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AP PSYCHOLOGY
Syllabus
Class Schedule: This is a full-year, 2 credit course.
Course Objectives:
This course is designed to:
 Introduce students to the systematic and scientific study of human behavior and
mental processes.
 Enhance understanding and application of psychological concepts and principles
in students’ lives.
 Present the required curriculum in preparation for the Advanced Placement
Psychology exam.
Basic Course Description:
The range of topics in this course is designed to introduce students to the comprehensive
study of psychology. Students are exposed to the psychological facts, principles, and
phenomena associated with the 14 content areas outlined in the College Board’s AP
Psychology Course Description and the major domains as specified in the national
standards.
Primary Text and Resources:
 Myers, David, Psychology 8th Edition, (New York: Worth Publishers, 2007),
including instructor’s resource binder, study guide, and test bank.
 Discovering Psychology Video Series, Anneberg CPB Multimedia
 Activities Handbook for the Teaching of Psychology,
 Sattler, David and Shabatay, Virginia, Psychology in Context, Voices and
Perspectives, (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997)
 APA, TOPPS Unit Plans
 College Board, Released exams and rubrics
 Other miscellaneous case studies, articles, and research papers.
Materials Required:
2” Binder with dividers
2 Notebooks (notes, observation journal)
Grading:
Grades are determined on a point system and based on your performance on class and
homework assignments, projects, quizzes (both vocabulary and reading), and tests.
Performance standards on assignments, projects, and quizzes are set by the instructor.
Tests are cumulative and modeled on the AP Exam.
Other Assessments:
 Students choose 1 book from an approved list and write a book review and
analysis of topic content. Topics include; adolescence, death and dying, cognitive
abilities and dysfunction, group dynamics, neurological disorders, and
conformity.
 Students keep an observation journal to facilitate application of concepts outside
the classroom setting. Students write entries based on personal experience, news,
television, music, and observation.
AP Psychology Exam Date: _____________________________
NOTE: This course covers all the required content set forth by the College Board. All
students taking this course are expected to take the exam.
Extra Credit:
Opportunities for extra credit are limited. Your time should be devoted to mastering the
assigned work.
Policies:
 I DO NOT ACCEPT LATE WORK
 CHEATING IN ANY MANNER ON ANY ASSIGNMENT IS NOT
TOLERATED.
Reading Assignments: Page numbers in parenthesis.
COURSE OUTLINE
I. Scope, History, and Methodology (1-51)
Historical Schools: Functionalism vs. Structuralism
Modern Approaches: Psychodynamic, Behaviorist, Cognitive, Humanistic,
Evolutionary, Neuroscience, Social Cultural
Names and contributions: Freud, Watson, Skinner, Rogers, and others.
Nature of Scientific Inquiry: Sources of bias and error
Research Methods: Introspection, observation, survey, psychological testing,
controlled experiments
Statistics: Central tendency, variance, significance, correlation
Ethics in Research: Human participants, animal subjects
Major Objectives:
 Describe behavior and mental processes as proposed by each psychological
perspective
 Differentiate between the BIG issues in the study of Psychology
 Identify basic and applied research subfields in Psychology.
 Compare and contrast major research methods
 Use statistical methods in performing research
Unit Project: Students write a proposal for a research project, carry out the research
including ethical considerations and statistical measurements, and present their findings
to the instructor and class.
II. Neuroscience (53-93)
Neuron: Neuronal and synaptic transmission, psychopharmacology, drug abuse
Brain: Research methodology, microanatomy, brain development and aging,
hemispheric specialization
Nervous System: Structural and functional organization
Endocrine System: Anatomy, HPA-axis, and immune system
Genetics and Heritability
Major Objectives:
 Demonstrate the structure of a neuron and neural communication
 Describe techniques for studying the brain
 Identify location of various parts of the brain and corresponding functions
 Discuss the nature, function, and interaction between the endocrine and nervous
systems.
Sample Activity: Students design, create, and label a model brain.
III. Social Psychology (723-771)
Attitudes and Behavior: Fundamental attribution error, roles, Festinger and
cognitive dissonance, interpersonal perception
Group Influence: Asch and conformity, Milgram and obedience, facilitation and
loafing, Janis and groupthink
Prejudice and Scapegoating
Major Objectives:
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Understanding the importance of attribution in social behavior
Discuss the results of research in conformity and obedience
Demonstrate social facilitation, social loafing, and deindividuation
Describe impact of biological factors, aversive events, and experience on aggressive
behavior
Understand small and large group dynamics and behavior
Sample Activity: Students are to get a group to perform some benign behavior (ex: stare
at the ceiling in order to get an entire class to stare as well).
IV. Developmental Psychology (95-195)
Methodology: Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies
Nature vs. Nurture (maturation versus learning)
Influential Theories: Piaget and cognitive development, Freud and psychosexual
development, Kohlberg and moral development, Erikson and social
development, Gilligan and gender differentiation Infancy, Childhood,
Adolescence, and Adulthood
Major Objectives:
 Identify the composition and location of genes
 Differentiate hereditary and environmental influences via understanding of twin and
adoption studies
 Describe how behavior geneticists estimate trait heritability.
 Discuss how development is influenced by peer and culture groups
 Define development in terms of major developmental theories
 Identify major developmental changes over the lifespan
Sample Activity: Students “show-and-tell” about a developmental toy along with a
written and presentation component.
V. Sensation and Perception (197-269)
Thresholds: (absolute, difference, Weber’s constants), signal detection theory
Sensory Organs and Transduction: Visual (including color vision and feature
detection), auditory, olfactory, gustatory, cutaneous, kinesthetic, and vestibular.
Perception: Attention, processing, illusions (including Gestalt psychology),
constancies, and camouflage
Major Objectives:
 Differentiate the processes of sensation and perception
 Distinguish between absolute and difference thresholds
 Identify parts of the eye and discuss different levels of visual processing
 Identify parts of the ear and explain the auditory process as well as how we locate
sounds
 Explain place and frequency theories
 Contrast conductive and sensoryneural deafness
 Explain the chemical nature and process of taste and smell
 Describe the components of touch
 Distinguish between kinesthesis and vestibular sense.
 Define perceptual constancies and how they are used to help interpret information
 Identify monocular and binocular cues used in depth perception
 Discuss influences of experiences, assumptions, expectations, and context on
perceptions.
Sample Activity: Students participate in vision, sound location, and sensory interaction
demonstrations.
VI. Consciousness, Memory, and Language
States of Consciousness: Waking, sleep and dreaming, hypnosis, altered states
(271-311)
Memory: Types, processing (encoding, storing, retrieving), long-term, shortterm (349-393)
Accuracy of Memory: Loftus and Schacter, memory construction, eyewitness
recall
Cognition: Problem solving, heuristics, making decisions, forming judgements,
and creativity (395-409)
Language: development, nature v. nurture, Skinner and Chomsky (410-421)
Major Objectives:
 Contrast conscious and subconscious information processing
 Understand importance of biological rhythms
 Describe the cyclical nature and possible functions of sleep, and identify major sleep
disorders
 Classify drugs according to the biological and psychological effects
 Discuss meditation, hypnosis, biofeedback and their uses
 Debate whether near-death experiences provide evidence for a min-body dualism.
 Distinguish between short-term, long-term, and sensory memory
 Describe memory in terms of information processing.
 Contrast recall and recognition, and distinguish between explicit and implicit
memory
 Demonstrate various strategies used in solving different types of problems.
 Discuss how beliefs distort logical reasoning.
 Describe obstacles in problem solving such as fixation and confirmation bias
 Explain the structure of language, and identify the stages of language acquisition
 Discuss the relationship between thought and language
Sample Activity: Students solve a variety of paper and hands-on problems including
analogies, riddles, and mind teaser manipulatives.
VII. Behaviorism (313-347)
Historical Background and Philosophy of Radical Behaviorism
Classical Conditioning: Pavlov, Watson, applications, biological critique,
cognitivist challenge
Operant Conditioning: Thorndike, Skinner, Bandura, behavior modification,
biological critique, cognitivist challenge
Learning by observation: Bandura’s experiments, social learning theory,
applications of observational learning.
Major Objectives:
 Describe how behaviorism approached the study of learning.
 Describe the principles of classical conditioning and operant conditioning
 Identify types of reinforcers and describe the major schedules of reinforcement
 Explain the importance of cognitive processes and biological predispositions in
operant conditioning.
 Discuss process of observational learning and impact of antisocial and prosocial
modeling.
Unit Project: Students apply conditioning principles by creating and following a
behavioral modification program.
VIII. Intelligence and Psychological Testing (431-467)
Psychological Testing: Methodology, norms, reliability, validity, normal
distribution
Intelligence: Defining intelligence, intelligence extremes, history of intelligence
and aptitude testing, principles of test construction, nature-nurture issues
Major Objectives:
 Describe the nature of intelligence.
 Discuss assessment of intelligence
 Discuss the genetic and environmental influences on intelligence.
 Identify the factors associated with creativity and describe the relationship between
creativity and intelligence.
IX. Motivation and Emotions (469-547)
Motivational Concepts/Theories: Instincts, drives, optimal arousal, Maslow’s
hierarchy
Hunger: physiology and psychology of hunger, and Eating Disorders
Sexuality and Sexual Orientation
Achievement Motivation: McClelland and the TAT, intrinsic versus extrinsic
motivators
Physiology of Emotion: Fear, anger, happiness
Expression and Experience of Emotion: cultural similarities and differences,
Darwin and Ekman
Theories of Emotion: James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schacter-Singer
Major Objectives:
 Describe determinants of hunger.
 Explain human sexual response cycle, impact of hormones and other factors on
sexual motivation
 Distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation
 Identify components of emotion, and contrast the major theories of emotion
 Describe the connection between certain physiological states and specific emotions.
 Identify some nonverbal indicators of emotion.
Sample Activity: Students take an “emotion” walk and write about the effects of
expression on emotion.
X. Personality (595-637)
Psychodynamic Perspective: Freud, Jung, Adler
Trait Perspective: Allport, factor analysis and the five-factor model, assessment
(Myers-Briggs, MMPI)
Humanistic Perspective: Maslow and Rogers
Social-Cognitive Perspective: Bandura and Seligman
Major Objective:
 Describe personality structure and development according to psychoanalytic theory
 Explain how defense mechanisms protect individual from anxiety
 Explain how projective tests are used to assess personality
 Describe how personality inventories and factor analysis are used to assess traits.
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Describe humanistic psychologist’s approach to personality assessment
Explain reciprocal determinism in reference to the social-cognitive perspective.
Sample Activity: Students find their theme song that best suits their major personality
traits.
XI. Stress and Health (549-593)
Stress as a Concept: Selye
Stress and Health: stressors, stress response system, stress and immune system
Adjustment: modifying behavior
Major Objectives:
 Identify major concerns in health psychology.
 Discuss health consequences of stressful life events, pessimistic outlook, and
personality type.
 Describe how stress increases risk of disease and the impact it has on the immune
system.
XII. Abnormal Psychology and Treatment (639-721)
Approaches to Abnormality: Historical approaches (deviance), the medical
model, the biopsychosocial model
Classifying Disorders: Evolution of the DSM-IV-TR
Major Categories of Disorders: Anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, mood
disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders
Major Approaches to Psychotherapy: Psychoanalysis, behavioristic, humanistic,
cognitive, group, pharmacological
Major Objectives:
 Identify criteria for judging disordered behavior.
 Describe the medical model of disorders.
 Classify psychological disorders (Anxiety, Mood, Dissociative, Personality,
Schizophrenia), based on the development and symptoms of each disorder.
 Discuss prevalence of various disorders and timing of onset.
 Identify basic characteristics and methods of Psychoanalysis, Humanistic therapies,
Behavior and Cognitive therapies.
 Discuss the rationale and benefits of group therapy.
 Identify common forms of drug therapy.
Sample Activity: Case study critique.