Download AP Psychology

Ms. Amy McGregor
AP Psychology
[email protected]
AP Psychology
2016-2017
Class Rules Guidelines and Expectations
Welcome to AP Psychology. I am excited to facilitate your journey to the AP Psychology Exam on May
1st, 2017. This class will be taught as a college-level Introduction to Psychology class. For those of you
who have had AP classes before, you understand the difference in level of student responsibility. For
those of you who have not, you are responsible for completing the work assigned and for all of the
material in your textbook regardless of whether it is covered in class.
Course Description
This course is designed 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. They also
learn about the ethics and methods psychologists use in their science and practice.
Requirements





Textbook Reading Assignments: You are responsible for all material in each chapter, even if it is
not covered in class. You will receive a reading timeline for the chapters and are expected to
keep pace with my presentation of the material so that you can contribute to class discussion
and prepare for pop quizzes. You are expected to outline each reading assignment and will be
allowed to use those outlines on quizzes.
Key Terminology: Building vocabulary is an important part of preparing for the AP Exam. For
each chapter you will create flash cards to use as study tools. I recommend keeping them
bound with a rubber band or in a box or bag; your set will grow to contain hundreds of new
terms.
Cumulative Tests: At the end of each Unit, you will have a test. The test will mirror the AP
Exam that you will be taking in the Spring. Each test will have approximately 40 multiple choice
questions and one essay. There may be quizzes (scheduled/or pop) as well.
Rubric Day: The day after the test will be RUBRIC DAY—I will explain/show you after the first
exam. Rubric Day is an in-class activity. You will receive points for your effort in this activity.
o The hope is that you will have taken 14 “mini” practice exams and then 2 Practice AP
exams before the actual test day.
Grading Policy: The course will be graded according to the following percentages:
o Summative Assessments—60%
o Formative Assessments—40%
The course runs in concert with the description provided by the AP College Board. The entire syllabus is
available to you on my Teacher Page website. Please print it for your notebook. The topics that we will
study are organized by major concepts into 5 domains. Below each topic is a set of essential questions
that will guide our inquiry.
Methods Domain
History of Psychology (1 week)
o
o
o
o
How did philosophy and physiology affect the emergence of psychology as a science.
Who were the major psychologists and what was the contribution of each to the field?
How do the seven major psychological perspectives differ in their approaches?
What careers are available in the field of modern psychology?
Research Methods (2 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
How is the scientific method used in psychological research to systematically observe and
describe behavior?
What are the strategies used and strengths & weaknesses for each of these research methods:
naturalistic observation, case studies, surveys, and correlational studies?
What are the elements of an experiment and how can they be applied to design a research
study?
How do psychologists use statistics to find central tendency, variance, significance, and
correlation?
In what ways does the ethical code developed by the American Psychological Association guide
psychologists?
Biopsychological Domain
Biological Bases of Behavior (3 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
What makes up a nerve cell and how do neurons communicate among and within themselves?
How are synaptic transmissions affected by neurotransmitter chemical messages?
How do the nervous system and endocrine systems affect communication throughout the body?
What are the areas and structures of the brain and what is the function of each?
How do heredity, environment and evolution work together to shape behavior?
Sensation and Perception (2 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
o
What are the thresholds of our sensory experience?
How do the senses of vision and audition function? What are their anatomies, adaptations, and
disorders?
How do the chemical and body senses function?
How do we use bottom-up and top-down processing to evaluate an ever-changing
environment?
How do perceptual constancies help stabilize our environment?
What are the Gestalt principles and can we find examples from personal experiences?
o
What explains Muller-Lyer illusion and the Ames Room illusion?
Motivation and Emotion & Stress, Coping, and Health (2 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
o
What motivates human beings, internally and externally? How does Maslow answer this
Hierarchy of Needs?
What are the competing theories which seek to explain motivation? What are the biological
underpinnings of motivation?
How did research lead to our understanding of these motivational systems: eating, sex, and
social?
Evaluate these concepts of Emotion: evolutionary and biological basis of emotion; expression of
emotion; differences in expression based on culture.
In what sequence do we experience these aspects of emotion: feeling, thought, and
physiological response?
How does stress impact the body? How do we respond to stress psychologically and cope with
it?
Cognitive domain
Variations of Consciousness (1 week)
o
o
o
What happens during stages of Sleep I-IV (NREM) and REM sleep? Why do we need sleep?
What do our brains and bodies do while we sleep, and what are some of the sleep disorders?
What are the historic and contemporary uses of hypnosis? What phenomena can occur during
hypnosis?
What are the differences between the 4 categories of psychoactive drugs: depressants, opiates,
stimulants, and psychedelics? How do they affect the brain and body?
Learning (2 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
How did experiments conducted by Pavlov and Watson uncover the principles of classical
conditioning? What are these principles?
What were the contributions of Thorndike and Skinner in discovering the principles of operant
conditioning? How do reinforcement and punishment affect behavior? How are schedules and
types of reinforcement used to motivate behavior?
How do learning principles explain emotional learning, taste aversion, superstition and learned
helplessness?
How can biological constraints create learning predispositions?
What are the essential characteristics of insight learning, latent learning and social learning?
Memory, Language and Thought (3 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
o
Which mental processes are involved in encoding, storing, and retrieving information?
Which mental processes are involved in encoding, storing, and retrieving information?
How do encoding strategies, retrieval cues, and mnemonics help to improve memory?
What leads to forgetting, decay, false memories, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease?
What makes up thought; mental images and concepts?
Are there advantages and disadvantages to various problem solving strategies?
o
o
How do humans acquire language and how does it influence thinking and our perception of our
environment?
What are the characteristics of creative thought and creative thinkers?
Testing and Individual Differences (1 week)
o
o
o
o
o
o
In what ways did Binet, Terman and Wechsler measure intelligence?
Why are standardization, reliability, validity, and test norms essential to consider in constructing
sound tests?
What distinguishes aptitude tests from achievement tests, and WAIS from WISC?
How do Spearman, Gardner, Sternberg, and others define human intelligence? What determines
the range from retardation to gifted?
What are the environmental and genetic influences on intelligence?
What is the impact of cultural bias on intelligence testing?
Developmental Domain
Developmental Psychology (2 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
How do humans develop over a life span, from conception to death?
How do nature and nurture interact to determine development?
How does cognitive development progress, according to Piaget? How does psychosexual
development progress, according to Freud? How does moral development progress according
to Kohlberg and what is Gilligan’s critique of this theory?
What are reasoning differences between adolescents and children?
What influence do gender roles, gender stereotypes, and gender differences exert on
development?
Personality (2 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
What characterizes the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspective of Freud, Jung, Adler, and
Horney?
What characterizes the humanistic perspective of Rogers and Maslow? The social-cognitive
perspective of Bandura? The trait perspective of Allport, Cattel, and Eysenck?
Do all traits derive from five factors of personality?
Does behavior change depending on situational factors?
How is personality assessed through psychological tests, projective tests, and self-report
inventories?
Variations in Individual and Group Behavior Domains
Abnormal Behavior (2 weeks)
o
o
o
What are the criteria psychologists use to define and measure abnormal behavior; DSM-IV-TR?
What are the characteristics of and factors involved in the development of anxiety disorders?
Somatoform disorders? Mood disorders? Personality disorders? Dissociative disorders?
Schizophrenia?
What are the strengths and limitations of various approaches to explaining psychological
disorders: medical model, psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive, biological, and sociocultural?
Treatment of Psychological Disorders (2 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
For which disorders are psychotherapy and biomedical therapies useful? When are they useful
in combination?
On what foundation do these treatment approaches rest: psychoanalytic, behavior, cognitive,
group, family, and couple?
Evaluate each of these types of therapy based on the following:
What does each see as the source of the problem?
What are the treatment techniques for each?
What are the goals of therapy for each?
What factors contribute to the effectiveness of Psychotherapy?
Social Psychology (3 weeks)
o
o
o
o
o
o
How does attribution theory explain motives using attribution error and other attribution
processes?
How do attitudes influence behavior?
How does the presence of others influence individual and group behavior: conformity,
obedience, Milgram, Asch, deindividuation, social loafing, the power of the group, and the
power of the individual?
What causes prejudice and aggression to develop and how do they influence behavior, including
antisocial behavior?
Which factors cause attraction to others?
What are the factors that influence the likelihood of helping behavior?
Materials Needed
1. 3 Ring Binder
2. Notebook Paper (for notes and vocabulary words)
3. Notecards
4. Pens/Pencils/highlighters
Cell Phone Policy
Cell phones are not allowed to be out in the classroom. This includes time before, during, and after
class. Upon the first offense, the student will be given a verbal warning. After the first offense, the cell
phone will be confiscated until the end of the period. For any subsequent offenses, a discipline referral
may also be written.
Class Values
o
Tolerance for difference is an essential value for a psychology student to develop. The topics we
will discuss in the course are often sensitive and personal to students in the room; therefore
please remember to treat all ideas in a respectful manner. You can challenge ideas but you
o
o
cannot attack the owners of those ideas. This will be a very open class; let's make it safe to
share.
Academic honesty ensures that you demonstrate your level of knowledge and are assessed fairly
for your work. Copied or plagiarized work or cheating will receive a grade of 0 and will be
reported to an administrator and parents will be contacted.
Timely attendance to every class allows you your full opportunity for learning. Be here and
prepared when I am ready to start class!!!