Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Teach Psychology Courses







Psychology studies human mind.








Teaching a psychology course in college or high school can be done in various ways. You can either introduce your students to theoretical work completed by famous psychologists or provide them with practical psychological knowledge instead. Another way for you to approach your psychology class is to combine the two approaches together, covering psychology theories and also highlighting how your students can apply these theories in their studies, work and personal life.


Instructions


1. Introduce your students to what psychology is. Essentially, psychology can be defined as the science of the mind. The raw data that psychologists analyze is human behavior. Psychology's applications can be found in behavioral economics, business, marketing and management theory, politics, public speaking and public relations.


2. Teach your students the history of psychology. Scholarly studies of the mind date back to the ancient Greeks. Teach your students about the understanding of psychology by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and well as about Epicureans and Stoics. Introduce your students to the German experimental psychology and early American psychology. Finally, tell them about second generation German psychology, behaviorism and Gestalt psychology.


3. Tell your students about different psychology theories and their applications today. For example, introduce your students to behaviorism, a theory that explains human and animal actions by observable and measurable behavior. Ivan Pavlov is among the most famous proponents of this theory and is known for his work on reflexes and his experiments using dogs. For example, this theory is applied today in marketing and the study of how consumers make their purchasing decisions.


4. Teach different branches of psychology to your students. Branches of psychology include clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, forensic psychology, health psychology, neuropsychology, occupational psychology and social psychology. For example, tell your students that forensic psychology studies psychology as it is applied in the legal system.

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