Advanced Placement Psychology

Course Description and Summer Assignment 2016

Mr. McGee

E-mail:

Course Overview:

The Advanced Placement Psychology course is a college level course that is taught at an accelerated pace. The course is designed to introduce students to the fascinating world of psychology. Students will study the psychological facts, principles and phenomena associated with each of the major sub-fields within psychology. They will also learn about the methods psychologists use to monitor and evaluate psychological processes. Topics covered will include research methodology, statistics, personality development and theories, therapy, developmental psychology, biological bases of behavior, learning, social psychology, sensation, perception, states of consciousness, memory and other cognitive processes, intelligence and testing, motivation, emotion, mental illness, stress and diversity.

Please be aware that this is a college-level course that involves a large amount of independent reading and examinations that consist of challenging multiple-choice and free response questions! Most of class time will be devoted to clarification of the readings, individual and group projects, discussion and preparation for the AP Psychology exam in May. Do not hesitate to contact me via email or in person if you need any assistance!

Course Readings:

These are the required texts for this course:

Psychology: Themes & Variations, 9th edition by Wayne Weiten(ISBN # 978-1111354749)

Barron's AP Psychology, 7th editionby Allyson Weseley and Robert McEntarffer

(ISBN # 978-1438007434)

Summer Assignment Instructions (due on first class session; most likely the 2ndschool day)

  1. You may type or handwrite your assignment.
  1. Please note that I do not accept late work (except in the case of a verified medical emergency). All work must be turned in (via email or a hard copy submission) on or before the start of the class period it is due or it receives a score of 0. Any work that is plagiarized or directly copied from the Internet or a classmate will also receive a score of 0. I do this in each of my classes to ensure that all of my students are treated equally.
  1. Your Assignment is as follows: Read and take notes on Chapters 1 (History and Approaches) and 2 (Methods) in your Barron’s textbook. Focus on knowing the definition and application (using / recognizing the vocabulary word in a real-life example) ofthe key terms listed on the first page of each chapter. The majority of the AP Psych exam consists of questions assessing your knowledge and application of psychological terms.Do not hesitate to email me with any questions you have.You will be tested on this material on our first AP Psych class meeting. In addition, please purchase the other textbook we will use in the course (authored by Wayne Weiten).