The Science of Psychology

• Examine the major underlying assumptions of the various schools of thought in psychology.
• Explain how psychological research applies to various aspects of personal and social life.
• Determine what guidelines should be applied to the evaluation of psychological research and practices.
• Identify ethical dilemmas that may arise in psychological research.
• Describe the basic biological foundations of psychology.

Sensation and Perception

• Describe the concepts of transduction and absolute threshold.
• Examine sensation as it relates to the visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory systems.
• Distinguish sensation from perception.

Learning

• Explore the conditioning processes involved with learning.
• Distinguish between classical and operant conditioning.
• Define unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, reinforcement, shaping, and extinction.
• Examine cognitive-social models of learning.

Memory, Thought, Language, and Intelligence

• Examine the processes of memory and information processing.
• Describe short-term memory and long-term memory in relationship to each other.
• Compare and contrast language, thought, reasoning, and problem solving.
• Explore the definitions of intelligence and the validity of intelligence measurements.
• Articulate the relationship between memory and intelligence.

Motivation and Personality

• Examine basic theories of motivation.
• Compare and contrast theories of personality in terms of how they explain an individual’s unique patterns and traits.
• Determine the usefulness and the limitations of personality testing.

Human Development

• Identify basic theories of development.
• Distinguish between the influences of heredity and environment on psychological development.

Social Psychology

• Analyze precursors and consequences of human interaction in terms of social psychology concepts.
• Explore basic concepts of human interaction from a social psychological perspective.

Abnormal Psychology and Therapy

• Define abnormal psychology in contrast to "normal psychology."
• Examine mental disorders and mental illness from the psychological perspective.
• Compare and contrast therapies designed for each school of thought in psychology for treating mental disorders.