Lesson Plans

Psychology, 6th Edition ©2000

by Wade, Tavris

Weeks 2–3

Chapter 2 and Appendix A: How Psychologists Do Research

Performance Objectives:

• Describe the elements of an experiment.
• Explain the importance of sampling in psychological research.
• Describe and compare quantitative and qualitative research strategies.
• Define descriptive statistics and explain how they are used by behavioral scientists.
• Explain and describe measures of central tendency.
• Describe the concept of correlation and explain how it is used in psychology.
• Recognize how inferential statistics are used in psychological research.
• Identify ethical issues in psychological research.
• Describe the emergence of experimental psychology.
• Describe psychology's increasing inclusiveness of diverse interests and constituents.

Resources:

• Chapter 2 and Appendix A: How Psychologists Do Research—pp. 32–63 and pp. A-1–A-9
• Study Guide and Practice Tests—pp. 29–57 and pp. 499–513
• Instructor's Resource Manual—pp. 35–77 and pp. 647–651
• Test Bank—pp. 25–50 and pp. 422–430

Pacing Guide:

• What Makes Psychological Research Scientific—days 1 and 2
• Descriptive Studies—day 3
• Correlational Studies—day 4
• Experiments—days 5 and 6
• Evaluating the Findings—day 7
• Keeping the Enterprise Ethical—day 8
• Appendix: Statistical Methods—days 9 and 10
• Block Scheduling
  What Makes Psychological Research Scientific will take one block. Combine Descriptive Studies and Correlational Studies into one block. Experiments requires one block, and Evaluating the Findings and Keeping the Enterprise Ethical may require one and one-half blocks. The Appendix should be given one block period.

Key Words:

Critical Thinking Questions:

1. Where do psychological scientists get their hypotheses?
2. In what way are scientists risk takers?
3. Why do psychologists often observe people's behavior in laboratories instead of in everyday situations?
4. What's the difference between a psychological survey and a poll of listeners by a radio DJ?
5. What do psychologists mean when they say correlation does not mean causation?
6. How can psychologists tell whether a finding is impressive or trivial?
7. Why do psychologists rely so heavily on experiments?
8. In a double-blind experiment, who is "blind" and what aren't they suppose to "see"?
9. Why do psychologists often lie to their subjects?
10. Why do psychologists study nonhuman animals?

Troubleshooting Tips:

• The information for this two-week unit is found in two places in the book. The challenge will be in combining the information from both into a single unit.
• The importance of understanding experimental methods cannot be overstated. Be sure to give students multiple opportunities to explain and/or design experiments.
• You may want to consider consulting a math teacher in your building for tips on teaching some of the math-related work. Students will not be asked to compute a "z-score" on the AP* test, but it is important that they understand the math behind such computations as well as the benefits to obtaining statistical data.

End-of-Chapter Activity: