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Syllabus
Mrs. Amy Elmore
Course Description
The central question addressed in AP Psychology is: “how do psychologists think?” The psychologist David Myers wrote that to think as a psychologist, one must learn to “restrain intuition with critical thinking, judgmentalism with compassion, and illusion with understanding.” (Sternberg, 1997). Whether students choose to pursue a career related to psychology or one in some entirely different field, this habit of mind will be of great value.
The AP Psychology course is designed to introduce students to the systematic and scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of human beings.
Students learn about some of the explorations and discoveries made by psychologists over the past century.
Students assess some of the differing approaches adopted by psychologists, including the biological, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, psychodynamic, and sociocultural perspectives.
Most important, students come to an appreciation of how psychologists think (or at least an appreciation of the kind of critical analysis that psychologists espouse and hope to model in their words and actions).
Required Resources for
1. Text: David Myers, Psychology (New York: Worth, 2003).
2. 3” 3 Ring binder with notebook (one for notes and one for vocabulary) and loose leaf paper
3. Flash Drive
4. Baron‟s AP Psychology Exam Study Guide
Course Outline
I. Scope, History, and Methodology
Historical Schools: Functionalism vs. Structuralism
Modern Approaches: Psychodynamic, Behaviorist, Cognitive, Humanistic,
Evolutionary, Neuroscience
Nature of Scientific Inquiry: Sources of bias and error

Research Methods: Introspection, observation, survey, psychological testing, controlled experiments
Statistics: Central tendency, variance, significance, correlation
Ethics in Research: Human participants, animal subjects
II. Behaviorism
Historical Background and Philosophy of Radical Behaviorism
Classical Conditioning: Pavlov, Watson, applications, biological critique, cognitivist challenge
Operant Conditioning: Thorndike, Skinner, Bandura, behavior modification, biological critique, cognitivist challenge
III. Neuroscience
Neuron: Neuronal and synaptic transmission, psychopharmacology, drug abuse
Brain: Research methodology, neuroanatomy, brain development and aging, hemispheric specialization
Nervous System: Structural and functional organization
Endocrine System: Anatomy, HPA-axis, and immune system
Genetics and Heritability
IV. Sensation and Perception
Psychophysics: Thresholds (absolute, difference, Weber‟s constants), signal detection theory
Sensory Organs and Transduction: Visual (including color vision and feature detection), auditory, olfactory, gustatory, proprioceptive (including kinesthetic and vestibular)
Perception: Attention, processing, illusions (including Gestalt psychology), and camouflage
V. Developmental Psychology
Methodology: Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies
Nature vs. Nurture (maturation versus learning)
Influential Theories: Piaget and cognitive development, Freud and psychosocial development, Kohlberg and moral development, Gilligan and gender differentiation
Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood
VI. Intelligence and Psychological Testing

Psychological Testing: Methodology, norms, reliability, validity
Intelligence: Defining intelligence, history of intelligence and aptitude testing, naturenurture issues
VII. Consciousness, Memory, and Language
States of Consciousness: Waking, sleep and dreaming, hypnosis, altered states
Memory: Information processing, storage, retrieval
Accuracy of Memory: Loftus and Schacter
Cognition: Problem solving and heuristics
Language: Skinner and Chomsky
VIII. Motivation and Emotions
Motivational Concepts: Instincts, drives, optimal arousal, Maslow‟s hierarchy
Hunger and Eating Disorders
Sexuality and Sexual Orientation
Achievement Motivation: McClelland and the TAT, intrinsic versus extrinsic motivators
Physiology of Emotion: Fear, anger, happiness
Expression of Emotion: Darwin and Ekman
Theories of Emotion: James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schacter-Singer
IX. Personality
Psychodynamic Perspective: Freud, Jung, Adler
Trait Perspective: Allport, factor analysis and the five-factor model, assessment
(Myers-Briggs, MMPI)
Humanistic Perspective: Maslow and Rogers
Social-Cognitive Perspective: Bandura and Seligman
X. Stress and Health
Stress as a Concept: Selye
Stress and Health
Adjustment

XI. Abnormal Psychology
Approaches to Abnormality: The Rosenhan study, historical approaches (deviance), the medical model, the biopsychosocial model
Classifying Disorders: Evolution of the DSM-IV-TR
Major Categories of Disorders: Anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders
Major Approaches to Psychotherapy: Psychoanalysis, behavioristic, humanistic, cognitive, group, pharmacological
Does Therapy Work? Eysenck, outcome studies, and the Consumer Reports study
XII. Social Psychology
Attitudes and Behavior: Fundamental attribution error, roles, Festinger and cognitive dissonance
Group Influence: Asch and conformity, Milgram and obedience, facilitation and loafing, Janis and groupthink
Prejudice and Scapegoating
Altruism: Darley and Latané
Assessment Practices
Traditional Assessments
Unit Tests
These tests are modeled on the AP Exam, with 50 multiple-choice questions and one essay to be completed in 58 minutes.
Quizzes
These are randomly scheduled at least once each unit and use the multiple-choice format.
Midterm Exam
Students take a midterm exam covering the first six units. The exam is in the same format as the AP Exam (multiple-choice and short essays), but the number of multiple-choice questions is reduced proportionately to the time available in the exam
Alternative Assessments
Unit Journals
Students will write in their double-entry journals approximately twice each week throughout the course. These journals facilitate deep processing of learning and differentiation of instruction by encouraging critical thinking and independent exploration. They also provide an additional

forum for the teacher to give feedback to guide individual students. Entries must be linked to the unit that is being studied and contain the following elements: student reflection on readings class discussions and activities
.
personal experiences recent news or television broadcasts, or
Internet research
Professional Journal Reviews
Each quarter the student will read an article from a professional psychological journal or magazine. For each article write a two page summary and a one page critique of the article.
.
The report will be given during the time we are studying the subject of each article in class. Each report should focus on the following questions.
1.) What are the credentials of the author?
2.) What is the main thesis of the article?
3.) How convincing was the argument? Is the thesis well supported?
4.) Most importantly, does this article reinforce or refute the historical interpretations presented in the textbook? Give a detailed explanation.
The oral presentation should be 5-10 minutes in length. Topics should be selected within the first two weeks of each semester. No two students can choose the same article
.
Projects
Methodology Project
The students will be introduced to the methods of psychological research through the posed hypothesis that THC adversely affects memory. Through this project the class will cover the conclusions possible from each research methods. The ethics of research, and the concepts covered in the research unit.
Neuroscience Project
Superheroes, Sidekicks, Villains and the Brain: A small of group of students are to make up a superhero, villain, or sidekick for the 17 areas of the human brain. What would that

character has as their special power and or special weakness if that part of their brain was
„super‟. By the end, you should have 17 separate characters.
Applications of Developmental Psychology
Students work in small groups to design a children‟s picture book/toy that illustrates their understanding of developmental psychology.
Intelligence and Psychological Testing
This project will have three parts. The students will learn take a learning styles inventory to discover their own individual learning styles. Then students will be introduced to Gardner‟s 8 multiple intelligences and assess their own learning tendencies. As a culminating activity, the students will stage a debate responding to the following statement: Do human have an innate mental capacity (intelligence) that can be quantified as a meaningful number?
Personality Theories
Breakfast Club Essay: Each student will, after viewing the film, The Breakfast Club, which provides the basic social dynamic in most high schools, choose a character and describe the personality of that character. Then explain how the character‟s behavior can be explained through the psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive, trait, social learning, and behaviorist perspectives.
Abnormal Psychology
Fractured Fairy Tales: Students will chose or create a fairy tale. The main character should be given a psychological disorder that is not revealed by name in the story. The student should include clues for the reader including symptoms and behaviors typical of the disorder. The majority of the grade for the project will come from the writing of the story. The remainder of the grade will come from reading another students fractured fairy tale and diagnosing the psychological disorder of the main character.
Social Psychology
Each student will be asked to write a 3-5 page paper, linking a social psychological article to a film. The paper should include a clear and accurate discussion of the journal article, a clear description of the film in general and scene(s) in particular that relate psychology principle, and correctly and critically apply the principle to the film.

(or how to write the ideal AP Psychology Free Response)
1.
Thou shalt not write an introductory paragraph or concluding paragraph/statements.
2.
Thou shalt not be overly concerned with grammar, etc.; it is not graded, psychological knowledge is.
3.
Thou shalt always write in paragraph format; listing is unacceptable.
4.
Thou shalt write in ink. Therefore scratching out (single line through) misinformation is fully accepted.
5.
Thou shalt include examples and explanations in your answer. Clearly state the purpose of your example (support or contrast).
6.
Thou shalt write legibly. If your essay happens to be graded at the end of the day, your free response may not receive as correct reading.
7.
Thou shalt not use the “root” word when asked to define a term within your definition. (i.e. “repression is when you repress memories”) aka “circular definitions”.
8.
Thou Shalt underline the word you are defining/giving an example of in your response.
9.
Thou shalt use abbreviations acceptably once you establish the abbreviation with the work in your free response (ie independent variable (IV)).
10.
Thou shalt use psychological terms, theory names, and people in your answer.

Movie List
In our study of psychology, we will view films and clips of films as a means to assess understanding of psychological concepts. The following is a list of films that may be used during the course of the year. Note not all movies listed will be showed and most not in their entirety.
Breakfast Club – Personality Unit
Sybil – Abnormal Psychology
Awakenings – Biological Unit
A Beautiful Mind- Abnormal Psychology
The Blindside – Humanistic Perspective
12 Angry Men – Social Psychology
What About Bob – Personality Disorder
Antwone Fischer – Treatment
Memento – Memory
One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest- Treatment
Rain Man – Autism
The Aviator – OCD and Schizophrenia