The Psychology of Thinking Critically

Purpose

This course aims to provide Year 10 students with an introduction to psychology, preparing and engaging those who may wish to pursue further studies in psychology, whether at VCE level or beyond. It also seeks to equip students with critical thinking skills applicable across various subjects, helping them navigate 21st-century challenges such as rising mental health issues, complex social problems, and the need to evaluate truth claims from media and AI. Key psychological concepts will be anchored in and applied to real-life case studies and culturally relevant issues. Students will have the opportunity to conduct student-led investigations, delve into specific topics, and build key scientific skills.

Students are encouraged to reflect on the complexity and value of human beings as image-bearers of God, wonderfully created with minds capable of thought, emotion and relationship. Through the study of psychology, students are invited to consider how understanding mental processes and behaviour can be used to care for others, promote wellbeing, and bring hope in a broken world. In light of their developing faith, students are challenged to discern truth, recognise human limitations and bias, and consider how psychological research can be applied in ways that honour God and contribute to His Kingdom. 

Structure and Content

Hope for Our Mental Health 

• The risk and protective bio-psycho-social factors impacting mental health and well-being.

• Research, exploration, advocacy and communication of the hope that others can have for improving their mental health.

• Collecting, predicting and analysing psychological data in order to make reasonable conclusions. 

The Pitfalls and Potential of Our Minds 

• The formation of concepts, schema's and cognition as brain processes which influence the way we think and react to the world around us. 

• Understanding and recognition of biases, superstitions, and sources of truth: The difference between perception and reality.

• Strategies to overcome bias, evaluate data and develop evidence-based arguments.