Grade 11 Humanities: Psychology

In this unit, 'What is psychology and methods of inquiry', you learn to describe methods of enquiry in psychology. You work with exam-style questions and written reasoning. You see it, say it, then do it alone.

• Place it: find where and when 'What is psychology and methods of inquiry' happens, on a map, a timeline or in a local example.
• Gather: read or listen to two short sources and note who is speaking and why.
• Use it: describe methods of enquiry in psychology. Give a reason and one piece of evidence for every point.
• Weigh it: say what another person might think, and why, before you decide.

Step by step.

1. Step 1, Describe psychology as the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. Its goals are to describe, explain, predict and influence behaviour. Start with a question such as why some students forget names, then pick a method of enquiry that can give evidence rather than opinion.
2. Step 2, Describe observation. In naturalistic observation you watch without interfering. A researcher watches a playground for 30 minutes and tallies 18 sharing acts and 7 grabbing acts, 25 in all. Observers must define each behaviour in advance, and being watched can change what children do.
3. Step 3, Describe surveys and interviews. A questionnaire asks 100 students how long they sleep and 62 say under 7 hours, so 62 percent. The sample must be representative and questions neutral. An interview goes deeper but takes longer. A case study studies one person in detail.
4. Step 4, Describe the experiment. It changes one thing, the independent variable, and measures the effect, the dependent variable. Forty students are randomly put in two groups of 20, one sleeping 8 hours and one 5 hours. Mean memory scores out of 20 are 16 and 12, so the difference is 4.
5. Step 5, Describe correlation. A coefficient runs from -1 to +1. Hours of study and marks might show +0.7, a strong positive link, but correlation does not prove cause. Ethics also matters: informed consent, privacy, the right to withdraw and no harm to participants.
6. Step 6, Your turn: choose a method to test whether quiet music helps students concentrate. Model answer: an experiment; randomly assign students to music or silence (independent variable), give the same task, compare scores (dependent variable), and get consent first.

Activity. About 40 to 50 minutes of class work, then one short practice task for home. Keep evidence: a timed paper and an error log.

Standard to meet. Describe methods of enquiry in psychology: at least 70 percent on an exam-style task, with the method shown.

In this unit, 'Human development and the brain', you learn to describe the stages of development and the nervous system. You work with exam-style questions and written reasoning. You see it, say it, then do it alone.

• Place it: find where and when 'Human development and the brain' happens, on a map, a timeline or in a local example.
• Gather: read or listen to two short sources and note who is speaking and why.
• Use it: describe the stages of development and the nervous system. Give a reason and one piece of evidence for every point.
• Weigh it: say what another person might think, and why, before you decide.

Step by step.

1. Step 1, Describe the stages of development: prenatal (about 9 months before birth), infancy (0 to 2 years), childhood (2 to 12), adolescence (12 to 18), adulthood and old age. Heredity and environment both shape growth. Development covers physical, thinking and social-emotional change.
2. Step 2, Give milestones. Most babies walk and say first words near 12 months and use about 50 words by 2 years. In adolescence there is a growth spurt and a search for identity. Ages are averages, so a child who walks at 10 months or 15 months can both be healthy.
3. Step 3, Describe the nervous system. The central part is the brain and spinal cord; the peripheral part is the nerves. A neuron has dendrites that receive signals, a cell body, and an axon that carries the impulse. Neurons talk across a tiny gap, the synapse, using chemicals. The brain has roughly 86 billion neurons, a widely used estimate.
4. Step 4, Describe the brain. The cerebrum has two hemispheres and four lobes: frontal (planning, movement), parietal (touch), temporal (hearing, memory), occipital (vision). The cerebellum handles balance and coordination. The brainstem controls breathing and heartbeat without thought.
5. Step 5, Describe a reflex arc. If a hand touches something very hot, a sensory neuron sends a signal to the spinal cord and a motor neuron tells the muscle to pull away, before the brain registers pain. The fastest nerves carry impulses up to about 100 m/s, so a 1 m path takes about 0.01 s.
6. Step 6, Your turn: name the lobe mainly used to see and give the age range of adolescence. Answer: the occipital lobe processes vision; adolescence is about 12 to 18 years.

Activity. About 40 to 50 minutes of class work, then one short practice task for home. Keep evidence: a timed paper and an error log.

Standard to meet. Describe the stages of development and the nervous system: at least 70 percent on an exam-style task, with the method shown.

In this unit, 'Sensation, perception and learning', you learn to explain how we sense, perceive and learn. You work with exam-style questions and written reasoning. You see it, say it, then do it alone.

• Place it: find where and when 'Sensation, perception and learning' happens, on a map, a timeline or in a local example.
• Gather: read or listen to two short sources and note who is speaking and why.
• Use it: explain how we sense, perceive and learn. Give a reason and one piece of evidence for every point.
• Weigh it: say what another person might think, and why, before you decide.

Step by step.

1. Step 1, Explain sensation and perception. Sensation is when receptors detect a stimulus, such as light on the retina, and send nerve signals. Perception is the brain organising and interpreting them. You sense patches of colour and edges; you perceive a friend's face. The same sensation can be perceived differently.
2. Step 2, Explain thresholds. The absolute threshold is the weakest stimulus you can detect, such as a faint sound. The just noticeable difference grows with the starting size. If you notice 2 g added to 100 g (2 percent), you need about 10 g added to 500 g, since 2 percent of 500 is 10.
3. Step 3, Explain how we organise what we see. Figure and ground: we see a shape against a background. Grouping: close or similar items look like one set. Constancy: an opening door still looks rectangular. Depth cues include overlap and relative size, so a smaller car looks farther away.
4. Step 4, Explain classical learning. A bell is rung just before food. Food is the unconditioned stimulus and salivation the unconditioned response. After several pairings the bell alone causes salivation, now a conditioned response. Everyday case: feeling nervous at the sound of a dentist's drill.
5. Step 5, Explain operant and observational learning. Behaviour followed by a reward becomes more likely: a child gets a sticker each time she tidies and tidies more. Punishment makes a behaviour less likely. In observational learning we copy what we see others do and see rewarded.
6. Step 6, Your turn: a child is praised each time she reads aloud and reads more often. Which learning is this, and what is the difference between sensation and perception? Answer: operant learning by positive reinforcement; sensation detects the signal, perception interprets it.

Activity. About 40 to 50 minutes of class work, then one short practice task for home. Keep evidence: a timed paper and an error log.

Standard to meet. Explain how we sense, perceive and learn: at least 70 percent on an exam-style task, with the method shown.

In this unit, 'Memory, thinking and motivation', you learn to describe memory, thinking and emotion. You work with exam-style questions and written reasoning. You see it, say it, then do it alone.

• Place it: find where and when 'Memory, thinking and motivation' happens, on a map, a timeline or in a local example.
• Gather: read or listen to two short sources and note who is speaking and why.
• Use it: describe memory, thinking and emotion. Give a reason and one piece of evidence for every point.
• Weigh it: say what another person might think, and why, before you decide.

Step by step.

1. Step 1, Describe memory as encoding (taking information in), storage (keeping it) and retrieval (getting it back). Sensory memory holds impressions for only a second or a few seconds. Short-term memory holds roughly seven items, plus or minus two, for a short time, often under half a minute without rehearsal. Long-term memory can hold a huge amount for years.
2. Step 2, Show chunking. The digits 9876543210 are 10 items, too many to hold. Group them as 98765 and 43210 and there are two chunks. Rehearsal and mnemonics help too. Describe forgetting: decay, interference from similar items, and failure to retrieve, as in the tip-of-the-tongue feeling.
3. Step 3, Describe thinking: forming concepts, reasoning and solving problems. Steps are understand, plan, try, check. A three-digit lock has 1,000 codes from 000 to 999. An algorithm tries all of them; a heuristic uses clues, like a hint that all digits are odd, which cuts the options to 125.
4. Step 4, Describe motivation as the force that starts and keeps behaviour going. Intrinsic motivation comes from interest in the task; extrinsic comes from rewards or fear. A needs hierarchy runs from food and safety through belonging and respect to personal growth, and lower needs usually press first.
5. Step 5, Describe emotion as having three parts: body changes, such as a heart rate rising from 70 to 95 beats a minute before an exam; a feeling; and expression, such as a smile or frown. Slow breathing, in for 4 seconds and out for 6, can calm the body.
6. Step 6, Your turn: chunk the number 4729156380 into groups that are easier to hold. Answer: 472 915 6380, three chunks instead of ten separate digits; or 47291 56380 for two chunks.

Activity. About 40 to 50 minutes of class work, then one short practice task for home. Keep evidence: a timed paper and an error log.

Standard to meet. Describe memory, thinking and emotion: at least 70 percent on an exam-style task, with the method shown.

On the slide: L1 Basic · What psychology studies

Notes: Name behaviour, thoughts and feelings as the things psychology studies. Notes: watch a short school-yard clip; learners write one thing they saw, one thing they think was thought and one feeling they infer, and say how sure they are.

On the slide: L2 Awareness · Memory and learning basics

Notes: Explain short-term memory and why practice helps recall. Notes: read seven digits aloud, then ten, at one digit per second; learners write down what they recall and count correct digits; compare class results, then try grouping the ten digits in threes and see why chunking helps.

On the slide: L3 Foundation · Research methods and ethics

Notes: Describe an experiment, name its variables and calculate mean, median and mode. Notes: scores 4, 6, 8, 8, 9 have a mean of 7, median 8 and mode 8; learners state consent and withdrawal rules for the study.

On the slide: L4 Practitioner · Approaches and explanations

Notes: Apply two approaches, such as learning and cognitive, to the same behaviour and compare them. Notes: in a case where 18 of 60 people conform, which is 30 per cent, learners give one explanation from each approach and one test that would separate them.

On the slide: L5 Specialist · Correlation and study design

Notes: Analyse a correlation coefficient and judge validity and sampling. Notes: r = 0.6 means r squared of 0.36, so 36 per cent of variance is shared, not caused; learners name one third variable and redesign the study to test cause.

This course: Grade 11 Humanities Psychology is at this level. Its units include What is psychology and methods of inquiry; Human development and the brain; Sensation, perception and learning; Memory, thinking and motivation.

On the slide: L6 Advanced · Effect size and statistical power

Notes: Calculate a standardised effect size and plan a sample size. Notes: group means of 52 and 46 with SD 12 give d = 0.5; for 80 per cent power at the 5 per cent level, plan about 64 per group; learners explain why small samples mislead.

On the slide: L7 Super expert · Replication, Bayes and measurement

Notes: Evaluate a psychology finding using replication evidence, Bayesian updating and measurement error. Notes: a prior of 10 per cent, a test with 90 per cent sensitivity and 10 per cent false positives gives a posterior of 50 per cent; learners report what a preregistered study adds.