Week+4

All activities and content, including timing, will be depicted on this page for all classes in week 4. What content that needs to be covered in the fourth week for psychology unit 1 - Development of individual behaviour - will be described here.

Lesson 1 (100mins) - Tuesday 19 May @ 10.50 am
LA6 Assignment Questions are Due today! Get them to me now or at the end of class... Or by the end of the day otherwise marks will be deducted for every day it is late. 10% per day late.

Today will be covering; Dotpoint 5: "variations in self-esteem as a function of age and gender differences" pp. 185 - 190.


 * Play card game: Break class into 4 around a central table or number of tables. See instructions on pack titled "What do you stand for? Character building card game"

Explain how self esteem influences the character traits depicted on the cards following the game - Wile talking and discussing the following dotpoints:


 * A common definition of self-esteem is that it is a personal judgement of the value, or worthiness, of specific aspects of oneself, or oneself overall.
 * It is described as the extent to which a person likes or approves of themself and how worthwile they think they are.
 * If the judgement a person makes about themself is favourable, then it is said that they have a positive or high self-esteem.
 * If the judgement a person makes about themself is unfavourable, then it is said that they have a negative or low self-esteem.
 * Self-esteem is linked in important ways to how people function in their daily lives.
 * Those whith high self-esteem tend to be happy, healthy, productive and successful. They tend to persist longer at difficult tasks, sleep better at night and have fewer stress-related health problems such as stomach ulcers. They are also more accepting of others and less likely to conform to peer pressure.
 * In contrast, people with low self-esteem are more anxious, depressed, pessimistic about the future and prone to failure.
 * However, the overall level of one's self-esteem does not cause more or less success and happiness in life.

- People largely engage in ways to protect their self esteem, such as making up excuses when they lose in sport so that their loss doesn't affect their self-concept. take for example: - When your football team wins, who do poeple say won the game? They say 'We won'! When the team loses, however, the chant changes to 'They lost'! Thus we associate ourselves with success and distance ourselves from failure.


 * An individual's family and peer relationships are the main influences on development of self-esteem; and
 * Self-esteem is also associated with many factors such as age, gender and ethnic or socio-cultural background of an individual.

Arrange the classroom so that there is a circle of chairs in the middle... everyone sit in a circle.

- do you have good ideas? - Are you feeling satisfied with how well you are performing at school this year? - Do you feel optimistic about your future?
 * Take a moment to think about how you feel about yourself at this point in time. Are you generally satisfied with your appearance, personality, abilities and friendships?


 * Each of these questions tapped into your self-esteem and required you to make a judgement about yourself.

I want you to think about this question... and one by one I want you to share your thoughts with the circle;


 * Explain a time in your life where you experienced very high self-esteem, and tell us how this made you feel?

go around the circle.


 * Explain a time in your life where you felt you had low self-esteem, tell us how it made you feel?

Go back the other way, remain in a circle and continue on with dotpoints...


 * Relate answers and experiences with either self-esteem and age or if it had anything to do with gender. Explain the differences using the dotpoints.


 * Self-esteem and age**


 * Self-esteem develops early in life and most young children from at least a basic understanding of their self-worth during childhood.
 * By the age of eight to ten years, an individual's overall level of self-esteem tends to become quite stable, remaining constant over periods of several years.
 * However, it has been found that self-esteem tends to drop when children first leave primary school to start secondary school.
 * This school transition period coincides with the physical and emotional changes of puberty. The combined effects of these two important life experiences often cause self-esteem to drop to its lowest level.
 * However, it tends to return to its usual level during the first year of secondary school.
 * Once one's self-esteem is established, perhaps by late adolescence, it tends to remain stable throughout the lifespan.


 * Self-esteem and gender**


 * Some studies have found significant differences between the self-esteem of males and females.
 * In comparing males and females, Block and Robins (1993) found that the level of self-esteem of males is consistently higher than that of females over time, particularly from adolescence to adulthood.
 * It is not that the self-esteem of males increases when they reach adolescence. Rather, the studies have found that many females tend to experience a significant decrease in self-esteem over time from adolescence to adulthood.

Lesson 2 (60mins) - Wednesday 20 May @ 2.35 pm
Dotpoint 6: Relationship between motor, perceptual, cognitive and social development.

- Motor development (physical ability), - Perceptual development and Cognitive development, and - Social and personality development.
 * Psychologists identify 3 main domains of development across an individual's lifespan; these are:

- each student in a group of 4 is given one of the main points of the domains of development.
 * Activity**; Get students to break up into groups of 4. Once this is done walk them outside and had them their cues.

Give each group a name, ie. Barry, Shirly, Joseline, Nevett, Curly.

Now lets have a RACE! Each group is to race from point A to point B on my signal, group mambers gaining a place either 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

Record the results of each group's race under the group name, each domain of development is going to have a different 'place'.

Move the class back inside.

example; write up results on the board. How is Barry's rate of development different to Shirly's rate of development. - How did they develop? - What factors may have influenced their development? - Would one of the groups perhaps have mapped out how a handicapped person may develop? - I want you now in your groups to complete Learning Activity 5.21. - hand around A3 sheets of paper.
 * The point of that activity was to highlight the different rates of which each domain develops.
 * As with the race, Each one of the different domains of development can potentially develop at different rates.
 * Development in one domain affects development in the others.
 * Phsyical development, such as changes in height, weight, motor abilities and brain development, exerts an influence on both cognitive and social development.
 * As you can begin to see, development in one area influences development in other areas. Any person may develop at a different rate to the next depending how they grew up. In saying that, even personality traits and characteristics that a person has could then be an indication of what stage of development thay are at right?
 * Activity**; open your books to page 194 and get back into your groups of 4 we had earlier.

For Example; memory development helps infants to cope with separation anxiety - that being the fear that their mother has gone forever when she is out of sight.
 * Changes over time in Cognitive abilities are related to physical and social development.


 * Social and personality development concerns; changes in feelings or emotions as well as changes in how individuals relate to other people. Relationships with family, peers and co-workers, and an individual's personal identity, are all part of social and personality development.