Psychology Syllabus



Psychology Syllabus

The purpose of this Psychology class is to introduce 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.

Course Objectives

1. Students will prepare to do acceptable work on Psychology Examinations.

2. Students will study the major core concepts and theories of psychology. They will be able to define key terms and use them in their everyday vocabulary.

3. Students will learn the basic skills of psychological research and be able to apply psychological concepts to their own lives.

4. Students will develop critical thinking skills.

Textbook (Primary)

Rathus, Spencer. Psychology: Principles in Practice, Austin: HRW, 2007.

Textbook (secondary)

Myers, David G. Psychology, 6th ed. New York: Worth, 2001. (Includes a study guide.)

Teacher Resources

Bolt, Martin. Instructor’s Resource Manual. New York: Worth, 2001.

Hock, Roger R. Forty Studies that Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002.

Hunt, Morton. The Story of Psychology. New York: Doubleday, 1993.

Homework Expectations

Ample notice will be given for any assignment, quiz, or exam. The amount of work depends on the unit being covered in class. There are assigned pages to read in the textbook every night.

Vocabulary terms are also given for each unit. Quizzes are administered frequently, at least once a unit. The quizzes range from using fill-in-the-blank, short answer, and/or multiple-choice questions. Exams will be given at the end of each unit and will consist of multiple-choice questions and one free-response question.

Other assignments given to students are class presentations, group projects and papers. These assignments vary with the unit being covered.

Psychology is not a Kentucky Core Curriculum class and thus has no guidelines from the Kentucky Department of Education. So this class will follow the American Psychology Association’s standards

Course Outline

Unit I: History, Approaches and Research Methods

A. Logic, Philosophy, and History of Science

B. Approaches/Perspectives

C. Experimental, Correlation, and Clinical Research

D. Statistics

E. Research Methods and Ethics

Objectives

Students will:

• Define psychology and trace its historical development.

• Compare and contrast the psychological perspectives.

• Identify basic and applied research subfields of psychology.

• Identify basic elements of an experiment (variables, groups, sampling, population, etc.).

• Compare and contrast research methods (case, survey, naturalistic observation).

• Explain correlational studies.

• Describe the three measures of central tendency and measures of variation.

• Discuss the ethics of animal and human research.

Major Assignments:

1. Compare/Contrast Schools of Thought essay

2. Case Study: How to conduct an experiment

Essential Questions:

1. What is psychology and how did it grow?

2. Why don’t all psychologists explain behavior in the same way?

3. How does your cultural background influence your behavior?

4. How can critical thinking save you money?

5. What does it mean when scientists announce that a research finding is “significant”?

6. Do psychologists deceive people when they do research?

Key Terms/Vocabulary

behavioral approach experimenter bias

biased sample forensic psychologists

biological approach health psychologists

biological psychologists humanistic approach

case studies hypothesis

clinical and counseling psychologists independent variable

cognitive approach industrial psychologists

cognitive psychologists naturalistic observation

community psychologists operational definitions

confounding variable personality psychologists

consciousness placebo

control group psychodynamic approach

correlation psychology

critical thinking quantitative psychologists

culture random assignment

data random sample

dependent variable random variables

developmental psychologists reliability

double-blind design sampling

educational psychologists school psychologists

empiricism social psychologists

engineering psychologists sociocultural variables

environmental psychologists sport psychologists

evolutionary approach statistically significant

experiment surveys

experimental group theory

validity

variables

Unit II: Biological Basis of Behavior

A. Physiological Techniques (e.g., imagining, surgical)

B. Neuroanatomy

C. Functional Organization of Nervous System

D. Neural Transmission

E. Endocrine System

F. Genetics

Objectives

Students will:

• Describe the structure of a neuron and explain neural impulses.

• Describe neuron communication and discuss the impact of neurotransmitters.

• Classify and explain major divisions of the nervous system.

• Describe the functions of the brain structures (thalamus, cerebellum, limbic system, etc.).

• Identify the four lobes of the cerebral cortex and their functions.

• Discuss the association areas.

• Explain the split-brain studies.

• Describe the nature of the endocrine system and its interaction with the nervous system.

Major Assignments:

1. Psychologist Report-narrative essay over a random psychologist.

2. Draw a neuron and label parts

Essential Questions:

1. What are neurons, and what do they do?

2. How do biochemicals affect my mood?

3. How is my nervous system organized?

4. How is my brain “wired”?

5. How can my hormones help me in a crisis?

Key Terms/Vocabulary

Action potential medulla

Amygdale midbrain

Association cortex motor cortex

Autonomic nervous system nervous system

Axon neurons

Biological psychology neurotransmitter

Central nervous system nuclei

Cerebellum parasympathetic nervous system

Cerebral cortex peripheral nervous system

Corpus callosum plasticity

Dendrites reflexes

Endocrine system refractory period

Fiber tracts reticular formation

Fight-or-flight syndrome sensory cortex

Forebrain somatic nervous system

Glands spinal cord

Glial cells sympathetic nervous system

Hindbrain synapse

Hippocampus thalamus

Hormones

hypothalamus

Unit III: Developmental Psychology

A. Life-Span Approach

B. Research Methods

C. Heredity–Environment Issues

D. Developmental Theories

E. Dimensions of Development

F. Sex Roles, Sex Differences

Objectives

Students will:

• Discuss the course of prenatal development.

• Illustrate development changes in physical, social, and cognitive areas.

• Discuss the effect of body contact, familiarity, and responsive parenting on attachments.

• Describe the benefits of a secure attachment and the impact of parental neglect and separation as well as day care on childhood development.

• Describe the theories of Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg.

• Describe the early development of a self-concept.

• Distinguish between longitudinal and cross-sectional studies.

Major Assignments:

1. Case Studies over Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development, Piaget’s Cognitive Stages of Development, Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development and Kohlberg’s Moral Stages of Development

2. Case Study: James Marcia’s Identity Achievement Chart

Essential Questions:

1. What does genetic influence mean?

2. Why should pregnant women stay away from tobacco and alcohol?

3. How do babies think?

4. How do infants become attached to their caregivers?

5. What threatens adolescents’ self-esteem?

6. What developmental changes occur in adulthood?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Accommodation gender roles

Assimilation generativity

Attachment genes

Authoritarian parents identity crisis

Authoritative parents information processing

Behavioral genetics maturation

Chromosomes midlife transition

Concrete operations object permanence

Conservation permissive parents

Conventional postconventional

Critical period preconventional

Deoxyribonucleic acid preoperational period

Developmental psychology puberty

Embryo reflexes

Ethnic identity schemas

Fetal alcohol syndrome sensorimotor period

Fetus socialization

Formal operational period temperament

Teratogens

Terminal drop

Unit IV: States of Consciousness

A. Sleep and Dreaming

B. Hypnosis

C. Psychoactive Drug Effects

Objectives

Students will:

• Describe the cyclical nature and possible functions of sleep.

• Identify the major sleep disorders.

• Discuss the content and possible functions of dreams.

• Discuss hypnosis, noting the behavior of hypnotized people and claims regarding its uses.

• Discuss the nature of drug dependence.

• Chart names and effects of depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogenic drugs.

• Compare differences between NREM and REM.

• Describe the physiological and psychological effects of depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens.

Major Assignments:

1. Critical Thinking exercise: Can subliminal messages change your behavior?

2. Case Study: Subliminal messages in rock music.

Essential Questions:

1. Can unconscious thoughts affect your behavior?

2. Does brain activity stop when you are asleep?

3. Can you be hypnotized against your will?

4. How do drugs affect the brain?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Addiction psychoactive drugs

Agonists psychological dependence

Altered state of consciousness psychopharmacology

Antagonists rapid eye movement sleep

Blood-brain barrier REM behavior disorder

Circadian rhythm role theory

Conscious level sleep apnea

Consciousness sleepwalking

Depressants slow-wave sleep

Dissociation theory state of consciousness

Hallucinogens state theory

Hypnosis stimulants

Hypnotic susceptibility subconscious

Insomnia substance abuse

Jet lag sudden infant death syndrome

Lucid dreaming tolerance

Narcolepsy unconscious

Night terrors withdrawal syndrome

Nonconscious level

Opiates

Preconscious level

Unit V: Sensation & Perception

A. Thresholds

B. Sensory Mechanisms

C. Sensory Adaptation

D. Attention

E. Perceptual Processes

Objectives

Students will:

• Contrast the processes of sensation and perception.

• Distinguish between absolute and difference thresholds.

• Label a diagram of the parts of the eye and ear.

• Describe the operation of the sensory systems (five senses).

• Explain the Young-Helmholtz and opponent-process theories of color vision.

• Explain the place and frequency theories of pitch perception.

• Discuss Gestalt psychology’s contribution to our understanding of perception.

• Discuss research on depth perception and cues.

Major Assignments:

1. Case Study: Attention and the Brain

Essential Questions:

1. What is the difference between sensation and perception?

2. How does information from my sensory organs to my brain?

3. How do sensations become perceptions?

4. What determines how I perceive my world?

5. Can you “run out” of attention?

Key Terms/Vocabulary

Absolute threshold olfactory bulb

Accessory structures opponent-process theory

Accommodation optic nerve

Adaptation papillae

Amplitude perception

Analgesia perceptual constancy

Attention pheromones

Auditory nerve photoreceptors

Basilar membrane pinna

Binocular disparity pitch

Blind spot place theory

Bottom-up processing proprioceptive

Brightness pupil

Cochlea receptors

Coding response criterion

Cones retina

Convergence rods

Cornea saturation

Dark adaptation schemas

Depth perception sensations

Eardrum sense

Feature detectors sense of smell

Figure sense of taste

Fovea sensitivity

Frequency signal-detection theory

Gate control theory somatic senses

Ground sound

Hue stroboscopic motion

Internal noise timbre

Iris top-down processing

Just-noticeable difference transduction

Kinesthesia trichromatic theory

Lens vestibular sense

Light intensity visible light

Light wavelength visible sense

Looming volley theory

Loudness wavelength

Weber’s Law

Unit VI: Learning

A. Classical Conditioning

B. Operant Conditioning

C. Cognitive Processes in Learning

D. Biological Factors

E. Social Learning (Observational Learning)

Objectives

Students will:

• Describe the process of classical conditioning (Pavlov’s experiments).

• Explain the processes of acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination.

• Describe the process of operant conditioning, including the procedure of shaping, as demonstrated by Skinner’s experiments.

• Identify the different types of reinforcers and describe the schedules of reinforcement.

• Discuss the importance of cognitive processes and biological predispositions in conditioning.

• Discuss the effects of punishment on behavior.

• Describe the process of observational learning (Bandura’s experiments).

Major Assignments:

1. Linking exercise: Learning and Consciousness

2. Case Study: The “I can’t do it” attitude

3. Critical Thinking exercise: Does watching violence on television make people more violent?

Essential Questions:

1. How did Pavlov’s experiments help teach psychologists about learning?

2. How do reward and punishment work?

3. Can people learn to be helpless?

4. What should teachers learn about learning?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Avoidance conditioning partial reinforcement extinction effect

Classical conditioning positive reinforcers

Cognitive map primary reinforcers

Conditioned response punishment

Conditioned stimulus reconditioning

Discriminative stimuli reinforcer

Escape conditioning second-order conditioning

Extinction secondary reinforcers

Habituation shaping

Insight spontaneous recovery

Latent learning stimulus discrimination

Law of effect stimulus generalization

Learned helplessness unconditioned response

Learning unconditioned stimulus

Negative reinforcers vicarious conditioning

Observational learning

Operant

Operant conditioning

Unit VII: Memory

A. Memory

Objectives

Students will:

• Describe memory in terms of information processing, and distinguish among sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

• Distinguish between automatic and effortful processing.

• Explain the encoding process (including imagery, organization, etc.).

• Describe the capacity and duration of long-term memory.

• Distinguish between implicit and explicit memory.

• Describe the importance of retrieval cues.

? Discuss the effects of interference and motivated forgetting on retrieval.

• Describe the evidence for the constructive nature of memory.

Major assignments:

1. Critical thinking exercise: Can traumatic memories be repressed, then recovered?

2. Linking exercise: Memory in the courtroom

Essential Questions:

1. How does information turn into memories?

2. What is one most likely to remember?

3. How do we retrieve stored memories?

4. How accurate are memories?

5. What causes us to forget things?

6. How does the brain change when it stores a memory?

7. How much can the brain remember?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Acoustic codes parallel distributed processing

Anterograde amnesia primacy effect

Brown-Peterson procedure proactive interference

Chunks procedural memory

Context-dependent memories recency effect

Decay retrieval

Elaborative rehearsal retrieval cues

Encoding retroactive interference

Encoding specificity principle retrograde amnesia

Episodic memory schemas

Explicit memory selective attention

Immediate memory span semantic codes

Implicit memory semantic memory

Information-processing model sensory registers

Interference short-term memory

Levels-of-processing model spreading activation

Long-term memory state-dependent memory

Maintenance rehearsal storage

Method of savings transfer-appropriate processing model

Mnemonics visual codes

Working memory

Unit VIII: Thinking and Language

A. Language

B. Thinking

C. Problem Solving and Creativity

Objectives

Students will:

• Describe the nature of concepts and the role of prototypes in concept formation.

• Discuss how we use trial and error, algorithms, heuristics, and insight to solve problems.

• Explain how the representativeness and availability heuristics influence our judgments.

• Describe the structure of language (phonemes, morphemes, grammar).

• Identify language developmental stages (babbling, one word, etc.).

• Explain how the nature-nurture debate is illustrated in the theories of language development.

• Discuss Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis.

• Describe the research on animal cognition and communication.

Major Assignments:

1. Case Study: IQ Tests and bias

2. Charting exercise: Problem-solving strategies in the real world

Essential Questions:

1. What is good thinking?

2. What are thoughts made of?

3. What is logical thinking?

4. What is the best way to problem solve?

5. How is language developed?

6. How is intelligence measured?

7. How good are IQ tests?

8. Is there more than one type of intelligence?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Algorithms intelligence quotient

Anchoring heuristic IQ test

Artificial intelligence language

Availability heuristic mental models

Babblings mental set

Cognitive map natural concepts

Concepts norms

Confirmation bias performance scale

Convergent thinking propositions

Creativity prototype

Divergent thinking reliability

Expected value representativeness heuristic

Familial retardation rules of logic

Formal concept schemas

Formal reasoning scripts

Functional fixedness Stanford-Binet

Grammar telegraphic

Heuristics test

Images thinking

Informal reasoning utility

Information-processing system validity

Intelligence verbal scale

Unit IX: Motivation and Emotion

A. Biological Bases

B. Theories of Motivation

C. Hunger, Thirst, Sex, and Pain

D. Social Motives

E. Theories of Emotion

F. Stress

Objectives

Students will:

• Define motivation and identify motivational theories.

• Describe the physiological determinants of hunger.

• Discuss psychological and cultural influences on hunger.

• Define achievement motivation, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

• Identify the three theories of emotion (James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter-Singer).

• Describe the physiological changes that occur during emotional arousal.

• Discuss the catharsis hypothesis.

• Describe the biological response to stress.

Major Assignments:

1. Debate exercise: Homosexuality-environment or heredity

Essential Questions:

1. Where does motivation come from?

2. Why do some try harder than others?

3. Which motives move people the most?

4. How do feelings differ from thoughts?

5. Is emotion in the heart, in the head, or both?

6. Which emotional expressions are innate, and which are learned?

7. What do health psychologists do?

8. How do psychological stressors affect physical health?

9. How do people react to stressors?

10. How does stress affect your immune system?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Androgens motivation

Anorexia nervosa motive

Arousal need

Arousal theory need achievement

Attribution obesity

Bisexual parasympathetic nervous system

Bulimia nervosa primary drives

Drive progestins

Drive reduction theory satiety

Emotion secondary drives

Estrogens sex hormones

Excitation transfer sexual dysfunctions

Fight-or-flight syndrome sexual response cycle

Heterosexual social referencing

Homosexual subjective well-being

Hunger sympathetic nervous system

Incentive theory burnout

Instinct theory diseases of adaptation

Instincts general adaptation syndrome

Health promotion health psychology

Immune system posttraumatic stress syndrome

Psychoneuroimmunology social support network

Stress stress reactions

stressors

Unit X: Testing and Individual Differences

A. Standardization and Norms

B. Reliability and Validity

C. Types of Tests

D. Ethics and Standards in Testing

E. Intelligence

F. Heredity/Environment and Intelligence

G. Human Diversity

Objectives

Students will:

• Trace the origins of intelligence testing.

• Describe the nature of intelligence.

• Identify the factors associated with creativity.

• Distinguish between aptitude and achievement tests.

• Describe test standardization.

• Distinguish between the reliability and validity of intelligence tests.

• Describe the two extremes of the normal distribution of intelligence.

• Discuss evidence for both genetic and environmental influences on intelligence.

• Discuss whether intelligence tests are culturally biased.

Unit XI: Personality

A. Personality Theories and Approaches

B. Assessment Techniques

C. Self-concept/Self-esteem

D. Growth and Adjustment

Objectives

Students will:

• Describe personality structure in terms of the interactions of the id, ego, and superego.

• Explain how defense mechanisms protect the individual from anxiety.

• Describe the contributions of the neo-Freudians.

• Explain how personality inventories are used to assess traits.

• Describe the humanistic perspective on personality in terms of Maslow’s focus on self-actualization and Rogers’ emphasis on people’s potential for growth.

• Describe the impact of individualism and collectivism on self-identity.

• Describe the social-cognitive perspective on personality.

• Discuss the consequences of personal control, learned helplessness, and optimism.

Major Assignments:

1. Online activities: personality tests and their differences

Essential Questions:

1. What personality traits are most basic?

2. Do we learn our personality?

3. How do psychologists measure personality?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Actualizing tendency anal stage

Big-five model conditions of worth

Defense mechanisms ego

Electra complex five-factor model

Genital stage humanistic approach

Id latency period

Objective personality tests Oedipus complex

Oral stage personality

Phallic stage pleasure principle

Pleasure principle projective personality tests

Psychodynamic approach reality principle

Psychosexual stages self-concept

Self-efficacy social-cognitive approach

Superego trait approach

Unit XII: Abnormal Psychology

A. Definitions of Abnormality

B. Theories of Psychopathology

C. Diagnosis of Psychopathology

D. Anxiety Disorders

E. Somatoform Disorders

F. Mood Disorders

G. Schizophrenic Disorders

H. Organic Disorders

I. Personality Disorders

J. Dissociative Disorders

Objectives

Students will:

• Identify the criteria for judging whether behavior is psychologically disordered.

• Describe the medical model of psychological disorders.

• Describe the aims of DSM-IV, and discuss the potential dangers of diagnostic labels.

• Describe the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

• Describe and explain the development of somatoform and mood disorders.

• Describe the various symptoms and types of schizophrenia.

• Describe the nature of organic and personality disorders.

• Describe the characteristics and possible causes of dissociative disorders.

Major Assignments:

1. Case Study: Development of the DSM-IV

Essential Questions:

1. How do psychologists define abnormal behavior?

2. What causes abnormality?

3. How many psychological disorders have been identified?

4. What is a phobia?

5. How common is depression?

6. What is schizophrenia?

7. How do children’s disorders differ from adult’s disorders?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Addiction agoraphobia

Alcoholism antisocial personality disorder

Anxiety disorder biopsychosocial model

Bipolar disorder conversion disorder

Cyclothymic disorder delusions

Diathesis-stress dissociative amnesia

Dissociative disorders dissociative fugue

Dissociative identity disorder dysthymic disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder hallucinations

Hypochondriasis impaired functioning

Major depressive disorder mania

Mood disorder neurobiological model

Obsessive-compulsive disorder pain disorder

Panic disorder personality disorders

Phobia psychological model

Psychopathology schizophrenia

Social phobias sociocultural model

Somatization disorder specific phobias

Substance-related disorders

Unit XIII: Treatment of Psychological Disorders

A. Treatment Approaches

B. Modes of Therapy (e.g., individual, group)

C. Community and Preventive Approaches

Objectives

Students will:

• Discuss the aims and methods of psychoanalysis.

• Identify the basic characteristics of the humanistic therapies.

• Identify the basic assumptions of behavior therapy.

• Describe the assumptions and goals of the cognitive therapies.

• Discuss the benefits of group therapy and family therapy.

• Discuss the findings regarding the effectiveness of the psychotherapies.

• Discuss the role of values and cultural differences in the therapeutic process.

• Identify the common forms of drug therapy and the use of electroconvulsive therapy.

Major Assignments:

1. Research links: Which therapies work best.

Essential Questions:

1. What features do all treatment techniques have in common?

2. Why won’ some therapists give advice?

3. Can we lean to conquer fears?

4. How does group therapy differ from individual therapy?

5. How effective is psychotherapy?

6. Is electric shock still used to treat disorders?

7. How can we prevent psychological disorders?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Antidepressants anxiolytics

Assertiveness training aversive conditioning

Behavior modification behavior therapy

Client-centered therapy cognitive-behavior therapy

Cognitive therapy community psychology

Congruence couple therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy empathy

Empirically supported therapies extinction

Family therapy flooding

Gestalt therapy group therapy

Modeling neuroleptics

Person-centered therapy positive reinforcement

Psychiatrists psychoanalysis

Psychologists punishment

Psychotherapy rational-emotive behavior therapy

Reflection systematic desensitization

Token economy unconditional positive regard

Unit XIV: Social Psychology

A. Group Dynamics

B. Attribution Process

C. Interpersonal Perception

D. Conformity, Compliance, Obedience

E. Attitudes and Attitude Change

F. Organizational Behavior

G. Aggression/Antisocial Behavior

Objectives

Students will:

• Describe the importance of attribution in social behavior.

• Explain the effect of role-playing on attitudes in terms of cognitive dissonance theory.

• Discuss the results of Asch’s experiment on conformity.

• Describe Milgram’s controversial experiments on obedience.

• Discuss how group interaction can facilitate group polarization and groupthink.

• Describe the social, emotional, and cognitive factors that contribute to the persistence of cultural, ethnic, and gender prejudice and discrimination.

• Discuss the issues related to aggression and attraction.

• Explain altruistic behavior in terms of social exchange theory and social norms.

Major Assignments:

1. Debate activity: Social influences on the self

2. Research activity: How have social norms changed.

Essential Questions:

1. How do we compare ourselves with others?

2. Do we perceive people and objects in similar ways?

3. Do attitudes always determine behavior?

4. How does prejudice develop?

5. What factors affect who likes whom?

6. What social rules shape our behavior?

7. How far will people go in obeying authority?

8. Are people born aggressive?

9. What motivates people to help one another?

10. What makes a good leader?

Key Terms/vocabulary

Actor-observer bias aggression

Altruism arousal:cost-reward theory

Attitude attribution

Bystander effect cognitive dissonance theory

Competition compliance

Conflict conformity

Contact hypothesis cooperation

Deindividuation discrimination

Elaboration likelihood model empathy-altruism theory

Environmental psychology frustration-aggression hypothesis

Fundamental attribution error groupthink

Helping behavior matching hypothesis

Norms obedience

Person-oriented leaders prejudice

Reference groups relative deprivation

Schemas self-concept

Self-esteem self-fulfilling prophecy

Self-serving bias social cognition

Social comparison social dilemmas

Social facilitation social identity

Social impairment social loafing

Social neuroscience social perception

Social psychology stereotypes

Task-oriented leaders

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