and stop the deal that is being made. Experts use the idea of freedom of contract to prove that the government should not be involved in every contract made between two people. If a man wants to work for another for $5 an hour, and the other man wants to hire him and pay him $5 an hour than the government should have no authority to infringe on this deal. Raising the federal minimum wage would also affect welfare spending and could potentially increase taxes. Raising the federal minimum wage puts money into the pockets of the working poor people, but this occurs at the expense of business owners. By raising the minimum wage, politicians are taking the roundabout approach of minimum wage increase, rather than building actual political support for these policies. A report published by the Cato Institute claims that evidence shows minimum wage increase â€Å"disproportionately hurt the people they're supposed to help.† In this article the Institute cites a 2012 analysis of the New York State minimum wage increase from $5.15 to $6.75 per hour that found a â€Å"20.2 to 21.8 percent reduction in the employment of younger, less-educated individuals. † They also note that since 1995, eight studies have examined the income and poverty effects of minimum wage increases, and all but one of those studies have found that past minimum wage hikes had no effect on poverty.One of the largest concerns expert's share about a federal minimum wage increase is the impact it would entail on consumer prices. Basically, to raise minimum wage means to pay more people more money which has to be supplied from somewhere. Experts against the increase claim that the extra money will come from increased consumer prices. The 2012 Wilson Review notes: â€Å"A 2004 review of more than 20 minimum wage studies looking at price effects found that a 10 percent increase in the U.S. minimum wage raises food prices by up to 4 percent.† To back up this idea a report posted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago states that restaurant prices increase in response to minimum wage increases. The federal minimum wage is at a lower real value than it once was, but in order to change it law makers are going to have to look deeper into the problem rather than attempting to change the outcome quickly by increasing the minimum wage in all states to $15.00 hourly. Our country is unique in the nature that each state is able to make and regulate their own minimum wage and this matter is better dealt with inside certain states than from the federal government as a whole. There is most definitely a need in the United States to implement a method to decrease the rising poverty level, but this method should not be an increase in federal minimum wage because this method is directly related to rising prices, higher unemployment, job loss, and lack of job security. Small businesses, as stated previously, make up approximately 50% of the nation's workforce and if the government were to demand these businesses to pay their starting employees $12 or more, the businesses would be forced to either higher less people, lay off long term workers, or even more devastating, shutdown. This method proves ineffective in decreasing the families living underneath the poverty line and instead harms those workers who are higher-skilled and higher-paid.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

AP US Government and Politics What Score Do You Need

AP United States Government and Politics is one of the more popular Advanced Placement subjects, and over 325,000 took the AP exam for the course. A high score on the AP U.S. Government and Politics exam will sometimes fulfill a colleges history or social science requirement. Many schools will require a minimum score of a 4 or even a 5 to earn credit. About the AP U.S. Government and Politics Exam The AP U.S. Government and Politics exam covers the U.S. Constitution, political beliefs, political parties, interest groups, the media, the institutions of the national government, public policy, and civil rights. If a college offers course credit for the exam, it will typically be in Political Science or American History. The table below presents some representative data from a variety of colleges and universities. This information is meant to provide a general overview of the scoring and placement practices related to the AP U.S. Government and Politics exam. For other schools, youll need to search the colleges website or contact the appropriate Registrars office to get AP placement information, and even for the schools listed, be sure to check with the institution to get the most recent placement guidelines. AP placement recommendations change frequently. AP U.S. Government and Politics Score Information In 2018, 326,392 students took the AP United States Government and Politics exam. The mean score was a 2.70, and 53% of test-takers earned a score of 3 or higher and might qualify for college credit. The distribution of scores for the AP U.S. Government and Politics exam is as follows: AP U.S. Government and Politics Score Percentiles (2018 Data) Score Number of Students Percentage of Students 5 43,410 13.3 4 43,253 13.3 3 86,180 26.4 2 79,652 24.4 1 73,897 22.6 To learn more specific information about the AP U.S. Government and Politics exam, be sure to visit the official College Board website. Scores Needed for Credit AP U.S. Government and Politics Scores and Placement College Score Needed Placement Credit Georgia Tech 4 or 5 POL 1101 (3 semester hours) Grinnell College 4 or 5 4 semester credits; no placement LSU 4 or 5 POLI 2051 (3 credits) MIT 5 9 general elective units Mississippi State University 4 or 5 PS 1113 (3 credits) Notre Dame 5 Political Science 10098 (3 credits) Reed College 4 or 5 1 credit; exam may satisfy prerequisites Stanford University - no credit or placement for the AP U.S. Government and Politics exam Truman State University 3, 4 or 5 POL 161 American National Government (3 credits) UCLA (School of Letters and Science) 3, 4 or 5 4 credits and fulfills American History requirement Univeristy of Michigan 3, 4 or 5 Political Science 111 (4 credits) Yale University - no credit or placement for the AP U.S. Government and Politics exam Youll notice that top public institutions (Michigan, UCLA, Georgia Tech) are more likely to offer placement and accept 3s and 4s on the exam than top private institutions such as MIT, Stanford, and Yale. Score and Placement Info for Other AP Topics Biology  |  Calculus AB  |  Calculus BC  |  Chemistry  |  English Language  |  English Literature  |  European History  |  Physics 1  |  Psychology  |  Spanish Language  |  Statistics  |  U.S. History  |  World History A Final Word About AP Classes Although the Advanced Placement US Government and Politics exam isnt accepted for credit or placement by all colleges and universities, the course has other value. Most significantly, when youre applying to colleges the rigor of your high school curriculum will often be the most important factor considered in an admissions decision. Colleges want to see that you have taken the most challenging courses available to you, and Advanced Placement courses play an important role in this piece of the admissions equation. Also, the knowledge you gain from the US Government and Politics class will provide you with valuable information that can help in college classes in fields such as history, political science, social science, government, and literature.