AP Psychology Course Description and Syllabus Office Hours Course Overview/Description Course Objectives

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1 AP Psychology Course Description and Syllabus Ms. Raquel Cagigas 96 Bachelor of Science Psychology & Religious Studies, St. Mary s College of California, Moraga, CA Masters of Arts for a Multicultural Church, Franciscan School of Theology Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA Office Hours: TBA (to be announced) or by appointment Dean s Office rm. 130 or rm. 219 (626) ext. 113 or via rcagigas@sgmhs.org password 8yjpch or Course Overview/Description The Advanced Placement Psychology course is a college level course that is taught at an accelerated pace. The course is designed to introduce students to the fascinating world of psychology. Students will study the psychological facts, principles and phenomena associated with each of the major sub-fields within psychology. They will also learn about the methods psychologists use to monitor and evaluate psychological processes. Topics will include research methodology, statistics, personality development and theories, therapy, developmental psychology, biological bases of behavior, learning, social psychology, sensation, perception, states of consciousness, memory and other cognitive processes, intelligence and testing, motivation, emotion, mental illness, stress and diversity. The course also seeks to prepare students to take the College Board Advanced Placement Examination in Psychology, offered every year in May. Though students are strongly encouraged to take the AP Examination, it is not a requirement of the course. Course Objectives Students will: develop a greater understanding of the complexity of human behavior and thought processes learn about the various tools psychologists use to investigate psychological phenomena and the limitations associated with each of these methods assess the contributions from key research in psychology that has been conducted over the past century evaluate the various schools of thought (approaches) employed by psychologists, including the psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, biological, and socio-cultural perspectives identify the physiological roots of behavior, thinking, and emotion explore the dynamics of cognitive processes, in particular memory, judgment, and intelligence appreciate the myriad social factors influencing individual behavior and thinking investigate maladaptive behavior and thinking and explain the various therapeutic modalities psychologists use to remedy such behavior and thinking value the connection between psychology and other disciplines apply psychology to everyday phenomena and human interactions

2 AP PROCEDURES & GUIDELINES Although there are prerequisites, enrollment in AP Psychology is open. The workload is heavy, the expectations are high and the text is college level. At times, students will be asked to consider and discuss mature themes. The course is thus recommended for, though not limited to, upper level students (preferably juniors or seniors). AP Psychology is a yearlong elective course and any student enrolled in an AP course that receives a C- or below at semester will not earn AP credit. Course Readings There are three required texts for this course: Weiten, Wayne. Psychology: Themes & Variations Seventh Edition. Las Vegas: Thomson & Wadsworth, Stalling, Richard B., Ronald E. Wasden. Psychology: Themes & Variations Seventh Edition 7 th Edition Study guide, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Nye, Robert D. Three Psychologies: Perspectives from Freud, Skinner, and Rogers. 6 th Edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Grading and Course Requirements The grading categories for this class and approximate percentage value of each are as follows: Final/Midterm Exam 20% Unit Exams/Free Response 20% Book/Periodical Review 20% Class Work and Projects 15% Chapter Notes & Study guide Worksheets 15% Quizzes/pop quizzes 10% ALL WORK IS DUE ON TURNITIN.COM**** ****ALL LATE WORK IS CALCULATED FOR UP TO 50%**** 1.Labs/Projects: There will be projects/labs assigned over the course of the year. These projects are designed to accomplish two specific purposes: 1) test the student s comprehension of the material introduced in class and 2) have the student apply psychological concepts and terminology to novel situations. 2.Class Work: Many of the activities and assignments for this course will be conducted in class - some individually and some in pairs, small groups or in debate form with the class divided in half. Student engagement and active participation is vital to the success of these activities. Poor attendance or an unwillingness to participate will only have adverse effects on the student s final grade. 3.Homework notes: at the beginning of every unit an outline of the chapters are due on turnitin.com. The outline should include vocabulary, persons, dates, concepts. This is a credit no credit (redo) grade. Chapter notes will be a total of 30 points: o Taking notes on reading requires the same skills that apply to class notes: observation, reading, and review. Therefore I would like you to take care in your chapter notes. I hope that you go back to your notes and find them useful. And you must complete the chapter even the applications at the end of the chapter. o Outlining method (20/30) using roman numerals to outline each section

3 o Paragraph form (25/30) for each section summarize what you read in your own words and including important terms. o Cornell method (30/30) -- divide your note paper into three sections: notes in the right column, key words and questions in the left column, and a summary at the bottom of the page for each section within the chapter including the applications at the end of the textbook. o Please make sure that for any method chosen you are copying important formulas, terms, and including page numbers especially for important diagrams or figures. I will mark points off if I do not find these. 4.Study guide: this is a workbook that accompanies the text book. It is full of interactive simulations and demonstration activities that are designed to enhance one s understanding of the subject matter. For each unit or topic, the student will be required to complete the study pages and submit their worksheets before the end of a unit. 5.Book & Periodical Review & 40 case studies: 4 books and/or periodical review (teacher approval required) as well as 40 famous studied in psychology will be required. As indicated on the instruction sheet, there is a written or oral/artistic option to the reviews. The student will be asked to submit a 3-page, typewritten summary and review of the book as well as to convey orally and artistically the overall message of the book, and its relationship to the field of psychology, to the class. 6.Examinations: All exams (unit, midterm, and final) will include multiple-choice questions and at least one analytical free-response question. Unit exams will be given approximately every two weeks. A midterm examination will be administered during the final week of the first semester of class. It will be modeled after the AP examination, with 100 multiple-choice questions and two free-response (essay) questions. A similarly formatted comprehensive final examination will be administered during the final exam week to conclude the course. It, too, will be modeled after the AP examination. Reading quizzes & pop quizzes or pre-tests can and will be given at any time at the discretion of the teacher. Course Outline Unit 1: History of Psychology, Research Methodology, Schools of Thought, Statistics Review key historical figures (the pioneers ) in psychology and assess their contributions to the discipline (William James, Wilhelm Wundt, Sir Francis Galton, Ivan Pavlov, Sigmund Freud, Stanley Hall, Mary Whiton Calkins, Franz Gall, John Watson, Rosalie Rayner, Mary Cover Jones, Francis Galton, Hermann Ebbinghaus, Edward Thorndike) Define key terms (psychology, behavior, personality, cognition) Nature of scientific inquiry (biases and errors) Compare and contrast various research methods (experiment, correlation, survey, naturalistic observation, case study) Statistics (measures of central tendency and variance, correlational coefficients) Ethical standards in research (APA guidelines) Goals of Psychology Approaches/Perspectives/Schools of Thought (Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive, Humanistic, Socio-cultural, Biological)

4 Duration: Two weeks (Weeks 1 and 2) Required Reading: Chapter 1 & 2 Unit II: Personality Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Perspective (Freud, Jung, Adler, Horney, Erikson) Behavioral Perspective (Thorndike, Pavlov, Watson, Skinner) Humanistic Perspective (Rogers and Maslow) Social-cognitive Perspective (Bandura, Rotter, Seligman) Trait Perspective (Allport and Eysenck) Biological/Neuroscience Perspective Duration: Three weeks (Weeks 3-5) Required Reading: Chapter 12 as well as Nye, Robert D. Three Psychologies Unit III: Therapy Psychodynamic Modality (insight, free association, intra-psychic conflict, defense mechanisms, transference, projective tests, hypnosis, dream analysis) Behavioral Modality (systematic desensitization, flooding, exposure therapy, aversive conditioning, token economies, behavior modification) Humanistic Modality (client-centered therapy, active listening, incongruence between real and ideal self, conditions of worth, selfactualization) Cognitive Modality (Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy) Biomedical Modality (psychopharmacology, psychosurgery, ECT) Commonalities among and Efficacy of Psychotherapies Duration: Two weeks (Weeks 6-7) Required Reading: Chapter 15 Unit IV: Social Psychology Attitudes and Behavior (Fritz Heider s Attribution Theory, Fundamental Attribution Error, Cognitive Dissonance, Mere Exposure Effect, Self- Perception Theory) Group Influence (Solomon Asch and conformity, Stanley Milgram and obedience, Philip Zimbardo s prison study, groupthink, group polarization, social facilitation, social loafing, informational social influence, normative social influence) Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination, and Bias Altruism Duration: Three weeks (Weeks 8-10) Required Reading: Chapter 16 Unit V: Learning Classical Conditioning (Pavlov, Watson, Little Albert, elicited behavior)

5 Operant Conditioning (Thorndike, Skinner, radical determinism, emitted behavior, negative and positive reinforcers, punishment) Social Learning (Bandura, Bobo Doll experiment, modeling, disinhibition, observational learning) Duration: Two weeks (Weeks 11 and 12) Required Reading: Chapter 6 Unit VI: Neuroscience/Brain and Behavior Neuron (structure of neuron and neural communication) Neurotransmitters (excitatory vs. inhibitory) Nervous system (central, peripheral, skeletal, autonomic nervous systems) Endocrine system (hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands, hormones) Neuroanatomy/Brain structures and functions (hemispheric specialization and lateralization, lower and mid-brain structures, cerebral cortex, brain development, brain-imaging devices) Genetics and Heritability Oliver Sacks Awakenings (Parkinson s Disease, Encephalitis Lethargica, and other diseases of the brain) Duration: Three weeks (Weeks 13-15) Required Reading: Chapter 3 Unit VII: Developmental Psychology Longitudinal vs. Cross-sectional Studies Nature vs. Nurture Debate Cognitive Development (Piaget) Psychosexual Development (Freud) Psychosocial Crises (Erikson) Identity States (Marcia) Attachment Studies (Harlow, Bowlby, Ainsworth s Strange Situation Paradigm) Parenting Styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, neglecting) Moral Development (Piaget, Kohlberg, Gilligan) Gender Role vs. Identity Aging (fluid vs. crystallized intelligence) Lifespan Stages (infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood) Duration: Three weeks (Weeks 15-17) Required Reading: Chapter 11 Unit VIII: Sensation and Perception Bottom-up vs. Top-down processing Psychophysics (various thresholds, signal detection theory) Sensory Organs (visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, cutaneous receptors, proprioceptive) Transduction

6 Perception (attention, illusions, perceptual set, form perception, Gestalt psychology, perceptual organization, depth perception, binocular vs. monocular cues) Duration: Three weeks (Weeks 18-20) Required Reading: Chapter 4 Unit IX: States of Consciousness, Stress and Health Stages of sleep (Non-REM and REM) Dreaming Hypnosis Drugs and Altered States Hans Selye s General Adaptation Syndrome (alarm, resistance, exhaustion) Type A and Type B Personalities Duration: Two weeks (Weeks 21-22) Required Reading: Chapter 5 & Chapter 13 Unit X: Memory Encoding, Storage, Retrieval Implicit vs. Explicit Memory Memory Disorders (Alzheimer s Disease, retrograde, anterograde and source amnesia) Daniel Schacter s 7 sins of memory (absent-mindedness, transcience, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence) Memory Construction and False Memories (Elizabeth Loftus) Mnemonic Devices Memento (film) analysis Duration: Three weeks (Weeks 23-25) Required Reading: Chapter 7 Unit XI: Thinking, Language and Intelligence Problem Solving and Heuristics Language Acquisition (Skinner, Chomsky, Lenneberg) Language Development (babbling, one-word, two-word stages) Language Structure (morphemes, phonemes, grammar) Different Types and Definitions of Intelligence Key Historical Figures in Intelligence (Binet. Galton, Weschler, Terman, Gardner, Sternberg) Intelligence Testing (reliability, validity, aptitude vs. achievement tests, intelligence quotient, standardization, normal bell curve) Duration: Two weeks (Weeks 26-27) Required Reading: Chapter 8 & 9 Unit XII: Motivation and Emotion Maslow s Hierarchy of Needs (Dead Poets Society character analysis) Theories on Motivation (drive reduction, homeostasis, incentive, instinct) Yerkes-Dodson Law of Arousal

7 Hunger and Eating Disorders (role of hypothalamus, set point, metabolism, bulimia, anorexia nervosa) Sexual Motivation and Sexual Response Cycle Sexual Orientation Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation Theories of Emotion (James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schacter Two-Factor, facial expression) Universal Emotions (fear, anger, happiness, surprise, disgust, sadness) Essential Components of an Emotion (physiological arousal, expressive behavior, cognition) Duration: Three weeks (Weeks 28-30) Required Reading: Chapter 10 Unit XIII: Abnormal Psychology/Psychological Disorders Definitions of Abnormality (deviation from norm, subjective distress, maladaptive, disturbing) Diathesis-Stress Model Classification of Disorders (DSM-IV) Multiaxial Assessment (Axes I-V) Major Categories of Disorders (mood/affective disorders, anxiety-based disorders, dissociative disorders, somatoform disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders) Etiology of Various Disorders Break a Norm Day (culminating project for students) Duration: Four weeks (Weeks 31-34) Required Reading: Chapter 14 Unit XIV: Review for AP and Final Examinations in Psychology Duration: Two weeks (Weeks 35 and 36)