When preparing to teach a new unit, I find it's helpful to have important information in one easy-to-access location. So here you'll find the standards for teaching the introductory unit of a psychology course, the key terms and definitions that should be covered throughout the unit, as well as some teaching resources and suggested activities for students to complete.
Standards
Scientific Inquiry and Research Methods
CONTENT STANDARD 1: The nature of psychological science
1.1 Define psychology as a discipline and identify its goals as a science
1.2 Differentiate scientific and non-scientific approaches to knowledge
1.3 Explain the value of both basic and applied psychological research with human and non-human animals
1.4 Identify careers individuals can pursue in psychological science
1.5 Identify ways individuals can use psychological science in any career
CONTENT STANDARD 2: Research methods and measurements used to study behavior and mental processes
2.1 Describe research methods psychological scientists use
2.2 Compare and contrast quantitative and qualitative research methods used by psychological scientists
2.3 Describe the importance of representative samples in psychological research and the need for replication
2.4 Explain how and why psychologists use non-human animals in research
2.5 Explain the meaning of validity and reliability of observations and measurements
CONTENT STANDARD 3: Ethical issues in research with human and non-human animals
3.1 Identify ethical requirements for research with human participants and non-human animals
3.2 Explain why researchers need to adhere to an ethics review process
CONTENT STANDARD 4: Basic concepts of data analysis
4.1 Define descriptive statistics and explain how they are used by psychological scientists
4.2 Draw appropriate conclusions from correlational and experimental designs
4.3 Interpret visual representations of data
Key Terms
psychology | the scientific study of behavior and mental processes |
scientific method | system of gathering data so that bias and error in measurement are reduced |
hypothesis | tentative explanation of a phenomenon based on observations |
clinical psychology | psychologists diagnose and treat people with psychological disorders that may range from mild to severe |
counseling psychology | psychologists help people with problems of adjustment |
developmental psychology | psychologists study the changes in the way people think, relate to others, and feel as they age |
experimental psychology | psychologists primarily do research and experiments in the areas of thinking, memory, motivation, learning, perception, and language |
social psychology | psychologists focus on how human behavior is affected by the presence of other people |
I/O psychology | psychologists are concerned with relationships between people and their work environments |
naturalistic observation | the study of animals or people in their natural environment |
observer effect | tendency of people or animals to behave differently from normal when they know they are being observed |
observer bias | tendency of observers to see what they expect to see |
laboratory method | method of conducting research in a controlled environment |
case study | study of one individual in great detail |
survey method | method of conducting research in the form of interviews |
experimental method | a deliberate manipulation of a variable to see if corresponding changes in behavior result, allowing the determination of cause-and-effect relationships |
independent variable | variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter |
dependent variable | variable in an experiment that represents the measurable behavior or responses of the participants |
confounding variable | variable in an experiment that may interfere with the results |
qualitative data | any information captured in research that is not numerical |
quantitative data | any information captured in research that can be counted or measured in numerical values |
population | the entire group of people or animals in which the researcher is interested |
representative sample | randomly selected sample of subjects from a larger population of subjects |
replication | the repetition of a research study, generally with different situations and different subjects, to determine if the basic findings of the original study can be applied to other participants and circumstances |
validity | the degree to which a test actually measures what it is supposed to measure |
reliability | the tendency of a test to produce the same scores again and again each time it is given to the same people |
informed consent | permission from a person to participate in an experiment after the risks and purpose of the experiment have been explained |
statistics | branch of mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of numerical data |
descriptive statistics | a way of organizing numbers and summarizing them so that patterns can be determined |
correlation | a measure of the relationship between two variables |
correlation coefficient | number that represents the the strength and direction of the relationship between variables |
Teaching Resources
This unit has to do some heavy lifting: give students the necessary background information for them to be successful in futures and get them excited about what a study of psychology has to offer!
Check out Science of Psychology resources to make teaching this unit fun and engaging for you AND your students. Resources include teacher presentation slides to streamline the content, guided notes to keep students engaged in the content delivery, a research project to give them hands-on experience, a correlations activity to help students really grasp this type of data, as well as a bunch more activities, viewing guides, and review.
What activities are your favorites for teaching the science of psychology? Share in the comments!
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