D2.Psy.19.9-12: Applying Psychology's Major Approaches to Real Issues

Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "A student who used to love basketball suddenly quits the team. Write three different explanations for why, each starting from a different kind of cause."

   Collect explanations and sort them on the board without labels: something in the body (an injury, exhaustion), something learned (practices became punishing), a way of thinking ("I'll never start"), a hidden feeling (anger at a parent who pushed), a need for growth (wanting to try something new), the group (teammates or culture). Tell students these are six major approaches in psychology, and that today they will apply them to eight kinds of issues.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Six major theoretical approaches (descriptions and questions written for this page)

   Approach	Key idea	First question about an issue	Source on this page
   Biological	Behavior and mental life depend on the brain, nervous system, hormones and genes	What is happening in the body?	None directly; see the teacher notes
   Behavioral	Behavior is learned through associations and consequences	What has this behavior been paired with or rewarded by?	Source 1 (Pavlov)
   Cognitive	Behavior follows from how people perceive, interpret and remember	What picture of the situation is the person acting on?	Source 4 (Lippmann); Source 3 (Münsterberg) in part
   Psychodynamic	Unconscious wishes and conflicts shape behavior	What might the person be keeping out of awareness?	Source 2 (Freud)
   Humanistic	People seek growth, choice and a sense of worth	What does this mean to the person and their goals?	None; described in this table
   Sociocultural	Groups, roles and culture shape behavior	Which group, role or setting is involved?	None; described in this table

   Eight kinds of issue. The indicator names educational (learning and school), emotional (feelings and their causes), political (government, voting and public opinion), ethical (choices about right and wrong), motivational (why people start and keep going), organizational (workplaces and teams), personal (one's own decisions and identity) and social (relationships and groups) issues. Any approach can be applied to any of them, but some fit some issues more closely than others.

   Read Source 1 and Source 2, written from two very different starting points.

   1Demonstration. -- The dog used in the following experiment has been operated upon as described previously. It can be seen that so long as no special stimulus is applied the salivary glands remain quite inactive. But when the sounds from a beating metronome are allowed to fall upon the ear, a salivary secretion begins after 9 seconds, and in the course of 45 seconds eleven drops have been secreted. The activity of the salivary gland has thus been called into play by impulses of sound -- a stimulus quite alien to food. This activity of the salivary gland cannot be regarded as anything else than a component of the alimentary reflex. Besides the secretory, the motor component of the food reflex is also very apparent in experiments of this kind. In this very experiment the dog turns in the direction from which it has been customary to present the food and begins to lick its lips vigorously.

   2This experiment is an example of a central nervous activity depending on the integrity of the hemispheres. A decerebrate dog would never have responded by salivary secretion to any stimulus of the kind. It is obvious also that the underlying principle of this activity is signalization. The sound of the metronome is the signal for food, and the animal reacts to the signal in the same way as if it were food; no distinction can be observed between the effects produced on the animal by the sounds of the beating metronome and showing it real food.

   [...]

   3[...] Hence a first and most essential requisite for the formation of a new conditioned reflex lies in a coincidence in time of the action of any previously neutral stimulus with some definite unconditioned stimulus. Further, it is not enough that there should be overlapping between the two stimuli; it is also and equally necessary that the conditioned stimulus should begin to operate before the unconditioned stimulus comes into action.

   4If this order is reversed, the unconditioned stimulus being applied first and the neutral stimulus second, the conditioned reflex cannot be established at all. Dr. Krestovnikov performed these experiments with many different modifications and controls, but the effect was always the same. The following are some of his results: In one case 427 applications were made in succession of the odour of vanillin together with the introduction of acid into the dog's mouth, but the acid was always made to precede the vanillin by some 5 to 10 seconds. Vanillin failed to acquire the properties of a conditioned stimulus. However, in the succeeding experiment, in which the order of stimuli was reversed, the odour, this time of amyl acetate, became an effective conditioned stimulus after only 20 combinations. With another dog the loud buzzing of an electric bell set going 5 to 10 seconds after administration of food failed to establish a conditioned alimentary reflex even after 374 combinations, whereas the regular rotation of an object in front of the eyes of the animal, the rotation beginning before the administration of food, acquired the properties of a conditioned stimulus after only 5 combinations. The electric buzzer set going before the administration of food established a conditioned alimentary reflex after only a single combination.

   1It is on this idea of resistance that I based my theory of the psychic processes of hystericals. It had been found that in order to cure the patient it was necessary that this force should be overcome. Now with the mechanism of the cure as a starting point, quite a definite theory could be constructed. These same forces, which in the present situation as resistances opposed the emergence of the forgotten ideas into consciousness, must themselves have caused the forgetting, and repressed from consciousness the pathogenic experiences. I called this hypothetical process "repression" (Verdrängung), and considered that it was proved by the undeniable existence of resistance.

   [...]

   2Perhaps I can make the process of repression and its necessary relation to the resistance of the patient, more concrete by a rough illustration, which I will derive from our present situation.

   3Suppose that here in this hall and in this audience, whose exemplary stillness and attention I cannot sufficiently commend, there is an individual who is creating a disturbance, and, by his ill-bred laughing, talking, by scraping his feet, distracts my attention from my task. I explain that I cannot go on with my lecture under these conditions, and thereupon several strong men among you get up, and, after a short struggle, eject the disturber of the peace from the hall. He is now "repressed," and I can continue my lecture. But in order that the disturbance may not be repeated, in case the man who has just been thrown out attempts to force his way back into the room, the gentlemen who have executed my suggestion take their chairs to the door and establish themselves there as a "resistance," to keep up the repression. Now, if you transfer both locations to the psyche, calling this "consciousness," and the outside the "unconscious," you have a tolerably good illustration of the process of repression.

   [...]

   4New questions at once arise in great number from our theory. The situation of psychic conflict is a very frequent one; an attempt of the ego to defend itself from painful memories can be observed everywhere, and yet the result is not a mental fission. We cannot avoid the assumption that still other conditions are necessary, if the conflict is to result in dissociation. I willingly concede that with the assumption of "repression" we stand, not at the end, but at the very beginning of a psychological theory. But we can advance only one step at a time, and the completion of our knowledge must await further and more thorough work.

   • Behavioral approach, emotional issue: Source 1

     Mina, 15, feels her heart race at the whine of a dentist's drill before anything has touched her. How would a behavioral psychologist use Source 1 to explain it?

     Result: The sound has come just before an unpleasant experience many times, so, like the metronome in paragraph 1, it now sets off the reaction on its own: "the animal reacts to the signal in the same way as if it were food." The behavioral question is what the sound has been paired with, not what Mina believes about it.

   • Psychodynamic approach, personal issue: Source 2

     Ben, 17, keeps "forgetting" to call an uncle he argued with last month. How would the psychodynamic approach explain the forgetting, and how sure can it be?

     Result: It would say a painful feeling about the argument is being kept out of awareness, a small case of what Freud calls "repression." Freud himself calls repression a "hypothetical process," and the explanation is hard to test: a cognitive psychologist might simply point to a busy month.

   • Humanistic approach, motivational issue (invented case)

     Invented case: Dana, 16, keeps working on her drawings after a contest rejects them. What would a humanistic psychologist ask first?

     Result: What drawing means to Dana and to the person she wants to become. The approach looks for growth and choice rather than rewards: she may keep going because the work expresses who she is, not because of prizes. A behavioral psychologist would instead ask what she still gains from drawing.

   • Sociocultural approach, ethical issue (invented case)

     Invented case: at one school, students who find a lost phone almost always hand it in at the front office. What would a sociocultural psychologist look at?

     Result: The group's norms and the school's habits: whether handing in lost things is expected, praised and easy there. The same student might act differently in a setting where nobody does it. The approach explains the ethical choice through the setting, not through one person's character alone.

   Close the segment: In which example would two approaches give the most different answers? Ask students to name the two approaches and the evidence each would want.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read Source 3 together. Münsterberg, a psychologist who taught at Harvard, visited factories to ask workers about repetitive jobs, an organizational issue. Then compute from his own numbers.

   1For a long while I have tried to discover in every large factory which I have visited the particular job which from the standpoint of the outsider presents itself as the most tiresome possible, As soon as I found it, I had a full frank talk with the man or woman who performed it and earnestly tried to get self-observational comment. My chief aim was to bring out how far the mere repetition, especially when it is continued through years, is felt as a source of discomfort. I may again point to a few chance illustrations. In an electrical factory with many thousands of employees I gained the impression that the prize for monotonous work belonged to a woman who packs incandescent lamps in tissue paper. She wraps them from morning until night, from the first day of the year to the last, and has been doing that for the last 12 years. She performs this packing process at an average rate of 13,000 lamps a day. The woman has reached about 50,000,000 times for the next lamp with one hand and with the other to the little pile of tissue sheets and then performed the packing. Each lamp demands about 20 finger movements. As long as I watched her, she was able to pack 25 lamps in 42 seconds, and only a few times did she need as many as 44 seconds. Every 25 lamps filled a box, and the closing of the box required a short time for itself. She evidently took pleasure in expressing herself fully about her occupation. She assured me that she found the work really interesting, and that she constantly felt an inner tension, thinking how many boxes she would be able to fill before the next pause. Above all, she told me that there is continuous variation. Sometimes she grasps the lamp or paper in a different way, sometimes the packing itself does not run smoothly, sometimes she feels fresher, sometimes less in the mood for the work, and there is always something to observe and something to think about.

   [...]

   2On the other hand, I not seldom found wage-earners, both men and women, who seemed to have really interesting and varied activities and who nevertheless complained bitterly over the monotonous, tiresome factory labor. I became more and more convinced that the feeling of monotony depends much less upon the particular kind of work than upon the special disposition of the individual. It cannot be denied that the same contrast exists in the higher classes of work. We find school-teachers who constantly complain that it is intolerably monotonous to go on teaching immature children the rudiments of knowledge, while other teachers with exactly the same task before them are daily inspired anew by the manifoldness of life in the classroom. We find physicians who complain that one case in their practice is like another, and judges who despair because they always have to deal with the same petty cases, while other judges and physicians feel clearly that every case offers something new and that the repetition as such is neither conspicuous nor disagreeable. [...]

   Numbers reported in Source 3, paragraph 1

   Quantity	Value in the source
   Lamps packed per day (average)	13,000
   Pace while Münsterberg watched	25 lamps in 42 seconds
   Years in the job	12
   Reaches for the next lamp so far	about 50,000,000

   1. How long is a day of packing? At 25 lamps in 42 seconds, each lamp takes 42 / 25 = 1.68 seconds, so 13,000 lamps take 13,000 x 1.68 = 21,840 seconds. Divided by 3,600, that is about 6.1 hours of packing, not counting the time to close the boxes.
   2. Is "about 50,000,000" reasonable? If she worked about 300 days a year, 13,000 x 300 x 12 = 46,800,000, which rounds to about 50 million. The figure fits, if the 300-day year is right; the source does not say how many days she worked.
   3. Which approach is Münsterberg using? Ask students to find, in paragraph 2, the sentence where he says what the feeling of monotony depends on, and to match it to a row of the approach table. Then ask: what would a behavioral or a sociocultural psychologist ask about the same factory?

   Now read Source 4. Lippmann's book is about public opinion, a political issue. Paragraph 1 is set in 1914.

   1There is an island in the ocean where in 1914 a few Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Germans lived. No cable reaches that island, and the British mail steamer comes but once in sixty days. In September it had not yet come, and the islanders were still talking about the latest newspaper which told about the approaching trial of Madame Caillaux for the shooting of Gaston Calmette. It was, therefore, with more than usual eagerness that the whole colony assembled at the quay on a day in mid-September to hear from the captain what the verdict had been. They learned that for over six weeks now those of them who were English and those of them who were French had been fighting in behalf of the sanctity of treaties against those of them who were Germans. For six strange weeks they had acted as if they were friends, when in fact they were enemies.

   [...]

   2In all these instances we must note particularly one common factor. It is the insertion between man and his environment of a pseudo-environment. To that pseudo-environment his behavior is a response. But because it is behavior, the consequences, if they are acts, operate not in the pseudo-environment where the behavior is stimulated, but in the real environment where action eventuates. If the behavior is not a practical act, but what we call roughly thought and emotion, it may be a long time before there is any noticeable break in the texture of the fictitious world. But when the stimulus of the pseudo-fact results in action on things or other people, contradiction soon develops. Then comes the sensation of butting one's head against a stone wall, of learning by experience, and witnessing Herbert Spencer's tragedy of the murder of a Beautiful Theory by a Gang of Brutal Facts, the discomfort in short of a maladjustment. For certainly, at the level of social life, what is called the adjustment of man to his environment takes place through the medium of fictions.

   [...]

   3The analyst of public opinion must begin then, by recognizing the triangular relationship between the scene of action, the human picture of that scene, and the human response to that picture working itself out upon the scene of action. It is like a play suggested to the actors by their own experience, in which the plot is transacted in the real lives of the actors, and not merely in their stage parts. [...]

   Discuss: (1) Which approach from the table fits paragraph 2 best, and which phrase shows it? (2) Paragraph 3 describes a triangle. Draw it with its three corners labeled. (3) Why might this approach be especially useful for political issues, where most people never see the events they vote or argue about?

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read Source 5 on their own and use all five sources for the quiz and homework. Source 5 gives eight invented cases, one for each kind of issue in the indicator.

   1Invented cases, written for this page. The people are not real.

   2Case 1 (educational). After one low grade on a chemistry quiz, Aiden, 15, stops turning in his chemistry homework. He tells a friend, "I'm just not a science person."

   3Case 2 (emotional). Zoe's coach sends practice changes to the team with a special ringtone, and the news is usually extra laps. Now, whenever Zoe, 16, hears that ringtone, her stomach tightens, even on days when there is no practice.

   4Case 3 (political). In a student council election, many students say they will vote for the candidate whose poster shows her at a food drive. Few of them have read either candidate's plan for the council.

   5Case 4 (ethical). The night before a history test, a photo of the answer key is shared in a large group chat. Some students look at it; most of the group does not.

   6Case 5 (motivational). Luis, 17, runs before school almost every morning. He has never entered a race. "I just like who I am on the days I run," he says.

   7Case 6 (organizational). At the café where Jamal, 17, works part time, the closing checklist is done carefully when the manager stays late and skipped on most nights when she leaves early.

   8Case 7 (personal). Rosa, 16, has put off writing a scholarship essay for three weeks. The topic is her family's move to a new country, and she says she cannot explain why she keeps avoiding it.

   9Case 8 (social). Kenji moved to a new school two weeks ago and has eaten lunch alone every day. Most lunch tables are filled by sports teams and clubs that formed last year.

   Task: choose two cases from Source 5 that are different kinds of issue. For each, write how two approaches from the table would explain it, one sentence each, and then one sentence on which explanation you would test first and what evidence you would need.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: "Pick one of the eight kinds of issue. Name the approach you think fits it best and the approach you think fits it worst, and give a reason for each."

   Teacher notes. (1) Sources 1-4 are historical, and each shows only one way of thinking. Pavlov's dogs underwent surgery so that their saliva could be measured; the ethics of animal research is the subject of D2.Psy.4.9-12. (2) Freud's account rests on his own cases and his reading of them, not on controlled tests; he calls repression a "hypothetical process," and "hystericals" is a label from his time that the lesson does not use. Present the psychodynamic approach as one historical approach whose ideas are hard to test. (3) Münsterberg spoke with a few workers he chose himself, during factory visits, and his examples are open to other readings. Lippmann's example comes from 1914; the lesson takes no position on any current election or party. (4) No source on this page speaks for the biological, humanistic or sociocultural approach; their descriptions in the table are written for this page. (5) Source 5 is invented. If a case touches a student's own situation, such as worry, loneliness or a family move, point them to a trusted adult, such as a parent or school counselor.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 1, paragraph 1, how long after the metronome started did the dog's salivary secretion begin?

   AAfter 45 seconds BAfter 5 seconds CAfter 11 seconds DAfter 9 seconds

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 1, paragraph 2, which dog would never respond to the metronome with saliva?

   AA dog that had been fed only milk BA dog that had not been operated on CA dog that was hungry at the time DA dog without its hemispheres

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does Source 1, paragraph 3 say is necessary for a new conditioned reflex, besides the two stimuli overlapping in time?

   AThe signal must begin before the food BThe food must begin before the signal CThe signal must be a loud sound DThe dog must see the experimenter

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which approach best explains Case 2 in Source 5, Zoe's reaction to the coach's ringtone?

   APsychodynamic: a buried childhood wish BBehavioral: a sound paired with news CHumanistic: a need for personal growth DBiological: an inherited fear of sound

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 2, paragraph 1, what does Freud take as proof that repression happens?

   APatients' resistance to recalling BResults of tests on many patients CMemories recovered under hypnosis DChanges he saw in patients' brains

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Freud's illustration in Source 2, paragraph 3, what do the men who sit by the door stand for?

   AThe unconscious BThe disturber CThe resistance DThe lecture hall

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does Freud concede about his theory in Source 2, paragraph 4?

   AIt is at the start, not the end BIt is complete and fully proved CIt explains every kind of conflict DIt should be replaced by Janet's

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 4, paragraph 1, why did the islanders go on acting as friends for six weeks?

   AThey had agreed to stay neutral BTheir news was six weeks old CThey did not care about the war DTheir governments had ordered it

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does Lippmann mean by a "pseudo-environment" in Source 4, paragraph 2?

   AA false report made up to deceive BA place where people pretend CThe real scene of an event DThe world as one pictures it

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which approach, with which source, best explains Case 3 in Source 5, the student council election?

    ACognitive, with Lippmann's mental pictures BBehavioral, with Pavlov's ringing metronome CPsychodynamic, with Freud's repression DCognitive, with Münsterberg's workers

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Source 3, paragraph 1, each lamp needs about 20 finger movements. About how many finger movements does the packer make on an average day?

    AAbout 13,000 BAbout 650 CAbout 260,000 DAbout 2,600,000

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    What does Münsterberg conclude in Source 3, paragraph 2 about the feeling of monotony?

    AIt depends mainly on the kind of work BIt is felt the same way by every worker CIt depends mainly on the individual DIt is found only in factory labor

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    How would a behavioral psychologist most likely explain Case 6 in Source 5, the skipped closing checklist?

    AWorkers want to grow in their own jobs BSkipping costs nothing on some nights CWorkers forget what the list asks for DWorkers have a hidden wish to fail

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which approach starts from the kind of reason Luis gives in Case 5 of Source 5?

    ABehavioral, because running is rewarded BSociocultural, because his team runs CBiological, because exercise changes mood DHumanistic, because it is about who he is

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Case 1 in Source 5 is an educational issue. Explain Aiden's choice with the cognitive approach and with the behavioral approach. Which explanation would you test first, and how?

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Case 4 in Source 5 is an ethical issue. Use the sociocultural approach and one other approach to explain why some students looked at the answer key and most did not.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Case 7 in Source 5 is a personal issue. Apply the psychodynamic approach to Rosa's avoidance using Source 2, and then explain why a careful psychologist would also try another approach.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Case 8 in Source 5 is a social issue. Explain Kenji's situation with the sociocultural approach and with the humanistic approach, and suggest one response that either approach would support.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Use Source 1, paragraphs 3 and 4 to explain why the order of events in Case 2 of Source 5 mattered for Zoe's reaction. Then name one question about her reaction that the behavioral approach does not answer.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Case 6 in Source 5 is an organizational issue. Apply Münsterberg's conclusion in Source 3 to Jamal's café, and say what his explanation leaves out that a sociocultural psychologist would add.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to D2.Psy.19.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.