Psychology

This one-semester course is intended as a practical, hands-on guide to introduce you to the study of psychology.

This course is structured into 18 lessons and 5 Course Activities as follows:

The first three lessons trace the historical development of psychology, explore career opportunities in various branches of psychology, and discuss the methods that psychologists use to develop theories.

The next three lessons explain the roles of the nervous and endocrine systems in development and behavior, examine how sensations and perceptions affect cognition and behavior, and discuss some effective strategies for problem solving and decision making.

The next two lessons deal with the influence of heredity and the environment on shaping an individual, or what is commonly referred to as the “nature versus nurture” debate, and the theories of cognitive, psychosocial, and moral development.

The next two lessons discuss behavioral and social learning theories and how they are applied in classroom situations for optimal learning, and examine how society and culture influence an individual’s behavior, including attitudes and biases.

The next three lessons discuss various theories of motivation and emotion, explain various types of intelligence, some key theories of intelligence, the concept of IQ, and the drawbacks of IQ tests, and discuss various theories of personality, personality tests, and their advantages and limitations.

The next three lessons explore the structural features of language and theories of language acquisition and development, define stress, discuss strategies for coping with it, and discuss the major categories of abnormal behavior and their characteristics.

The last two lessons discuss different types of psychological counseling and therapy and their effectiveness, and explain some key statistical concepts used in psychological research and testing.

You will submit the Course Activity documents to your teacher, and you will grade your work in the Lesson Activities by comparing them with sample responses. Each lesson also has a multiple-choice mastery test. A multiple-choice end-of-semester test completes the course.

The Course Activities (submitted to the teacher) and the Lesson Activities (self-checked) are major components of this course. They will guide your learning as you work through this course.