Sample Assignment Psych

Students will be given an international topic to consider. Topics include gender neutrality in child rearing; the institution of marriage and child rearing; gender and political participation. They will then be assigned a nation to take the POV of. They will be required to consider the political, religious and economic climate of the nation. They will also have to determine if the culture is individualist or collectivist. Once they have completed research and have a understanding of both the issue and the POV of their nation, they will create and present an exhibit that communicates their Nation’s values and presents their position on the chosen topic.

Students will do research into current event trends regarding the social relations between groups such as, feminism and the different responses to the movement; marriage and the traditional family; standards of beauty and influence on behavior. They will be required to find recent articles on the issue that take the stance of both sides and of both groups. They will then have to create a position statements using the information gathered to share with the class. This activity will require having an open mind because they may not always agree with both sides, but may find that their research has swayed their option on the matter. Also, this will require them to be thinkers and principled as they cannot base their position on emotion alone. They need to look at the facts and the arguments made and decide who has a stronger argument.

After an introduction, reading assignment, and exploration of genetics and behavior, the

class will spend a 70 minute block, discussing the following questions using the Socratic Seminar format:

1. What are the responsibilities of society to screen for biological predispositions towards

criminal behavior?

2. Should society treat these people differently? If yes how?

3. Would this change the criminal justice system?

4. How does this carry over to predispositions for other factors (obesity, diseases, mental illness) and where do we draw the line for prenatal intervention?

5.How are ethics involved in the study of psychology? When and how do ethical standards change?

6. Do knowledge claims in the human sciences imply ethical responsibilities?

This activity will explore the topics of ethics and natural sciences (also human sciences) that our TOK course will be heavily exploring, as students will be looking into the ethics of genetic behaviorism both from a psychological perspective as well as on a larger ethical scale. Also, Students will be exploring the natural sciences in terms of the reasoning behind how this would or would not benefit society as well as the different preceptual factors that influence science and their decision making.