Advanced
Placement Psychology: Course Syllabus
Mrs. Carolyn
Ebright
Carolyn. Ebright@k12.sd.us
Purpose of the Course:
The purpose of the Advanced Placement course in psychology
is to introduce students to the systematic and scientific study of behavior and
mental processes of human beings and animals. Students are exposed to the
psychological facts, principles, and phenomena associated with the major
subfields within psychology. They also learn about the ethics and methods
psychologists use in their science and practice. (Taken from the Advanced
Placement Course Description in Psychology by College Board)
Course Objectives:
- Students will prepare for the Advanced Placement
Examination.
- Students will study the major core components and
theories as related to the 14 areas on the Advanced Placement Examination.
- Students will participate and learn about the
foundations of conducting scientific research.
- Students will learn to apply psychological principles
to events or situations that happen in their own life.
- Students will develop and strengthen their reading,
writing and discussion skills.
- Students will participate in several classroom
demonstrations to accentuate knowledge of psychology.
Course Resources:
1.
Text: Myers’ Psychology For AP*--Author David G. Myers—Worth
Publishers—First Printing 2010
2.
Supplemental Readings: Forty Studies that Changed Psychology, Roger R.
Hock, (New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 2002)
3.
The 2004 and 2007 AP Released Exam in Psychology
4.
PBS Video on “The Secret Life of the Brain”
5.
Activities based on David G. Myers Psychology Instructor’s Resources
6.
AP Central Website with lesson plans and test preparation materials
Course Assessments:
1.
Twelve to fourteen chapter quizzes that are taken before instruction
begins. Each quiz is worth 20 points and 1 quiz score will be dropped each
quarter. This assessment is geared to practice independent reading and
comprehension before instruction.
2.
Fourteen chapter daily assessments worth 20 points apiece. These
assessments include typed essays, posters, data collection, and written
reflections.
3.
Four cumulative EXAMS worth 100 points/exam.
4.
Baby Book Project worth 100 points.
5.
6 Free Response Essay Writings worth 20 points apiece.
Course Timeframe:
AP Psychology in Brandon Valley High School is a semester
long course. It meets everyday for 50 minutes. The class meets approximately
84 class periods before the AP Exam which is May, 2014.
Course Content:
As stated in #2 of the course objectives, this course will
cover the 14 core areas as related to the Advanced Placement Examination. The
lettered bullets involve what the reading study guides focus on. These reading
sections are from Myers Psychology for AP. Students are expected to complete
the reading guides independently. The starred bullets address main
instructional inputs used during class time.
- History and Approaches (2-4%): Chapter 1—Pg. 1-15
- How is the field of psychology defined?
- Why do psychologists do the things they do?
- How can psychological research be applied to your
day-to-day life?
- What issues and scholars gave rise to modern
psychology?
- What ideas differentiate the seven contemporary
perspectives?
- Why is the field of psychology divided into so
many specialties?
- Who participates in psychological research and
practice?
**Lecture on Approaches to
studying psychology
**Self Collage to illustrate
different approaches to studying psychology
- Research Methods (6-8%): Chapter 2—Pg. 18-46
- How do psychologists develop the ideas they test?
- How can researchers prevent beliefs from biasing
observations?
- How can experiments be designed to yield a unique
causal explanation for a phenomenon?
- What type of research methods do psychologists
use?
- Why do researchers use correlational designs?
- How can experimental methods be used to address
real-life claims?
- Why must measures be reliable and valid?
- Under what circumstances do participants provide
information directly to researchers?
- What types of information do psychologists obtain
by observing behavior?
- What are the ethical considerations researchers
need to address?
- How do researchers provide summaries and draw
conclusions from data?
**Classroom participation
involving experiment on solving Sudoku puzzles. Students were asked to identify
variables, hypothesis, research method, and correlation if any on classical
music and time of solving puzzles.
** Lecture regarding Scientific
Research
- Biological Bases of Behavior (8-10%): Chapter 3—Pg.
51-111
- What forces shaped the diversity of life?
- How can genetics explain individual differences?
- What techniques do researchers use to understand
the relationship between the brain and behavior?
- What are the major divisions of the nervous
system?
- What functions do major structures of the brain
perform?
- What is the influence of the endocrine system?
- What are the properties of neurons and how are
signals passed?
- How does the process of synaptic transmission
occur?
- What substances serve as neurotransmitters?
**Watched “The Secret Life of
the Brain”—PBS Video Series
**Created the human neuron and
conducted “surgery” on an orange to represent the structures of the brain.
**Lecture on neural transmission
and brain structures
**Read pg. 1-32 from Forty
Studies book—Gazzaniga, Rosenzweig, Bouchard, and Gibson studies are emphasized
- Sensation and Perception (7-9%): Chapter 4 —Pg.
115-169
- What is the relationship between physical
stimulation and sensory experience?
- What general pattern guides sensory processing?
- What mechanisms allow you to experience visual
sensation?
- How does the psychological experience of sound
emerge from physical properties?
- How do you detect and respond to odors?
- What are the basic taste qualities?
- What information do you obtain through your skin?
- How do psychological forces help determine pain?
- How do you determine what is in the world from the
information available to your sensory receptors?
- What features define perceptual theories?
- How do you select among all the information
available in the world?
- What are the organizational processes in
perception?
**Classroom demonstrations on
sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch to illustrate sensations
**Read pg. 33-40 in Forty
Studies book—Turnbull
- States of Consciousness (2-4%): Chapter 5—Pg. 174-211
- What are the different levels of awareness?
- What types of information do you have conscious
access?
- What techniques allow researchers to examine the
contents of consciousness?
- What are the functions of consciousness?
- What patterns exist during the sleep/wake cycle?
- What are the origins and implications of dreams?
- What problems affect people’s sleep?
- What are the effects of hypnosis and meditation?
- How do mind altering drugs affect the brain?
**Lecture regarding differences in the effects of drugs on
brain chemistry
**Lecture on sleep/wake cycle
**Read pg. 40-62 in Forty Studies book—Aserinsky, Hobson,
Spanos
- Learning (7-9%): Chapter 6—Pg. 214-251
- How is learning defined?
- What are the significant contributions of Pavlov,
Watson, Thorndike and Skinner in relation to learning?
- What are the basic features of conditioned
response?
- Under which circumstances will classical
conditioning take place?
- What role do operants play in the science of
behavior?
- How are behaviors changed by their consequences?
- What happens when behaviors are not reinforced on
every occasion?
- How can you learn by watching others?
**Classroom demonstrations on
classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory
**Read pg. 63-91 in Forty
Studies book—Pavlov, Watson, Skinner, Bandura
- Cognition (8-10%): Chapter 7—Pg. 254-325
- What varieties of experience are preserved by
memory?
- What information is saved by using sensory memory?
- How much information can a person store in short
term/working memory?
- How does context affect your ability to retrieve
memories?
- How is knowledge organized?
- What cognitive capacities are required for
humanlike language use?
- How do you unite different types of information?
- What general strategies can guide problem solving?
- What factors affect judgments and decision making?
**Lecture on stages of memory
and memory processing
**Classroom demonstrations
regarding encoding processes and stages of memory
**Read pg. 92-122 in Forty
Studies book—Rosenthal, Asch, Tolman, Loftus
- Motivation and Emotion (7-9%): Chapter 8—Pg. 326-407
- What internal and external forces motivate
behavior?
- What is the physiology and psychology of eating?
- How can motivation be fit inot a unifying
perspective, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
- What is the relationship between the physiology
and psychology of emotions?
- What roles do emotions play in your day-to-day
experience?
- How does your body respond to stress?
- How do you respond to different categories of
stressors?
- What combinations of factors influence health?
- What lessons from psychology can help promote good
health?
**Classroom poster of
identifying Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
**Read pg. 154-186 from Forty
Studies book—Masters, Ekman, Holmes, Festinger
**Lab activity on the impact of
the adrenal gland during competitive video game tournament—How is emotion,
stress response impacted?
- Developmental Psychology (7-9%): Chapter 9—Pg.
410-475
- What types of physical changes occur from
conception through adolescence?
- What processes and stages did Piaget use to
explain cognitive development?
- What genetic and environmental forces shape
language acquistion?
- What crisis do you face in each phase of your life
according to Erik Erikson?
- What social experiences affect your growth in
childhood, adolescence, and adulthood?
- How and when do children acquire gender roles?
- How does moral reasoning change over the life span
according to Kohlberg?
**Field Trip to Brandon
Elementary to test the theories of Jean Piaget
**Lecture regarding
Developmental Psychology
**Read pg. 123-153 from Forty
Studies book—Harlow, Piaget, Zajonc, Langer
- Personality (6-8%): Chapter 10 –Pg. 478-519
- What dimensions underlie Allport’s trait approach
to studying personality?
- What did Freud use to help understand personality
and how it guides behavior?
- What is the significance of self-actualization in
personality theory?
- How do you define your self?
- What is the MMPI objective test of personality?
- Distinguish the difference between psychodynamic,
humanistic, cognitive, and trait theories.
**Group newsletter to analyze
personality psychologists
**Re-assess the self-collage
students created in Chapter 1 related to personality theory
**Read pg. 187-220 in the Forty
Studies book—Rotter, Kohlberg, Friedman, Triandis
- Testing and Individual Differences (5-7%): Chapter
11—Pg. 522-557
- What are the basic features of formal assessment?
- What are the origins to intelligence testing?
- Distinguish the impact of Binet and Weschler
regarding intelligence tests?
- What is involved in Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
of Intelligence?
- Compare and contrast Howard Gardners theory of
intelligence.
- In what ways is intelligence defined?
**Lecture regarding theories on
intelligence
**MENSA organization
intelligence test—Computer lab instruction and participation
- Abnormal Psychology (7-9%): Chapter 12—Pg. 560-601
- Why is classification useful in abnormal behavior
and what are the standards for diagnosis?
- In what ways are people affected by severe
anxiety?
- In what different ways do people experience
disturbances in mood?
- What personality traits are maladaptive?
- What happens when people lose control of their
identity?
- In what different ways do people experience losses
of reality that results in schizophrenia?
- What are the consequences of mental illness?
- Treatment of Psychological Disorders (5-7%): Chapter
13—Pg. 604-638
- What are the goals of the major categories of
therapies?
- How did contemporary treatment of mental illness
evolve?
- Discuss the impact of Freudian psychodynamic
therapies.
- In what ways do behavior therapies change
maladaptive behaviors?
- How is the brain affected by psychoactive drugs?
- How does cognitive, humanistic, and group therapy
work?
**Student generated PowerPoint
presentation regarding an abnormal behavior and appropriate therapy
psychologists use to help the patient.
**Read pg. 221-279 in the Forty
Studies book—Rosenhan, Freud, Seligman, Calhoun, Smith, Wolpe, Rorschach, Murray
- Social Psychology (7-9%): Chapter 14—Pg. 642-694
- How do social norms influence behavior?
- How do groups bring about conformity?
- Under what circumstances do your own behaviors
lead you to modify your attitudes?
- What are the aspects of attribution theory?
- What is the impact of self-fulfilling prophecies?
- In what ways do we develop social relationships?
- What is involved in the attribution theory?
**Read pg. 280-309 in Forty
Studies book—LaPiere, Asch, Milgram,
TEST DATES
TBA: Chapters 1-4
TBA: Chapters 5-8
TBA: Chapters 9-11
TBA: 2004/2007 AP Practice Exam
TBA: 2014 AP EXAM
AP EXAM REVIEW
Students are expected to take
the 2014 AP Exam. Our review sessions will then focus on commonly missed
portions of the test. We will also practice and review the free response
questions from 2002-2013. This will serve as a discussion point and I expect
the students to critique his or her own responses to the essays. I am using the
information provided from the AP Central website to guide my instruction.