Alabama Social Studies SS24.P.3
The Standard
Describe various careers pursued by psychologists, including medical and mental health care fields, the business world, education, law and criminal justice, and research.*
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify what psychologists do in hospitals, mental health clinics, businesses, schools, courts, and research settings. They match a problem or question to a psychologist who could work on it.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can name a likely task for a clinical, health, organizational, school, forensic, or research psychologist. Given a workplace scenario, they can choose a fitting role and explain why.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may assume every psychologist provides therapy or prescribes medication. They may think forensic psychologists solve crimes like detectives, rather than answer questions for courts. They may not realize psychologists also study workplaces and run research studies.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A company wants to reduce employee burnout, and a court needs an evaluation of a defendant. Name a psychologist for each job and describe one task each would do.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs six psychologist role cards and six workplace scenario cards to match, then have them explain one match.
Ask students to write how a health psychologist and a school psychologist might each help a teen with chronic pain.
Play career match: read workplace problems aloud and have pairs hold up the psychologist role card that fits.
Show a school psychologist job posting and ask students to underline two duties that affect students.
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Printable SS24.P.3 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS24.P.19
Describe different types of biomedical and psychological treatments for mental disorders.
- SS24.P.19a
Explain how mental health professionals determine the appropriate treatment from the variety of psychological treatments available for various mental health iss...
- 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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