Indiana Social Studies P.1.1

Social StudiesGrades 9–12History and Scientific Method

The Standard

Define psychology as a discipline and identify its goals as a science.

2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students define psychology as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. They identify its four goals: describe, explain, predict, and influence what people do and think.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given a question about test anxiety, students can tell which goal it addresses. They can name an observation or survey that would provide evidence, rather than relying on a guess.
Common Misconceptions: Students often think psychology is only therapy or diagnosing disorders. They may mistake a guess about why someone acts a certain way for a scientific explanation, or confuse predicting behavior with changing it.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: Define psychology, then write one question each to describe, explain, predict, and change a student's phone checking during homework. Name one type of data you would collect.

Lesson moves

Give pairs cards showing pencil tapping, remembering a name, and feeling nervous; have them sort actions from mental processes and name ways to study each.
Ask students to write one question for each of psychology's four goals using phone checking during homework as the example.
Run a four-corner game: read a psychology question, then have students move to Describe, Explain, Predict, or Influence.
Hand out a fictional sleep and focus log; have students predict next-day focus and propose a bedtime change to test.

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