Dual Credit Psychology
All About Psychology
This course presents the basic concepts and perspectives for understanding psychology, the study of human behavior and mental processes. The course includes, but is not limited to, the history of psychology and research methodology, the brain and behavior, learning and memory, cognition and language, intelligence, development, personality, abnormal psychology and therapy, and social psychology. Some of the questions we will explore are:
Why take dual credit psychology?
How do we perceive the world? What defines our personality? Why do we behave the way we do and what influences our behavior? What is that a picture of on the right? Through an investigation of our thinking and behavior we will explore these questions and more to better understand ourselves and others.
You will also have an opportunity to experience a college level course and develop critical skills that will benefit you in your future academic pursuits.
How can I be successful in dual credit psychology?
This course is designed to earn both high school and college credit. As such, the expectations are different from other courses you have taken at Waukegan High School. you are expected to do a significant amount of independent learning. This will require effective time management on your end. The following serves to outline key practices which will facilitate your success, but is not meant to be exhaustive:
Attend class regularly and be prepared. If you are regularly absent, you will miss critical information. Attend class regularly and participate.
Manage your time and spend approximately 1 hour each day outside of class. The pacing of this course is significantly faster than most you have taken in high school. Plan ahead, be aware of deadlines, and schedule an average of 1 hour each day outside of class preparing for this course. This time should be spent reading, completing guided notes, reviewing vocabulary terms, and preparing for exams.
Ask questions. If you do not understand something or need clarification, ask! The course will be more enjoyable and you will get more out of it if we keep an open dialogue.
Course Objectives
1. Discuss the history related to the establishment of psychology as a science.
2. Discuss the major psychological perspectives.
3. Describe the scientific method, critical thinking, and how hindsight bias affects our judgments.
4. Discuss research methods and descriptive statistics for studying behavior, including case studies, naturalistic observation, surveys, correlations, and experimentation.
5. Describe ethical principles that guide scientific research in psychology.
6. Describe the parts of a neuron, how impulses are generated, how nerve cells communicate, and how neurotransmitters influence behavior.
7. Describe the two major divisions of the nervous system and their basic functions.
8. Describe the major structures of the brain and their functions.
9. Define learning and discuss classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.
10. Discuss the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory.
11. Discuss automatic processing, explicit and implicit memory, encoding and retrieval of information, and why we forget.
12. Define cognition and describe concept formation.
13. Discuss and evaluate problem-solving strategies and decision-making processes.
14. Define language, explain the major language theories, and describe the stages of language development.
15. Discuss major theories of intelligence, various intelligence tests, and individual differences.
16. Describe the importance of both nature and nurture in human development.
17. Explain the major theories of development, including Erikson, Piaget, Kohlberg and Ainsworth and stages of development from conception to death.
18. Describe the major perspectives on personality including psychoanalytic, humanistic, trait, and social-cognitive views.
19. Describe criteria for judging whether behavior is psychologically disordered, the biopsychosocial approach, and the DSM-V.
20. Discuss anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenia.
21. Discuss how psychotherapy, biomedical therapy, and an eclectic approach to therapy differ.
22. Discuss psychodynamic, humanistic, behavior, cognitive behavioral, and group and family therapies.
23. Discuss the field of social psychology including the fundamental attribution error, attitude formation, conformity, obedience, social influence, social decision-making, prejudice, aggression, attraction, and altruism.