Social Studies Department

Essential Knowledge and Skills

Students in Psychology II will build on the basic principles learned in Psychology I. Students will read and participate in studies and demonstrations, and design their own studies. Upon completion of the course they will be prepared to successfully complete or test out of an introductory college psychology course. Students will gain insights useful in everyday life, and will have a greater understanding of the scientific method and its use in the social sciences.

Indicators of Student Learning Upon the completion of this course, students will:

Communication • Learn and use a basic vocabulary of psychological terms.

• Critically read scholarly and popular literature in the field of psychology.

• Orally present research findings to the class.

• Write short critical summaries of readings. Write an abstract and full report on their original research.

Content

• Describe the basic processes of cognition and explain common cognitive shortcuts and the errors they can cause.

• Explore the relationship between language and cognition.

• Describe popular theories of motivation, including Maslow’s hierarchy, describe the relationship between biology and motivation, and distinguish between primary and secondary motives.

• Describe several models of emotion, and list the seven basic emotions recognized across cultures.

• Describe recent findings about stress and their applications to everyday life.

• List and describe Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development, Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, and Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, and explain the major criticism of these models.

• Explore the effects of gender on development and behavior.

• Describe the prominent theories of personality.

• Outline the major theories of intelligence.

• Describe the uses, limitations, and ethical considerations of standardized testing for personality and intelligence.

• Explain how abnormality is determined, and the limitations and ethical considerations in

• Determining abnormality in psychology

• Be familiar with a wide variety of common and uncommon psychological disorders and their classification in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

• Explain the major schools of psychotherapy, relate them to the major approaches to the study of psychology, and distinguish between methods used by the different schools.

• Explain classic and recent research findings in social psychology, and their implications for every day life.

Knowledge of the Scientific Method

• Explain and use a simple model for experimental research.

• Describe the uses and limitations of various types of research: Laboratory experiments, surveys, naturalistic observation, case studies, interviews, cross-sectional, longitudinal, etc.

• Analyze, summarize and interpret data from class experiments.

• Critique studies and findings published in the popular press.

• Perform secondary research using academic databases on the Internet.

• Design, carry out, and report on an original piece of psychological research.

Technology

• Research topics using Internet databases.

• Use Excel to analyze and summarize data.

• Access the course website for assignments.

• Email selected assignments to the teacher.

• Use appropriate technology to present information to the class and the public.

Assessment

Upon the completion of this course, students will:

• Pass and show improvement (from the pretest) on an objective test of knowledge of psychology.

• Demonstrate competency in the scientific method by designing, carrying out, and presenting an original psychological experiment.

• Demonstrate competency in secondary research by gathering and reporting information from academic sources on psychology topics.

• Demonstrate competency in communication by mastering a basic vocabulary of psychological terms, presenting oral projects to the class, writing short summaries of reading material, and writing and presenting a report on an original psychological experiment.

• Demonstrate competency in technology by researching topics using internet databases, analyzing and summarizing data using Excel, accessing the course website for assignments, emailing selected assignments to the teacher, and using appropriate technology to present information to the class.