A.P.

PSYCHOLOGY
SYLLABUS
COURSE PLAN
MRS. E. PARDALIS
pardae@danbury.k12.ct.us

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The A.P. Psychology course is designed to introduce the students to the systematic and scientific study of the behavior
and mental processes of human beings and other animals. Students are exposed to the psychological facts, principles and
phenomena associated with each of the major subfields within psychology. They also learn about the ethics and methods
psychologists use in their science and practice.

TOPICS TO BE TESTED ON THE ADVANCED PLACEMENT PSYCHOLOGY EXAM
History and Approaches 2-4%
Research Methods 8-10%
Biological Basis of Behavior 8-10%
Sensation and Perception 6-8%
States of Consciousness 2-4%
Learning 4-9%
Cognition 8-10%
Motivation and Emotion 6-8%
Developmental Psychology 7-9%
Personality 5-7%
Testing and Individual Differences 5-7%
Abnormal Behavior 7-9%
Treatment of Abnormal Behavior 5-7%
Social Psychology 8-10%

ADVANCED PLACEMENT PSYCHOLOGY EXAM FORMAT
66% MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS 70 MIN
33% 2 FREE RESPONSE 50 MIN
If you take this course, plan on sitting for the AP Exam. If you do the work, you should earn the college credit! This will
result in considerable savings to you, in terms of tuition dollars and instructional time. I therefore expect each of you to
prepare for and take the test. BEST REVIEW BOOK: FIVE STEPS TO A FIVE

AP. PSYCHOLOGY COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Reading: In order for you to be successful in a college-level course, it is essential that you maximize your time
and complete all assigned reading prior to class. The assigned text is Psychology by David Myers. You will read
it in its entirety over the course of the year. Readings from this and various other sources will be assigned on a
near nightly basis. The maximum time you should spend on these reading assignments nightly is two hours. My
suggestion to you is to read each assignment twice once just to read it and the second time to take notes in
outline form. Reading expectations will be enforced by periodic quizzes, usually after every two readings but
may also be unannounced. I expect you to be responsible for internalizing all material in the textbook on your
own, outside of class. Although tests and quizzes will draw heavily from the material in the text, I will rarely go
over the text. Class lectures, discussions and activities will transcend and build upon the textbook, and so
successful class periods will depend on you having acquired the factual basis that is presented in the text.

2. Group Work: For the purpose of certain assignments, students will be placed in groups. All group members will
be expected to take active involvement and will receive a grade based on their involvement and presentation to the
class. Groups will also be valuable when studying and reviewing for exams.

3. Vocabulary: Mastery of vocabulary is essential in understanding the major concepts of this course and in passing
the A.P. exam. You will be required to maintain vocabulary lists for each chapter in your notebook. This will be
an invaluable resource during review for in class exams as well as for the A.P. test.

4. Examinations and Quizzes:
a. You will be given multiple choice and free response exams at the end of each unit of study. These exams
will simulate the A.P. exam format.
b. You can expect quizzes on reading assignments and notes from class.

5. Tutorials/Extra Help: Please come to see me if you do not understand the material. I arrive at school early and
stay until 3pm every day. My daily schedule is also posted in the front of the room. You need to schedule
appointments with me before or after school or during a free period.

6. Attendance: Attendance is a vitally important component of this class. You must be in class regularly so as not
to fall behind. Simply being present in class is not enough. To understand the concepts, you must be willing to
participate in class to make this a good experience for all involved.

7. Class Rules:
a. Obey all school rules.
b. Be polite and respectful to each other and to me.
c. Maintain an atmosphere that is conducive to scholarly debate, meaningful discourse and unfettered
exchange of ideas.
d. BE ON TIME! Excessive tardiness or absences will affect your grade you must be here to learn!
e. Follow the school plagiarism policy. Plagiarism will result in dire consequences, including loss of your
grade and possible dismissal from class.
f. Be prepared manage your time wisely!

8. Supplies: Bring the following on a daily basis:
a. Three ring binder
b. Marble notebook
c. Pen and pencil
d. Attitude of respect, courtesy and energy

GRADING POLICY:
Tests/Projects 40%
Quizzes 30%
Journals 20%
Homework: 10%
*** I do not accept late work unless there are extraordinary circumstances. It is your responsibility to get
your work if you are absent.***
DESCRIPTION OF ASSESSMENTS:
Tests : Will model A.P. test include 50 multiple choice questions and two constructed
responses. Tests will take place over two forty-five minute class periods.
Quizzes : A short quiz can be expected after every two reading assignments.
Exam : Exams (midterm and final) will be worth twenty percent of the final semester grade.
Journals : Encapsulate one to two units of student and encourage students to think about concepts
and relate them to their own world and life.
Homework : Note-taking skills will be addressed. Study guides will be due the day of the test. Short
written homework assignments will also be assigned. Reading assignments will be given
every night and students will be quizzed on the reading to assure completion.
Projects : Projects will be assigned to stimulate thinking and assessment of concepts. Every project
will include a rubric so students know precisely how they will be graded.

TEXT:
Myers, David G. Psychology, 7
th
edition. New York: Worth Publishing, 2004.

Unit I: Perspectives of Psychology
Readings:
Prologue: The Story of Psychology
Chapter 1: Thinking Critically with Psychological Science

Unit I Essential Questions:
1. What events defined the founding of scientific psychology?
2. Who are the major psychological theorists?
3. What are psychologys major perspectives?
4. What is the scientific attitude and why is it important for critical thinking?
5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the three different methods psychologists use to describe behavior
(case studies, surveys and naturalistic observation)?

Unit Vocabulary:
empiricism nature-nurture debate hindsight bias false consensus effect
structuralism natural selection critical thinking population
functionalism neuroscience perspective theory random sample
behaviorists evolutionary perspective hypothesis naturalistic observation
psychology behavior genetics perspective operational definition correlation coefficient
basic research psychodynamic perspective replication scatterplot
applied research behavioral perspective scientific method illusory correlation
clinical psychology cognitive perspective case study experiment
psychiatry social-cultural perspective survey double-blind procedure
placebo effect experimental condition control condition random assignment
independent variable dependent variable descriptive method correlational method
experimental method mode mean median
range standard deviation statistical significance culture

Major People:
Wilhelm Wundt William James B.F. Skinner Charles Darwin
Edward Bradford Tichener John B. Watson Jean Piaget

Unit I Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Contrast structuralism and fundamentalism.
2. List and describe the major perspectives that guide modern psychology.
3. Discuss the different between basic and applied research.
4. List the six basic steps of the scientific method.
5. Debate the key ethical issues in psychological research and therapy.
6. Compare and contrast experimental versus control groups.
7. Compare and contrast independent versus dependent variables.
8. Explain how researchers guard against ethnocentrism and experimenter bias.
9. Explain descriptive research and its three key methods naturalistic observation, surveys and case studies.

Unit I Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. When you signed up for this course, what did you think psychology would be all about?
2. How might the scientific method help us understand the roots of terrorism?
3. Can you recall examples of misleading surveys you have experienced or read about? What principles for a good
survey did they violate?
4. If you were to become a research psychologist, what questions would you like to explore with experiments?
5. Find a graph in a popular magazine advertisement. How has the advertiser used (or abused) statistics to make a
point?

Potential Learning Activities:
Survey of Psychological Beliefs
Case Studies for different perspectives
Dinner Party with Dead Psychologists
The Outrageous Celebrity Exercise
Free Association Exercise
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Exercise
Music and Me Project
Critical Thinking: Perspective Taking








Unit II: Learning
Readings:
Chapter 8: Learning

Unit II Essential Questions:
1. What is learning?
2. What are some of the ways that humans learn?
3. What are some of the possible side effects of punishment?
4. How can classical conditioning be applied to every day life?
5. How have your emotions or behaviors been classically conditioned?
6. How can operant conditioning be applied to every day life?

Unit II Vocabulary:
learning operant conditioning punishment
associative learning operant behavior cognitive map
classical conditioning law of effect latent learning
unconditioned stimulus operant chamber (Skinner Box) overjustification effect
unconditioned response shaping intrinsic motivation
conditioned stimulus reinforce extrinsic motivation
conditioned response reinforcement observational learning
neutral stimulus conditioned (secondary) reinforce modeling
acquisition primary reinforce mirror neurons
generalization positive reinforcement prosocial behavior
discrimination negative reinforcement
extinction continuous reinforcement
spontaneous recovery partial (intermittent) reinforcement
respondent behavior fixed-ratio schedule
behaviorism variable-ratio schedule
fixed-interval schedule
variable-interval schedule

Major People:
Ivan Pavlov B.F. Skinner John B. Watson Albert Bandura

Unit II Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Compare learning and conditioning.
2. Define classical conditioning and describe Pavlovs and Watsons contributions.
3. Describe the six basic principles of classical conditioning.
4. Define operant conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment.
5. Describe Thorndike and Skinners contributions.
6. Explain how primary and secondary reinforcers and positive and negative strengthen behavior.
7. Explain why negative reinforcement is not punishment.
8. Contrast continuous and partial (intermittent) reinforcement, and identify the four schedule of partial
reinforcement.
9. Define shaping and discuss why its important.
10. Explain how positive and negative punishment weakens behavior.
11. Discuss the side effects of punishment.
12. Summarize the similarities between classical and operant conditioning.
13. Define observational leaning.
14. Identify the four factors needed for learning by observation.
15. Define scaffolding.

Unit II Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. What are three of your personal goals for this year? List three ways to apply reinforcement principles to help
you attain them.
2. Who have been some positive role models for you? For whom are you a model?

Potential Learning Activities:
Purcells Journal
Little Albert Case Study
o Thinking Critically: Little Albert Revisited
Classical Conditioning Mental Imagery
Portfolio of Key Theories in Learning
Classical Conditioning in the Advertising Industry
Thinking Critically: The Classical Connection
Thinking Critically: Powerful Consequences
Thinking Critically: The Discriminating Dachshund





Unit III: Memory
Readings:
Chapter 9: Learning

Unit III Essential Questions:
1. How does the memory system work?
2. How do we form memories and where do we store them?
3. What are Ebbinghauss contributions to memory research?
4. What are the five major theories of forgetting?
5. What are the major biological causes of memory loss?
6. Why do we distort our memories?
7. How can we improve our memory?

Unit III Vocabulary:
memory visual encoding recall
flashbulb memory acoustic encoding recognition
encoding semantic encoding relearning
storage self-reference effect priming
retrieval imagery dj vu
three-stage processing model mnemonics mood-congruent memory
sensory memory chunking proactive interference
short-term memory iconic memory retroactive interference
long-term memory echoic memory repression
automatic processing long term potentiation (LTP) misinformation effect
effortful processing amnesia source amnesia
rehearsal implicit memory
spacing effect explicit memory
serial position effect hippocampus

Major People:
Hermann Ebbinghaus Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin

Unit III Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Define memory.
2. Describe the information processing and parallel distribute processing (PDP) models.
3. Summarize the three-stage memory model.
4. Describe short term memory.
5. Summarize long term memory, how its divided into several subsystems, and how we can improve it.
6. Describe Ebbinghauss contributions to memory research.
7. Define and explain DIMER (reasons for forgetting).
8. Describe four key factors that contribute to forgetting.
9. Discuss the biological perspective for how we form memories.
10. Describe possible ways to improve memory.

Unit III Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Describe the problems with eye-witness testimony.
2. Which is more important your experiences or your memories of them?
3. Do you have a flashbulb memory for an emotion-laden experience in your past?
4. Think of three ways to employ learning principles to improve your own learning and retention of important things.
5. Name an instance where stress has helped you remember something, and another instance where stress has
interfered with remembering something.
6. What sort of mood have you been in lately? How has your mood colored your memories, perceptions and
expectations?
7. Most people, especially as they grow older, which for better memory. Is that true of you? Or do you more often
wish you could discard old memories?
8. What is your opinion on the controversy over reports of repressed and recovered memories? What evidence
supports your view? Could you be an impartial jury member in a trial of a parent accused of sexual abuse based on
such a memory or of a therapist being sued for creating a false memory?

Potential Learning Activities:
Purcells Journal
Flashbulb Memory
High School Show and Tell
Schemas and Memory Distortion - word lists
Constructive Memory and Schemas rumor chain game
Top Down Processing
Reconstructive Memory mini-lesson
Eyewitness Memory online lesson
Lindseys Forgetting Lesson
Thinking Critically: The Magnificent Seven


Unit IV: Thinking and Language
Readings:
Chapter 10: Thinking and Learning

Unit IV Essential Questions:
1. What is creativity and what are its major characteristics?
2. What is language and what are its basic building blocks?
3. How is language related to thought?

Unit Vocabulary:
cognition overconfidence language
concepts framing phoneme
prototypes belief bias morpheme
algorithm belief perseverance grammar
heuristics artificial intelligence semantics
insight computer neural networks syntax
confirmation bias babbling stage
fixation one-word stage
mental set two-word stage
functional fixedness telegraphic speech
representativeness heuristic linguistic determinism
availability heuristic

Unit IV Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Define cognition.
2. Identify the location of thinking, and describe the roles of mental images and concepts in thinking.
3. Explain how we learn concepts.
4. Describe the three stages of problem solving.
5. Identify five common barriers to problem solving.
6. Describe a childs major stages in language development.
7. Contrast the nativist vs. the nurturist views of language development.

Unit IV Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Peoples perceptions of risk, often biased by vivid images from movies or the news, are surprisingly unrelated to
actual risks. (People may hide in the basement during thunderstorms but fail to buckle their seat belts in the
car.) What are the things that you fear? Are some of those fears out of proportion to statistical risk? Are you
failing, in other areas of you life, to take reasonable precautions?

Potential Learning Activities:
Word Problems
Fill in the Blanks
Thinking Critically: Theres Good News and Theres Bad News
Thinking C ritically: Poor John and Mary







Unit V: Intelligence
Readings:
Chapter 11: Intelligence

Unit V Essential Questions:
1. What is intelligence?
2. Is intelligence one general ability or several specific abilities?
3. How do we measure intelligence?
4. What are the three key requirements for a scientifically useful test?
5. What are some possible genetic and environmental influences on intelligence?


Unit Vocabulary:
Intelligence tests aptitude test mental retardation
mental age achievement test Down Syndrome
Stanford-Binet Wechsier Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) stereotype threat
intelligence quotient (IQ) standardization
factor analysis normal curve
general intelligence (g) reliability
theory of multiple intelligences validity
savant syndrome content validity
emotional intelligence criterion
creativity predictive validity

Major People:
Alfred Binet
Lewis Terman
Howard Gardner

Unit V Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Contrast Gardners and Sternbergs theories of intelligence.
2. Describe how psychologists measure intelligence.
3. Identify cultural and gender issues with intelligence tests.
4. Explain the difference between an aptitude test and an achievement test.
5. Discuss the variables which might affect the results of intelligence tests.

Unit V Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Different people have different gifts. What are yours?
2. Are you working to the potential reflected in your CAPT scores? What, other than you aptitude, is affecting
your performance?
3. How do you feel about mainstreaming children of all ability levels in the same classroom? What evidence
are you using to support your view?
4. How have genetic and environmental influences shaped your intelligence?

Potential Learning Activities:
Samples of Intelligence Tests
Multiple Intelligence Survey
Rediscovering Wisdom


Unit VI: Neuroscience and Behavior
Readings:
Chapter 2: Neuroscience and Behavior

Unit VI Essential Questions:
1. What are the key parts and functions of the neuron?
2. How do neurons communicate with each other?
3. How do neurotransmitters and hormones relate to our everyday life?
4. What are the major functions of the spinal cord?
5. Why is the case of Phineas Gage important?

Unit Vocabulary:
biological psychology nervous system brainstem asphasia
neuron central nervous system medulla Brocas area
dendrite nerves cerebellum Wernickes area
axon sensory neurons thalamus plasticity
myelin sheath interneurons limbic system corpus callosum
action potential motor neurons hypothalamus split brain
threshold somatic nervous system cerebral cortex endocrine
synapse autonomic nervous system glial cells hormones
neurotransmitters reflex frontal lobes adrenal glands
acetylcholine neural networks parietal lobes pituitary gland
endorphins sympathetic nervous system occipital lobes
dopamine parasympathetic nervous system temporal lobes
serotonin lesion reticular formation
electroencephalogram (EEG) amygdala
norepinephrine CT (computed tomography) motor cortex
GABA PET (positron emission tomography) sensory cortex
glutamate MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) association areas

Unit V I Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Describe how communication occurs within the neuron (the action potential) and between neurons.
2. Describe the nervous systems two major divisions, and explain their respective functions.
3. Describe the subdivisions of the peripheral nervous system and their functions.
4. Discuss neuroplasticity, neurogenesis and stem cells.
5. Identify the three major sections of the brain.
6. Name the three key components of the hindbrain and describe their functions.
7. Describe the functions of the midbrain and the reticular formation.
8. Identify the major structures of the forebrain and describe their functions.
9. Discuss the cerebral cortex and describe its major function.
10. Describe the major function of the lobes of the cerebral cortex.
11. Explain why the corpus collosum and split-brain research are important.
12. Describe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Unit V I Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Can you recall a time when the endorphin response may have protected you from feeling extreme pain?
2. Does our nervous systems design with its synaptic gaps that chemical messenger molecules cross in an
imperceptibly brief instant surprise you? Would you have designed yourself differently?
3. How might you feel with two separate brain hemispheres, both of which controlled your thought and action but
one of which dominated your consciousness and speech? How might that affect your sense of self, as one
indivisible person?

Potential Learning Activities:
Driving a car handout
Case studies
Neurotransmitter skit
Making a brain mobile
Phineas Gage
o Thinking Critically: Phineas Gage
Thinking Critically: Practical Problem Solving
Thinking Critically: The New Superheroes










Unit VII: The Nature and Nurture of Behavior
Readings:
Chapter 3: The Nature and Nurture of Behavior

Unit VII Essential Questions:
1. What is behavioral genetics?
2. What is evolutionary psychology?
3. How does the evolutionary theory explain current sex difference?
4. What role does culture play in our differences?

Unit Vocabulary:
Chromosomes culture
DNA norm
genes personal space
genome memes
natural selection X chromosomes
mutation Y chromosomes
evolutionary psychology testosterone
gender role
behavior genetics gender role
environment gender identity
identical twins gender typing
fraternal twins social learning theory
temperament gender schema theory
heritability
interaction
molecular genetics

Unit VII Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Describe the four methods of behavioral genetics research.
2. Describe four methods of behavioral genetics research.
3. Identify three key genetic misconceptions.
4. Describe gender roles and discuss what their variations tell us about the human capacity for learning and
adaptation.
5. Compare and contrast sex and gender.
6. Define gender role and describe the two major theories of gender role development.
7. Differentiate between gender identity, transsexualism, transvestitism and sexual orientation.
8. Describe the major sex and gender differences between men and women.
9. Describe how the evolutionary perspective and the social role approach help explain male/female differences in
sexual behavior.
10. Discuss the latest research on sexual orientation.

Unit VII Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Whose reasoning do you find more persuasive that of evolutionary psychologists or their critics? Why?
2. Would you want genetic tests on your offspring, in the uterus? What would you do if you knew your child would
have hemophilia? Schizophrenia? A learning disability? Would society benefit or lose if such embryos were
aborted?
3. If genetic differences account for about half of our person-to-person differences in personality, what accounts
for the rest? Parental nurture? Early stimulation? Later peer influences? The surrounding culture?
4. To what extent, and in what ways, have your peers and your parents helped shape who you are?
5. Many researchers have recently concluded that the shared home environment has less effect on childrens
development than is often supposed, and that peer influences matter more than we realized. What evidence
supports that conclusion?
6. Do you consider yourself strongly gender-typed or not strongly gender-typed? What factors do you think have
contributed to your feelings of masculinity or femininity?

Potential Learning Activities:
Thinking Critically: Pattern Recognition
Thinking Critically: Keep on Truckin

Unit VIII: The Developing Person
Readings:
Chapter 4: The Developing Person

Unit VIII Essential Questions:
1. What are the two most common research methods in developmental psychology?
2. What is Piagets theory of development?
3. How do the bonds of attachment form? What happens when they form securely or when they are missing or
broken?
4. What is adolescence? How are adolescents influenced by their physical maturation and their cognitive
development?
5. What are the three major theories of aging?
6. What sensory and neural changes mark the aging process?
7. What is the biological perspective on morality?
8. What are Kubler-Rosss give stages of dying and what is thanatology?

Unit Vocabulary:
developmental psychologists assimilation formal observational stage menarche
developmental psychology accommodation stranger anxiety identity
zygote cognition attachment menopause
embryo sensorimotor stage critical period Alzheimers disease
fetus object permanence imprinting cross-sectional study
teratogens preoperational stage basic trust longitudinal study
fetal alcohol syndrome conservation self-concept crystallized intelligence
rooting reflex egocentrism adolescence fluid intelligence
habituation theory of mind puberty social clock
maturation autism primary sex characteristics
schema concrete operational stage secondary sex characteristics
Socioemotional Theory of Aging Disengagement Theory of Aging Activity Theory of Aging

Unit VIII Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Define developmental psychology.
2. Identify three major issues in developmental psychology.
3. Describe cultural psychologys four guidelines for developmental research.
4. Identify the three major stages of prenatal development.
5. Summarize early childhood physical development.
6. Describe the major physical changes associated with adolescence and adulthood.
7. Identify primary ageing and compare the programmed and damage theories of aging.
8. Describe Piagets theory of cognitive development and compare schema, assimilation and accommodation.
9. Compare childrens cognitive development changes during Piagets four stages.
10. Identify the major criticisms and contributions of Piagets theories.
11. Describe the information-processing model of cognitive development.
12. Define attachment and discuss its contributions across the life span.
13. Discuss three key parenting styles.
14. Describe Kohlbergs three levels and six stages of moral development.
15. Identify the major criticisms of Kohlbergs theory.
16. Describe Thomas and Chesss temperament theory.
17. Describe Eriksons eight psychosocial stages.
18. Identify the major criticisms of Eriksons stages.
19. Discuss the major cultural differences in ageism.
20. Discuss cultural and age variations in attitude toward death and dying.
Unit VIII Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Your friend a heavy smoker hopes to become pregnant soon. She says she wills top smoking as soon as she
learns she is pregnant. What can you do to convince her that the time to stop smoking is before she is pregnant?
2. What is your earliest memory? Was that memory influenced by stories older siblings or parents may have told
you or by photos you have seen?
3. Can you recall a time you have misheard some song lyrics, by assimilating them into your own schema? (For
hundreds of examples of such, visit www.kissthisguy.com)
4. Which parenting style feels right to you: permissive, authoritarian or authoritative? Why?
5. What are the most positive and most negative things you remember about your own adolescence? And who do
you credit or blame more your parents or your peers? Why?
6. As you reflect on your years of high school what do you most regret? What do you feel best about?
7. Are you the same person you were as a preschooler? A 10 year old? A mid-teen? How are you the same? How
are you different?

Potential Learning Activities:
Interview Journal
Interviewing a Senior Citizen about Adolescence
Piaget experiments
Death/dying
My Baby Book
Parenting Styles Skits
Ordinary People film
Thinking Critically: Piaget Meets Santa Claus



Unit IX: Motivation and Work
Readings:
Chapter 12: Motivation and Work

Unit IX Essential Questions:
1. What is motivation?
2. What are the major theories of motivation?
3. What causes some people to more achievement oriented than others?

Unit Vocabulary:
motivation sexual response cycle social leadership
instinct refractory period Theory X
drive-reduction theory sexual disorder Theory Y
homeostastis estrogen intrinsic motivation
incentives sexual orientation extrinsic motivation
optimal arousal flow
hierarchy of needs industrial-organization psychology
glucose personnel psychology
basal metabolic rate organizational psychology
set point structured interviews
anorexia nervosa achievement motivation
bulima nervosa task leadership

Major People:
Abraham Maslow

Unit IX Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Define motivation.
2. Describe the six major theories of motivation. (instinct, drive-reduction, incentive, cognitive, Maslows
hierarchy of needs)
3. Discuss the major biopsychosocial factors that influence hunger and eating.
4. Describe the three key eating disorders obesity, anorexia and bulimia.
5. Define achievement motivation and list the characteristics of high achievers.
6. Define intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and describe how they affect motivation.

Unit IX Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. What do you think would be an effective strategy for reducing teenage pregnancy?
2. Have there been times when you felt out of the loop with family and friends, or even ostracized by them?
How did you respond?
3. Discovering Your Strengths (Myers, 7
th
page 488)
4. Are you highly motivated, or not highly motivated, to achieve in school? How has this affected your
academic success? How might you improve upon your own achievement levels?

Potential Learning Activities:
Self actualization worksheet
Need for achievement scale



Unit X: Emotion
Readings:
Chapter 13: Emotion

Unit X Essential Questions:
1. What is emotion?
2. How is emotion linked to motivation?
3. Must cognition precede emotion?
4. Does this nonverbal language vary with culture or is it universal?
5. What things do and dont predict self-reported happiness?

Unit Vocabulary:
emotions polygraph adaptation-level phenomenon
James-Lange theory catharsis relative deprivation
Cannon-Bard theory feel good, do good phenomenon
two-factor theory subjective well being

Major People:
James-Lange
Cannon-Bard

Unit X Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Describe the three key components of emotion.
2. Discuss how mirror neurons contribute to emotions and observational learning.
3. Compare and contrast the four major theories of emotion.
4. Discuss culturally universal emotions and differing display rules.

Unit X Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Would you like to change any of your emotional responses? Do you feel you are too easily provoked to
anger or fear, for instance? How might you go about changing your thinking so that you can change your
emotional reactions?
2. Can you think of a recent time when you noticed your bodys reaction to an emotionally charged situation,
such as a difficult social setting or perhaps even a test or game you were worrying about in advance? D id
you perceive the situation as a challenge or a threat? How well did you do?

Potential Learning Activities:
Thinking Critically: The Tourist Trap

Unit XI: Social Psychology
Readings:
Chapter 18: Social Psychology


Unit XI Essential Questions:
1. How do we explain behavior?
2. How do we form our beliefs and attitudes?
3. How does what we think affect what we do?
4. How do we influence each other?
5. What causes us to harm or to help or to fall in love?
6. What are the key factors in attraction?

Unit Vocabulary:
social psychology informational social influence outgroup passionate love
attribution theory social facilitation ingroup bias companionate love
fundamental attribution error social loafing scapegoat theory equity
attitude deindividuation just-world phenomenon self-disclosure
foot-in-the-door phenomenon group polarization aggression altruism
cognitive dissonance theory groupthink frustration-aggression principle bystander effect
conformity prejudice conflict social exchange theory
normative social influence stereotype social trap superordinate goals
ingroup mere exposure factor GRIT

Unit XI Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Describe the process of attribution and its two key errors.
2. Describe how culture affects attributional biases.
3. Define prejudice, identify its three components and differentiate between prejudice and discrimination.
4. Discuss the five major sources of prejudice and discrimination.
5. Discuss scientific research on flirting.
6. Differentiate between romantic and companionate love and discuss problems associated with romantic love.
7. Define conformity and explain the three factors that contribute to this behavior.
8. Discuss how we are affected by pressures to conform and obey and by group interaction.
9. Define obedience and describe Milgrams classic study.
10. Identify the four key factors in obedience.
11. Discuss the importance of roles and deindividuation in Zimbardos Stanford prison study.
12. Define aggression and identify the psychosocial factors that contribute to its expression.
13. Describe three approaches to reducing aggression.
14. Define altruism and describe the three models that attempt to explain it.
15. List four major approaches useful for reducing prejudice and discrimination.


Unit XI Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Do you have an attitude or tendency you would like to change? Using the attitudes-follow-behavior principle,
how might you go about changing that attitude?
2. Name two examples of social influence you have experienced this week (remembering that influence may be
information).
3. Are there family or friends with whom you do not get along but would like to? How might you go about
reconciling these relationships?


Potential Learning Activities:
Smile Experiment
Milgrams experiment
Deindividualization mini-lesson
Advertisement activity
Deindividualization what would you do?
Attraction Our Beauty Bias is Unfair
Asch-Conformity
Attributions scenarios
Kitty Genovese
Thinking Critically: Pride and Prejudices
Thinking Critically: Dear Abby
Thinking Critically: People Were Stupid Back Then

Unit XII: Personality
Readings:
Chapter 15: Personality

Unit XII Essential Questions:
1. What, according to Freud, were some of the important defense mechanisms, and what do they defend
against?
2. Are there stable and enduring traits that underlie our actions?
3. How many trait dimensions are typically used to describe personality and what are those dimensions?
4. How do learned helplessness and optimism influence behavior?

Unit Vocabulary:
personality defense mechanisms self-actualization external locus of control
free association repression unconditional positive regard internal locus of control
psychoanalysis reaction formation self-concept learned helplessness
id projection trait positive psychology
ego rationalization personality inventory spotlight effect
superego displacement MMPI self-esteem
psychosexual stages TAT social-cognitive perspective self-serving bias
Oedipus complex Rorschach inkblot test reciprocal determinism individualism
identification collective unconscious personal control collectivism
terror-management theory


Unit XII Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Differentiate between personality and trait, and discuss early trait theories and the five-factor model.
2. Identify and discuss the key research findings and criticisms of the trait theories?
3. Describe Freuds psychoanalytic approach to personality.
4. Compare Freuds vs. the neo-Freudians approaches to personality.
5. Discuss the major criticisms of psychoanalytic theories of personality.
6. Discuss humanistic theories of personality, comparing the approaches of Rogers and Maslow.
7. Identify and discuss the major criticisms of humanistic theories of personality.
8. Discuss the social-cognitive perspective on personality, comparing Bandura and Rotters approaches.
9. Identify and discuss the major strengths and weaknesses of the social-cognitive theories.
10. Discuss how biology contributes to personality.
11. Describe how the bio-psycho-social model blends various approaches to personality.


Unit XII Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Have you had someone in your life who accepted you unconditionally? Do you think the person helped you to
know yourself better, or to develop a better image of yourself?
2. Where would you place yourself on the trait dimensions?
3. Are you a pessimist? Do you readily catastophize, have low expectations and attribute bad events to your
inability or to circumstances beyond your control? Or are you an optimist, perhaps even someone who
frequently exhibits illusory optimism? How does either tendency influence your life? Can you trace your
pessimism or optimism to a source?
4. What future selves do you envision? To what extent do these imagined selves motivate you now?
5. Did you feel vulnerable and experience a fear of death during the 9/11 attacks? If so, what did you do to reduce
that fear?


Potential Learning Activities:
Personality test and mask project
Bem Sex-Role Inventory
Comparing Personality Theories
Shyness quiz
Self-actualization (Who Am I?)
Music and Me Project
Defense Mechanisms Skits
Thinking Critically: Freud Meets Mother Goose
Thinking Critically: Is it hopeless or not?

Unit XIII: Psychological Disorders
Readings:
Chapter 16: Psychological Disorders

Unit XIII Essential Questions:
1. What is normal and abnormal?
2. How are disorders classified and labeled?
3. What is the bio-psycho-social perspective and why is it important?
4. What forms does depression take?
5. What are the major similarities and differences in depression across cultures and between genders?
6. What are the key similarities and differences in schizophrenia across cultures?

Unit Vocabulary:
psychological disorders anxiety disorders major depressive disorder delusions
medical model generalized anxiety disorder manic episode personality disorders
bio-social-psycho perspective panic disorder bipolar disorder antisocial personality
DSM-IV phobia dissociative disorders
neurotic disorder obsessive-compulsive disorder dissociative identity disorder
psychotic disorder mood disorders schizophrenia

Unit XIII Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Define abnormal behavior and list four standards for identifying it.
2. Describe the purpose and criticisms of the DSM-IV-TR and differentiate between neurosis, psychosis and
insanity.
3. Define anxiety disorders and the five major subtypes.
4. Distinguish between generalized anxiety disorder, phobias and obsessive compulsive disorder.
5. Identify the major contributors to anxiety disorders.
6. Describe the key biological and psychosocial factors that contribute to mood disorders.
7. Define schizophrenia and describe its give major symptoms.
8. Identify the five subtypes of schizophrenia.
9. Describe dissociative disorders and dissociative identity disorders (DID).
10. Define personality disorders and differentiate between antisocial and borderline personality disorders.

Unit XIII Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. How would you draw the line between sending disturbed criminals to prisons or to mental hospitals? Would the
persons history (for example, having suffered child abuse) influence your decision?
2. Can you recall a fear that you have learned? What role, if any, was played by fear conditioning and
observational learning?
3. Has your time in high school been a challenging time for you? What advice would you give incoming freshmen?
4. Do you think people with schizophrenia should be hospitalized and treated against their will? O r do they always
have the right to life free, even if under bridges or in shelters?
5. Does a full moon trigger madness in some people? How could you test that question?
6. How would you evaluate the relative contributions of nurture and nature to antisocial personality disorder?
7. How do you explain the greater female incidence of depression and anxiety, and the greater male incidence of
alcohol abuse and antisocial personality? What theory and research supports your view?
8. Does poverty cause psychological disorder? Explain.

Potential Learning Activities:
Achievement anxiety test
Diagnostic criteria
Vignettes
Unit XIV: Therapy
Readings:
Chapter 17: Therapy

Unit XIV Essential Questions:
1. What are the major types of therapies? What are their aims and methods? And how does each apply the
psychological perspective that underlies it?
2. What is the major distinction between psychoanalytic and behavior therapies?
3. Do specific therapies work for particular problems?
4. What is the placebo effect?
5. How do psychotherapists evaluate the effectiveness of the multitude of treatment options available?
6. What is the bio-psycho-social perspective and how does this relate to therapy?
7. How does culture affect therapy?

Unit Vocabulary:
psychotherapy client-centered therapy aversive conditioning psychopharmacology
eclectic approach active listening token economy lithium
psychoanalysis behavior therapy cognitive therapy electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
resistance counterconditioning cognitive-behavior therapy psychosurgery
interpretation exposure therapies family therapy lobotomy
transference systematic desensitization meta-analysis
regression toward the mean

Unit XIV Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Discuss psychotherapy and insight therapy.
2. Define psychoanalysis and describe its five major methods.
3. Identify and discuss the major criticisms of psychoanalysis.
4. Differentiate between psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy.
5. Discuss cognitive therapy, self-talk, cognitive restructuring and cognitive-behavior therapy.
6. Describe the goal of Elliss rational-emotive behavior therapy.
7. Identify and discuss the major successes and criticisms of cognitive therapy.
8. Define humanistic therapy and describe Rogers client-centered therapy.
9. Identify and discuss the major criticisms of humanistic therapy.
10. Discuss group, self-help, family and marital therapies.
11. Define behavior therapy.
12. Describe how classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning are used in behavior
therapy.
13. Identify and discuss the major successes and criticisms of behavior therapy.
14. Define biomedical therapy.
15. Discuss psychopharmacology, electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery.
16. Identify and discuss the major contributions and criticisms of biomedical therapy.
17. Identify the five most common goals of therapy and discuss the eclectic approach.
18. Discuss the major similarities and differences in therapy across cultures.

Unit XIV Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. What might a psychoanalyst say about this therapy for bed-wetting? How might a behavior therapist reply?
2. Without trying to be a therapist, how might you use the helping principles discussed with a friend who is
anxious?
3. Can you think of a time when you may have been affected by your expectations for relief?
4. Do you feel different about therapy after learning about it? How have your own views changed?


Potential Learning Activities:
Approaches Jigsaw
Refuting Irrational Ideas checklist
Cognitive Therapy Rational-Emotive Therapy
Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (beginning and end)
Free Association
Values Circle (active listening)
Thinking Critically: How does that make you feel?
Thinking Critically: Even domestic engineers get the blues




Unit XV: Sensation
Readings:
Chapter 5: Sensation


Unit XV Essential Questions:
1. What is the rough distinction between sensation and perception?
2. How does our material body construct our conscious visual experience?
3. What breaks in the system typically cause hearing loss?
4. How do we transform sound waves into perceived sound?
5. How does our system for sensing smell differ from our sensory systems for vision, touch and taste?
6. What are body senses and how do they work?


Unit Vocabulary:
sensation wavelength cones middle ear
perception hue optic nerve inner ear
bottom-up processing intensity blind spot cochlea
top-down processing pupil fovea place theory
psychophysics iris feature detectors frequency theory
absolute thresholds lens parallel processing conduction hearing loss
signal detection theory accommodation opponent-process theory sensorineural hearing loss
difference threshold retina color constancy gate-control theory
Webers law acuity audition sensory interaction
sensory adaptation nearsightedness frequency kinesthesis
transduction farsightedness pitch vestibular sense
rods Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

Unit XV Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Define sensory adaptation and explain why it is helpful.
2. Explain the gate-control theory of pain perception.
3. Discuss what Helen Keller can teach us about sensation and perception.
4. Identify the key structures and functions of the eye.
5. Identify common problems with vision.
6. Contrast the trichromatic, opponent-process and dual process theories of color vision.
7. Define audition and identify the three key parts of the ear.
8. Briefly explain the physical properties of sound waves.
9. Describe the place and frequency theories related to hearing.
10. Differentiate between conduction and nerve deafness.


Unit XV Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. What are some types of sensory adaptation that you have experienced in just the last day?
2. If you were forced to give up one sense, what would it be? Why?
3. Retrace the rapid sequence of events involved in seeing and recognizing someone you know.
4. If you were born deaf, do you think you would want to receive a cochlear implant? Does it surprise you that
most natively deaf adults do not desire implants for themselves or any deaf children they might have? Why is it
the deaf community and its culture have no corresponding blind community or blind culture?
5. Can you recall a time when, with your attention focused on some activity, you felt no pain from a wound or
injury?

Potential Learning Activities:
Taste, smell, flavor demo
Sensation lab webquest
Thinking Critically: Occupational Design
Thinking Critically: The Eyes Have It


Unit XVI: Perception
Readings:
Chapter 6: Perception

Unit XVI Essential Questions:
1. What are illusions and why are they important?
2. How does the study of illusions inform our understanding of normal perceptions?
3. To what extent do we learn what we perceive?
4. Do the Gestalt laws apply cross-culturally?
5. What are perceptual constancies and why are they important?
6. How do we perceive depth and why are binocular and monocular cues important?
7. What factors influence how we interpret sensations?

Unit Vocabulary:
selective attention depth perception convergence human factors psychology
visual capture visual cliff phi phenomenon extrasensory perception
gestalt binocular cues perceptual constancy parapsychology
figure-ground monocular cues perceptual adaptation
grouping retinal disparity perceptual set


Unit XV I Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Describe the selection process and its three key factors selective attention, feature detectors and habituation.
2. Describe the Gestalt laws of perceptual organization.
3. Discuss perceptual constancies and why they are important.
4. Explain how we perceive depth and why binocular and monocular cues are important.
5. Discuss the factors which influence how we interpret sensations.

Unit XVI Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Can you recall a time when, your attention focused on one thing, you were oblivious to something else?
2. Try drawing a realistic depiction of the scene from your window using several of the monocular cues you
have learned about.
3. Can you recall a time when your expectations have predisposed how you perceived a person or group of
people?
4. What do you think of claims of ESP and what evidence might confirm or disconfirm your view?

Potential Learning Activities:
Goggles
TAFT Powerpoint website - games


Unit XVII: Stress and Health
Readings:
Chapter 14: Stress and Health

Unit XVII Essential Questions:
1. What is stress?
2. What are the major sources of stress?
3. How does stress affect cognitive functioning?
4. How does stress affect our immune system?
5. How do we cognitively appraise and cope with stress?
6. What are the best resources for stress management?

Unit Vocabulary
behavioral medicine general adaptation syndrome Type A Type B aerobic exercise
health psychology coronary heart disease psychophysiological illness biofeedback
stress lymphocytes complementary and alternative medicine

Unit XV II Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Define stress and distress.
2. Describe the SAM system and the HPA axis.
3. Describe general adaptation syndrome (GAS).
4. Discuss possible links between stress and cancer.
5. Describe the links between stress and heart disease.
6. Describe the connections between PTSD and ulcers.
7.
Unit XVII Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. What are the stresses of your own life? How intensely do you respond to them? Are there changes you
could make to avoid the persistent stressors in your life?

Potential Learning Activities:
Thinking Critically: The Game of Life
Unit XVIII: States of Consciousness

Readings:
Chapter 7: States of Consciousness

Unit XVIII Essential Questions:
1. What exactly is sleep and why must we have it?
2. What and why do we dream?
3. How do gender and culture affect dreams?
4. What are circadian rhythms and how do they affect our lives?
5. What types of drugs influence consciousness?
6. Why do some people become regular users of consciousness-altering drugs?


Unit XVIII Vocabulary:
consciousness narcolepsy posthypnotic suggestion hallucinogens
biological rhythms sleep apnea dissociation barbiturates
circadian rhythm night terrors hidden observer opiates
REM sleep dream psychoactive drug amphetamines
alpha waves manifest content tolerance ecstasy (MDMA)
sleep latent content withdrawal LSD
hallucinations REM rebound physical dependence THC
delta waves hypnosis psychological dependence near-death experience
insomnia posthypnotic amnesia depression dualism
stimulants monism

Unit XV III Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Define and describe consciousness and alternate states of consciousness.
2. Contrast controlled versus automatic processing.
3. List the stages of sleep and describe a typical nights sleep.
4. Describe the major sleep disorders.
5. List the four main categories of psychoactive drugs and explain how they work.
6. Define hypnosis and describe its myths and potential benefits.

Unit XVII I Thought Questions (Journal Assignments)
1. Have you ever wondered how horses, dogs and cats experience the world? Do you think they are consciously
aware? If yes, are they also aware of being aware of the world?
2. Examples of dissociated consciousness may include talking while typing and thinking about something else while
reading a favorite bedtime story. Can you think of a time when you have experienced dissociated
consciousness?

Potential Learning Activities:
Dream Journal