Psychology Syllabus 2009-2010
Course content-The class will be taught as a survey class. All areas and
assignments are designed for high school juniors and seniors. Our base reference
material will be the following online source:
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/learning.html
Additional reference work will come from
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsy.html
1. Introduction to Psychology and Research Methods
Qualitative methods
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsyqualmeth.html
Experiments http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/experiments.html
2. Biopsychology
Neurons http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/theneuron.html
Neurotransmitters
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsyneurotransmitters.html
Central Nervous System
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsyneurotransmitters.html
Brain http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/thebrain.html
3. Personality Development
Freud http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsyfreud.html
Kohlberg http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsymoraldev.html
Piaget http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsypiaget.html
Erikson http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsyerikson.html
4. Learning and Behaviorial Psychology
Learning http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsylearning.html
5. Sensation and Perception
Perception http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsyperception.html
Senses http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/senses.html
6. Memory, Intelligence, and States of Mind
Memory http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/memory.html
Intelligence http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/intelligence.html
7. Motivation and Emotion
Motivation
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsymotivation.html
Emotion http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/emotions.html
8. Social Psychology http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/socpsy.html
9. Psychopathology
Disorders http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsyanxietydisorders.html
10.Psychotherapy
Therapy http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/psychotherapy.html
Psychology Assignments
1. Chapter homework-vocabulary and worksheets
2. Chapter quizzes
3. Chapter tests-essays, multiple choice, or true/false
4. Weekly magazine article summaries-25 points each
5. Short Paper Project-A total of two 2 to 3 page typed papers. Three sources to
be used when citing for the paper. Each topic will be used once. This will be done
during the second quarter of the semester.
Topics for the term paper:
1. Should animals be used in psychological research?
2. Does genetic testing have negative psychological effects?
3. Does spanking children lead them to become more violent?
4. Does viewing television increase a child’s aggression?
5. Is there a racial difference in intelligence?
6. Have antidepressant drugs proven to be effective?
7. Is schizophrenia a biological disorder?
8. Does the Internet have psychological benefits?
9. Does religious commitment improve mental health?
10. Does population growth threaten humanity?
11. Is the decline of the traditional family a national crisis?
12. Is America in moral decline?
13. Are communication problems between men and women largely due to
radically different conversation styles?
14. Should society be more accepting of homosexuality?
15. Are the poor largely responsible for their poverty?