AP Psychology

Unit 10: Personality

Outcomes:
1. Define personality as the individual’s unique way of thinking, feeling and acting.
2. Understand the concepts of the major theories of personality.

Topic & Activities
Myers PowerPoint.
1. Defining Personality
1) What is Personality?
2) Your theory of personality.
3) Lecture: Overview of Personality Theory
2. Freud and the Neo-Freudians (PowerPoint)
1) “Id , Ego and Superego” Worksheet
2) Freud Defense Mechanisms and Work Sheet
3) Neo-Freudians: Jung, Alder and Horney
3. Social-Cognitive, Humanist and Trait Theories
Humanistic Assumptions
Humanistic Perspective and Personality

1) The Big Five Personality Test

Review
Table of Personality Theories
Focus:
How would you describe your personality?

1. When can babies first recognize their mother’s smell? Voice? Face?
2. Define these important terms: maturation, accommodation, menarche, critical period, object permanence, assimilation, attachment, habituation, social clock, theory of mind, rooting reflex, teratogen, menopause.
3. What is the difference between authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles?
4. What is the difference between fluid and crystallized intelligence?
5. Know all the stages of Piaget, Kohlberg and Erikson’s theories?
6. On what do females base their sense of personal identity?
7. What is the ideal parent?
8. What illnesses are more likely to occur in the elderly?
9. What is infantile amnesia and what causes it?
10. When do our physical abilities peak?
11. What are the advantages of early puberty in boys?
12. What are the symptoms of autism?
13. How can parents foster secure attachment?
14. What is the empty nest syndrome?
15. What happens to a male physically as he advances through middle adulthood?
16. How does self-esteem fluctuate for young Americans from teen years to late teen years?
17. What are women more likely to do in marriage compared to men?
18. What causes Alzheimer’s disease?
19. What is the difference between primary and secondary sex characteristics?
20. What is the best predicator of marital satisfaction?
21. What happens to our sense of hearing as we age?

Do not forget the online quiz.

Discuss your teenage life by referring your physical, intellectual, emotional and social development. Ensure that you refer to concepts discussed in class and covered in your text.
In your conclusion discuss:
· the extent to which you know who your are i. e. to what extent have you defined your identity
· which theory of adolescence makes most sense to you:
Hall’s view of adolescence as a time of storm and stress view, or Mead’s theory that adolescence is an enjoyable time or Havighust’s view that adolescence is a time of challenges.

Adolescence is the transition period between childhood and adulthood (Latin = Grow in to maturity)
Adolescence is a unique time in life as many physical, intellectual, social, emotional and sexual “firsts” are achieved.

Physical Development

Puberty (Latin = grow hairy) defines a number of physical changes characterized by a growth spurt and the development of secondary sex characteristics
Psychologists are primarily interested in the way adolescents react to these changes
The following psychological developments accompany puberty:
Increased self consciousness (the spot light effect)
Mood swings
Changing relationships with parent and peers
The timing of puberty is another key factor as very early or very late puberty can cause some anxiety with males experiencing the more adverse effects.

Intellectual development

There is a qualitative shift in development as adolescents begin to think more hypothetically, introspectively and idealistically.
There is also the development of a more mature morality based on beliefs of fairness, justice and universal laws of morality.

Social Development

Psychologists are divided on the key issue as to whether adolescence is a time of storm and stress or one of challenge and achievement.
Erikson agues that adolescence is a period when individuals must search for their identity so that they can achieve self-understanding, make commitments in life and a gain a sense of “togetherness”.
Peterson argues that only a small percentage of adolescents experience storms, crisis and turmoil.
Mead saw adolescence as a time of experimentation and fun.

There are important gender differences in the way teenagers deal with stress: females tend to have negative internal behaviors reactions e.g. depression while male tend to have negative external behaviors disobedience and rebellion.

Sexual Development

Sexuality is of high concern to adolescence. It is problematic for a number of reasons:
Most societies are still not open concerning sexual matters
Teenagers receive mixed messages from parents, schools, the media and peers
AIDS means that death and sex are now intertwined
While sexual identify is a more simple biological concepts, the sex role, i.e. acceptable behavior for men and women, is more the product of nurture and culture.
A greater degree of flexibility now exists in sex role behaviors. Strict masculine and feminine roles are not as rigidly imposed and the adoption of more androgynous roles has lead to greater depth of emotional response on the part of both sexes.

Outcomes
1. Identify the major physical, cognitive, and social developments of life.
2. Understand and evaluate the different theories of development.

Topic and Activities

1. Developmental Psychology:
Class Discussion: The Decades of Life and major project “The Life Line”
PP Presentation Chapter 4

2. Major Theories of Development
‘Ages and Stages’

3. Infancy and Early Childhood
Handout 3.1 ‘Piaget Meets Santa’
Video: The Human Body
4. Adolescence
Lecture
Readings: Adolescence: Forgotten Age Forgotten Problems
Video: The Human Body

5. Adulthood and Aging
Are you ageist or ignorant?
Video: Maturing and Aging

6. Seminar Number 2 Topic: “That our teenage years are the best and worst of times.”

Advice on preparing for a seminar. 

Weblog posting for discussion:

Posting Number 1 : My Teenage Years

Posting Number 2 : What do you see of yourself in your parents?

Posting Number 3 : Parents what do you see of yourself in your teenage child?

1. Define memory.
2. Why are flashbulb memories so strong?
3. What are the three stages in information processing model of memory?
4. What do we call our visual sensory memory and our aural sensory memory?
5. How long do these last?
6. What did we learn about iconic memory from Sperling?
7. What is the capacity of our STM?
8. How can we retain more information in our STM?
9. What is the capacity of our LTM?
10. Give examples of automatic and effortful processing.
11. Why does rehearsal of information improve retention?
12. What are the benefits of spaced learning?
13. Explain the serial position effect?
14. What is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference?
15. What are example of mnemonics?
16. What did we learn form Kandel and Schwartz?
17. How does chunking help us?
18. What did we learn from the experiments concerning context clues?
19. We learnt that we are not video recorders, instead we construct memories. What does this mean and what are these reconstructions of the past based on what?
20. If you had a PET scan in operation, what part of the brain would you aim it at to determine if someone is lying?
21. What is LTP?
22. Give biological explanations of infantile amnesia?
23. What are our two major types of memory
24. How have studies of people suffering from amnesia confirmed this? (p.332)
25. How can we use Bowers experiment to help us study?
26. Recall, recognition and relearning are all indication of ______________ in action.
27. Compare and contrast implicit and explicit memories.
28. Why should we be wary of hypnotically refreshed memories?
29. What is deja vu?
30. Define the following: blocking, suggestibility, bias and misattribuiton, sources amnesia.

AP Psychology

Semester 1 2007

Format

The exam will consist of 80 multiple choice questions and one free response question. The free response will focus on research design.

Time : 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Review guide:

History Methods and Approaches

1. Draw a table that identifies the major approaches in psychology. You table should include major contributors, major theories and concepts, strengths and weakness, achievements as well as areas of interest.
2. Identify three definitions of psychology and then write one that combines these ideas.
3. Draw a table that identifies the major types of psychological research. Include strengths and weaknesses.
4. Draw a table of the major sub-branches of psychology.
5. What is a correlation coefficient and how is it expressed?
6. What are the various statistical means of expressing variability and which is considered the best.
7. What are the differences between reliability and validity?
8. What is a placebo?
9. What is a double blind research design?
10. Compare between subject and within subject designs.
11. What is the difference between these types of variables: IV, DV, confounding variable, random variable, and control variable?
12. What does it mean to say that an experiment should operationalise the components of the hypothesis?
13. What does it mean to say that the results are statistically significant?
14. What is introspection?

Biological Bases of Behavior

1. What would be seen as the most startling difference between a human brain and the brain of a rat?
2. Draw a flow chart of the processes involved in a one neuron triggering the action potential of another neuron.
3. Draw a set of diagrams that shows in a step by step manner a neuron at all its possible stages.
4. Draw a table of the major neurotransmitters that describes its normal effects and then include descriptions of behavior if there is a deficit and an overabundance of this transmitter.
5. What are the major differences between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems?
6. Draw diagrams to explain the perceptions of the split brain patients.
7. What is the endocrine system? Draw a chart of the various hormones and their effects.

Sensation and Perception

1. What is the pathway of a pain inflicted on the hand?
2. What accounts for color and brightness?
3. What accounts for pitch and loudness?
4. What are the place and frequency-matching theories of hearing?
5. Compare and contrast top down and bottom up processing.
6. If you ear was infected what might happen to your balance and why might that happen?
7. What is the pathway of the sensation of light?
8. What is the pathway of the sensation of sound?
9. What are the two theory of color perception?
10. What are the various gestalt principles of perception?

Consciousness

1. What is an hallucination?
2. What are the common disorders of sleep?
3. Draw a table of the various types of psycho-active drugs and their effects.
4. What are the defining features of each stage of sleep? Draw a table.
5. What theories explain hypnosis?

Learning

1. What is observational learning? Give an example.
2. Write three scenarios to demonstrate classical conditioning. Label each component of the scenario?
3. Draw a Venn diagram that compares and contrasts classical to operant conditioning.
4. Explain all the major concepts of learning: acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, and discrimination, and generalization, primary and secondary reinforcers, shaping reinforcement.
5. Draw a table explains differences between positive and negative reinforcement and the two types of punishment.
6. Give examples of all the various types of reinforcement schedules.
7. What is systematic desensitization?
8. What are the drawbacks of punishment?

Cognition

1. What are the advantages of spaced learning?
2. What are the various types of memories that we encode store and retrieve?
3. What is a flashbulb memory and what is the explanation for why they are so powerful?
4. What is the difference between state dependent memories and repressed memories?
5. Explain the serial position effect.
6. What brain regions are involved with memory?
7. How do schemas influence retrieval?
8. What can lead us to repeat mistakes when trying to solve problems?
9. What is the serial position effect, the primacy effect and the recency effect?
10. What is functional fixation?
11. What are the various heuristics?
12. How do we typically make mistakes in your thinking and problem solving?
13. What biases are present in your thinking?
14. What does it mean to say that are memories are reconstructed?
15. What is confabulation

Motivation and Emotion

1. Compare and contrast the James-Lange Theory of emotion with the Schachter model.
2. What are the 6 universal facial expressions?
3. What is the difference between approach-approach and approach-avoidance conflicts?
4. What are the various types of drives?
5. Sketch Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
6. What is the difference between anoxeria nervoa and bulimia?
7. What is homeostasis?
8. What are the various psychological motives
9. What is the opponent process theory of emotions?
10. What are the best ways for employers to motivate their workers?
11. What is the Cannon Bard theory of emotions?

Seriously, the next three weeks will place extra demands on your time and commitment to achieving good grades for the semester. A. P. courses by their very nature leave little time for navel gazing or running home to grandma.

Our goals over the next three weeks are to:

1. Complete Chapter 9 and 10
2. Complete two chapter tests on Chapters 9 and 10
3. Complete retests if necessary.
4. Complete Chapter 12 and 13 (These chapters will be tested in the exam.)
5. Revise for the AP Psychology Semester Exam. (See Revision Guide Post)

To this end and to reduce stress there will be no November bloglog. The work you have completed to date will be held over to the January Bloglog.

Schedule

D Block Class:

20 November Chapter 9 Test (end of lesson)

29 November Chapter 10 Test (beginning of lesson)

29 November to 5 December Motivation and Emotion Chapters

7 December Exam period

G Block Class

21 November Chapter 9 Test (end of lesson)

30 November Chapter 10 Test (beginning of lesson)

30 November to 6 December Motivation and Emotion Chapters

7 December Exam period

Study and Review Opportunities

Starting next week (Except for Wednesdays) I will be available after school for review and assistance either individually or in small groups.

We can do this!

Various programs help you map concepts, design flowcharts and plan our writing. Mind mapping (or concept mapping) involves writing down a central idea and thinking up new and related ideas which radiate out from the center. By focusing on key ideas written down in your own words, and then looking for branches out and connections between the ideas, you are mapping knowledge in a manner which will help you understand and remember new information.

A particular type of mind map is a flow chart that organizes material in a logical sequence.

Mind mapping tools are available for free or for purchase. For example Inspiration is one of the best on the market and they do allow a free 30 day trial before purchase. You will also find other applications that are free to use.

An number of advantages of mind maps have been identified:

• Mind maps work the way the brain works — which is not in nice neat lines.
• Memory is naturally associative, not linear. Any idea probably has thousands of links in your mind. Mind maps allow associations and links to be recorded and reinforced.
• The mind remembers key words and images, not sentences — try recalling just one sentence from memory! Mind maps use just key words and key images, allowing a lot more information to be put on a page.
• Because mind maps are more visual and depict associations between key words, they are much easier to recall than linear notes. (For example, although you may not have studied it in depth, see how much of the Home Mind Map of this site you can recall in your mind’s eye.)
• Starting from the center of the page rather than top-left corner allows you to work out in all directions.
• The organization of a mind map reflects the way your own brain organizes ideas.
• Mind maps are easy to review. Regular review reinforces memory. Best is to try reviewing in your imagination first, then go back and check on those areas that were hazy.
  Source: Peter Russel

Outcomes
Understands the processes involved in cognition.
Understand how our memory systems work
Understand how we acquire language and use it to make sense of the world.
Understand how we organize our thoughts, think and solve problems

Topics and Activity

Myers Powerpoints

Chapter 9

Chapter 10
Cognitive Psychology and
1. Information Processing Models

Memories Activities and
Demonstrations

Flow Chart using Viso or Inspiration
Focus: My First Memory

2. Encoding, Storing and Retrieval

Meaning Enhances Recall Activity
Memory is Often Reconstruction Activity
Constructive Memory: The Rumor Chain
Retroactive and Proactive Inhibition
A Déjà vu Experience

3. Extended Reading ‘It’s Magical . .”

Video Remembering and Forgetting

4. What is cognition?

Lecture: Major concepts and key ideas
What is your cognitive style : The Gregorc Style Delineator

Learning more about your Learning Style.
Video: Cognitive Processes

Video: Judgement and Decision Making
5. Problem Solving

Solving problems and avoid pitfalls
6. Making Decisions and Judgments Using Heuristics and avoiding fallacies
Handout 10-4
Video: Judgment and Decision Making

7. Language and Thinking

Lecture
Video: Language Development Assessment

Chapter Tests
Extended reading

Memory: Why we Remember Why We Forget