D2.Psy.20.9-12: Ethical, Psychology-Based Solutions to Real Problems

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

   "Your school's recycling bins are full of trash. List three ways to fix it. Then put a star next to the idea students would resent most, and say why."

   Collect ideas on the board: fines, lectures, bigger signs, a club that checks bins, rewards, removing the bins. For the starred ideas, ask what makes them feel unfair or disrespectful. Tell students that today's lesson asks for solutions that work for psychological reasons and also pass an ethics test, and that the problems are real ones measured by federal agencies.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   What makes a solution psychologically based? It names a principle about people and says how the solution uses it. Five principles used in this lesson: limited attention (people can attend to only so much at once), feedback (seeing the results of one's actions), social norms (beliefs about what others do and approve of), making the right action easy (removing steps and confusion), and consequences (what follows a behavior). Each is a principle to apply and then test, not a guarantee.

   The Ethics Test: six classroom questions written by SVHS for this page (not the APA Ethics Code or any professional code)

   Question	What a passing solution does
   1. Respect and honesty	Treats people as able to choose; no deception, tricks or public shaming
   2. Consent and voice	The people affected are told about the plan and have a say in it
   3. Privacy	Collects only the information it needs, and says what it collects and why
   4. Fairness	No group is singled out, and the burden does not fall on those with the least power
   5. Benefit and harm	Its likely benefits outweigh its risks, and harms are watched for
   6. Evidence and review	It starts as a pilot, is measured against a comparison, and is changed if it does not work

   Read Source 1 and Source 2, two actual problems documented by federal agencies, one in schools and one in workplaces. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of Source 1 are two of the footnotes printed on the NCES page.

   1In 2021–22, about 19 percent of students ages 12–18 reported being bullied during school, which was lower than the percentage who reported this in 2010–11 (28 percent). In 2021–22, among students who were bullied, 22 percent reported that the bullying happened online or by text.

   2In 2021–22, the most common types of bullying reported by students ages 12–18 were
   being the subject of rumors (13 percent); and
   being made fun of, called names, or insulted (12 percent).

   3Other types of bullying were reported by between 1 and 5 percent of students, including
   being pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on (5 percent);
   being excluded from activities on purpose (4 percent);
   being threatened with harm (3 percent);
   having others try to make them do things they did not want to do (3 percent);
   having others share their private information, photos, or videos on purpose (3 percent); and
   having property destroyed by others on purpose (1 percent).

   [...]

   4In 2018–19 and earlier years, students were identified as having been bullied if they reported that another student had made fun of them, called them names, or insulted them; spread rumors about them; threatened them with harm; tried to make them do something they did not want to do; excluded them from activities on purpose; destroyed their property on purpose; or pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on them. In 2021–22, the definition of being bullied was expanded to include having private information, photos, or videos shared on purpose in a harmful way. In the total for students bullied during school, students who reported more than one type of bullying were counted only once.

   5In 2018–19 and earlier years, students were asked to report their experiences “at school,” which included in the school building, on school property, on a school bus, and going to and from school. In 2021–22, students were asked about things that happen “during school,” which included in the school building, on school property, on a school bus, going to and from school, and using the phone, internet, or social media.

   1Driving requires our full attention, and distractions get in the way. Three types of distraction affect our ability to drive safely: visual, manual, and cognitive. Employers can take actions to prevent distracted driving among workers.

   2Distracted driving occurs any time you take your eyes off the road, hands off the wheel, and mind off your primary task: driving safely. Any non-driving activity you engage in is a potential distraction and increases your risk of being involved in a motor vehicle crash.

   [...]

   3Visual: Reading a text message, looking up directions, rubbernecking (craning one's neck to get a better view) at a crash site, and other distractions that involve taking your eyes off the wheel
   Manual: Reaching for things inside the vehicle, using a handheld device, adjusting the radio, eating or drinking, and other distractions that involve taking your hands off the wheel
   Cognitive: Talking on the phone, arguing with a passenger, thinking about your next appointment, and other distractions that involve taking your mind off driving

   4Cognitive distractions affect your ability to be fully engaged in driving, even when your hands are on the wheel and you're watching the road. These can be triggered by people, objects, or events – or they can simply be random thoughts.

   [...]

   5Your brain has limited capacity for attention. Research shows that hands-free phones are just as distracting as handheld phones. Any non-driving task you perform behind the wheel reduces the attention available to you for detecting and reacting to potential road dangers. The less attention you give to driving, the greater the chance you will be involved in a crash. A worker who is driving while negotiating a business deal over the phone is giving neither task the attention it deserves.

   6What employers can do

   7Use the following recommendations to prevent distracted driving on the job.
   Ban all phone use (texting, handheld, hands-free) while driving a company vehicle, and ban use of company-issued phones while driving a personal vehicle.
   Require workers to pull over in a safe location to look up directions, text, or to make or receive a call.
   Consider using phone-blocking technology to limit workers' cell phone use while driving.
   Consider using technology that detects and warns drivers of distracted driving behaviors (such as cameras that detect when eye gaze is not on the road).
   Prepare workers before implementing these policies by communicating what they need to do to comply and what action you will take if they do not follow policies. Consider having workers acknowledge that they have read and understand these policies.

   • Business and industry: Source 2, paragraphs 5 and 7

     A delivery company adopts NIOSH's first recommendation and bans all phone use, including hands-free, while driving company vans. What is its psychological basis, and does it pass the Ethics Test?

     Result: Basis: limited attention; NIOSH says "Your brain has limited capacity for attention" and that hands-free phones are "just as distracting." Ethics: it applies to every driver equally (fairness) and protects drivers and the public (benefit). It is stronger if drivers help decide how dispatch messages will reach them, and if the company tracks crashes and near misses before and after (question 6).

   • Education (invented proposal)

     Invented proposal: a school pairs each new 9th grader with a trained 11th-grade mentor for the first semester, to reduce students being left out. Run it through the Ethics Test.

     Result: Basis: social norms and belonging, since a mentor shows a newcomer that older students welcome them. Ethics: joining is voluntary and families are told (questions 1-2); mentors are trained and supervised and report serious problems to adults (question 5); no student's information is shared beyond the program (question 3). It still needs a pilot with a comparison group (question 6).

   • Environment (invented proposal)

     Invented proposal: a grocery store wants more shoppers to bring reusable bags. Option A charges 10 cents for each paper bag; option B puts a reminder sign in the parking lot. Compare them.

     Result: A uses consequences; B uses attention at the moment it matters. On fairness (question 4), a fee costs more, relative to income, for shoppers with the least money, so the store could give out free reusable bags. B is gentler but may be weaker. Either way, the store should count bags before and after (question 6).

   • Turning an idea into a pilot

     What does a pilot need before a school or company adopts a solution everywhere?

     Result: A clear measure (a count, a rate), a starting value measured before the change, a comparison group that does not get the change, a fixed time, and an honest report even if the result is disappointing. Without a comparison, a change could simply reflect a new week, a new season or a new group of people.

   Diagram 1 shows the steps from a problem to an adopted solution. Ask: at which step would a solution that fails the Ethics Test be stopped?

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read Source 3, the national picture of trash and recycling, and Source 5, an invented school pilot with invented data. Diagram 2 plots the recycling and composting rates that Source 3, paragraph 3 reports.

   1EPA began collecting and reporting data on the generation and disposition of waste in the United States more than 35 years ago. The Agency uses this information to measure the success of materials management programs across the country and to characterize the national waste stream. These Facts and Figures are current through calendar year 2018.

   2The total generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2018 was 292.4 million tons (U.S. short tons, unless specified) or 4.9 pounds per person per day. Of the MSW generated, approximately 69 million tons were recycled and 25 million tons were composted. Together, almost 94 million tons of MSW were recycled and composted, equivalent to a 32.1 percent recycling and composting rate. An additional 17.7 million tons of food were managed by other methods. Other food management includes the following management pathways: animal feed, bio-based materials/biochemical processing, co-digestion/anaerobic digestion, donation, land application and sewer/wastewater treatment. For more information on food management, check out Food: Material-Specific Data. In addition, nearly 35 million tons of MSW (11.8 percent) were combusted with energy recovery and more than 146 million tons of MSW (50 percent) were landfilled.

   [...]

   3Over time, recycling and composting rates have increased from just over 6 percent of MSW generated in 1960 to about 10 percent in 1980, to 16 percent in 1990, to about 29 percent in 2000, and to about 35 percent in 2017. It decreased to 32.1 percent in 2018.

   4The amount of MSW combusted with energy recovery increased from zero in 1960 to 14 percent in 1990. In 2018, it was about 12 percent.

   5Landfilling of waste has decreased from 94 percent of the amount generated in 1960 to 50 percent of the amount generated in 2018.

   1Invented study summary, written for this page. The school, the club and the numbers are not real. A high school's environment club wanted fewer pieces of trash in the cafeteria recycling bins. With the principal's permission, and wearing gloves under a teacher's supervision, two club members took a sample of 200 items from the recycling bins after each of the two lunch periods, A and B, and counted how many were trash, such as food, wrappers and napkins.

   2Week 1, before any change: Lunch A, 70 of 200 items were trash; Lunch B, 66 of 200.

   3Then, for Lunch A only, the club replaced the word-only bin labels with labels showing photos of what belongs in each bin, and each Friday it posted the share of trash found that week, for the whole lunch period, with no names. Lunch B kept the old labels.

   4Week 4: Lunch A, 36 of 200 items were trash; Lunch B, 60 of 200.

   5The club's note: "Lunch A dropped after the photo labels and weekly results, while Lunch B barely changed. But the lunch periods were not chosen at random, different students eat at each time, and we counted for one week before and one week after, so this is a first test, not proof."

   Source 5 data (invented): items of trash in samples of 200 recycled items

   Lunch period	Week 1 (before)	Week 4 (after)	Change for Lunch A
   A (photo labels and weekly results)	70 of 200	36 of 200	photo labels added
   B (old labels)	66 of 200	60 of 200	no change made

   1. Rates in week 1. Lunch A: 70 / 200 = 35 percent trash. Lunch B: 66 / 200 = 33 percent. The two periods started close together.
   2. Which principles did the club use? Photo labels make the right action easy at the moment of choice; the posted weekly share is feedback, given for the whole lunch period so that no one is named.
   3. Ethics. The club had permission, sorted under supervision and posted no names (questions 1, 3 and 5). Ask: did the students eating at Lunch A have any say in the plan (question 2)?
   4. Why Lunch B matters. Ask students to compute Lunch B's week 4 rate and say what Lunch B adds to the evidence.
4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read Source 4 on their own and use all five sources for the quiz and homework. The Psychology of Management appeared under the author's initials; the 1921 printing used here names her "L.M. Gilbreth, Ph.D." in this passage she describes programs that employers ran for their workers, such as rest rooms and better working conditions.

   1WELFARE WORK UNDER TRANSITORY MANAGEMENT IS USUALLY COMMENDABLE.--As to the welfare work under Transitory Management, much could be said, and much has been said and written. Typical Welfare Work under Transitory Management deserves nothing but praise. It is the result of the dedication of many beautiful lives to a beautiful cause. It consists of such work as building rest rooms for the employes, in providing for amusements, in providing for better working conditions, in helping to better living conditions, in providing for some sort of a welfare worker who can talk with the employes and benefit them in every way, including being their representative in speaking with the management.

   2AN UNDERLYING FLAW IS APPARENT.--There can be no doubt that an enormous quantity of good has been done by this welfare work, both positively, to the employes themselves, and indirectly, to the management, through fostering a kinder feeling. There is, however, a flaw to be found in the underlying principles of this welfare work as introduced in Transitory Management, and that is that it takes on more or less the aspect of a charity, and is so regarded both by the employes and by the employer. The employer, naturally, prides himself more or less upon doing something which is good, and the employe naturally resents more or less having something given to him as a sort of charity which he feels his by right.

   3ITS EFFECT IS DETRIMENTAL.--The psychological significance of this is very great. The employer, feeling that he has bestowed a gift, is, naturally, rather chagrined to find it is received either as a right, or with a feeling of resentment. Therefore, he is often led to decrease what he might otherwise do, for it is only an unusual and a very high type of mind that can be satisfied simply with the doing of the good act, without the return of gratitude. On the other hand, the employe, if he be a man of pride, may resent charity even in such a general form as this, and may, with an element of rightness, prefer that the money to be expended be put into his pay envelope, instead. If it is simply a case of better working conditions, something that improves him as an efficient worker for the management, he will feel that this welfare work is in no sense something which he receives as a gift, but rather something which is his right, and which benefits the employer exactly as much, if not more than it benefits him.

   Task: in two or three sentences, explain Gilbreth's warning in your own words. Then choose one solution from Direct Instruction or Guided Practice and say how it could be introduced so that the people affected see it as their right and their choice, not as a gift.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: "Name one actual problem from today, one principle a solution could use, and the Ethics Test question your solution would find hardest to pass."

   Teacher notes. (1) The Ethics Test is an SVHS-written classroom tool for this page. It is not the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct or any other professional code, and students should not cite it as one. (2) Sources 1-3 are federal summaries of real data. Source 1 reports students' own answers to a survey. Check the dates on any federal figure before using it in a plan. (3) Gilbreth wrote in 1914 in favor of scientific management and uses "men" and "employes" for workers; her point about dignity is the part used here. (4) Source 5 is invented for teaching; its school and numbers are not real. (5) Bullying can be personal. Do not ask students to share their own experiences; if a student says they are being bullied or are worried about someone, point them to a trusted adult, such as a parent, teacher or school counselor. (6) Students plan pilots on paper only; a real pilot at school needs a teacher's and the school's approval.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 1, paragraph 1, about what percent of students ages 12-18 reported being bullied during school in 2021-22?

   AAbout 28 percent BAbout 22 percent CAbout 19 percent DAbout 13 percent

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does the figure of 22 percent in Source 1, paragraph 1 describe?

   ABullied students who said it was online BAll students who were bullied online CThe rise in online bullying since 2010 DOnline users who reported being bullied

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 1, paragraphs 4 and 5, why might the 2010-11 and 2021-22 figures not compare like for like?

   AThe 2010-11 survey asked only teachers BIts definition and setting changed COlder students were left out in 2021-22 DPrivate schools were added in 2021-22

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 2, paragraph 3, what type of distraction is arguing with a passenger?

   AA visual distraction BA manual distraction CAn auditory distraction DA cognitive distraction

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does Source 2, paragraph 5 treat hands-free phones as a problem too?

   AHands-free phones are banned in most states BAttention is limited, so the talk distracts CHands-free phones fail more often at speed DDrivers still hold hands-free phones

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which employer action in Source 2, paragraph 7 raises the most serious privacy question under the Ethics Test?

   ABanning all phone use in company vehicles BRequiring workers to pull over to call CCameras that track drivers' eye gaze DTelling workers the policy in advance

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   NIOSH advises employers to "Prepare workers before implementing these policies." Which Ethics Test question does that step most directly serve?

   AQuestion 2, consent and voice BQuestion 3, privacy CQuestion 4, fairness DQuestion 6, evidence and review

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 3, paragraph 1, how current are the EPA's Facts and Figures?

   ACurrent through 2025 BCurrent through 2018 CCurrent through 2017 DCurrent through 1990

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 3, paragraph 2 gives 4.9 pounds of MSW per person per day. About how many pounds is that per person per year?

   AAbout 1,790 pounds BAbout 1,470 pounds CAbout 255 pounds DAbout 59 pounds

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Source 5, what share of the sampled items in Lunch A's recycling bins was trash in week 4?

    A35 percent B36 percent C17 percent D18 percent

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Why does it matter that Lunch B in Source 5 kept the old labels?

    AIt shows the change without the labels BIt doubled the number of items counted CIt let the club name careless students DIt proved that the photo labels work

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to Source 4, paragraph 2, what is the flaw in the welfare work Gilbreth describes?

    AIt costs employers too much money BIt is run by untrained volunteers CBoth sides see it as a kind of charity DIt ignores the workers' physical health

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Source 4, paragraph 3, what might a worker "of pride" prefer to the welfare work?

    AMore rest rooms at the workplace BThe money put into his pay CA welfare worker of his own DA shorter working day

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A city wants homes to use less water during a drought. Which plan best passes the Ethics Test?

    APost every home's water use on a public website BQuietly lower water pressure in some areas CFine only the homes in the poorest area DMail each home its use and the area average

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Using Source 1, propose a psychologically based, ethical solution a high school could try against the two types of bullying with the highest percentages. Name the principle, run the solution through at least three Ethics Test questions, and say how the school would measure the result.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Using Sources 2 and 4, suggest how a company should introduce one of NIOSH's employer actions so that drivers accept it, and explain the psychological and ethical reasons.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Using Source 3, describe the environmental problem in one or two sentences with a number, then suggest a psychologically based, ethical solution for your town or school and a way to pilot it.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Evaluate the evidence in Source 5. Compute Lunch B's week 4 trash share, compare the changes in the two lunch periods, and give one conclusion and two limits.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    A company installs a free nap room and a meditation app for workers, but many workers say they would rather have higher pay. Use Source 4 to explain their reaction, and suggest how the company could have handled the change better.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose one of the three actual problems on this page. Compare two possible solutions using the Ethics Test, and say which one you would pilot first and why.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to D2.Psy.20.9-12: 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.