AP Psychology Syllabus Course Description: This year long class will meet for a 50 minute class period Monday Friday. It is an advanced class and material will be covered as it would be in an introductory college psychology class. Students will be required to do reading assignments outside of class time and come prepared to actively discuss and engage in activities based on those readings. The class will introduce students to the systematic and scientific study of behavior and mental processes of human beings and other animals. Students will be exposed to fourteen different subfields of psychology as outlined below. Psychological ethics and methods will also be addressed. Course Goals: 1. Students will study the major fields of psychology and understand their development and application to everyday life. 2. Students will become familiar with psychological vocabulary terms and be able to use them accurately. 3. Students will learn critical thinking skills and test taking techniques to enter the AP exam with confidence. Student Course Materials: Please cover your textbook Plotnik, Rod & Kouyoumdjian, Haig (2008). Introduction to Psychology 8e. Canada: Thomson Wadsworth Publishers. Hock, Roger O. (2009). Forty Studies that Changed Psychology: Explorations in the History of Psychological Research, 6 th edition. New York: Prentice Hall. Student Expectations: Complete reading assignments and homework by assigned due date. Actively participate in class daily and respect the contributions of others. Record key vocabulary terms for each unit on provided google dictionary document. Take a test at the end of each unit (part of which will review a previous unit) which will feature multiple choice and free response essay questions to mirror the AP exam. Complete quizzes both announced and unannounced throughout the course to gauge understanding of challenging topics. Work individually and collaboratively with others on a variety of projects and presentations. Use technology to aid in the study and presentation of material in AP Psychology. This includes utilizing Chromebooks, Google docs, and checking the class Haiku page on a regular basis. Grading: Student Grades each quarter will be based on total assigned points for the following categories: Tests & Quizzes, Projects, & Daily Work & Notes. First Semester Grades will be calculated using the following formula: 1 st Q (45%) + 2 nd Q (45%)+ cumulative semester exam(10%) = semester grade
Second Semester Grades will be calculated using the following formula: 3rd Q (45%) + 4th Q (35%)+ Class Final Exam (An actual AP Exam from a previous year) (20%) = semester grade. Late Work Policy Late work due to excused absence will be accepted with no penalty; however, you are only allowed one day for each day absent. If you will need additional time please be sure to arrange this with me on the first day you return. All other late work will be accepted but will not receive full credit. The purpose of our assignments is to practice and learn the material. You are expected to complete your work by the required deadline so you will be prepared to participate in class every day. Late assignments will be graded as usual and for the first day an assignment is late 20% will be deducted from the original score. Turning an assignment in more than one day late will result in an automatic 50% deduction in points from your score. You will be allowed one free late assignment per quarter, be sure to write Freebie on it when you turn it in so I grade it accordingly. Completing assignments is necessary to learn the material for this course and to maintain a passing grade, for this reason it is very important that you turn in all assignments even if they are late. Course Plan: (# %) = percent of multiple choice questions on AP exam from this topic. The unit objectives are based on the AP college board course description. 1 st Quarter: 1. Cognition (8-10%) Modules 11 & 12 &14 10 DAYS (9/2-9/15) Key Activity: Psychology & Me Paper Compare and contrast various cognitive processes: effortful versus automatic processing, deep versus shallow processing, focused versus divided attention. Describe types of memory: sensory, short-term, long term, procedural, declarative memory, episodic, semantic. Outline the principles that underlie effective encoding, storage, and construction of memories, strategies for memory improvement, and reasons for forgetting. Synthesize how biological, cognitive, and cultural factors converge to facilitate acquisition, development, and use of language. Identify problem-solving strategies as well as factors that influence their effectiveness. List the characteristics of creative thought and creative thinkers. Recognize key individuals in the field of cognitive psychology: Noam Chomsky, Hermann Ebbinghaus, Wolfgang Köhler, Elizabeth Loftus, George A. Miller. Test UNIT 1 September 15th 2. Introduction History and Approaches (2-4%) Module 1 4 DAYS (9/16-9/19)
Define psychology and trace its history. Describe and compare different psychological perspectives: structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, Gestalt, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, humanism, biological, and cognitive. Recognize the strengths and limitations of applying theories to explain behavior. Identify the major historical figures associated with these perspectives (e.g., Mary Whiton Calkins, Charles Darwin, Dorothea Dix, Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, William James, Ivan Pavlov, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, B. F. Skinner, Margaret Floy Washburn, John B. Watson,Wilhelm Wundt). Distinguish the different domains of psychology and discuss possible careers in these areas: biological, clinical, cognitive, counseling, developmental, educational, experimental, human factors, industrial organizational, personality, psychometric, and social. 3. Research Methods (8-10%) Module 2 & Appendix A-Statistics 5 DAYS (9/22-9/26) Compare and contrast types of research and observation methods including the appropriate use for each based on their strengths and weaknesses and what conclusions can be reached in each method. Identify key terms needed to understand experimental design and statistical results: independent, dependent, confounding, and control variables, operational definition, random assignment, random selection, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics. Apply basic descriptive statistical concepts, including interpreting and constructing graphs and calculating simple descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, and standard deviation). Appreciate the effects of confounding variables on the validity of research conclusions. Understand the ethical considerations which are part of every experiment animal and human- and who creates and enforces these guidelines (the American Psychological Association, federal regulations, institutional review boards). TEST- UNIT 2 & 3 Sept. 26 th 4. Personality (5-7%) Modules 19-20 13 DAYS (9/29-10/16) no school 10/15 Key Activity: Personality Essay Compare and contrast the major theories and approaches to explaining personality: psychoanalytic, humanist, cognitive, trait, social learning, and behavioral. Review research methods that psychologists use to investigate personality- case studies, surveys and their advantages and disadvantages. View and categorize frequently used assessment strategies and personality tests available on the Internet and evaluate relative test quality based on reliability and validity of the instruments. ( the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory [MMPI]-objective-, the Thematic Apperception Test [TAT-projective]), Discuss how culture can affect personality and how traits are viewed differently in other countries. Identify key contributors to personality theory (e.g., Alfred Adler, Albert Bandura, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers).
TEST UNIT 4 October 16th 1 st quarter ends 10/31 2 nd Quarter: 5. Biological Bases of Behavior (8-10%) Modules 3 & 4 13 DAYS (10/17-11/4) Key Activity: Brain Superhero Cartoons Describe the central and peripheral nervous systems including major brain regions, lobes, cortical areas, and hemispheres. Discuss the role and parts of the neuron and the process of transmission. Discuss the effect of the endocrine system on behavior. Learn how discoveries of the brain and its regions have developed until present time and key figures in brain research (Paul Broca, Carl Wernicke) Introduce the nature/nurture issues behind human behavior- heredity. TEST UNIT 5 November 4 th 6. Developmental Psychology (7-9%) Modules 17 & 18 12 DAYS (11/5-11/21) No school on 11/6 parent teacher conferences Key Activity: observation of Kindergarten-8 th grade Identify key contributors and their theories in developmental psychology (e.g., Mary Ainsworth,Albert Bandura, Diana Baumrind, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, Carol Gilligan, Harry Harlow, Lawrence Kohlberg, Konrad Lorenz, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky). Explain the process of human development from conception through adolesence highlighting healthy pregnancy habits, motor and cognitive development in infants, and social development in children. Discuss maturation of motor skills. Compare and contrast models of moral development - Kohlberg, Gilligan Relate the various stage theories to student s personal stage adolescence. Examine the process of aging and changes in functioning. Discuss how gender influence socialization and development. Continue debate of nature / nurture issues environment. TEST UNIT 6 November 21st 7. States of Consciousness (2-4%) Modules 7 & 8 6 DAYS (11/24-12/4) Thanksgiving break 11/26-11/30 Key Activity: Drug Categories Characteristics Chart, Sleep information packet Discuss aspects of sleep and dreaming including stages, sleep disorders, and theories of dream analysis. Describe uses of hypnosis, meditation, and biofeedback.
Identify the major psychoactive drug categories, their characteristic effects, and classification of common drugs. Discuss drug dependence, addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal. Small Unit test December 4 th 8. Learning (7-9%) Modules 9&10 9 DAYS (12/5-12/17) Key Activity: Designing a Learning Experiment Poster Identify different styles of learning: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, observational learning, insight learning, latent learning, and social learning and note similarities and differences between them. Describe basic classical conditioning phenomena, such as acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination, and higher-order learning. Predict the effects of operant conditioning, identify the stimuli and responses, and type and schedule of reinforcement. Predict how practice, schedules of reinforcement, and motivation will influence quality of learning. Interpret graphs that exhibit the results of learning experiments. Apply learning principles to explain emotional learning, taste aversion, superstitious behavior, and learned helplessness. Suggest how behavior modification, biofeedback, coping strategies, and self-control can be used to address behavioral problems. Identify key contributors in the psychology of learning: Albert Bandura, John Garcia, Ivan Pavlov, Robert Rescorla, B. F. Skinner, Edward Thorndike, Edward Tolman, John B. Watson. TEST - UNIT 8 December 17 th 9. Testing and Individual Differences ( 5-7%) Module 13 5 DAYS (12/18-1/8) December 19 th & January 9 th semester review days CHRISTMAS BREAK 12/20-1/4 Key Activity IQ test evaluation Define intelligence and list characteristics of how psychologists measure Intelligence. Discuss how culture influences the definition of intelligence and how tests must take culture into account. View historic and contemporary theories of intelligence. Explain how psychologists design tests, including standardization strategies and other techniques to establish reliability and validity. Interpret the meaning of scores in terms of the normal curve and the labels for those who fall outside this area - gifted, cognitively disabled. Connect key figures in intelligence research and testing to their work (e.g., Alfred Binet, Francis Galton, Howard Gardner, Charles Spearman, Robert Sternberg, Louis Terman, David Wechsler).
Unit 9 quiz 1/8 multiple choice only no FRQ ***CUMULATIVE SEMESTER EXAM MONDAY JANUARY 12 th *** (end of semester January 21st) 3 rd Quarter: 10. Social Psychology (8-10%) Module 25 16 DAYS (1/13-2/3) Key Activities: Social Psych Dictionary - Design, Conduct and APA Style Report on a Social Psychology Experiment (3 rd Quarter Project) Predict the impact of the presence of a group on individual behavior. Define terms related to groups: bystander effect, social facilitation, deindividuation, group polarization, groupthink, conformity, obedience, in-group/out-group dynamics, ethnocentrism, and prejudice. Apply attribution theory to explain motives (e.g., fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias). Discuss how attitudes are formed and can be changed through types of persuasion or due to cognitive dissonance. Articulate the impact of social and cultural categories (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity) on self-concept and relations with others. Anticipate the impact of behavior on a self-fulfilling prophecy. Describe the variables that contribute to altruism, aggression, and attraction. Identify important figures in social psychology and the experiments they are most known for: Solomon Asch, Leon Festinger, Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo. TEST UNIT 10 February 3 rd 11. Sensation & Perception (6-8%) Modules 5 & 6 12 DAYS (2/4-2/20) no school 2/19 parent teacher conferences Key Activity: The Senses Vocab Slides Presentations & Vocabulary Sheet Describe sensory processes and basic mechanisms for hearing, vision, touch, taste, smell, vestibular, kinesthesis, and pain. (review related brain areas) Understand key vocabulary in sensory transduction, including absolute threshold, difference threshold, signal detection, and sensory adaptation. Explain common sensory disorders (e.g., visual and hearing impairments). Learn the basic differences between sensation and the process of how they are changed into perceptions. Describe how the rules of organization, perceptual constancies, depth perception, and illusions work to create our perceptions. Appreciate the influence of cultural diversity on the process of perception. Compare top-down and bottom up processing Consider multiple sides on the issue of extrasensory perception (ESP) and parapsychological phenomena.
Recognize the historical contributors in sensation and perception - Gustav Fechner, David Hubel, Ernst Weber, Torsten Wiesel TEST - UNIT 11 February 20th 12. Motivation and Emotion (6-8%) Modules 15 &16 & 21 9 DAYS (2/23-3/5) Identify and apply basic motivational concepts to help understand the behavior of humans and other animals: instincts, incentives, intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Discuss the biological underpinnings of motivation, including needs (Maslow), drives, and homeostasis. Compare and contrast motivational theories: drive reduction theory, arousal theory, general adaptation theory, including the strengths and weaknesses of each. Describe classic research findings in specific motivation systems: hunger, sexual behavior, social needs, and achievement. Discuss theories of stress and the effects of stress on psychological and physical well-being. Appreciate how emotions are portrayed through facial expressions and cultural differences in emotional displays in other countries. Compare and contrast major theories of emotion: James Lange, Cannon Bard, Schachter two-factor theory. TEST UNIT 12 March 5 th 13. Abnormal Behavior (7-9%) Modules 22 & 23 8 DAYS (3/6-3/18) no school on March 11th Key Activity: Psychological Disorder Informational Pamphlet Describe changes in the definition of psychological disorder over the course of history. Recognize how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association is used to diagnose psychological disorder and the major diagnostic categories: anxiety and somatoform disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia, organic disturbance, personality disorders, and dissociative disorders. Name symptoms typical in prevalent psychological disorders. Evaluate the strengths and limitations of various approaches to explaining psychological disorders: medical model, psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive, biological, and sociocultural. Identify the positive and negative consequences of diagnostic labels (e.g., the Rosenhan study). Discuss the intersection between psychology and the legal system (e.g., confidentiality, insanity defense).
14. Treatment of Abnormal Behavior ( 5-7%)Module 24 7 DAYS (3/19-3/27) Key Activity: Psychological Disorder Informational Pamphlet Understand the basic characteristics of therapy and how psychology is put to work. Describe major treatment orientations used in therapy and their history: insight therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, medical therapy, cognitive therapy, client centered therapy, and psychoanalysis. Compare and contrast different treatment formats: individual, group. Summarize effectiveness of specific treatments used to address specific problems and factors that can be detrimental to therapy success. Identify major figures in psychological treatment: Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis, Sigmund Freud, Mary Cover Jones, Carl Rogers, B. F. Skinner, Joseph Wolpe. TEST UNIT 13 & 14 March 27 th (this will be the only test in your 4 th quarter grade). (3 rd quarter ends 3/26) SPRING BREAK March 28 th April 5 th Review and AP Test Prep 19 days April 6th May 1st Review games & activities for each unit more time spent on weak areas based on class s needs worksheet assignments for each topic Cumulative practice quiz Practice exams packets multiple choice sections and free response discussion of test taking techniques and ways to improve Online review activities Optional before and after school study sessions featuring multi-topic review games Final Exam an actual AP psychology exam administered 1 week before the real exam (using as close to the same procedure as the real exam and scored for our class 20% of your 2 nd semester grade) AP Exam Monday May 4 th Noon May 5 th June 5 th Psychology in the Media and Everyday Life
Student Contract I have read through the syllabus and understand the type and amount of work I will be required to complete for this advanced level class. I am prepared to work hard and put forth my best effort. I understand the district policy makes taking the AP psychology exam in May optional and I will need to pay the fee for the test myself (approximately $89). Taking the exam is highly encouraged, because if I achieve a passing score (3, 4 or 5) I will receive college credit. Class requirements for all students will be the same regardless of choosing to take the test or not. I have shared this information with my parent(s)/guardian. Student signature: Date: Student information survey The following information helps me with class planning, scheduling activities, and setting up tutors if needed. It also allows me to get to know more about you and how busy you are during different times in the school year. Answer as many as you feel comfortable with. Thank you. Do you have Internet access for your Chrome Book at home yes no * *If no, are you able to access the Internet at the public library or elsewhere outside of the school day on occasions where it would be necessary or helpful? Yes, fairly easily yes, but with difficulty no Do you have a cell phone or other type of handheld device to access the Internet at home? yes no Do you have a study hall? no Yes 1 st semester (Which period?) Yes 2 nd semester (Which period?) Who is your assigned resource hour teacher? If you do not plan to be in that location, where do you anticipate you will be most often? Which activities (school sponsored or not) do you plan to be involved in this school year? Do you have a part time job during the school year? How often /how many hours do you work?