This page provides aligned teaching materials for Introduction to Psychology, including detailed instructor guides and instructional presentation slides. Each resource is built around Lumen’s framework for Evidence-Based Teaching Practices, with the goal of supporting an active, engaged, and connected classroom — while also making your job easier.
JUMP TO: Course Information | Instructor Guides | Slide Decks | Guided Notes
Assignments and Discussions | Question Banks for Exams
APA Integrative Themes | Videos and Examples
Course Information
You may want to reference module titles, topic areas, or specific learning outcomes in your syllabus.
Sample Syllabus
This visual syllabus is designed to help you convey openness and connection from the start of class. It includes sample language to describe Lumen One.
- Download a Sample Visual Syllabus – for digital use [GoogleDocs]
- Download a Sample Visual Syllabus – for print [GoogleDocs]
- More Detailed Sample Visual Syllabus
Instructor Guides
Instructor Guides are provided for each module to support active learning, conceptual investigation, and collaboration. Each guide includes an overview of the module content, a summary of what students encounter in key sections, and a list of learning outcomes. You’ll also find engaging classroom activities with accompanying materials such as handouts and worksheets. Activities come with a suggested instructional plan, alignment to evidence-based teaching practices, discussion prompts, and an online variation that can be integrated into your LMS for hybrid or asynchronous classes.
Module 1 Instructor Guide: Psychological Foundations
Module 2 Instructor Guide: Research in Psychology
Module 3 Instructor Guide: Biopsychology
Module 4 Instructor Guide: States of Consciousness
Module 5 Instructor Guide: Sensation and Perception
Module 6 Instructor Guide: Thinking and Intelligence
Module 7 Instructor Guide: Memory
Module 8 Instructor Guide: Learning
Module 9 Instructor Guide: Lifespan Development
Module 10 Instructor Guide: Social Psychology
Module 11 Instructor Guide: Personality
Module 12 Instructor Guide: Emotion and Motivation
Module 13 Instructor Guide: Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Module 14 Instructor Guide: Psychological Disorders
Module 15 Instructor Guide: Therapy and Treatment
Presentation Slide Decks
Google Slides are available for each module to help you introduce and reinforce key concepts in class. Each deck of slides aligns with learning outcomes, providing concise explanations, visuals, video, and opportunities for active engagement. They’re designed to complement the Instructor Guides, offering a flexible framework you can adapt for lectures, discussions, or group activities.
Some slides contain notes or links to our Instructor Guides. If you share slide decks with your students but wish to leave out the notes or links, downloading a PDF version will result in a file that contains all the slides without the speaker notes.
Module 1 Slides: Psychological Foundations
Module 2 Slides: Psychological Research
Module 3 Slides: Biopsychology
Module 4 Slides: States of Consciousness
Module 5 Slides: Sensation and Perception
Module 6 Slides: Thinking and Intelligence
Module 9 Slides: Lifespan Development
Module 10 Slides: Social Psychology
Module 12 Slides: Emotion and Motivation
Module 13 Slides: I-O Psychology
Module 14 Slides: Psychological Disorders
Module 15 Slides: Therapy and Treatment
Guided Notes
As an instructor, you have the option of encouraging student use of these guided notes (they can access them through the course link “Students: Additional Lumen Resources”). These guides serve as a flexible, scaffolded tool to support student learning throughout the course, whether note-taking in class or working through the Study Plan. Though not comprehensive, they do provide a minimal outline for students to follow and may also be useful as a study guide for students.
Instructions for students: These notes are designed to help you follow along with the material if you find that helpful. You’re welcome to use these guided notes, modify them, or not use them at all – it’s entirely up to you. They won’t be collected or graded; they’re simply there as an extra tool if you want it.
Module 1 Guided Notes: Psychological Foundations
Module 2 Guided Notes: Research in Psychology
Module 3 Guided Notes: Biopsychology
Module 4 Guided Notes: States of Consciousness
Module 5 Guided Notes: Sensation and Perception
Module 6 Guided Notes: Thinking and Intelligence
Module 8 Guided Notes: Learning
Module 9 Guided Notes: Lifespan Development
Module 10 Guided Notes: Social Psychology
Module 11 Guided Notes: Personality
Module 12 Guided Notes: Emotion and Motivation
Module 13 Guided Notes: Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Module 14 Guided Notes: Psychological Disorders
Module 15 Guided Notes: Therapy and Treatment
Assignments and Discussions
Each module of the course includes links to Google Docs that explain discussions and assignments connected to the module content. They each contain clear instructions and rubrics.
You have the option to create your own copy of the Google Doc for personalized instructions, or you can directly copy and paste the instructions and rubrics into your LMS tool.
Additionally, you’ll find suggestions for course projects below the list of modules.
| Module | Discussion | Assignment |
|---|---|---|
| Module 1: Psychological Foundations |
Module 1 Discussion: Psychological Perspectives Students introduce themselves and then use different psychological perspectives to describe various behaviors. |
Module 1 Assignment: Topics in Psychology Ted Talks Students pick a psych-related Ted talk to watch and analyze. |
| Module 2: Psychological Research |
Module 2 Discussion: Research Article Discussion Board Students find a PLOS One journal article and describe it in the discussion board. Use AI tools to help summarize and evaluate the article. |
Module 2 Assignment: Psychology in the News Students find a popular news article and compare it to the original psychological research. |
| Module 3: Biopsychology |
Module 3 Discussion: Using Your Brain Students describe how their brain was used during a specific activity and explain what type of brain imaging they might use to learn more. |
Module 3 Assignment: Brain Part Infographic Students create an interesting visual related to a part of the brain |
| Module 4: State of Consciousness |
Module 4 Discussion: Altered Consciousness Students pick 1 from 3 prompts related to lucid dreaming, mindfulness, or hypnosis. |
Module 4 Assignment: Sleep and Dream Log We recommend giving students advance notice on this so that they can track their sleep and dream habits for at least 3 days (but ideally more). They record their own habits and write a reflection paper. |
| Module 5: Sensation and Perception |
Module 5 Discussion: Fun with Senses Students pick 1 from 3 prompts related to sensation, illusions, or sensory-induced memories. |
Module 5 Assignment: Cultural Influences on Perception Students learn more about the Ebbinghaus Illusion and consider cultural effects and differences related to illusions. |
| Module 6: Thinking and Intelligence |
Module 6 Discussion: Thinking about Intelligence Students pick two questions to answer related to thinking and intelligence |
Module 6 Assignment: Book of Biases Students create a children’s book about 4 cognitive biases |
| Module 7: Memory | Module 7 Discussion Students pick two questions to respond to related to memory, flashbulb memories, or mnemonics. |
Module 7 Assignment Students apply concepts from the module (and from previous modules) to give advice to a friend about the best methods for studying. |
| Module 8: Learning | Module 8 Discussion Students give 3 specific examples of things they’ve learned through types of conditioning |
Module 8 Assignment This is a “change your behavior” project where students shape and modify a habit or behavior for a minimum of 10 days, but ideally longer. This should be started early. Students either write a reflection paper or create a presentation about their project. |
| Module 9: Lifespan Development |
Students pick an age and describe a hypothetical situation and the developmental theories connected to that age. |
Module 9 Assignment Students choose a children’s toy and examine how it connects to developmental theories at that age. |
| Module 10: Social Psychology | Module 10 Discussion Students choose to respond to 1 of 4 prompts related to persuasion, group work, or social psychology. |
Module 10 Assignment Students develop a proposal for a study related to social psychology. This could easily be divided into smaller chunks and assigned over a longer time period or expanded to include a multimedia or presentation piece. |
| Module 11: Personality | Module 11 Discussion Students analyze the Grinch’s personality |
Module 11 Assignment Students pick a fictional character and create a short write-up and multimedia presentation about their personality, how it is explained by some of the major theories, and how the character would do on the Big 5. |
| Module 12: Emotion and Motivation | Module 12 Discussion Students complete a self-reflection about motivation and then find an example from the media of someone exemplifying a theory of motivation. |
Module 12 Assignment: Theories of Motivation and Examining Gender Norms In Part 1, students create their own examples of the major theories of motivations, then in Part 2, they complete a scavenger hunt and analysis based on gender-related advertisements. |
| Module 13: Industrial-Organizational Psychology | Module 13 Discussion Students pick one of four prompts to write about I/O topics, design, or leadership. |
Module 13 Assignment: My Future Job Students explore O*Net for a job that interests them and examine the KSAs needed for the job. |
|
Module 14: Psychological Disorders |
Module 14 Discussion Students choose a fictional character and describe behavior or symptoms that might connect that character to a psychological disorder. |
Module 14 Assignment: At-a-Glance Infographic Students create a poster/infographic about a psychological disorder. |
| Module 15: Therapy and Treatment | Module 15 Discussion Students delve into the concept of intergenerational trauma and its effects on individuals, families, and communities. Module 15 Discussion |
Module 15 Assignment: Fictional Therapy Building off the fictional character assignment from the previous module, here students write an essay or create a presentation that details 3 possible treatment methods to help that character cope with their mental illness. |
| Module 16: Stress, Lifestyle, and Health | Module 16 Discussion Students listen to a podcast from the Science of Happiness and write a gratitude letter to someone to show appreciation. |
Module 16 Assignment: Promoting Healthy Habits and Living a Happy Life Students work alone or with a partner to create a PSA infographic or poster about reducing anxiety and dealing with stress or with advice on happiness.
|
Other Assignments and Course Projects
- Generic Discussion: Applying Psychology: This discussion could be utilized at any point in the course and with any module. It asks students to make personal connections to the content from a certain week and find or create a media application.
- Psychology Podcast Assignment: Students listen to a psychology-related podcast, then find a study mentioned in the podcast and compare the key takeaways from both sources.
- Integrative Themes Review: We recommend that this be utilized as a group in-class activity to get students talking about the concepts they learned in the course and help them make connections to the APA integrative themes. You can discuss these concepts together as a class for a comprehensive review of the course.
- Final Project: Integrative Themes Portfolio: Students create media resources for a campus counseling center based on the integrative themes. We recommend completing the Integrative Themes Review before assigning this. You could also split this into multiple parts and assign several smaller milestones throughout the course.
- Final Project: My Psychology Top 10: Students create a slide deck and a video about their top 10 takeaways from the course. Sue Frantz recommends having students share out their top 10 lists during the final class.
- Final Project: Shark Tank Psychology: Students pitch an idea to solve a societal problem based on psychological principles. Adapted from “Applying Social Psychology in the “Shark Tank'” by Jaime Kurtz.
Question Banks for Midterms and Finals
Lumen One provides access to outcome-aligned question banks that you can use to build your own exams. We provide these banks as QTI files, a standard format that allows you to import questions, build, and customize quizzes in most learning management systems. These files cannot be opened outside of an LMS.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It is your responsibility to handle question banks and answer keys securely and appropriately to prevent them from being widely available.
How to Import
You must download the question bank specific to your LMS, open the file on your computer, and follow LMS-specific instructions for importing each module.
Please use the import instructions in our Lumen One knowledge-base for Blackboard, Brightspace, Canvas, and Moodle.
Available Question Banks
The question banks include at least 3 questions for every learning outcome throughout the entire course.
Connecting to the APA Integrative Themes
Every module begins with a section that connects the content to the American Psychological Association’s Integrative Themes, as recommended by the Introductory Psychology Initiative. The themes are presented first on the page titled “Readiness Check” that students see when they open a module. This page presents a story or example, and then connects it to one of the APA themes. Students are asked 2 questions about the scenario and the APA theme. If they want a deeper explanation of the theme, the “Background You’ll Need” page provides more information.
Module 1: Psychological Foundations
- Theme B: Psychology explains general principles that govern behavior while recognizing individual differences.
- Here students are introduced to a situation from a “What Would You Do?” clip and asked about its connection to the world of psychology, where they come to recognize differences in behavior.
Module 2: Research in Psychology
- Theme D: Psychology values diversity, promotes equity, and fosters inclusion in pursuit of a more just society.
- This introduces students to some research about the benefits of group singing and connects that to psychological research promoting equity and inclusion.
Module 3: Biopsychology
- Theme G: Ethical principles guide psychology research and practice.
- Students learn about the research conducted by Alvaro Pascual-Leone about neuroplasticity and using TMS to test the changes in neural networks when visually impaired and sighted people read Braille. This extends into a conversation about ethical guidelines.
Module 4: States of Consciousness
- Theme A: Psychological science relies on empirical evidence and adapts as new data develop.
- Students are introduced to the concept of priming and learn about how some of the research on social priming has not replicated, which ties into a discussion on how psychology adapts as new data develop.
Module 5: Sensation and Perception
- Theme C: Psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors influence behavior and mental processes.
- Students learn about two people with agnosias and then learn about how sensation and perception is influenced by various factors.
Module 6: Thinking and Intelligence
- Theme F: Applying psychological principles can change our lives, organizations, and communities in positive ways.
- Students are introduced to some studies about task-switching and multi-tasking then learn about a few principles that can help them avoid multitasking and apply psychological principles to improve their lives as students.
Module 7: Memory
- Theme E: Our perceptions and biases filter our experiences of the world through an imperfect personal lens.
- Students learn about Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memories (MEAMs) and connect this to ways that individual perception influences our experiences of the world.
Module 8: Learning
- Theme F: Applying psychological principles can change our lives, organizations, and communities in positive ways.
- This page tells the story of rats who are trained to find earthquake victims. It emphasizes how principles of learning and conditioning can improve lives, organizations, and communities.
Module 9: Lifespan Development
- Theme A: Psychological science relies on empirical evidence and adapts as new data develop.
- Here students learn about the Still Face Paradigm and learn about how that has been implemented as a tool for collecting empirical research.
Module 10: Social Psychology
- Theme G: Ethical principles guide psychology research and practice.
- Students learn about the Stanford Prison Study and discuss its ethical implications.
Module 11: Personality
- Theme B: Psychology explains general principles that govern behavior while recognizing individual differences.
- Students are introduced to the concept of personality and learn about the dark triad to learn more about the significance of understanding individual differences in the study of psychology.
Module 12: Emotion and Motivation
- Theme C: Psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors influence behavior and mental processes.
- Students examine how psychologists go about manipulating variables in order to study complex things, like how Jean Twenge measured aggression after leading people to feel rejected and angry. This ties into this APA theme because in Dr. Twenge’s study on testing aggression, she focused specifically on the role of social factors (rejection and acceptance among peers) in shaping psychological states (feelings of rejection and anger) and the subsequent behaviors (aggression).
Module 13: I-O Psychology
- Theme E: Our perceptions and biases filter our experiences of the world through an imperfect personal lens.
- Students look at a case study related to Grubhub to learn about UX design and the Halo Effect. This ties into a discussion of how perceptions and biases filter our experiences.
Module 14: Psychological Disorders
- Theme A: Psychological science relies on empirical evidence and adapts as new data develop.
- Students learn about some outdated historical beliefs about schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder that put blame on the parents. This connects to a conversation about how psychology evolves and adapts with new data.
Module 15: Therapy and Treatment
- Theme D: Psychology values diversity, promotes equity, and fosters inclusion in pursuit of a more just society.
- This page discusses cultural competence and the types of questions a person may want to ask their therapist. It also further elaborates on ways that the field of psychology values diversity, promotes equity, and fosters inclusion.
Module 16: Stress, Lifestyle, and Health
- Theme F: Applying psychological principles can change our lives, organizations, and communities in positive ways.
- This page discusses psychological first aid and ties that into ways that psychology can improve our lives and communities.
Videos and Examples
Videos are included throughout the course. To streamline the text, there are only a few select videos included on Learn It pages that nicely explain key concepts. More videos are found on the Apply It pages, where students engage more deeply with the material, or on Fresh Take pages, where informative videos re-teach essential concepts. Additional videos are sometimes included within the slides to use during in-class conversations.
You can view a list of videos and their location in the course here: Introduction to Psychology Videos.
Psych In Real Life Examples
Examples of psychological research are introduced in multiple places throughout the course. These examples include an explanation of how the research was conducted and how the results connect to the real world. These “Psych in Real Life” examples are integrated into the text and can be found within the Learn It and Apply It pages. This list highlights the main Psych in Real Life examples (though other research examples are included on the Readiness Check and Apply It pages):
- M2: Brain Imaging and Messy Science. Students dive into a psychological research article (McCabe and Castel) and learn more about the replication crisis.
- M4: Consciousness and Blindsight. Students learn to describe unconscious perception as it relates to blindsight.
- M5: Illusions. Students apply the Ebbinghaus illusion to Jessica Witt’s research about the perceived size of golf ball holes while putting.
- M6: Choice Blindness. Students come to understand decision-making processes and choice blindness, based on research done by Johannson and Hall.
- M8: Latent Learning. Students work through each of the trials in Edward Tolman’s experiment to see evidence of latent learning.
- M8: The Bobo Doll Experiment. Students step through the research process of Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment.
- M9: Moral Reasoning. Students watch videos and think deeply about Hamlin and Winn’s research on moral development in infants, specifically in the puppet experiments with givers and takers.
- M10: Love and Pain. Students look at two studies (Sarah Master and Jarred Younger) related to romantic love and the experience of pain.
- M11: Blirtatiousness, Questionnaires, and Validity. Students understand how personality tests are created, then examine how validity is measured.
- M12: Growth Mindsets. This dives deep into Dweck’s research on growth mindsets.
- M15: Behavior Therapy. Students work through a treatment plan for a fictional patient who is afraid of public speaking.
- M15: Reconsolidation. Students learn about how memory reconsolidation can be used as a therapy technique. This also reviews classical conditioning.
- M16: Habits. Students look at research on habitual behavior and popcorn eating by Wendy Wood and David Neal.