AP Psychology
1st six weeks journal
Lessons of the Day 8/28
• Journal Prompt
– (Values Clarifications)
• Textbooks
• Mini-Bio project
• Values Walks
Ivan Pavlov, Nobel Prize Winner
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Journal 8/28
Content Standards:
• Students are able to
– 1.1 Define psychology as a
discipline and identify its goals as
a science
– 1.2 Describe the emergence of
psychology as a scientific
discipline
• Journal Entry
Respond to the “Values
Clarification” Questions
after the Values Walk.
One of Pavlov’s dogs
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Values Walk Questions
• Using animals for psychological research is
inhumane and should be severely limited.
• Spanking and other forms of physical
punishment help develop “good” children.
• Prejudice results from prejudiced parents.
• Insanity as a legal defense should be
abolished.
• If I had my life to live over, I would come back
as the other sex.
VALUES CLARIFICATION
I learned that:
I was surprised that:
I was disappointed that:
I was pleased that:
Lesson 8/30
•
•
•
•
Journal Prompt
Mini-Bio project: choosing a psychologist
Assign guided reading books
Studying
– Think-Pair-Share Activity
• Psychological Perspectives
Journal Prompt 8/30:
Learning Objectives
1.3 Describe perspectives
employed to understand
behavior and mental
processes.
Journal Prompt:
When you signed up for
this course, what did you
think psychology would be
all about?
What is Psychology?
The study of behavior and mental processes.
Roots of Psychology
• Philosophy
• Physiology
• First Psychology Lab:
Wundt
• Structuralism
• Functionalism
20th Century
• Behaviorism
• Freudian psychoanalysis
• Humanistic
• Cognitive neuroscience
Psychology’s Historic Big Issue
Image source: http://healthpsychologyconsultancy.wordpress.com
Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis
Psychology’s Current Perspectives (p. 9)
Perspective
Focus
Sample Questions
Neuroscience
How the body and brain
enables emotions?
How are messages
transmitted in the body? How
is blood chemistry linked with
moods and motives?
Evolutionary
How the natural selection
of traits the promotes the
perpetuation of one’s
genes?
How does evolution influence
behavior tendencies?
Behavior genetics How much our genes and
our environments
influence our individual
differences?
To what extent are
psychological traits such as
intelligence, personality,
sexual orientation, and
vulnerability to depression
attributable to our genes? To
our environment?
Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective
Focus
Sample Questions
Psychodynamic
How behavior springs
from unconscious drives
and conflicts?
How can someone’s
personality traits and
disorders be explained in
terms of sexual and
aggressive drives or as
disguised effects of unfulfilled
wishes and childhood
traumas?
Behavioral
How we learn observable
responses?
How do we learn to fear
particular objects or
situations? What is the most
effective way to alter our
behavior, say to lose weight or
quit smoking?
AP Psychology 9/4
•
•
•
•
Turn in posters
Journal entry: naturalistic observation
Video: Observation and Experimentation
Notes Scientific Method
AP Psychology 9/4
Learning Objectives
1.2 Describe and compare a
variety of quantitative (e.g.,
surveys, correlations,
experiments) and qualitative
(e.g., interviews, narratives,
focus groups) research
methods
1.3 Define systematic
procedures used to improve
the validity of research
findings.
• Prompt:
What are the advantages of
the naturalistic observation
method for studying
children?
Image source: www-hss.tp.edu.sg
How We Study Children: Observation
and Experimentation
•
•
•
•
1)
2)
3)
4)
Researcher’s goals
Methods of observation of children:
Findings of observations of children:
Methods of experimentation:
– What was the hypothesis in the experiment (Hint:
interaction with students with different ideas leads to
greater…)
– How did the researchers measure the results of the
experiments?
• 5). How did the researchers avoid experimenter
bias?
AP Psychology Journal 9/6
• Journal Prompt: Scientific Method
• Notes: Scientific Method in Psychology
– Empirical approach
– Critical thinking
– Methods
• Descriptive
• Correlational
• Experimental
• Class Activity: Creating a research design
• Psych Sim Homework: What's Wrong with this
Study?
Journal Prompt 9/6
• 1.1 Describe the
scientific method and
its role in psychology
• Prompt:
Answer in sentences.
Why are curiosity,
skepticism, and humility
important for the
scientific attitude?
p. 18
Empirical approach
Critical thinking
AP Psychology
Creating a research design
Students apply the scientific method by testing
proverbs. In small groups:
1. Identify the theory underlying the proverb.
2. Generate a testable hypothesis.
3. Suggest a possible design (descriptive,
correlational, or experimental).
4. Specify operational definitions.
5. If experimental, identify independent and
dependent variables.
• “A letter takes three times as long to write as it does to say.”
• “The more languages you know, the easier it is for you to
learn a new one.”
• “Wearing dark clothes on the bottom and light clothes on
the top is usually more visually appealing than the reverse.”
• “It takes four hours to come down from your last cup of
coffee.”
• “As family income rises, the ratio of women’s shoes to
men’s shoes increases accordingly.”
• “The self-employed are more likely to live to a ripe old age
than those who work for others.”
• “The shorter a word, the more meanings it has.”
• “Don’t change your first guess on a multiple choice test
when checking over your answers.”
AP Psychology Lesson 9/10
• Journal prompt
• Research Design Group Work
• Present group designs
– Ask questions of other groups!
• Chapter One Vocabulary
Journal Prompt 9/10
• 1.2 Describe and compare a
variety of quantitative (e.g.,
surveys, correlations,
experiments) and qualitative
(e.g., interviews, narratives, focus
groups) research methods.
• Prompt:
Why, when testing a new
drug to control blood
pressure, would we learn
more about its
effectiveness from giving
it to half of the
participants in a group of
1000 than to all 1000
participants?
AP Psychology Lesson 9/12
• Journal Prompt
• Discovering Psychology Video Research
Methods
• Psych Sim: Descriptive Statistics
• Remember Vocabulary Chapter One?
Journal Prompt 9/12
• 3.1 Define descriptive
statistics and explain how
they are used by
psychological scientists.
p. 33-38
Prompt:
1) Which measure of central
tendency would be best to
evaluate the housing market?
2) Which measure of central
tendency would a fashion shop
use for ordering dresses?
3) Which measure of central
tendency would be used in
basketball to compare players’
points per game?