Download AP Psychology - Ashe County High School

AP Psychology
Course Description and Objectives
This is a year-long course designed to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of an
introductory college course in psychology. Students will be introduced to the systematic and scientific study of
the behavioral and mental processes of human beings and animals.
The course provides instruction in empirically supported psychological facts, research findings, terminology,
major figures, and perspectives. The course also teaches ethical standards and research methods used in
psychological science and practice.
The course is taught at the collegiate level and students’ study habits should reflect this fact. The basic objective
of this course is to introduce students to the methods, research, and theory of psychology and their applications
in the real world. It is hoped that knowledge of psychological inquiry will provide participants with a way of
perceiving aspects of the world around them, insights into their own and others' behavior, and an appreciation
of the complexity of human behavior.
Textbook
Weiten, J. (2007). Variations, Psychology: Themes & Variations (7th ed.). Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth.
Teacher Resources
Hock, R. R. (2012). Forty Studies that Changed Psychology (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
Krieger, L. (2011). AP Psychology Crash Course. Piscataway: Research & Education Association Inc.
Myers, D. G. (2013). Psychology (10th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.
AP Released Exams in Psychology from 1994 and 1999, and previously asked Free-Response Questions dating
back to 1995.
Additional Student Resources
Bink, M. (2007). Bink, MartinFeatured Studies Reader for Weiten's Psychology: Themes & Variations. Belmont:
Thomson Wadsworth.
*Students will be given access to our class’s Edmodo account during the first class period. This will provide
students with the agenda and reading schedule for the week, as well as featured studies, upcoming lab
exercises, readings on original research, and assignment due-dates. The website also serves as a forum to allow
for debate and class discussion.
Grading Policy
20%
30%
50%
Participation (class conduct and discussion)
Preparation (daily assignments and quizzes)
Evaluation (tests, writing, projects, research, and oral presentations)
To the Student
Consult the class website for due dates of readings and assignments. Because multiple choice portions of the
exams are done online, their dates are locked into place. Time before and after school to complete the exams will
be allotted for students without internet access at home. All assignments will be due when the tardy bell rings
on the due date. No late work will be accepted under any circumstance. You are required to keep up with every
reading.
The course will cover a large amount of content. The study of Psychology is both historical and contemporary.
Therefore, it is essential that students remain aware of what is happening in the world. It is suggested that
regular reading of newspapers and news magazines, as well as the regular viewing of news broadcasts, be
maintained throughout the course.
Furthermore, our textbook is used to supplement our class’s study of psychology, not as a pacing guide. We will
often read chapters out of sequence. Additionally, a large portion of class time and out-of-class studying will be
devoted to reading current research, psychological experiments, and other sources to help us understand this
rapidly evolving science. The students’ supplemental reader text (Bink) that accompanies our textbook has an
empirically supported featured study that correlates with the themes addressed in each chapter. Students will
be responsible for reading these studies before the designated class period that is devoted to discussing the
study.
Course Plan and Outline
Unit I: History, Approaches, and Research Methods
Essential Questions
 What is psychology and what are its roots?
 In what ways does psychology approach the study of human and animal behavior?
 How do the different perspectives in psychology compare and contrast?
 Who contributed to the evolution of psychology as a science and how did they contribute?
 What does it mean to be a psychologist?
 How do psychologists conduct research?
 How do we draw conclusions from data?
 How do we conduct ethical research?
 Which methods of research are appropriate for the study of different behaviors?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 1: The Evolution of Psychology; 2: The Research Enterprise in Psychology
Unit II: Biological Basis of Behavior
Essential Questions
 What are the building blocks of behavior?
 Why do we say nature and nurture are intertwined?
 How do the biological processes work to create and sustain behavior?
 How does damage to a biological process or part affect behavior?
 What is the field of behavioral genetics?
 How does evolution influence behavior?
 How do neurons communicate?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 3: The Biological Bases of Behavior
Unit III: Developmental Psychology
Essential Questions
 What does it mean to develop?
 How do we change prenatally?
 What physical and cognitive changes occur in infancy and childhood?
 How do social and emotional behaviors change during infancy and childhood?
 What does it mean to be an adolescent?
 What does it mean to be an adult?
 What is late adulthood like?
 How do people develop physically, intellectually, and socially in the life span?
 How does morality and personality change through the life span?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter: 11 Human Development Across the Life Span
Unit IV: States of Consciousness
Essential Questions
 What does it mean to be conscious?
 What happens to consciousness during wakefulness and sleep?
 How is consciousness affected by brain damage?
 How can consciousness be altered?
 How do we know whether hypnosis is a real psychological phenomenon?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 5: Variations in Consciousness
Unit V: Sensation and Perception
Essential Questions
 How many senses do we have, and how do they receive and translate signals to our brain?
 What part does our brain play in sensation and perception?
 How does sensation lead to perception?
 How does each of the senses affect behavior?
 Do our senses convey accurate representations of the world around us?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 4: Sensation and Perception.
Unit VI: Learning
Essential Questions
 How do psychologists define learning?
 How do instincts and reflexes relate to learning?
 What is classical conditioning?
 What is operant conditioning?
 What is observational learning?
 How are the various principles discussed different and similar?
Central Objectives
 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).
Textbook Reading- Chapter 6: Learning
Unit VII: Memory
Essential Questions
 What are the advantages of memory?
 What are the different types of memory?
 How is memory organized?
 How do we retrieve memories?
 How accurate are memories?
 Why do we forget?
 What is the biology of memory?
 How can we improve memory?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 7: Human Memory
Unit VIII: Thinking and Language
Essential Questions
 How do humans think?
 In what ways is thinking flawed or constrained?
 How do humans acquire language?
 How is language flawed or constrained?
 How does language influence thought and behavior?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 8: Language and Thought
Unit IX: Motivation and Emotion
Essential Questions
 How are motivation and emotion related?
 What does it mean to be motivated?
 Why are we emotional and what does that mean?
 What methods of motivation are more effective than others?
 What is the role of hunger in motivating behavior?
 How do cognitions affect emotions?
Central Objectives
 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/sexual arousal.
 Discuss the catharsis hypothesis.
 Describe the biological response to stress.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 10: Motivation and Emotion
Unit X: Testing and Individual Differences
Essential Questions
 How do psychologists define and study intelligence?
 How do testing scores differ between group administrations and individual administrations of intelligence
tests?
 How do testing scores differ between genders, races, cultures, and other groups?
 How do psychologists know whether a test is reliable and/or valid? Why are these qualities of tests
important?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 9: Intelligence and Psychological Testing
Unit XI: Personality
Essential Questions
 What is personality?
 How do psychodynamic theories explain personality?
 How do trait theories explain personality?
 How do biological theories explain personality?
 How do situations affect personality?
 How can we assess personality?
 What does it mean to have a self?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapters 12: Personality: Theory, Research, and Assessment
Unit XII: Abnormal Psychology
Essential Questions
 What does it mean to have a psychological disorder?
 How are psychological disorders diagnosed?
 What are anxiety disorders?
 What are mood disorders?
 What are dissociative disorders?
 What are somatoform disorders?
 What is schizophrenia?
 What are personality disorders?
 What impact do these psychological disorders have on individuals, families, communities, and society?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 14: Psychological Disorders
Unit XIII: Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Essential Questions
 How do psychologists provide therapy?
 What different types of therapies exist and how effective are they?
 How are specific disorders treated?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 15: Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Unit XIV: Social Psychology
Essential Questions
 Why and how are humans social?
 How accurate are first impressions?
 Why are we prejudiced?
 How are our attitudes influenced by others?
 How do groups influence our behavior and thought?
 How well do we get along with others?
 Why do we cooperate in some situations and compete in others?
 How do psychologists define culture? What influence does culture have on individuals and groups?
Central Objectives
 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.
Textbook Reading- Chapter 16: Social Behavior