TOPSS — Unit Lesson Plans
TOPSS is pleased to produce unit lesson plans for high school psychology teachers. These lesson plans are five- to seven-day units that include a procedural timeline, a content outline, suggested resources and activities and references.
This section is for TOPSS members only. Before viewing the unit lesson plans, you will be prompted to login using your MyAPA user name (often your member number) or email address, and password.
If you forget your user ID or password, you can use the account information form to retrieve your forgotten login information.
If you still have difficulty accessing the TOPSS lesson plans, please send an email to Customer Service with the subject line "TOPSS Lesson Plans access." Be sure to include your APA member number and your chosen email address in the communication.
Unit Lesson Plans
There are currently 19 unit lesson plans. Please note that the Social Psychology unit is 90 pages long.
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Biological Bases of Behavior (PDF, 333KB)
- Emotion (PDF, 442KB)
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Learning (PDF, 320KB)
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Life Span Development (PDF, 404KB)
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Motivation (PDF, 171KB)
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Sensation and Perception (PDF, 252KB)
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Social Psychology (PDF, 429KB)
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Stress and Health Promotion (PDF, 319KB)
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Treatment of Psychological Disorders (PDF, 108KB)
Teaching Modules
The units listed above cover main content areas within the introductory psychology course. The following unit lesson plans cover topics that may accompany the main content areas of a course. The Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychology unit and the Psychology of Sexual Orientation unit were both created in a modular format, to be used throughout the course.
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Positive Psychology (PDF, 164KB)
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Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychology (PDF, 284KB)
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Psychology of Sexual Orientation (PDF, 212KB)
If you are interested in developing a unit lesson plan, please contact Emily Leary Chesnes or call (202) 572-3013.
Feedback Encouraged
The APA Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools is working to update and revise all TOPSS unit lesson plans on an on-going basis to ensure the content of all units is up-to-date and current. We invite all TOPSS members and other interested individuals to submit feedback and suggestions on all TOPSS units, to be considered as the units are updated.
Feedback can be emailed to Education or mailed to: Office of Precollege and Undergraduate Education, APA Education Directorate, 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002. Please specify which unit you are referring to when you submit feedback.