Honors psychology is designed to introduce students to the systematic and scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of human beings and other animals. Students will be exposed to the psychological facts, principles, and phenomena associated with each of the major subfields within psychology. You will also learn about the ethics and methods psychologists use in their science and practice. 

Unit

Timeframe

Big Ideas (Statements or Essential Questions)

Major Learning Experiences from Unit 

Cognitive Psychology: Memory

3 weeks

Effortful versus automatic processing, deep versus shallow processing; focused versus divided attention, types of memory, memory encoding & storage

Flashbulb memory interview

Biological Bases of Behavior

4 weeks

Neural Communication, the nervous system, the endocrine system, central & peripheral nervous systems, major brain regions, brain structure, lobes, & cortical areas, brain lateralization & hemispheric specialization, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and treatment of, evolutionary psychology, nature versus nurture, consciousness, genetics & inherited traits 

CTE Project, 3D Brain, Clay Neuron,

Neural communication movie 

States of Consciousness

2 weeks

Sleep stages and cycles, theories of sleep and dreaming, sleep disorders, uses for psychoactive drugs & impact on behavior, drug dependency

Sleep disorders/diagnosis, sleep log, sleep reflection, school start time persuasive letter, drug brochures

Sensation and Perception

3 weeks

Sensory transduction, absolute threshold, difference threshold, signal detection, sensory adaptation, sensory processes, sensory disorders, Gestalt approach to organization, effects of culture & environment, top-down processing, attention & behavior, Weber’s Law

Inversion Goggle Lab, Sensation & Perception Gallery Walk/Scavenger Hunt

Developmental Psychology

3 weeks

Nature v. nurture, prenatal development, maturation, how schemas are assimilated or accommodated, Piaget's stages of cognitive development, secure v. insecure attachment, gender identity, and gender roles, psychosocial development, moral development, the role of parents, peer influence, adolescence, cross-sectional v. longitudinal studies, aging.

Developmental cross-sectional research interview

Personality

3 weeks

Theories of personality: psychoanalytic, humanist, cognitive, trait, social learning, & behavioral, Oedipus complex, Rorschach Inkblot test, iceberg model, self-actualization, the “Big Five”, individualism versus collectivism, compare relevant research methods, assessment strategies including MMPI & TAT, cultural influences/hindrances on development

50 slips, personality inventory

Clinical Psychology and Treatment

3 weeks

Defining & recognizing psychological disorders, understanding & use of DSM5, ADHD, anxiety & somatoform disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia, personality & dissociative disorders, explaining disorders through medical model, psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive, biological, & sociocultural approaches, consequences of diagnostic labeling, psychology & legal ties, Characteristics of psychotherapeutic intervention, evaluating psychotherapies, biomedical therapies, treatment orientations used in therapy, drug therapies, compare & contrast different treatment formats, the effectiveness of specific treatments for specific problems, cultural & ethnic influence on treatment, prevention strategies

Case studies/DSM-V manuals

Social Psychology

2-3 weeks

Study of social attitudes, social influence, & other influences, application of theories to explain motives, structure & function of group behavior, individual responses to expectations of others, changing attitudes, Milgram's obedience experiment, Zimbardo’s prison experiment, the impact of the presence of others on individual behavior, social & cultural influences, variables that contribute to altruism, aggression, & attraction, attitude formation & change

Ethical standards in famous case studies (Milgram, Stanford Prison Experiment, Tuskeegee Medical Experiment)