Ridgefield Public Schools - Psychology 1- High School

Psychology 1 - High School

Introduction to Psychology (early September)

LONG TERM GOALS

Students will analyze how psychology became a science, why it is considered to be a social science today, and the tools used by psychologists and psychiatrists in their study of the field of psychology today.

BIG IDEAS

Psychology is a broad field with many specialties, but fundamentally, psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Psychologists use the scientific method, including both experimental and non-experimental studies, to test their ideas empirically. Researchers in the field of psychology use their statistics for two major purposes; to descriptively characterize measurements made on individuals or groups and to inferentially judge if those measurements are likely due to chance.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What is psychology - and what is not?
How do psychologists develop new knowledge and make sense of their findings?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

differentiate between psychology and branches of pseudo-psychology
investigate the research methods used by psychologists and evaluate the usefulness of these tools in different circumstances

CONTENT TOPICS

Historical Roots
Psychology vs. Psychiatry
Pseudo-psychology
Research Methods
Ethical Considerations
Statistics (optional)

Biological Basis of Behavior (mid September)

LONG TERM GOALS

Students will analyze how human biological processes play a role in shaping our behavior, and will investigate the specific role played by certain components of our biology and how that can be measured.

BIG IDEAS

The brain coordinates the body's two communications systems, the nervous system and the endocrine system, which use similar chemical and electrical processes to communicate with targets throughout the body.
The brain is composed of many specialized modules that work together to create an understanding of the world around us and our behaviors.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How does the body communicate internally?
How does the brain produce behavior and mental processes?

LEARNING OUTCOMES - Students will . . .

examine the different branches of the nervous system and how messages are passed throughout this system.
analyze complex human behaviors in order to determine which parts of the brain are likely to be playing a role in these behaviors.
examine how the systems of the human body work together to help produce and regulate human behavior.

CONTENT TOPICS

Nervous System
Neuronal Transmission
Synaptic Transmission
Structures of the Brain
Research Methodology
Endocrine System

Sensation and Perception (late September)

LONG TERM GOALS

Students will investigate how our human experience is a complex interaction between the processes of sensation and perception, and will analyze how this shapes our understanding of the world around us.

BIG IDEAS

The brain senses the world indirectly because the sense organs convert incoming sensory stimulation into the language of the nervous system (neural messages) through the process of transduction. The senses all operate in much the same way but each extracts different information and sends it to its own specialized processing region in the brain.

Perception brings meaning to sensation, so perception produces and interpretation of the world rather than a perfect infallible representation of it.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How does stimulation become sensation?
What is the relationship between sensation and perception?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

analyze the role played by attention and information processing in the processes of sensation and perception.
analyze how the different senses make use of incoming sensory stimuli.
evaluate how perception plays a role in shaping our reality.

CONTENT TOPICS

Thresholds and Signal Detection Theory
Attention
Sensory Mechanisms
Perception

States of Consciousness (mid October)

LONG TERM GOALS

Students will analyze the different levels of our conscious and non-conscious awareness of the world around us, and the role played by sleep and altered states of consciousness in this understanding.

BIG IDEAS

Consciousness can take many forms, while other mental processes occur simultaneously outside our awareness.
Consciousness changes in cycles that correspond to our biological rhythms and to the patterns of stimulation in our environment.
An altered state of consciousness occurs when some aspect of normal consciousness is modified by mental, behavioral, or chemical means.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How is consciousness related to other mental processes?
What cycles occur in everyday consciousness?
What other forms can consciousness take?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

analyze the function(s) of consciousness in understanding our reality.
analyze the sleep cycles and identify its distinguishing characteristics at each stage.
evaluate the different theories of sleep and dreaming subscribed to by modern psychologists.

CONTENT TOPICS

Consciousness
Sleep and Dreaming
Hypnosis and other non-drug related altered states
Psychoactive drugs

Learning (late October)

LONG TERM GOALS

Students will examine the different means by which humans acquire new behaviors and understandings, and will analyze in which situations each type of learning is most applicable.

BIG IDEAS

Classical conditioning is a basic form of learning in which a stimulus that produces an innate reflex becomes associated with a previously neutral stimulus, which then acquires the power to elicit essentially the same response.
In operant conditioning the consequences of a behavior, such as rewards or punishments, influence the chance that the behavior will occur again.
According to cognitive psychology, some forms of learning must be explained as changes in mental processes rather than changes in behavior.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What sort of learning does classical conditioning explain?
How do we learn new behaviors by operant conditioning?
How does cognitive psychology explain learning?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

identify and explain the roles played by the key components of classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
differentiate between classical and operant conditioning in terms of when useful and how conducted.
analyze the different means of cognitive learning.
evaluate when varying means of learning are most effective and how they can be used together.

CONTENT TOPICS

Terms
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Cognitive Processes
Biological Factors

Development (late November)

LONG TERM GOALS

Students will analyze the forces which shape human development through the major theories on cognitive and psychosocial development.

BIG IDEAS

Newborns have innate abilities for finding nourishment, interacting with others, and avoiding harmful situations, while the developing abilities of infants and children rely more on learning.
There are two competing theories for cognitive development, continuous vs. discontinuous, with the first focused on the role of the environment in the individual learning process with the other focused upon milestones that all children pass through at the same time in the same order as they develop.
According to the theories of Ainsworth, Erikson, and Kohlberg the foundation for adult attachment styles are based in childhood along with personality traits built from the successful (or unsuccessful) completion of psychosocial conflicts and the approach to dealing with issues of moral ambiguity.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What abilities does the neonate possess?
How do psychologists explain cognitive development?
How does childhood have an influence on the development of personality and morality?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

analyze and evaluate the forces that allow infants survive and thrive.
compare and critique the major theories of cognitive development put forth by Piaget and Vygotsky.
analyze how the psychosocial theories outlined by Erikson and Kohlberg play out in influencing human development across the lifespan.

CONTENT TOPICS

Trends in Developmental Psychology
Babies
Infancy
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development (Discontinuous)
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development (Continuous)
Psycho-social Development

Memory and Cognition (early December)

LONG TERM GOALS

Students will analyze how humans experience emotion, the different forces motivating humans, and evaluate how the theories surrounding these topics work to offer competing yet complimentary explanations for these processes.

BIG IDEAS

Emotions have evolved to help us respond to important situations and to convey our intentions to others. The discovery of two distinct brain pathways for emotional arousal have clarified the connection between emotion and the biological structures of the brain but there still remains varying theories on the role played by the physical and cognitive components of emotional labelling.
Motivation takes many forms, but all involved inferred mental processes that select and direct our behavior.
The human stress response to perceived threat activates thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physiological arousal that normally promode adaptation and survival.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Where do our emotions come from?
What motivates us to act as we do?
How and why do we experience stress?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

compare the major theories of emotion and evaluate which theory best explains how humans process emotion.
compare the major theories of motivation and evaluate how the competing theories complement and/or contradict each other based on the focus of the theory.

CONTENT TOPICS

Memory
Thinking
Problem Solving and Creativity
Language (optional)