Updated 03-27-12
PSYCHOLOGY I
Developers: High School Social Studies Staff
Development Date: 2009-2010
Instructional Level: High School
Credit: .5 elective credit
Grade: 11, 12
Pre-requisite:
U.S. History I/II or AP U.S. History
Course Description: Psychology is the scientific study of what it means to be
human; it gives students an opportunity to delve into the intricacies of their own lives.
Designed for students pursuing a post-secondary education, this course covers the
basic concepts of psychology, including the introduction and research methods,
biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, motivation and emotion,
stress and coping, life span development, and personality.
Definitions:




Essential Learning Outcomes: The big idea; competency area, major skills, knowledge or attitudes that tell students what they will need
to learn; Begin the competency with an action verb.
State Standards: These are the state performance standards that are addressed in this competency.
Assessment Expectation: indicates what the student will be able to do because of what they know or can demonstrate.
Vocabulary & Strategies – The vocabulary words listed with each competency are necessary for understanding and learning. The
strategies are supportive of the learning.
Updated 03-27-12
Competency Topic #1: Introduction and Research Methods of Psychology
Essential Questions/Enduring Understandings





























What is psychology and what makes it a science?
How has psychology changed the study of human and animal behavior?
How do the different perspectives in psychology compare and contrast?
What does a correlation prove?
How do psychologists use scientific method to study behavior and mental processes?
Which methods of research are appropriate for the study of different behaviors?
How do psychologists make ethical decisions about researching behavior with human
and animal subjects?
Student Assessment Expectations – Students meet Psychology I expectations when they:
Analyze the important elements of the definition of psychology.
Discuss what clinical psychologists do.
Name types of academic psychologists, and explain the basic research each might do.
Name types of applied psychologists, and explain how they use psychological research.
Describe the first psychologists and the origins of psychology as a science.
Explain how twentieth-century psychologists changed the way psychology was studied.
Discuss how some of psychology’s groundbreakers helped advance gender and race equality.
Explain the six contemporary psychological perspectives.
Discuss three recent areas of psychological study.
Define the nature-nurture issue and explain the key issues of the field of behavior genetics.
Name and describe the elements of the genetic code (chromosomes, DNA, and genes).
Discuss how twin studies and adoption studies are used to learn about the influences of nature and nurture.
Describe the research findings related to the environmental influences of early brain development, parents, peers,
and our culture.
Explain the advantages of research over other ways of knowing.
Understand the ways in which bias can influence research.
Compare and contrast the advantages, disadvantages, and key characteristics of different research strategies in
psychology.
Discuss the ethical guidelines that protect humans and animals in psychological research.
Analyze characteristics of a distribution of scores (including frequency distribution, measures of central tendency,
and measure of variation).
Interpret data represented on a normal distribution.
Describe the difference between percentage and percentile rank.
Define correlation coefficient and interpret positive correlations and negative correlations
Explain what it means when a research result is statically significant.
Vocabulary















Linked State Performance
Standards
A. Geography:
B. History:
C. Political Science:
D. Economics:
E. Behavioral Science: 12.1;
12.7; 12.9; 12.14; 12.16
psychology
basic research
applied research
functionalism
psychoanalysis
behaviorism
cognitive perspective
biological
perspective
social-cultural
perspective
behavior genetics
positive psychology
scientific method
confirmation bias
critical thinking
participant bias

















structuralism
Gestalt psychology
Wilhelm Wundt
E.B. Titchener
William James
Sigmund Freud
Ivan Pavlov
John Watson
B.F. Skinner
Abraham Maslow
Kenneth Clark
Mamie Phipps Clark
operational definition
dependent variable
experimental group
control group
random assignment
Strategies

















Carl Rogers
Jean Piaget
behavior genetics
genes
environment
chromosomes
humanistic psychology
DNA
mutation
identical twins
fraternal twins
heritability
independent variable
culture
individualism
collectivism
confounding variable








reading guide
discussion
module quizzes
unit exam
essential questions
Discovering Psychology
Inside Out
Stranger Paper
Updated 03-27-12









norms
naturalistic
observation
case study
correlational study
survey method
skewed
experiment
hypothesis
standard deviation









normal distribution
percentage
percentile rank
mean
inferential statistics
longitudinal study
mode
population
random sample









double-blind variable
placebo
replicate
frequency distribution
statistical significance
median
correlation coefficient
range
cross-sectional study
Updated 03-27-12
Linked State Performance
Standards
A. Geography:
B. History:
C. Political Science:
D. Economics:
E. Behavioral Science: 12.1;
12.9; 12.14; 12.16
Competency Topic #2: Biological Bases of Behavior
Essential Questions/Enduring Understandings













Are the brain and the mind different?
How do the structure and the function of the nervous system in humans control
behavior and mental processes?
How do the structure and the function of the endocrine system in humans control
behavior and mental processes?
How do biological processes work to create and sustain behavior?
Student Assessment Expectations – Students meet Psychology I expectations when they:
Identify and describe the functions of the parts of the neuron.
Explain the process of neural transmission.
Explain the roles of neurotransmitters in neural transmission.
Identify and describe the divisions of the nervous system.
Discuss the nature and function of endocrine system communication.
Identify and describe the functions of the lower-level brain structures.
Identify and describe the functions of the major regions of the cerebral cortex.
Describe what is known about the different functions of the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere.
Describe and evaluate the strengths of the different ways in which psychologists study the brain.
Vocabulary




















neuron
dendrite
soma
axon
axon terminal
action potential
refractory period
resting potential
all-or-none principal
endocrine system
hormone
pituitary gland
position
emission
tomography
(PET)
scan
thalamus
cerebellum
limbic system
hypothalamus
occipital lobes
temporal lobes
motor cortex



















synapse
neurotransmitter
excitatory effect
inhibitory effect
receptor cells
sensory nerves
interneurons
acetylcholine (ACh)
antagonist
brainstem
medulla
reticular formation
case study
computerized
axial
tomography (CAT)
magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI)
electroencephalogram
(EEG)
somatosensory cortex
Broca’s area
Wernicke’s area
Strategies

















agonist
dopamine
serotonin
motor nerves
central
nervous
system
peripheral
nervous system
somatic nervous
system
autonomic
nervous system
sympathetic
division
parasympathetic
division
hippocampus
amygdala
cerebral cortex
longitudinal
fissure
corpus callosum
frontal lobes
parietal lobes







reading guide
discussion
module quizzes
unit exam
essential questions
Discovering Psychology video
Inside Out video
Updated 03-27-12
Linked State Performance
Standards
A. Geography:
B. History:
C. Political Science:
D. Economics:
E. Behavioral Science: 12.1;
12.7; 12.14
Competency Topic #3: Sensation and Perception
Essential Questions/Enduring Understandings















How do the five senses receive and translate signals to the brain for processing?
Can we trust our senses and perception?
How does the interaction of the person and the environment determine perception and
behavior?
What are the limitations of each sense and how do those limitations affect behavior?
How do sensation and perception differ?
Student Assessment Expectations – Students meet Psychology I expectations when they:
Define and apply the basic principles of sensation: thresholds, signal detection, sensory adaptation, and selective
attention.
Explain how structures and receptor cells in the eye work together to detect light waves and change them into
neural impulses.
Describe how the trichromatic theory and opponent-process theory explain color vision.
Name the structures of the ear, and describe how they work to detect sound waves and change them to neural
impulses.
Explain how receptor cells in the nose, tongue, and skin allow us to sense smells, tastes, and touch.
Apply Gestalt principles to examples of visual perception.
Explain why we can see in three dimensions.
Define the types of perceptual constancy, and apply them to examples of visual perception.
Discuss how perceptual sets determine how we interpret sensations.
Discuss how the principles of perception explain visual illusions.
Vocabulary











sensation
bottom-up
processing
perception
top-down
processing
absolute threshold
difference
threshold
signal detection
theory
sensory
adaptation
selective attention
convergence
perceptual
constancy














cornea
iris
pupil
lens
retina
receptor cells
rods
cones
optic nerve
blind spot
trichromatic theory
opponent-process
theory
extrasensory
perception (ESP)
perception
Strategies















pitch
cochlea
hair cells
auditory nerve
kinesthetic sense
vestibular sense
gestalt
figure-ground
grouping
depth perception
visual cliff
binocular cues
monocular cues
perceptual set
retinal disparity







reading guide
discussion
module quizzes
unit exam
essential questions
Discovering Psychology video
Inside Out video
Updated 03-27-12
Linked State Performance
Standards
A. Geography:
B. History:
C. Political Science:
D. Economics:
E. Behavioral Science: 12.1; 12.2;
12.4; 12.6; 12.7; 12.12; 12.14;
12.16
Competency Topic #4: Life Span Development
Essential Questions/Enduring Understandings






















How do people grow and develop physically throughout the lifespan?
How do people grow and develop intellectually throughout the lifespan?
How do people grow and develop socially throughout the lifespan?
How do people grow and develop morally throughout the lifespan?
How do people grow and develop personally throughout the lifespan?
How do humans progress through the developmental stages of language
acquisition?
Student Assessment Expectations – Students meet Psychology I expectations when they:
Describe human development from conception to the newborn stage.
Explain how developing neural networks affect motor development and cognitive development in infancy and
childhood.
Use Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to describe how children think at specific cognitive stages.
Predict the probable effect of different attachment types and parenting styles.
Discuss the research on physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of infants and children using the
three key developmental issues.
Explain what adolescence is and how our culture affects it.
List the physical changes that occur during puberty.
Discuss how Jean Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory and Lawrence Kohlberg’s moral reasoning theory
describe adolescent thinking.
Discuss how Erik Erikson’s psychosocial developmental theory described adolescent identity formation.
Discuss how developmental psychology’s three major issues apply to adolescence.
Define the concept of social clock and explain how it affects the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Discuss the physical changes that occur in middle and late adulthood.
Discuss the cognitive changes that occur in middle and late adulthood.
Predict the likely effect of significant life events (such as marriage, meaningful employment, and the aging process)
on happiness and life satisfaction.
Define the building blocks of language.
Discuss evidence for competing psychological theories of language acquisition.
Vocabulary

















zygote
genes
embryo
fetus
teratogens
fetal alcohol
syndrome (FAS)
rooting reflex
temperament
maturation
cognition
schemas
assimilation
accommodation
sensorimotor
stage
object
permanence
BF Skinner
grammar













Jean Piaget
Konrad Lorenz
adolescence
puberty
primary sex
characteristics
secondary sex
characteristics
sexual
orientation
identity
intimacy
Lawrence
Kohlberg
Erik Erikson
formal
operational
stage
Noam
Chomsky




















Strategies
social clock
menopause
Alzheimer’s disease
senile dementia
fluid intelligence
crystallized intelligence
critical period
imprinting
authoritarian parenting
permissive parenting
authoritative parenting
egocentrism
concrete operational stage
conservation
stranger anxiety
preoperational stage
attachment
language
morpheme
phoneme








reading guide
discussion
module quizzes
unit exam
essential questions
Discovering Psychology video
Inside Out video
Wild Child video