Alabama Social Studies SS24.P.1a
The Standard
- SS24.P.1
- Trace the development of psychology as a scientific discipline, including its evolution from other fields of study.*
Investigate and describe the history of psychology from its beginning to the modern era, including key contributors to the field.*
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies · Introduction to Psychology
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students trace how psychology changed from early experiments to modern research on thinking and the brain. They identify contributors such as Wundt, James, Freud, Watson, and Skinner, and explain what each brought to the field.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can place early laboratories, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and the cognitive revolution in order. They can explain how two contributors changed what psychologists studied or how they studied it.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think Freud founded all of psychology or that behaviorists studied thoughts. They may also think brain scans replaced experiments, rather than adding another way to gather evidence.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Put Wundt’s lab, Freud’s psychoanalysis, Watson’s behaviorism, and the cognitive revolution in order. Choose two and write what each added to psychology.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs five dated cards about Wundt, James, Freud, Watson, and the cognitive revolution; have them arrange the cards and label each approach.
Ask students to write: How would Freud and Watson explain the same student who avoids giving a class presentation?
Play contributor bingo with clues such as 'opened an experimental lab' and 'studied operant conditioning'; students explain each match before marking it.
Show a phone screen-time report; ask how Watson and a modern cognitive psychologist might explain repeated app checking.
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Printable SS24.P.1a Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS24.P.1b
Differentiate among various schools of thought and perspectives that have developed in psychology since 1879.*
- SS24.S.5c
Investigate and explain the impact of psychological theories that influence sociology, including Erikson’s Psychosocial Development, Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral ...
- SS24.P.1c
Describe how modern psychologists utilize multiple perspectives to understand behavior and mental processes, citing examples.*
- SS24.P.1
Trace the development of psychology as a scientific discipline, including its evolution from other fields of study.*
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