Download Adlai E. Stevenson High School Course Description

Adlai E. Stevenson High School
Course Description
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
Content Objectives:
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Students will explain the relationship between physiological processes and behavior—including the influence of neural
function, the nervous system and the brain, and genetic contributions to behavior
Identify the importance of memory on human functioning and behavior
Students will examine how humans learn, remember, and retrieve information. This part of the course also addresses
problem solving, language, and creativity
Students will examine the nature of common components and challenges to adaptive functioning .
Students will explain consciousness by examining the sleep cycle, dreams, hypnosis, and the effects of psychoactive
drugs
Students will explain empirically based treatments of psychological disorders
Students will explain human development from conception to death and examine the processes that contribute to
behavioral change throughout the life span
Students will explain significant changes in the theories that psychologists use to explain behavior and mental processes.
Students will explain the importance of research in explaining behavior and making connections
Students will explain various stress patterns and the influence on an individuals well-being.
Students will explore biological and social factors that motivate behavior and biological and cultural factors that influence
emotion.
Students will explore how organisms understand the world through sensory organs and interpret that information as a
cognitive process.
Students will explore major theories of how humans develop enduring patterns of behavior and personal characteristics
that influence how others relate to them.
Students will focus on how individuals relate to one another in social situations by studying social attitudes, social
influence, and other social phenomena.
Students will have an understanding of intelligence and assessment of individual differences is highlighted in this portion
of the course . Students must understand issues related to test construction and fair use
Students will understand and differentiate between different types of learning and the effect of each on human behavior.
Content Learning Targets
Students will explain the relationship between physiological processes and behavior—including
the influence of neural function, the nervous system and the brain, and genetic contributions to
behavior
A.
Articulate the functions & malfunctions of specific neurotransmitters on behavior.
B.
Assess the significance of the endocrine system’s major glands
C.
Describe the neural impulse from it’s resting potential until it reaches the chemical synapse
D.
Describe ways in which specific hormones regulate behavior
E.
Discuss how lesioning & electrical stimulation are used to study brain function
F.
Discuss the functions of the different neurons
G.
Distinguish between genotype and phenotype
Page 1 of 10
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
H.
Distinguish between the components and functions of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system
I.
Examine the influence of agonists and antagonists on behavior.
J.
Explain advantages & limitations of various brain imaging techniques.
K.
Explain different measures that are used to assess hereditary traits.
L.
Explain how neurons communicate at the chemical synapses
M.
Explain how split-brain research changed our understanding of the brain’s hemispheric organization
N.
Explain the main functions of glial cells
O.
Identify & describe the peripheral nervous system including its subdivisions
P.
Identify & explain the function of the structures included in the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain
Q.
Identify specialized tasks of each hemisphere
R.
Identify the four lobes in the cerebral cortex and state some of their key functions
S.
Identify the key structures of the limbic system and some of their functions
T.
Identify the various parts of the neuron and the direction in which a message is transmitted.
U.
Locate and describe areas of language specialization & malfunctions
V.
Summarize evidence on the brain’s plasticity
Identify the importance of memory on human functioning and behavior
A.
Distinguish between episodic, semantic, and procedural memory
B.
Distinguish between two types of amnesia and identify the anatomical structures implicated in memory
C.
Apply the concepts of source monitoring and reality monitoring to everyday memory errors
D.
Appraise how the nature of memory is reconstructive and summarize the research on the misinformation effect
E.
Appraise the information processing model of memory
F.
Assess ineffective encoding and decay as potential causes of forgetting
G.
H.
Compare/Contrast effortful vs.. automatic processing, deep vs.. shallow processing,
focused and divided
attention
Describe conceptual hierarchies, schemas, and semantic networks and their role in LTM
I.
Describe Ebbinghaus’s learning and forgetting curves
J.
Describe the role of the sensory store in memory
K.
Describe various strategies for memory improvement
L.
Evaluate evidence on the durability and capacity of STM
M.
Evaluate interference and factors in the retrieval process as potential causes of forgetting
N.
Explain how the characteristics of flashbulb memories are unique
O.
Explain how the depth of processing during encoding contributes to retrieval
P.
Explain tip-of-the-tongue phenomena and how retrieval cues and context cues influence behavior
Q.
Identify the three types of encoding and discuss techniques for enriching encoding
Page 2 of 10
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
Students will examine how humans learn, remember, and retrieve information. This part of the
course also addresses problem solving, language, and creativity
A.
B.
Appraise the representativeness, anchoring and availability heuristics, and explain how they can cause us to
underestimate or ignore important information.
Compare algorithms and heuristics as problem solving strategies, and explain how insight differs from both of them.
C.
Define cognition.
D.
Describe the basic elements of cognition including concepts and prototypes
E.
Discuss Skinner’s and Chomsky’s contributions to the nature-nurture debate over how children acquire language,
and explain why critical periods are important concepts in children’s language learning.
Identify the various elements of the hierarchy of language including phonemes, morphemes, grammar, syntax and
semantics.
Outline the arguments for and against the idea that animals and humans share the capacity for language.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
Recognize various barriers to effective problem solving including fixation, functional fixedness, mental set,
confirmation bias, overconfidence, framing effects, gamblers fallacy, and conjunction fallacy
Summarize the effects of bilingualism on language and cognitive development.
Summarize Whorf’s linguistic determinism/relativity hypothesis, and comment on its standing in contemporary
psychology.
Trace the course of language acquisition from the babbling stage through childhood including all relevant terms.
Students will examine the nature of common components and challenges to adaptive functioning .
A.
Analyze the extent of cultural variability in the existence and presentation of mental disorders.
B.
Asses the strengths and limitations of various approaches to explaining disorders: medical model, psychoanalytic,
humanistic, cognitive, biological, and sociocultural.
Discuss the intersection between psychology and the legal system (e.g. confidentiality, insanity defense, involuntary
commitment).
Discuss the major anxiety, somatoform, mood, schizophrenic, organic, eating, personality, and dissociative
disorders. Include symptoms, subtypes, and prevalence of these disorders
Evaluate contemporary and historical conceptions of what constitutes psychological disorders including the medical
model and identify the most commonly used criteria of abnormality.
Evaluate the causes of the major disorders in this unit from the biological, cognitive and behaviorist, approaches.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
Explain how genetic vulnerability, neurochemical factors, structural abnormalities, family dynamics, and stress can
contribute to schizophrenia.
Identify the positive and negative consequences of diagnostic labels (e.g., Rosenhan study).
Outline the structure of the DSM published by the American Psychiatric Association diagnostic system and recognize
it as the primary reference for making diagnostic judgments.
Students will explain consciousness by examining the sleep cycle, dreams, hypnosis, and the
effects of psychoactive drugs
A.
Articulate the relationship between consciousness and EEG activity
B.
Articulate the symptoms of narcolepsy, sleep apnea, night terrors, nightmares, and somnambulism
C.
Assess the evidence on the long term benefits of mediation
D.
Compare REM and NREM sleep, and describe the nightly sleep cycle
E.
Compare the role playing and altered state theories of hypnosis
F.
Contrast psychological and physical dependence
G.
Describe the historic and contemporary uses of hypnosis (pain control, psychoanalysis, etc.)
H.
Discuss drug dependence, addiction, tolerance and withdrawal
Page 3 of 10
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
I.
Discuss hypnotic suggestibility and dissociation and list some prominent effects of hypnosis
J.
Discuss the nature and evolution of consciousness
K.
Discuss the nature of dreams and findings on dream content
L.
Discuss the neural and evolutionary bases of sleep
M.
Discuss the prevalence, causes, and treatment of insomnia
N.
Explain how people get out of sync with their circadian rhythms and how these rhythms can be aligned
O.
Explain the Freudian, Activation Synthesis, and problem solving theories of dreams
P.
Identify the major types of abused drugs, and explain why their effects vary
Q.
Summarize age trends in patterns of sleep and cultural influences on sleep
R.
Summarize evidence on the major health risks associated with drug abuse
S.
Summarize what is known about human biological clocks and their relationship to sleep
T.
Understand how psychoactive drugs exert their effects on the brain
Students will explain empirically based treatments of psychological disorders
A.
Compare and contrast group and individual therapy.
B.
C.
Describe how cultural and ethnic context influence choice and success of treatment (e.g. factors that lead to
premature termination of treatment)
Describe prevention strategies that build resilience and promote competence.
D.
Distinguish between the various types of mental health professionals involved in the provision of therapy.
E.
Evaluate the overall efficacy of drug treatments.
F.
Explain the goals and techniques and evaluate the efficacy for specific problems of the major types of treatment
including psychoanalytic, behavioral, humanist, and cognitive therapies.
Identify major figures in psychological treatment.
G.
H.
I.
J.
Identify the central characteristics of psychotherapeutic intervention therapy (psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive,
and humanistic) and discuss patterns of treatment seeking
Outline the goals and techniques of aversion therapy and social skills training.
Summarize the therapeutic actions and side effects of antianxiety, antipsychotic, antidepressant, and mood
stabilizing drugs.
Students will explain human development from conception to death and examine the processes
that contribute to behavioral change throughout the life span
A.
Analyze how intelligence, memory and mental speed change in later adulthood
B.
Analyze identity formation in adolescence
C.
Analyze Mary Ainsworth’s research with attachment and the behaviors of children in each category.
D.
Apply Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development and discuss Carol Gilligan’s challenges to his theory.
E.
Compare and contrast the different styles of parenting according to Baumrind.
F.
Describe Harlow’s views on contact comfort.
G.
Describe Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and his zone of proximal development.
H.
Discuss how fluid and crystallized intelligence change over one’s life span.
Page 4 of 10
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
I.
Discuss potential teratogens that could harm a fetus during prenatal development.
J.
Discuss the physiological and emotional changes during puberty.
K.
Evaluate the impact of gender on the formation of one’s identity and interactions with others.
L.
Identify the basic struggles of Erikson’s eight stages psychosocial development.
M.
O.
Outline Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development stages and the concepts discuss in each theory also be able to
discuss strengths and weaknesses of Piaget’s theory.
Outline the major events of the three stages of prenatal development and the impact of environmental factors on
prenatal development.
Summarize evidence on gender differences in behavior and assess the significance of these
P.
Summarize the physical changes associated with aging
N.
Students will explain significant changes in the theories that psychologists use to explain
behavior and mental processes.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Articulate Freud’s theories of consciousness, personality, and treatment and articulate why Freud inspired
controversy.
Compare and contrast between clinical psychology and psychiatry.
Describe structuralism and functionalism, the key individuals, methods, and their impact on the development of the
history of psychology.
Distinguish between basic and applied psychology
F.
Examine the contemporary perspectives in psychology including major contributors, basic premises, and criticisms.
(Psychoanalytic, Behaviorism, Humanism, Cognitive, Socio-cultural, Neurobiological, and Evolutionary)
Examine the development of positive psychology.
G.
List and describe the major professional specialties in psychology.
H.
List and describe the major research areas in psychology.
I.
Summarize Wundt’s and Hall’s accomplishments and contributions to psychology.
Students will explain the importance of research in explaining behavior and making connections
A.
Clarify the meaning of statistical significance & p-value
B.
Demonstrate how different graphing methods can be used to display different types of data.
C.
Describe how ethical and legal guidelines protect research participants and promote sound ethical practice
D.
E.
Differentiate between types of research (e.g., experiments, correlational studies, survey research, naturalistic
observations, case studies, longitudinal studies, cross-sectional studies) with regard to purpose, strengths, and
weaknesses.
Distinguish between and explain random assignment & random selection.
F.
Distinguish between population and sample.
G.
Distinguish between positive and negative correlations and explain illusory correlations.
H.
Evaluate the concept of correlation in relation to prediction and causation
I.
Examine the standard organization of journal articles reporting empirical research.
J.
Explain operational definition and its importance to replication
K.
Explain the significance of a theory and hypotheses in research
L.
Identify and apply measures of central tendency in descriptive statistics as well as measures of variance
Page 5 of 10
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
M.
Identify and explain different ethical issues of research practice including animal research
N.
O.
Identify and explain the following components and the significance they have on an experimental design (IV and DV,
confounding variables, extraneous variables, experimental group, control group)
Identify positive and negative skew and differentiate the effects these values have on measures of central tendency.
P.
Identify strengths and weaknesses of correlation coefficients
Q.
Interpret the impact of placebo effects in research
R.
Recognize problems that may arise with experimenter bias & solutions to resolve this concern.
Students will explain various stress patterns and the influence on an individuals well-being.
A.
Appraise the impact of minor stressors and the importance of our appraisals of stress.
B.
Assess the adaptive value of relaxation and increasing one’s fitness.
C.
Describe how one’s outlook and personality may impact the levels of stress one feels
D.
E.
Describe the fight-or-flight response, Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, and other physiological responses to
stress.
Discuss how stress affects immune functioning and assess the link between stress and illness.
F.
Distinguish between acute and chronic stressors and describe frustration as a form of stress.
G.
Evaluate how control or lack of control impacts the levels of stress one may experience.
H.
Identify some psychological problems that may be stress-related and explain how stress may have positive effects.
I.
Identify the four basic types of conflict and discuss which types are most troublesome.
J.
Summarize evidence on life change and pressure as forms of stress.
Students will explore biological and social factors that motivate behavior and biological and
cultural factors that influence emotion.
A.
Analyze and critique Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
B.
Articulate how the parts of the brain and specific hormones are related to hunger regulation.
C.
D.
Compare and contrast drive-reduction, arousal, incentive, optimum arousal, and evolutionary approaches to
understanding motivation and relevant terminology.
Compare the James-Lange and Cannon-Bard, Schacter-Singer and Opponent-Process theories of emotion
E.
Define motivation as psychologists use the term today.
F.
G.
Describe how the feel-good, do-good phenomenon works, and discuss the importance of research on subjective
well-being.
Describe how the need for achievement and affiliation develops and is exhibited.
H.
Describe the cognitive, physiological and behavioral components of emotion
I.
Discuss the biological underpinnings of motivation including needs, drives, and homeostasis.
J.
Discuss the culture-specific and culturally universal aspect of emotional expression including nonverbal expression.
K.
Distinguish between the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
L.
M.
Evaluate how personnel psychologists help organizations with employee selection, work placement, and
performance appraisal.
Explain how emotions are reflected in facial expressions, and describe the facial feedback hypothesis
N.
Identify some common triggers and consequences of anger, and assess the catharsis hypothesis.
Page 6 of 10
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
O.
Review cross-cultural similarities and variations in emotional experience
P.
Summarize thee evidence on the physiological, psychological and cultural factors implicated in the regulation of
hunger.
Students will explore how organisms understand the world through sensory organs and interpret
that information as a cognitive process.
A.
Analyze how Weber’s Law is related to Just Noticeable Difference and how these concepts relate to psychophysics
AA.
Identify receptors for smell
AB.
Identify the components of color vision
AC.
Identify the cues used in auditory localization
AD.
Identify the four potential outcomes related to signal detection theory
AE.
List the three properties of sound and the aspects of auditory perception that they influence
AF.
State the basic premise of Gestalt psychology, and describe the Gestalt principles of visual perception
AG.
Summarize the usage subliminal messages and discuss its practical implications
AH.
Trace the routing of signals from the ear to the brain, and explain the brain’s role in auditory information processing
AI.
Trace the routing of signals from the eye to the brain, and explain the brain’s role in visual information processing
B.
Challenge the empirical findings on parapsychology
C.
Clarify how a perceptual set contributes to the formulation perceptual hypotheses
D.
Clarify the meaning and significance of sensory adaptation
E.
Compare & Contrast sensation (bottom-up processing) & perception (top-down processing)
F.
Compare and contrast conduction and nerve deafness
G.
Compare the place and frequency theories of pitch perception, and discuss the resolution of the debate
H.
Define parallel processing and discuss its role and the role of feature detectors in visual information processing
I.
Describe and identify the parts of the external, middle, and inner ear.
J.
Describe how the various parts of the eye contribute to visual processing.
K.
Describe the perceptual constancies and illusions in vision
L.
Describe the stimulus and receptors for taste, and discuss some determinants of taste preferences
M.
Describe the symptoms of the phantom limb syndrome
N.
Describe transduction and identify where it occurs in different sensory systems.
O.
Differentiate between the eyes sensory receptors in regards to processing visual information
P.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of selective attention and how it plays a role in everyday functioning
Q.
Distinguish between monocular and binocular cues used in depth perception
R.
Distinguish between the components of nearsightedness & farsightedness
S.
Distinguish between the two types of color mixing and compare the trichromatic and opponent process theories of
color vision
Explain how stimulus intensity is related to absolute thresholds and JND’s
T.
Page 7 of 10
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
U.
Explain the components of measuring sound
V.
Explain the gate control theory on pain perception
W.
Explain the role of rods and cones in light and dark adaptation.
X.
Explain the role of the kinesthetic system
Y.
Explain the role of the semicircular canals in the vestibular system
Z.
Identify and explain the different types of binocular and monocular cues
Students will explore major theories of how humans develop enduring patterns of behavior and
personal characteristics that influence how others relate to them.
A.
Articulate Rogers's views on self-concept, development, and defensive behavior.
B.
Clarify what is meant by a personality trait and describe the five-factor model of personality.
C.
Describe Bandura's social cognitive theory.
D.
Describe several prominent personality inventories and evaluate strengths and weaknesses of self-report
inventories.
Distinguish among three components of personality and three levels of awareness in Freud’s theory.
E.
F.
G.
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the psychodynamic, behaviorist, humanist, and biological approaches to
personality.
Explain how factor analysis allows organization of concepts on personality inventories
H.
Explain Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and summarize his findings on self-actualizing persons.
I.
J.
Explain why an individual uses defense mechanisms and be able to apply different defense mechanisms to
situations.
Outline Eysenck's views of personality structure and development.
K.
Summarize the revisions of Freud's theory proposed the Neo-Freudians.
Students will focus on how individuals relate to one another in social situations by studying
social attitudes, social influence, and other social phenomena.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Articulate how having the point of view of an individualistic or collectivist cultures might influence attribution or the
way in which individuals perceive social situations.
Compare and contrast the central and peripheral route to persuasion and the situations in which each technique
might influence decision-making.
Contrast Foot-in-the-Door, Door-in-the-Face, and Lowball Technique as methods of persuasion.
E.
Describe how psychologists would explain aggression and factors that would contribute to an individual’s willingness
to help others.
Describe how the presence of others could aid or hinder one’s performance on a given task.
F.
Describe Solomon Asch’s work with conformity and the impact of group size on one’s behavior.
G.
K.
Describe the difference between group polarization and groupthink and identify the circumstances under which they
are likely to occur.
Describe the link between attitude and behavior with regard to self-fulfilling prophecies, self-handicapping, and
cognitive dissonance.
Discuss the implementation, organization, ethical concerns, and results of Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo’s
experiments.
Distinguish between various types of social dilemmas and the factors which might make us likely to cooperate or
compete with regard to the Prisoner’s and Commoner’s Dilemmas.
Examine how affect, behavior, and cognition relate to prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping.
L.
Explain attribution and identify situations in which we are likely to make internal and external attributions.
H.
I.
J.
Page 8 of 10
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
M.
O.
Explain how deindividuation, diffusion of responsibility, and the bystander effect may occur in large groups of
people.
Explain how stereotype threat, contact theory, and super ordinate goals might strengthen or weaken preconceived
notions about people or situations.
Explain the difference between descriptive and injunctive norms and how they impact behavior.
P.
Identify key factors of attraction and how they influence impressions of others.
Q.
Identify several types of bias in patterns of attribution and discuss cultural variations in attributional tendencies.
R.
Illustrate how in-group and out-group preferences can lead to scapegoating.
S.
Recognize how the Just World Phenomena helps individuals explain events that happen to others.
T.
Recognize the three components of Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love.
N.
Students will have an understanding of intelligence and assessment of individual differences is
highlighted in this portion of the course . Students must understand issues related to test
construction and fair use
A.
Clarify the concepts of standardization and test norms
B.
Compare and contrast convergent and divergent thinking and identify their relationship to creativity.
C.
D.
Compare and contrast the intelligence theories of Spearman, Thurstone, Sternberg’s and Gardner and their relevant
terms.
Critically assess the finding of the Flynn effect.
E.
Describe creativity tests, and summarize how well they predict creative achievement
F.
Describe how cognitive disability is defined and divided into various levels
G.
Describe the challenges with identifying IQ through the use of tests.
H.
Describe various environmental influences in terms of their affect on intelligence
I.
Differentiate between aptitude and achievement tests.
J.
Discuss the identification of gifted children and evidence on their personal qualities
K.
Evaluate heredity and socioeconomic disadvantage and cultural biases as explanations for cultural differences in IQ
L.
Examine the stability of IQ over the lifespan including the impact of aging on fluid and crystallized intelligence
M.
Explain the meaning of test reliability and validity and be able to identify the different types of both.
N.
Explain the notion of emotional intelligence and outline recent criticism of the concept
O.
Identify the contributions of Galton, and Binet to intelligence testing
P.
Summarize evidence on the reliability and validity of modern IQ test scores
Q.
Summarize evidence that heredity affects intelligence and discuss the concept of heritability
R.
Summarize the contributions of Terman and Wechsler to the evolution of intelligence testing
Students will understand and differentiate between different types of learning and the effect of
each on human behavior.
A.
Articulate the theoretical significance of conditioned taste aversion and preparedness
B.
Compare escape learning and avoidance learning
C.
Compare the processes of generalization and discrimination and review the classical study of Little Albert
Page 9 of 10
Division:
Social Studies
Course Number:
SOC661
Course Title:
AP Psychology
D.
Contrast operant and classical conditioning and articulate
E.
Define acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery in classical and operant conditioning
F.
Describe Pavlov’s demonstration of classical conditioning and the key elements of this form of learning
G.
Describe the essential characteristics of insight, latent, and social learning
H.
Describe Tolman’s research on learning and its theoretical importance
I.
Distinguish between positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment
J.
Distinguish shaping and chaining in the process of behavior modification
K.
Evaluate Thorndike’s early contributions to learning theory
L.
Explain what happens in higher order conditioning and backward conditioning
M.
Identify various types of schedules of reinforcement, and how they influence learning through acquisition and
extinction
Page 10 of 10