Congratulations on your course selection of AP Psychology! You have made a wise yet demanding choice. You will have the opportunity to find out what makes people tick and have a better understanding of yourself as well. I know you are all anxious to get started on this wonderful endeavor so I came up with a little “Summer Fun” (much more positive than
“assignment”) that you will be expected to complete.
I have high expectations for this class and demand students who are willing to put in the required effort necessary to succeed. My goal is for every student enrolled in the class to pass the AP Exam in May and earn college credit. That
requires dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work on both our parts. I will do my job and I expect you to do yours.
Because of the short amount of time before the AP Exam and the extensive material we must cover, the work must begin now. The assignments will be due on the first week of school. I am looking forward to an outstanding year with you!
Your first assignment due on or before 8/1 via e-mail ( lisa_hollenbach@teachers.pasd.us
) is an introduction to yourself.
Send this email from an address you will check often over the summer.
Draft an e-mail using the following rules: a.
Use well-written, complete sentences! Do not abbreviate words. Use spell check. This is a professional communication similar to what you would use with a college professor or boss. b.
Address it to lisa_hollenbach@teachers.pasd.us
c.
Make to subject: “AP Psychology: Introduction to <Your name here >” d.
Begin your e-mail with Mrs. Hollenbach or Dear Mrs. Hollenbach. e.
Introduce yourself and tell me a little about yourself, like:
What do you like to do (hobbies, music, sports, instruments played, other interests) ?
Do you have a job? What is it? Do you like it, or do you have your sights set on other things in the future?
Tell a bit about family (Mom? Dad? Guardian? Siblings? Pets?) – if you feel comfortable doing so.
What was the last book you read FOR FUN?
Are you taking any other AP classes? Are you active in extracurricular activities in or outside of school? What are they? How are you involved?
How do you think you will prioritize your time?
Why are you taking this class? What are you looking forward to in this class? What things about psychology interest you or puzzle you?
Have you had any experiences with people who act “abnormal”? What did they do? What does
“abnormal” mean to you? Was there a reason for their actions?
Any addition information you would like to share?

f.
End your email with a formal closing: “Cordially”, “Sincerely”, “With regards”, “Your student” etc, and add your name as you would if you signed a letter.

st
Task: Choose 2 books from the AP Psychology Reading List below.
You are responsible for reading 2 books and writing a 1-2 page book review for each book.
Book Review will include the following:
Summarize the book, setting, characters, plot, key events, studies, etc. 1-2 paragraphs
Apply the book to a minimum of 3 aspects of Psychology (example- a character in the book has schizophrenia or depression; discuss the character, the symptoms, causes, and treatment of schizophrenia as it relates to psychology). What topic of Psychology?
Did the author convey the psychological disorder effectively? Accurately? HOW? Site several instances, quotes from the book that demonstrate the symptoms of the disorder, Etc. What did you learn from the book and are willing to share with the class?
You might include thoughts on the following:
What is your overall reaction to the book?
Pick pieces that you found particularly informative/interesting and discuss what about each you enjoyed. This would be a great place to include specific examples of what you learned or how what you read could be applied to your life.
What has this book done for your knowledge of/interest in psychology?
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Would you recommend that this book be used again in a summer reading assignment? Why or why not?
If you choose a book about experiments:
Write a summary of the experiment / experiments and give as much critical evaluation as possible of the experiment. (Did it show what the experimenter intended, was there value in this experiment? What is to be gleaned from this scientific work?).
**** If you choose a book about experiments, summarize only 10 of your favorites!
**Many of you have taken Psychology; relate the material you learned in that class to the book you have chosen.**
**Feel free to go above and beyond 2 pages. (2 pages is the minimum).
Requirements-
Assignments should be completed in your Google Apps Account. Your account can be accessed in this way:
Email: YourStudentIDNumber@students.pasd.us
Password: Your default password will be either ”pasd1234” or “palmyra1234”. I strongly suggest that you change this password to match your Moodle password.
Create a Document Named: “2 AP Psychology First Name Last Name”
Typed, 12 Font – Double Spaced - Give the book proper citation, MLA style on a Works Cited Page.

Be prepared to discuss one of your chosen books the first day of class.

AP Psychology Reading List-
** Please be aware that a few of the books below do address sensitive material such as child abuse/ neglect. Be sure to read a synopsis of the book prior to purchase/ reading so that you can best find a book that meets your interests. DO NOT
read a book that does not interest you and/or may have material that you may find unpleasant to read.
1.
Albom, Mitch - Tuesdays with Morrie
2.
Akeret, Robert U. - Tales from a Traveling Couch
3.
Axline, Virginia- Dibs: In Search of Self
4.
Baron, Naomi- Growing Up With Language
5.
Baruch, Dorothy- One Little Boy
6.
Berne, Eric- Games People Play
31.
Lorenz, Konrad - King Solomon’s Ring
32.
MacCracken, Mary A Circle of Children
33.
Mayer, Robert - Through Divided Minds
34.
Minniger, Joan - Total Recall
35.
Montessori, Maria - The Secret of Childhood
7.
11.
Brown, Alan – The Psychology of the Simpsons
8.
Burns, David - Feeling Good
9.
Buscaglia, Leo - Living Learning and Loving
10.
Capote, Truman - In Cold Blood
Carnegie, Dale- How to Win Friends and Influence
36.
Mulholland, Neil – The Psychology of Harry Potter
37.
O’Neil, Cherry Boone - Starving for Attention
38.
Peck, M. Scott - The Road Less Traveled
39.
Pelzer, David - A Child Called It (Trilogy) (sensitive material –child abuse)
40.
Pinker, Steven - The Language Instinct
People
12.
Chase, Trudi - When Rabbit Howls
13.
Clark, Mary Higgins - All Around the Town
14.
Comer and Poussaint - Raising Black Children
15.
Craig, Eleanor - P.S. You’re Not Listening
16.
Crichton, Michael - The Terminal Man
17.
D’Ambrosio, Richard - No Language But a Cry
18.
Dyer, Wayne - Your Erroneous Zones
19.
Elkind, David - The Hurried Child
20.
Fast, Julius - Body Language
21.
Gardener, Howard - Creating Minds
41.
42.
Pirsig, Robert - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
43.
44.
Pipher, Mary - Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of
Adolescent Girls
Maintenance
Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
Pollack, William - Real Boys: Rescuing our Sons from the Myth of Boyhood
45.
Rapoport, Judith -The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing
46.
Rogers, Carl -On Becoming a Person
47.
Rosenberg, Robin – The Psychology of Superheroes
48.
Rothenberg, Mira - Children with Emerald Eyes
49.
Rymer, Russ - Genie (Sensitive material – child neglect/ abuse)
22.
Gering, Richard – The Psychology of Survivor
23.
Gibson, William - The Miracle Worker
24.
Ginott, Haim - Between Parent and Teenager
25.
Gladwell, Malcolm – Blink: The Power of Thinking
Without Thinking
26.
Greenfeld, Josh - A Child Called Noah
27.
Harris, Thomas - I’m OK, You’re OK
28.
Hayden, Torey - Murphy’s Boy; One Child; Just Another
Kid
29.
Hines, Terence - Pseudoscience and the Paranormal
30.
Hock, Roger - Forty Studies that Changed Psychology
31.
Jablow, Martha - Cara
32.
Kellerman, Jonathan - When the Bough Breaks
33.
Kushner, Harold - When Bad Things Happen to Good
People
34.
Levenkron, Steven - The Best Little Girl in the World
30 Levin, Meyer - Compulsion
50.
51.
Schreiber, Flora R. - Sybil
Seager, Stephen - Pysch Ward: A Year Behind Closed
Doors
52.
Seligman, Martin - The Optimistic Child
53.
Shaller, Susan - A Man Without Words
54.
Skinner, B.F. Walden - Two: Beyond Freedom and
Dignity
55.
Wurtzel, Elizabeth - Prozac Nation
56.
Sacks, Oliver - The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a
57.
Hat
Tammet, Daniel – Born on a Blue Day: Inside the
Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
Brafman, Ori & Rom -
Experimental Psychology:
• World as Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men by Rebecca Lemov
• Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century by Lauren Slater
• Experiments with People: Revelations From Social Psychology by Robert P. Abelson, Kurt P. Frey, Aiden Gregg, etc.
• Classic Case Studies in Psychology by Geoff Rolls
• Living Walden Two: B.F. Skinner’s Behaviorist Utopia and Experimental Communities by Hilke Kuhlmann

Neuropsychology:
• Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life by Steven Johnson
• Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control by Kathleen Taylor
• Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind by V.S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee
• Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath by Michael Paul Mason
• Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do by A.S.
Miller
• Head Case by Dennis Cass
• Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
Language, Intelligence and Cognition:
• The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker
• The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language by Christine Kenneally
• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
• What is Intelligence?: Beyond the Flynn Effect by James R. Flynn
• IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea by Stephen Murdoch
Sensation and Perception:
• Hypnosis: Secrets of the Mind by Michael Streeter
• The Gift: Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People by Sally Rhine Feather
• The Sense of Being Stared At: And Other Unexplained Powers of the Human Mind by Rupert Sheldrake
• The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness by Jeff Warren
• Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind by Elizabeth Lloyd
Mayer
Developmental Psychology:
• Genie: a Scientific Tragedy by Russ Rymer
• As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto
• See Jane hit: Why Girls Are Growing More Violent and What We Can Do About It by James Garbarino
• The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s notebook By Bruce D. Perry
• The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids by Barbara Strauch
• Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back by Norah Vincent
• Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents can Do by Lawrence
Kutner
• The Sexual Spectrum: Why We’re All Different by Olive Skene Johnson
Psychological Disorders:
• Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher
• The Broken Mirror: Understanding and Treating Body Dysmorphic Disorder by Katharine A. Phillips
• Devil in the Details: Scenes form an Obsessive Girlhood by Jennifer Taig
• Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia by Pamela Spiro Wagner
• A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder by Robert B. Oxnam
• Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood by Julie Gregory
• Compulsive Acts: A Psychiatrist’s Tales of Ritual and Obsession by Elias Aboujaoude
• Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness by Christopher Lane
• Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine by Mark Ames
Social Psychology:
• Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping by Paco Underhill
• Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls by Rachel Simmons
• Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life by Paul Ekman
• A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture by John M. Hagedom

• The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo
• Fame: The Psychology of Stardom by Andre Ewans
• Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships by Janja Lalich
• Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens by Susan A. Clancy
--If it’s not on the list; I need a description (and you need approval) before you decide to read !

WATCH at least ONE of the following movies. Descriptions of each movie are attached.
For this assignment you are required to integrate what will be the curriculum material of the AP Psychology course
with the movie material in a cohesive way.
This is not an assignment that focuses entirely on disorders, (although disorders might be present in the characters), so make sure you focus on other areas of content such as psychological and social concepts and issues, and other elements of human behavior. Make sure you develop your ideas with evidence from the movie, clearly explain and connect
psychological concepts, ideas and events.
As Good As It Gets (PG13)
(sex, violence)
Awakenings (PG13)
(language)
A Beautiful Mind (PG13)
(some sexual content and nudity,
language)
Benny and Joon (PG)
(Implied sex)
Lars and the Real Girl (PG)
Harold and Maude (PG13)
(sexual content, violence, drug use)
Harvey (PG)
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
(PG13)
The Basic Idea
After watching the movie, your task is to connect the lives of the main characters, or events of the film, to some of the topics in psychology. It will be necessary for you to research certain issues, concepts and disorders of the psychology for successful completion of this assignment.
You work should be descriptive and illustrative, but not necessarily exhaustive. There is no page number requirement (3-4+ pages is the probably length of a well discussed paper), but incomplete development and paper brevity may cost you points off your grade.
Remember: the task of the assignment is to CONNECT the material, not to summarize the movie!

You must choose 1 of the movies listed below for this assignment.
As Good As It Gets
Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1997 Rating: PG-13
Actors: Jack Nicholson, Greg Kinnear, Helen Hunt
Topics: Psychopathology, OCD, Personality Disorder, Social Bias
Academy Award winner for Best Actor and Best Actress. Jack Nicholson plays Melvin Udall, a cranky, bigoted, writer with terrible case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. His life is turned upside down when his neighbor, gay artist Simon, played by Greg Kinnear, is beaten in a brutal mugging. Hospitalized
Simon entrusts his beloved dog to Melvin. In addition, Melvin seems to be falling in love with Carol, the only waitress who will tolerate him. The film addresses OCD, bias (homophobia) and attitude change.
Awakenings
Genre: Drama Year: 1990 Rating: PG-13
Actors: Robin Williams, Robert DeNiro, Julie Kavner Topics:
Psychopathology, Neuropsychology, Treatment
A wonderful movie based on Oliver Sacks' clinical cases performed in the 1960’s at
Bronx Psychiatric Hospital. It chronicles the newly discovered drug of L-dopa's and its extreme
Parkinsonian effects on encephalitis lethargica and neuronal supersensitivity. Also an interesting glimpse inside a mental hospital in the 1960s. Why do you think paranoia/psychosis developed after prolonged L-dopa treatment?
Beautiful Mind, A
Genre: Drama Year: 2001 Rating: PG-13
Actors: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly
Topics: Psychopathology, Treatment, Schizophrenia, Marital/Family Dynamics, Stress and Coping
Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress. Russell Crowe portrays Professor
John Nash, a brilliant mathematician. There is a major plot twist - stop reading here if you don't want it spoiled…We learn that we are misled - situations and characters turn out to be portrayals of Nash's delusional thinking and hallucinations due to schizophrenia. We see him spiral downward in the throws of his psychotic thinking or the side effects of his medications. What do you think about the suggestion that he was able to self-challenge and treat the reality of the hallucinations, as at the end of the movie?
What do you think this movie did for public perception of schizophrenia?

Benny & Joon
Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1993 Rating: PG-13
Actors: Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn
Topics: Psychopathology, Schizophrenia, Personality Disorder, Marital/Family Dynamics, Stress
and Coping
Johnny Depp portrays Sam a quiet eccentric who emulates the ways of silent movie star Buster Keaton and who develops a relationship with a young woman who is schizophrenic portrayed by Mary Stuart
Masterton. Good portrayal of the certain stresses on family members dealing with mental illness, as
Joon's brother devotes himself to her care.
Harold and Maude
Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1971 Rating: PG
Actors: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles
Topics: Psychopathology, Mood Disorders, Marital/Family Dynamics
The self-destructive and needy wealthy teenager Harold is obsessed by death and spends his leisure time attending funerals, watching the demolishing of buildings, and simulating suicides trying to get attention from his indifferent, snobbish and egocentric mother. His sessions with his psychologist are also for his amusement.
When Harold meets the anarchist seventy-nine-year-old Maude at a funeral, they become friends and the old lady introduces him to a happier side of life. Meanwhile, his mother enlists him in a dating service and tries to force Harold to join the army. On the day of Maude's eightieth birthday, Harold proposes to her but he finds the truth about life at the end of hers. Involves faked suicides, and a real one, but are the characters actually depressed?
Harvey
Genre: Comedy Year: 1950 Rating: NR-PG
Actors: James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow
Topics: Psychopathology, Psychotic Disorders, Substance Use Disorders, Treatment,
Marital/Family Dynamics
Academy Award winner and classic comedy with Jimmy Stewart hallucinating (?) that a six-foot rabbit named Harvey is his constant companion. Consider the portrayal of psychiatry and the mental asylum and the apparent ease with which one seemed to be able to commit a person. Also, one might think
Harvey was a result of too much alcohol, but do we actually see Jimmy Stewart ever drink? Hmmm.
Harvey’s gentle and personable attitude towards everyone is considered a personality disorder is it a disorder to be too nice, too polite? Ah, if we all were so afflicted!

Lars and the Real Girl
Genre: Comedy/Drama Year: 2007 Rating: PG-13 Actors: Ryan
Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Kelli Garner
Topics: Psychopathology, Psychotic Disorders, Treatment, Marital/Family Dynamics, Social
Lars is an office worker in a small time. He's an odd, reclusive guy, but nice and harmless. Exposed to the concept of a "mail order doll" (anatomically correct) by a coworker, he orders a doll, not for sexual reasons, but as part of a delusional system he uses to repress bad memories. Lars introduces the doll as his foreign girlfriend, who is in a wheelchair. The resulting responses from his family and community, as well as the very empathetic physician, make this a "feel good" movie. The film tries to show a sympathetic side to mental illness and model supportive family and community response. It "takes a village" to treat mental illness.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1993 Rating: PG-13 Actors: Johnny
Depp, Leonardo diCaprio, Juliette Lewis
Topics: Psychopathology, Mood Disorders, Neuropsychology, Developmental, Marital/Family
Dynamics, Stress and Coping
Slice of life film, with Johnny Depp as the young adult caring for his family - a depressed, morbidly obese mother, a brother Arnie, with a severe mental disorder, two sisters and a father who has left them all while working at the town’s slowly dying Convenience store. Gilbert’s life, his future, is thwarted but it is his love and guardian angel nature for his family that keeps him going.

**Do something that might be viewed as strange/unacceptable/unexpected to others.**
You WILL present your experiment and findings to the class and turn in the write up!
For example:
*Stand in the middle of the food court at the mall for 10 minutes doing nothing or maybe singing to yourself, or something else (don’t undress!) and see what others do.
*Cut in a long line at a store, baseball game, movies, etc. and see the reaction of others.
Be careful!!! Choose your subjects with caution- don’t jump in line in front of the angry guy at the ball game…I do not
want you to get in a fight.
*Talk to yourself, loudly, in mixed company, and observe what others do/say.
*Ignore your friends, no matter what they say…you get the idea.
When you are done running the “experiment”, you need to introduce yourself, shake hands,
THANK THE PEOPLE INVOLVED and explain what you are doing and why. (You are running a social experiment for your
AP Psych class). You may want to have this assignment paper with you.
Write a report on your experiment:
Title:
Purpose or problem: (What will happen if I cut in a line…)
Background Information: What do people do in certain situations (like how do people wait for their turn, how do they learn this, why do they do it, why do some people cut in line? You should do some research, thinking here…go one line and see what the norm is and why it’s considered the “norm”. Why do humans see this behavior as normal, what is the aberrant behavior and how do people react to it and why. (this should be a few paragraphs of info).
Hypothesis: Educated guess…based on your information from the background research…what will happen? Write it as a “If, Then, Because” statement. “If I … then the person/people around me will do…because…
Experiment: What are you going to do? How, when, where, what time are you doing this experiment, who is your audience?
Data: What did people do? Were there differences in the reactions of people of different ages, ethnicities, sexes, friends vs. strangers. You might need someone to record data for you here if you cannot directly observe everyone.
Results: What happened? No interpretation here…just what happened…estimate the age of the reactants, time it took them to react, kinds of reactions. Did people avoid you? How?
Conclusion: Time for interpretations: Why did the people react the way they did? Were they sympathetic, puzzled, mad, frustrated, etc. WHY do you think they acted this way Did people avoid you? Was you hypothesis correct? Why or why not? Did anything unexpected happen to you? Explain!