D2.Psy.23.9-12: Applying Psychological Knowledge to Civic Engagement
In plain English: D2.Psy.23.9-12 is the C3 Framework psychology indicator for grades 9-12 that asks students to apply psychological knowledge to civic engagement. Students use ideas about feeling and reasoning, belonging and social norms to judge public appeals, take part in a fair deliberation and plan, on paper, an honest way to invite peers into community service.
Apply psychological knowledge to civic engagement.
C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Psychology · Applications of Psychological Knowledge · Official standard
D2.Psy.23.9-12 asks students to apply psychological knowledge to civic engagement: taking part in the life of a community, for example by volunteering, joining a public discussion, serving on a youth council or voting when old enough. The lesson applies three ideas from psychology. Feelings and first impressions shape political judgments more than people tend to admit; belonging and social connection draw people into community life; and people take cues from what others around them do.
Students read Graham Wallas's 1908 description of how election campaigns build feeling rather than reasoned opinion, and the CDC's current page on social connectedness. Two invented sources, labeled as invented, give them a test of a volunteer flyer and a transcript of a youth council deliberation. Everything stays nonpartisan: no current party, candidate or policy is discussed, and students plan civic actions on paper only, without contacting officials or posting anything.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Explain, with Wallas's examples, how feeling and first impressions can stand in for reasoning in public life
Distinguish a reason that can be checked from an appeal to feeling or to who is speaking
Explain how belonging and social connection relate to community participation, using a federal source
Analyze an invented test of a volunteer flyer and judge whether its reported conclusion fits the data
Apply these ideas to take part in a fair deliberation and to plan an honest invitation to community service
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Experiments, random assignment and the limits of a sample D2.Psy.1.9-12
Deliberative processes in civic settings D2.Civ.9.9-12
"Think of a time you formed an opinion about a person or an idea in a few seconds. What was it based on? Did you later find better reasons, or did you keep the first impression?"
Students write privately for 2 minutes; no one shares a political opinion. Ask for a show of hands: who has ever defended a first impression with reasons they thought of afterward? Tell the class that a writer described this habit in elections more than a century ago.
Direct Instruction20 minutes
Key terms.Civic engagement is taking part in community and public life. An appeal to feeling tries to win support through emotion or a pleasant impression rather than reasons. Rationalizing means supplying reasons after a judgment has already been made on other grounds. Belonging is the sense of being accepted and valued in a group. A social norm is what people believe others around them usually do or approve of.
Three psychological ideas and how each applies to civic life (written for this page)
Idea
Civic application
Source on this page
Feeling often comes before reasons
Ask what a judgment is based on; look for reasons that can be checked
Source 1 (Wallas, 1908)
Belonging draws people in
Community places and groups can invite participation
Source 2 (CDC)
People take cues from others
Accurate information about what peers do may encourage joining
Source 3 (invented study)
Read Source 1. Graham Wallas published Human Nature in Politics in 1908; in his preface he credits William James's Principles of Psychology with leading him "to think psychologically" about his work "as politician and teacher." His examples come from British elections of his time. Outdated view: Wallas calls a voter "A simple-minded supporter" and writes as if every voter and candidate were a man. The tendency he describes is a general one; it does not belong to one kind of voter, and readers apply it to themselves first.
1Whoever sets himself to base his political thinking on a re-examination of the working of human nature, must begin by trying to overcome his own tendency to exaggerate the intellectuality of mankind.
2We are apt to assume that every human action is the result of an intellectual process, by which a man first thinks of some end which he desires, and then calculates the means by which that end can be attained. An investor, for instance, desires good security combined with five per cent interest. He spends an hour in studying with an open mind the price-list of stocks, and finally infers that the purchase of Brewery Debentures will enable him most completely to realise his desire. Given the original desire for good security, his act in purchasing the Debentures appears to be the inevitable result of his inference. The desire for good security itself may further appear to be merely an intellectual inference as to the means of satisfying some more general desire, shared by all mankind, for 'happiness,' our own 'interest,' or the like. The satisfaction of this general desire can then be treated as the supreme 'end' of life, from which all our acts and impulses, great and small, are derived by the same intellectual process as that by which the conclusion is derived from the premises of an argument.
[...]
3The tactics of an election consist largely of contrivances by which this immediate emotion of personal affection may be set up. The candidate is advised to 'show himself continually, to give away prizes, to 'say a few words' at the end of other people's speeches--all under circumstances which offer little or no opportunity for the formation of a reasoned opinion of his merits, but many opportunities for the rise of a purely instinctive affection among those present. His portrait is periodically distributed, and is more effective if it is a good, that is to say, a distinctive, than if it is a flattering likeness. Best of all is a photograph which brings his ordinary existence sharply forward by representing him in his garden smoking a pipe or reading a newspaper.
4A simple-minded supporter whose affection has been so worked up will probably try to give an intellectual explanation of it. He will say that the man, of whom he may know really nothing except that he was photographed in a Panama hat with a fox-terrier, is 'the kind of man we want,' and that therefore he has decided to support him; just as a child will say that he loves his mother because she is the best mother in the world, or a man in love will give an elaborate explanation of his perfectly normal feelings, which he describes as an intellectual inference from alleged abnormal excellences in his beloved. The candidate naturally intellectualises in the same way. One of the most perfectly modest men I know once told me that he was 'going round' a good deal among his future constituents 'to let them see what a good fellow I am.' Unless, indeed, the process can be intellectualised, it is for many men unintelligible.
Graham Wallas, Source 1: Graham Wallas on feeling and reasoning in elections (1908) (1908; this edition 1920). Public domain (published 1920). Source text.
Then read Source 2, a current CDC page on social connection.
1Staying connected to others creates feelings of belonging and being loved, cared for, and valued.
[...]
2Social connection is the size and diversity of one's social network and roles, the functions these relationships serve, and their positive or negative qualities.
3Social connectedness reflects the continuum of meeting social connection needs. It is the degree to which you have the number, quality, and variety of relationships that you want. It is when you feel like you belong and have the support and care that you need.
[...]
4People are social creatures by nature. Our relationships with family, friends, coworkers, and community members are important to our survival.
5Stable and supportive relationships give us the support we need to cope with stressful life challenges.
[...]
6Communities that offer supportive connections are just as important. They can help create trust and resilience among community members in public places, such as:
7Neighborhoods.
8Schools.
9Places of worship.
10Workplaces.
11Parks and recreation centers.
12Having safe access to public areas for people to connect encourages:
13Connections among people in the community.
14Less social isolation and loneliness.
15Community members to give back, further strengthening the bonds.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Source 2: CDC, About Social Connectedness (2024). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
Where the problem starts: Source 1
In paragraph 1, where does Wallas say a person who studies human nature in politics must begin?
Result: With himself: he must begin by "trying to overcome his own tendency to exaggerate the intellectuality of mankind". Applied to civic life, the first check is on one's own judgments, not on other people's.
Feeling first, reasons later: Source 1
How do the election tactics in paragraph 3 connect to the supporter's explanation in paragraph 4?
Result: The tactics work "under circumstances which offer little or no opportunity for the formation of a reasoned opinion of his merits" (paragraph 3), so the support they create rests on feeling. In paragraph 4 the supporter "will probably try to give an intellectual explanation of it": the reasons come after the feeling, which is what this page calls rationalizing.
Belonging and giving back: Source 2
What links does Source 2 draw between social connection and community participation?
Result: Paragraph 1 says, "Staying connected to others creates feelings of belonging and being loved, cared for, and valued." Paragraphs 12-15 say that safe public places to connect encourage, among other things, "Community members to give back, further strengthening the bonds." Connection and participation feed each other; the page states this as guidance and does not give the evidence behind it.
Reading an invented test: Source 3
In Source 3 (Guided Practice), what percent of the students who saw each flyer signed up?
Result: Flyer 1: 30 / 300 = 0.10, or 10%. Flyer 2: 48 / 300 = 0.16, or 16%. The extra sentence about past participants went with more sign-ups in these invented data.
Separating source from merit: Source 4
In Source 4, paragraph 5, how does Keisha answer Rina's remark about "the same people who always run things"?
Result: She says, "That tells us who suggested it, not whether it works." Rina's remark judges the idea by its supporters, a group feeling; Keisha turns the group back to reasons that can be weighed.
Close the segment: Is feeling bad for civic life? No. Care for a community is a feeling, and it moves people to take part. The point of Source 1 is to notice when a feeling is doing the work that reasons should do, especially in one's own judgments.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Read Source 3 together. It is an invented study with invented data, written for this page to show how a school club could test one psychological idea: that people take cues from what peers do.
1Invented study, written for this page. The school, the trail and every number are invented. A high school's service club wanted more students to join a Saturday trail restoration day, planting native shrubs along a town walking trail. The school has 24 advisory classes of 25 students. The club randomly chose 12 advisories to receive Flyer 1 and gave the other 12 Flyer 2.
2Flyer 1 read: "Help restore the river trail on Saturday, April 18. Sign up with your advisory teacher." Flyer 2 was the same, with one added sentence taken from the club's records: "Last spring, 140 students from our school joined a trail day."
3Results: of the 300 students who saw Flyer 1, 30 signed up and 21 came on Saturday. Of the 300 students who saw Flyer 2, 48 signed up and 30 came on Saturday.
4The club's newsletter reported: "Telling students what their classmates did made them 60% more likely to volunteer."
SVHS (invented scenario), Source 3: Two flyers for a trail day (invented study with invented data) (2026). Original passage written for this page.
Design. The club chose the 12 Flyer 2 advisories at random instead of letting its members pick them. What could go wrong if members had picked the advisories themselves?
Honesty. Paragraph 2 says the added sentence was "taken from the club's records." Why does that matter ethically for a message about what peers do?
Two measures. The club counted sign-ups and attendance. Which better measures civic engagement, and why?
The newsletter. Read paragraph 4. Students keep their judgment of the newsletter's claim for the quiz and homework.
Diagram 1 shows the sign-up and attendance counts for both flyers.
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students read Source 4 on their own. It is an invented transcript of four students deliberating, written for this page; students analyze it and do not act it out.
1Invented discussion transcript, written for this page. The town, the grant and the speakers are invented. The youth council of the town of Alder Falls has a small grant and must choose one use: a free summer shuttle to the public pool, or new lights along the walking trail. Four students meet to deliberate.
2Rina: "The shuttle, obviously. Everyone I know wants it."
3Tomas: "Before we vote, can we say what each option does? The shuttle helps kids without a ride get to the pool in July and August. The lights make the trail usable after dark all year."
4Rina: "Okay, but the lights idea came from the same people who always run things here."
5Keisha: "That tells us who suggested it, not whether it works. Rina, what is your strongest reason for the shuttle?"
6Rina: "Some kids are stuck at home all summer because their parents work. The pool is the one free place to be with friends."
7Dev: "That's a real reason. For the lights, mine is that people walking home from late shifts use the trail, and it's dark by 5 in winter. Could we ask the town how many people use each?"
8Keisha: "So the question is who gets helped, how many, and for how long. Let's write that down before anyone votes."
SVHS (invented scenario), Source 4: A youth council deliberates (invented transcript) (2026). Original passage written for this page.
Task: for each of paragraphs 2-8, write one line naming what the speaker does (an appeal to feeling or to who is speaking, a request for reasons, a checkable reason, a proposal for evidence or a summary), and quote the words that show it. Then write two sentences on which moves made the deliberation fairer, citing Source 1 or Source 2.
Closure5-10 minutes
Exit ticket: "Name one psychological idea from today and one civic situation where you would use it. What would you do differently because of it?"
Teacher notes: Keep the lesson nonpartisan: if students bring up current parties, candidates or policies, move the discussion back to the invented cases. Source 1's outdated wording is flagged in Direct Instruction; keep Wallas's words as printed. Students never contact officials, post publicly or sign anything as part of this lesson. Source 2 mentions loneliness; any student who feels isolated or low can talk with a trusted adult, a school counselor or a doctor.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give the three-ideas table with the Civic application column blank and two sample answers to choose from for each row
Pre-highlight the two sentences in Source 1 that show feeling coming before reasons
Offer sentence frames for the Source 4 task: "In paragraph __, ___ makes an appeal to ___ / gives a reason that can be checked: ___."
For Advanced Students
Ask whether a message about what peers do (Source 3) is still honest if the number is true but chosen because it is the most impressive one available
Have students write a one-paragraph reply to Wallas: are pleasant impressions of a candidate ever a fair basis for a judgment?
Compare Rina's "Everyone I know wants it" (Source 4) with Source 3's flyer sentence: both describe what others do, so what makes one evidence and the other not?
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Strong answers name a specific psychological idea, apply it to a concrete civic situation, quote the source with a paragraph number, and keep to reasons rather than positions. Watch for students who use Source 1 to dismiss other people's views as "just feelings" while exempting their own, who read the invented study's newsletter claim as proven, or who treat a statement about who supports an idea as a reason for or against it.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Statement Sort: Reason, Feeling or Speaker?
15 minGroups of 3
Each group gets 8 Statement Cards, invented remarks from residents of an invented town before a nonpartisan parks board election. The group sorts each card into one of three piles: a reason that can be checked, an appeal to feeling or impression, or a judgment based on who supports an idea. Then the group rewrites two cards from the second and third piles as questions that could be checked.
The 8 Statement Cards
"She smiled at everyone at the farmers market, so she must care about parks."
"He voted to keep the pool open two extra weeks last summer; the board minutes show it."
"Only people from the north side support that plan."
"I just have a good feeling about her."
"The trail lights would cost $40,000, according to the town budget page."
"Everyone at my lunch table is for the shuttle, so it must be the popular choice."
"His campaign photo with his dog makes him seem honest."
"The plan was written by a group I don't trust, so it must be bad."
Debrief Questions
Which card would Wallas use as an example, and why?
Which pile was hardest to fill, and what does that suggest about everyday talk on public issues?
Card 6 describes what other people think. When is information about others' views real evidence, and when is it not?
Teacher Note
Suggested sort: checkable reasons, cards 2 and 5; appeals to feeling or impression, cards 1, 4 and 7; judgments based on who supports an idea, cards 3 and 8. Card 6 can go in the third pile or stand alone; ask groups what a lunch table can and cannot tell them about the whole town. A checkable reason can still be wrong; the point is that it can be looked up. Sample rewrite of card 7: "What has he done on the parks board, according to the minutes?"
2
Deliberation Protocol: Restate Before You Add
20 minGroups of 4
Groups deliberate, in their own voices, on an invented question written for this page: "Our invented school's student council has a small service budget. Should it fund one large community event or four small ones during the year?" Students give their own views; no one plays a character.
Deliberation Protocol
A recorder writes the question and the decision rule (a majority vote at the end).
Each speaker first restates the previous speaker's strongest reason, in a way that speaker accepts, and only then adds one new reason.
The recorder lists every reason in one of two columns: can be checked, or rests on a value or feeling.
Before the vote, the group names one fact it would want to look up.
After the vote, each student writes one moment when they felt pulled by feeling, by a friend's view or by who said something.
Teacher Note
Score the reasoning, never the position: both options can be defended. Reasons that rest on values ("a big event builds school spirit") are legitimate; the protocol only asks students to label them. Watch for the moves analyzed in Source 4, and name them in the debrief.
3
Invitation Planner: An Honest Call to Serve
15 minPairs
Pairs plan, on paper only, an invitation for classmates to join an invented community service day. The invitation must use one idea about belonging from Source 2 and, if it mentions what peers do, only a true number from records. It is not posted, sent or shared outside the class.
Invitation Planner
The service day: what, where, when (invented)
The belonging idea, with a quotation from Source 2 and its paragraph number
Any statement about what peers do, and where the number comes from
The message (three sentences at most)
Ethics check: no pressure or guilt, no exaggeration, no naming of who did not sign up, open to students with different schedules and abilities
How the club could tell whether the invitation worked, using attendance and not only sign-ups
Variation
Ask pairs what they would write if records showed that only 12 students took part last year. Can a true but small number still help, or should the message leave it out?
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: The Invented Flyer Study
Invented data from Source 3: of 300 students per flyer, 30 signed up and 21 came after Flyer 1; 48 signed up and 30 came after Flyer 2. Bar heights are drawn to scale.
Diagram 2: A Cycle of Connection and Participation
Drawn for this page from Source 2, paragraphs 12-15: safe public places encourage connections among people, less isolation and "Community members to give back, further strengthening the bonds." The cycle is the page's summary of CDC guidance, not a tested model.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
Homework: Psychology for Civic Life
Directions: Part 1 uses Sources 1-3. Quote every source you use with its paragraph number. Part 2 asks you to apply the sources and to plan on paper only: do not contact officials, post or send messages, or survey anyone. Use invented people and places, and do not discuss real candidates, parties or current policy debates.
Part 1: Reading the Evidence (Problems 1-3)
In Source 1, paragraph 2, Wallas describes an investor who "spends an hour in studying with an open mind the price-list of stocks." Explain the assumption about human action that this example illustrates, and describe one civic decision where that assumption could mislead someone who is trying to persuade others.
Source 1, paragraph 3 describes "contrivances" that set up "personal affection" for a candidate. Describe two present-day ways a campaign for an invented school or town office could do the same, then write one question a voter could ask to get a checkable reason instead.
In Source 3, what percent of the students who signed up actually came, for each flyer? Show your work. Then explain what the result suggests about using sign-ups as the measure of civic engagement.
Part 2: Applying and Planning (Problems 4-6)
Source 2, paragraph 6 says communities "can help create trust and resilience among community members in public places." Choose one place from paragraphs 7-11 and explain, on paper, how it could become a starting point for young people's civic engagement.
In Source 4, paragraph 3, Tomas asks, "Before we vote, can we say what each option does?" Explain what this move does psychologically for the group, using Source 1, and describe how a youth council could build the same step into every meeting, on paper only.
Plan, on paper only, an honest three-sentence invitation to an invented neighborhood service day. Use one idea from Source 2 and one fact about past participants (invent the number for this task and label it as invented), and explain why your message passes the ethics check from Activity 3.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Psychological idea
Each answer names a specific idea (feeling before reasons, belonging, cues from others) and applies it correctly
Ideas named but applied loosely
No psychological idea used
Evidence
Quotations with source and paragraph numbers support each claim
Quotations without paragraph numbers, or one claim unsupported
No quotations
Fairness and neutrality
Reasons are judged on their merits; no real candidates, parties or positions are promoted
One lapse into judging people rather than reasons
Partisan content or attacks on people
Accuracy and ethics
Problem 3 correct with work shown; plans are honest, voluntary and on paper only
One error, or one plan missing a safeguard
Several errors or plans that pressure or mislead
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Sources 1 and 2 are printed in Direct Instruction, Source 3 in Guided Practice, and Source 4 in Independent Practice. Source 1 is used in Questions 1-5, 14, 15, 18, 19 and 20; Source 2 in Questions 6-8, 16 and 20; Source 3 in Questions 9-11 and 17; and Source 4 in Questions 12, 13, 15, 16 and 19. Questions 1-14 are multiple choice; 15-20 are short answer.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 1, paragraph 2, what does Wallas's example investor desire?
Answer: A
Paragraph 2 says the investor "desires good security combined with five per cent interest" and studies the price list to find it. C misreads the Brewery Debentures, which are what he finally buys, not what he desires. B and D are not in the passage.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which of these is NOT one of the election tactics listed in Source 1, paragraph 3?
Answer: C
Paragraph 3 lists showing oneself, giving away prizes, saying "a few words" after others' speeches and distributing portraits, all of which offer "little or no opportunity for the formation of a reasoned opinion." A detailed list of plans would invite reasoned opinion, which is the opposite of Wallas's point. A, B and D are all in the paragraph, so choosing one of them misses the word NOT.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, paragraph 3, what kind of portrait of a candidate works best?
Answer: B
Wallas says the portrait "is more effective if it is a good, that is to say, a distinctive, than if it is a flattering likeness." A reverses this. C contradicts his "Best of all" example, a photograph of the candidate at ease in his garden; D is not in the source.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 1, paragraph 4, Wallas compares the supporter's explanation of his feelings to what?
Answer: D
Wallas writes, "just as a child will say that he loves his mother because she is the best mother in the world." The comparison shows a feeling explained afterward as if it were a judgment. A, B and C are reasoned explanations, which is the contrast Wallas draws, and none is in the passage.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What does the "perfectly modest" man at the end of Source 1, paragraph 4 show?
Answer: A
Wallas introduces him with "The candidate naturally intellectualises in the same way": the man says he is going round to let voters "see what a good fellow I am," treating personal liking as if it were a reason to vote for him. B and C are not claimed; D reverses the point, since meeting voters is exactly the tactic Wallas describes.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 2, paragraph 3, what is social connectedness?
Answer: C
Paragraph 3 says it is "the degree to which you have the number, quality, and variety of relationships that you want." A counts people only, leaving out quality and what the person wants; paragraph 2's definition of social connection includes size but also functions and qualities. B and D are not in the source.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which place is NOT named in Source 2, paragraphs 7-11, as a public place for community connection?
Answer: B
Paragraphs 7-11 list neighborhoods, schools, places of worship, workplaces, and parks and recreation centers. Shopping malls are not listed. A, C and D are all named, so choosing one of them misses the word NOT.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 2, paragraphs 12-15, what does safe access to public areas encourage?
Answer: D
Paragraphs 12-15 list connections among people, "Less social isolation and loneliness," and community members giving back. C sounds civic, but voting is not mentioned in the source; A and B are not mentioned either.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 3, what percent of each flyer's 300 students came on Saturday, and what is the gap between the two flyers?
Answer: A
21 / 300 = 7% and 30 / 300 = 10%, so the gap is 3 percentage points. B gives the sign-up percents, not attendance. C reads the counts of attendees as percents, and D reads the counts of sign-ups as percents.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
By what percent was attendance higher for Flyer 2 than for Flyer 1 in Source 3, to the nearest percent?
Answer: C
30 / 21 = 1.43, so attendance was about 43% higher. A is the relative gap in sign-ups (48 / 30 = 1.6), the figure the newsletter reports as if it described volunteering. B is the gap in percentage points, not a relative change; D is the difference in counts, 30 - 21, read as a percent.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 3, the club assigned whole advisory classes to each flyer. Why is that a weakness when the results are counted as 300 separate students per flyer?
Answer: B
Paragraph 1 says the club "randomly chose 12 advisories." Friends in the same class may sign up together, so 25 students in one advisory are not 25 independent choices, and the study holds less information than 300 separate people would. D is wrong: random assignment of advisories is a strength. A and C are not supported.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 4, paragraph 2, Rina says, "Everyone I know wants it." What is the main weakness of this as evidence?
Answer: D
People Rina knows are a small group of friends, likely to share her situation and views, so they are not a fair sample of the town's young people. C goes too far: Source 1 says feelings play a large part in judgment, and the lesson treats values as legitimate when labeled. A misses the point, and B is not in the source.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 4, paragraph 7, what is Dev doing when he asks, "Could we ask the town how many people use each?"
Answer: A
Dev asks for a count that would show how many people each option helps, which could be checked. C misreads his reason about late shifts, which is a checkable claim about who uses the trail, as an emotional appeal. B ignores that he first calls Rina's point "a real reason"; D describes Rina's earlier move in paragraph 4, not Dev's.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which action best applies Wallas's advice in Source 1, paragraph 1, to a student's own civic life?
Answer: C
Wallas says the student of politics "must begin by trying to overcome his own tendency" to exaggerate how rational people are; listing what one knows and how one knows it checks one's own reasoning. A and B let impressions or friends decide. D draws the wrong lesson: noticing bias is a reason to reason more carefully, not to stop taking part.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Use Source 1 to explain why Rina's opening line in Source 4, "The shuttle, obviously," may show feeling coming before reasons, and how Keisha's question in paragraph 5 changes the discussion.
Model answer: "Obviously" announces a conclusion with no reason, the way Wallas's supporter decides first and explains afterward (Source 1, paragraph 4). Keisha asks, "Rina, what is your strongest reason for the shuttle?" (Source 4, paragraph 5), which moves the group from who feels what to reasons that can be weighed. Rina then gives a real reason in paragraph 6, about children stuck at home all summer. Rubric: 1 point for linking the opening line to Source 1; 1 point for explaining Keisha's question; 1 point for quotations with paragraph numbers.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Source 2 says that connection "creates feelings of belonging." Explain one way belonging can encourage civic engagement and one way group feeling can harm a fair deliberation, using Source 4, paragraph 4.
Model answer: Belonging can draw people into community life: Source 2 links connection to community members who "give back" (paragraph 15), so a student who feels accepted in a club or neighborhood group may be readier to join its projects. Group feeling can also harm deliberation: in Source 4, paragraph 4, Rina dismisses the lights because they came from "the same people who always run things here," judging an idea by the group behind it rather than by its merits. Rubric: 1 point for the benefit with a source; 1 point for the harm with the Source 4 example; 1 point for clear reasoning.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Suppose the club in Source 3 had made up the sentence "Last spring, 140 students from our school joined a trail day." Explain why that would be wrong even if it raised sign-ups, and what the club could honestly write if far fewer students had taken part.
Model answer: Civic engagement depends on trust; a false claim about what peers do misleads people about their own community, and if students found out, they would have reason to distrust the club's later messages. The flyer would also turn an invitation into manipulation. If few students took part, the club could state the true number, describe what the group accomplished, or invite students to bring a friend, using belonging rather than a large number. Rubric: 1 point for the ethical problem; 1 point for the consequence for trust; 1 point for an honest alternative.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Design one rule for a classroom deliberation that would make rationalizing harder, as Wallas describes it in Source 1, paragraph 4. Explain how the rule works.
Model answer: Rule: before anyone states a position, each student writes down the two facts or values that matter most to them in the decision, and the group discusses those first. Wallas's supporter decides on feeling and then "will probably try to give an intellectual explanation of it" (paragraph 4). Writing reasons before choosing a side makes it harder to build reasons around a choice already made, and it gives the group criteria it can check. Rubric: 1 point for a clear rule; 1 point for linking it to Source 1; 1 point for explaining how it works.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
A student says, "Source 1 proves that voters are irrational, so ordinary people should not be trusted with decisions." Respond using Source 1, paragraph 1, and one other source on this page.
Model answer: Source 1 does not say that. Wallas begins with the observer's "own tendency" to exaggerate rationality (paragraph 1): the lesson applies first to the person judging, so it cannot be used to set oneself above other voters. Wallas also describes tendencies, not a fixed incapacity, and he gives examples rather than a measurement. Source 4 shows ordinary young people moving from a feeling to reasons and a plan to gather evidence, which is what good civic practice looks like. Rubric: 1 point for the correct reading of paragraph 1; 1 point for the limit of Wallas's evidence; 1 point for a second source used well.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Choose one civic engagement situation (invented) and apply two psychological ideas from this page to it, each supported by a different source.
Model answer: Situation: an invented town asks residents to comment at a public meeting on a new bike lane. Idea 1, belonging: Source 2, paragraph 12 says safe access to public areas for people to connect encourages connection and giving back, so holding the meeting in a familiar community space, such as the library, with time to talk could bring in residents who rarely attend. Idea 2, feeling before reasons: Source 1, paragraphs 3-4 show how impressions stand in for reasoned opinion, so organizers could post the plan's cost, route and safety data in advance and ask speakers to name the facts behind their views. Rubric: 1 point for each idea applied with its source; 1 point for a realistic, nonpartisan situation.
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Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does D2.Psy.23.9-12 mean?
D2.Psy.23.9-12 asks high school students to apply psychological knowledge to civic engagement. It is the last indicator in the C3 Framework's psychology companion (Appendix B), in the group on applications of psychological knowledge. Students use ideas about how people think, feel and act in groups to take part in community and public life more fairly and more effectively.
What counts as civic engagement?
Taking part in community and public life: volunteering, joining a public discussion or a youth council, attending community meetings and, for those old enough, voting. This lesson works with volunteering and deliberation, using invented cases.
Is this lesson political?
It is civic, not partisan. No current party, candidate, ballot measure or policy debate appears; the historical source describes British election tactics of 1908, and the other cases are invented. Students are scored on their reasoning, never on the positions they take.
Does Source 1 mean feelings have no place in civic life?
No. Care for a community is a feeling, and it moves people to take part. Wallas's point is that feeling and first impressions often stand in for reasons without our noticing.
Is the flyer study real?
No. The school, the trail day and all the numbers in Source 3 are invented for this page and labeled as invented. The study gives students a design to question, two measures to compare and a newsletter claim to check.
Why does the lesson use a CDC page in a civics topic?
Because the CDC page connects social connection and belonging with community life: it says safe public places encourage community members to give back. That link is one of the psychological ideas students apply to civic engagement.
Do students act out the youth council discussion?
No. Source 4 is a written transcript that students read and analyze. In Activity 2, students deliberate on a different invented question in their own voices, with no roles or characters.
Will students contact officials or start a campaign?
No. Every civic action in this lesson is planned on paper only. Students do not contact officials, sign petitions, post messages or survey anyone; the invitations they write stay in the classroom.
Is D2.Psy.23.9-12 taught in civics or in psychology?
D2.Psy.23.9-12 is a psychology indicator, usually taught in a high school psychology course. It pairs naturally with civics indicators on deliberation, such as D2.Civ.9.9-12, and with the C3 inquiry indicators on taking informed action.
What outdated views appear in the sources?
Wallas's 1908 text calls a voter "A simple-minded supporter" and writes as if every voter and candidate were a man. The page flags this where the source appears and keeps his words exactly. The tendency he describes applies to everyone, including the reader.
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Related Standards
5 standards
These standards connect to D2.Psy.23.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
D2.Psy.1.9-12Prerequisite
Understand the scientific methods at the core of psychology
Apply deliberative and democratic strategies to decide and act in civic contexts
Lesson coming soon
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.
