Psychology Learning and Teaching

by

Annie Trapp

• LAST REVIEWED: 29 July 2020
• LAST MODIFIED: 30 September 2013
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0131

Introduction

This bibliography focuses on the application of scholarship to teaching practice and student learning within the academic discipline of psychology. The general overview provides the context for current debates and national perspectives relating to the purpose of psychology education. Further sections focus on the psychology curriculum and its development, clinical psychology training, the application of psychological principles to psychology learning and teaching, teaching practice and teaching methods, student misconceptions, and ethical literacy. Teaching statistics, research methods, and the research project has a separate section before moving on to teaching activities and resources, student issues including student diversity and employment, teaching of psychology to other professions, and the scholarship and research into teaching and learning psychology.

General Overviews

Historical, national, and philosophical perspectives have influenced psychological research traditions and the role of psychology as a profession which, in turn, impact on psychology education. In addition, differing educational traditions and systems influence the extent to which psychology education follows the scientist practitioner model for training professional psychologists, is embedded within liberal arts study programs, and integrated into the training of other professional groups. As psychology curricula become increasingly internationalized, it is necessary to understand and compare the various models for training psychologists and teaching psychology students. McCarthy’s three edited volumes (McCarthy, et al. 2007; McCarthy, et al. 2009; and McCarthy, et al. 2012) provide a valuable insight into the diversity of psychology education and distinguishes between countries that focus solely on training professional psychologists and countries such as the United States and Australia where many students study undergraduate psychology education in its own right. Trapp and Upton 2010 offers a European perspective while Plattner and Moagi Gulubane 2010, Abramson and Bartoszeck 2006, and Lahar 2008 provide perspectives from developing countries.

• Abramson, C. I., and A. B. Bartoszeck. 2006. Improving the psychology undergraduate curriculum in developing countries: A personal note with illustrations from Brazil. Journal of Social Sciences 2.4: 108–112.

  DOI: 10.3844/jssp.2006.108.112

  This article discusses ways of enriching the psychology undergraduate curriculum in developing countries.

• Lahar, C. J. 2008. Psychology teachers in Cambodia. Observer 21.4 (April).

  This short report describes some of the challenges facing the only psychology department in Cambodia and ways in which the development of professional psychologists can be supported.

• McCarthy, S., L. Dickson, J. Cranney, V. Karandashev, and A. Trapp, eds. 2012. Teaching psychology around the world. Vol. 3. Papers presented at the International Conference on Psychology Education held in Sydney, Australia, in 2010. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.

  This volume provides further information on the teaching and practice of psychology collected by experts in the field from throughout the world.

• McCarthy, S., V. Karandashev, M. Stevens, et al., eds. 2009. Teaching psychology around the world. Vol. 2. Papers presented at the International Conference on Psychology Education held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2008. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.

  This volume provides further international perspectives and includes the proceedings of the International Conference on the Teaching of Psychology in 2008.

• McCarthy, S., S. Newstead, V. Karandashev, C. Prandini, C. Hutz, and W. Gomes, eds. 2007. Teaching psychology around the world. Vol. 1. Papers presented at the first International Conference on Psychology Education and the International Council of Psychologists joint conference in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, in 2005. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.

  This book is an overview of teaching psychology internationally. It includes research and perspectives from psychologists in more than thirty countries.

• Plattner, I. E., and S. Moagi Gulubane. 2010. Bridging the gap in psychological service delivery for a developing country: Teaching the bachelor of psychology degree in Botswana. Journal of Psychology in Africa 20.1: 155–159.

  This paper describes a bachelor of psychology degree in Botswana which is designed to bridge the gap between the country’s need for psychological services and its lack of psychologists.

• Trapp, A. L., and D. Upton. 2010. Individual differences: Psychology in the European community. In Teaching psychology in higher education. Edited by D. Upton and A. L. Trapp, 1–21. Chichester, UK: Blackwell.

  This chapter provides a brief introduction to European education policy and discusses some of the similarities and difference in psychology education across Europe.