INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY TEACHING PRIMER Early Career ...

POSSIBLE ASSESSMENTS
(Out of Class)
Classic Readings: A list of classics full-text readings in the History of Psychology is available at:
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/author.htm. Students could pick an article and answer questions
regarding the contributions to the larger field or identify different studies that achieved the goals
of describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling behavior and mental processes. (LO 1.1,
1.2)
Online Scavenger Hunt: Ask questions on key events, publications, and perspectives from this flash
activity available at: http://www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/history/history_flash.html.
Questions might include: Who founded Gestalt Psychology? What year was the Nature of
Prejudice published? (LO1.2b)
Psychology at the Bookstore: This assignment has students visit a book retailer to critically
evaluate the portrayal of the science of psychology in the popular media. Detailed instructions
available at: http://www.teachpsychscience.org/pdf/524201042305PM_1.PDF (LO 1.1)
ACTIVITIES & TECHNIQUES
(In Class)
Myth busting- True/False statements on first day regarding history and breadth of psychology as
well as counterintuitive findings. (See Lilienfield et al., (2009) 50 Great Myths of Popular
Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior)
Discovering Psychology Video: Past, Present and Promise (26:37) (Given the length of this video,
may be more appropriate as an out of class or online activity.)
http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=1498
RELEVANT TOP ARTICLES
(Annotated Bibliography)
Cox, B. D. (1997). Students' basic philosophical assumptions in history of psychology: A
measure and teaching tool. Teaching of Psychology, 24(1), 39-41.
This article describes administering a questionnaire to students regarding their philosophical
perspective on issues such as the mind-body connection and free will vs. determinism. Students
may not realize their position or how their philosophy could influence future processing of
material. This would be an activity that could be done either at the beginning or end of a
course. One could also include questions from other sub-disciplines (e.g., health, I/O,
developmental, etc) to tie into the careers section of the chapter.
7