There are plenty of freely available qualitative studies on google scholar. One way to find studies is to ask your students to think of a topical subject in the media that has caught their attention lately. Google search “qualitative psychology (your topic)” and see what you can find. Another approach is to find studies that could help them understand other …
Lesson Ideas: Qualitative Methods
Full credit for the ideas in this post go to Alan Law who shared these with me recently. Problem-based Approach Find and source a real example of a qualitative study and provide students with a very brief summary of the central research question of the study. Then ask students in small groups to decide what method they would use to …
Schema Theory Teaching Resources
The first topic in Social Influence Part II (support pack coming soon) is Schema Theory. This topic comes after learning about SIT and the out-group homogeneity effect as the latter is closely related to schema theory, an both topics deal with stereotypes. Here’s the first pages of the student workbook for the Schema Theory Topic (Download). Here’s the Powerpoint file that has …
How to explain the use of a research method
In both the “old” and “new” IB Psychology syllabi, students have to be able to discuss the use of research methods (and brain imaging techniques). Before we see how to do this, it’s important to make one clarification first: the IB considers the following to be research methods: Experiments (including true, natural, quasi and field experiments) Case studies Correlational studies Interviews …
Lesson Ideas: Schema Theory
The first step in teaching schema theory is getting students to comprehend the abstract concept of “schemas” in the first place. In my experience, takes a couple of lessons at least. In our ThemEd Facebook group for IB Psychology Teachers (Join Here) I recently asked our members for some help in coming up with ideas. There were so many great …
Teaching Tip: 3 ways to save hours of teaching time
As we’re all figuring out the new course, including course plans, this first year or two you might be feeling like you’re behind and you’re worried about getting everything covered in time for the exams. This post will explain how you can cut masses of content from your course, while still being assured your kids will be fine for the …
Schema Theory and Stereotypes
One way to explain how stereotypes are formed is to use the claims of schema theory. To recap, schema theory argues that we organize information in our mind by unconsciously creating categories (these categories are the schemas). We do this because we encounter millions of units of information on a daily basis and if we didn’t simplify this information into …
Key Study: Stereotypes, Social Identity Theory and the Out-group Homogeneity Effect (Park and Rothbart, 1982)
Background Information This study can be used to support the out-group homogeneity effect’s explanation of stereotype formation. The out-group homogeneity effect is a hypothesis that claims members of in-groups will perceive members of their own group as being more diverse than an out-group and they will perceive out-group members as being more similar to one another. If things are homogeneous …
Lesson Idea: Origins of Conflict
Your Task There are five resources below that you will need to complete this task. Working with your group, it’s a race to see who can answer this question first: All of these conflicts started for the same reason. What is that reason? Source 1: The “Beaver Wars” (Warpaths2peacepipes) This article summarizes a conflict in North America in the late …
Schema Theory: A Summary
Updated, July 2020 Schema theory is perhaps the most difficult theory in psychology to comprehend. But once you understand it, you’ll see the effects of schema everywhere. In this post, we’ll break down the theory step-by-step. What is schema theory? Schema theory’s central claim is that our knowledge of the world is organized and categorized, which can influence our cognition …