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Psychology seeks to understand human behaviour and mental processes from a biological, cognitive, and sociocultural approach. This course exposes learners to the major topics found in the field of psychology, emphasizing the issues that are of direct interest and relevance to those completing high school. Learners explore scientific methods used in psychology to draw conclusions about behaviour and mental processes from empirical evidence. They learn psychological perspectives, theories, concepts, and research, and apply them to personal growth and other aspects of everyday life. The goal of studying psychology is to gain a better understanding of their own and others’ behaviour, and, through this, to gain an increased feeling of control in their lives.
The following five strands included in this course represent broad content areas.
The Guiding Principles for the Design of Learning Experiences and Assessment Practices provide guidance to all Manitoba educators as they design learning experiences and classroom assessments to strengthen, extend, and expand student learning.
Please note, this website continues to evolve, so please visit regularly to keep current with what’s new in the Learning Experiences and Assessment Practices section.
The Guiding Principles for the Evaluation and Communication of Student Learning build shared understandings of what is needed to ensure equity, reliability, validity, and transparency in judgment and communication of student learning.
Please note, this website continues to evolve, so please visit regularly to keep current with what’s new in the Evaluation and Communication of Student Learning section.
Many of the learning outcomes in this framework have been informed by the National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula, copyright © 2022 by the American Psychological Association. The full document may be viewed at www.apa.org/ed/natlstandards.html.
Topic 1: Introduction (APA 17)
PSY.12.A1.1 Define psychology as a discipline and identify its goals as a science.
PSY.12.A1.2 Describe and compare the biological, behavioural, cognitive, sociocultural, humanistic, and psychodynamic perspectives.
PSY.12.A1.3 Discuss career opportunities in the major subfields of psychology.
Topic 2: Research Methods (APA 17)
PSY.12.A2.1 Describe and compare quantitative and qualitative research strategies.
PSY.12.A2.2 Demonstrate an understanding of how statistics are used in psychological research.
PSY.12.A2.3 Describe ethical issues in psychological research.
PSY.12.A2.4 Discuss the development of psychology as an empirical science.
Topic 1: Biological Basis of Behaviours (APA 22)
PSY.12.B1.1 Describe the structure, function, and organization of the nervous system.
PSY.12.B1.2 Describe the structure and function of the major regions of the brain.
PSY.12.B1.3 Demonstrate an understanding of scientific advances that have been developed to analyze brain behaviour and disease.
PSY.12.B1.4 Describe the function of the endocrine glands and their interaction with the nervous system.
PSY.12.B1.5 Compare the effects of genetics, evolution, and environment on behaviour.
Topic 2: Sensation and Perception (APA 28)
PSY.12.B2.1 Identify the basic concepts of sensory processes and explain their capabilities and limitations.
PSY.12.B2.2 Relate knowledge of sensory processes to applications in areas such as engineering psychology, advertising, music, and architecture.
PSY.12.B2.3 Discuss the interaction between the person and the environment in determining perception.
Topic 3: Motivation and Emotion (APA 38)
PSY.12.B3.1 Apply motivational concepts to the behaviour of humans and other animals.
PSY.12.B3.2 Investigate the role of biology and learning in motivation and emotion.
PSY.12.B3.3 Describe the theories of motivation.
PSY.12.B3.4 Describe the theories of emotion.
PSY.12.B3.5 Discuss cultural factors in emotions and motivations.
Topic 4: Stress, Coping, and Health (APA 41)
PSY.12.B4.1 Identify the sources of stress, and explain the psychological and physiological reactions to stress.
PSY.12.B4.2 Identify and explain physiological, cognitive, and behavioural strategies to deal with stress and promote health.
PSY.12.B4.3 Investigate different holistic approaches to deal with stress and promote health.
Topic 1: Lifespan Development (APA 31)
PSY.12.C1.1 Describe physical, social, emotional, and cognitive changes from prenatal through older adulthood.
PSY.12.C1.2 Discuss how biology and/or gender norms shape the experiences of individuals throughout the human lifespan.
PSY.12.C1.3 Examine the development of ethnic identity.
Topic 2: Personality and Assessment (APA 36)
PSY.12.C2.1 Define personality.
PSY.12.C2.2 Explain characteristics of the psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural, humanistic, and trait approaches.
PSY.12.C2.3 Compare and contrast various forms of personality assessment techniques.
Topic 1: Learning (APA 32)
PSY.12.D1.1 Define learning from a psychological perspective.
PSY.12.D1.2 Describe classical conditioning.
PSY.12.D1.3 Describe operant conditioning.
PSY.12.D1.4 Explain observational and cognitive learning approaches.
PSY.12.D1.5 Discuss the roles of biology and culture in learning.
Topic 2: Memory (APA 27)
PSY.12.D2.1 Describe encoding.
PSY.12.D2.2 Describe sensory, short-term, and long-term memory systems.
PSY.12.D2.3 Describe retrieval.
PSY.12.D2.4 Investigate strategies for improving memory.
Topic 3: Thinking and Language (APA 26)
PSY.12.D3.1 Explain how thinking involves the manipulation and understanding of information.
PSY.12.D3.2 Recognize that information is classified into categories containing similar properties, which are known as concepts.
PSY.12.D3.3 Compare the different strategies and obstacles involved in problem solving and decision-making.
PSY.12.D3.4 Discuss language acquisition across species.
Topic 4: States of Consciousness (APA 24)
PSY.12.D4.1 Describe states and levels of consciousness.
PSY.12.D4.2 Describe the sleep cycle.
PSY.12.D4.3 Compare theories about the functions of sleep.
PSY.12.D4.4 Demonstrate an understanding of types of sleep disorders.
PSY.12.D4.5 Compare different dream theories.
PSY.12.D4.6 Describe hypnosis and its uses in psychology.
PSY.12.D4.7 Characterize the major categories of psychoactive drugs and their effects.
Topic 5: Individual Differences
PSY.12.D5.1 Explain how intelligence and personality may be influenced by heredity and environment. (APA 22)
PSY.12.D5.2 Discuss theories of intelligence. (APA 29)
PSY.12.D5.3 Demonstrate an understanding of how intelligence is measured. (APA 29)
Topic 1: Psychological Disorders and Treatments (APA 40)
PSY.12.E1.1 Differentiate among normal, abnormal, and disordered behaviour.
PSY.12.E1.2 Discuss the classification of psychological disorders.
PSY.12.E1.3 Distinguish the common characteristics of psychological disorders and cite examples.
PSY.12.E1.4 Identify the principal methods used to treat individuals with psychological disorders.
Topic 2: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Behaviour (APA 35)
PSY.12.E2.1 Demonstrate an understanding of personal perception, attraction, social judgment, and attitude formation.
PSY.12.E2.2 Identify basic social and cultural categories, and discuss how these affect behaviour.
PSY.12.E2.3 Demonstrate an understanding of the effects of the presence of others on individual behaviour.
PSY.12.E2.4 Describe how social structure can affect intergroup relations.
PSY.12.E2.5 Discuss the nature and effects of bias and discrimination toward groups such as Indigenous Peoples, immigrants, and refugees.
PSY.12.E2.6 Discuss the circumstances under which conformity, compliance, and obedience are likely to occur.
PSY.12.E2.7 Discuss the nature and benefits of altruism in society.
PSY.12.E2.8 Demonstrate an understanding of the role of aggression in society.
Curriculum implementation resources will include supplementary documents to support implementation. This section and the support documents will continue to be updated, so you are encouraged to visit the site regularly.
