Psych class analyzes Head Start kids for behaviors

by Braily Lee

Mr. Irelan’s 2nd and 5th hour psychology classes performed a project with four- and five-year olds from the Head Start program in order to better their understanding of the psychological states of people in different age levels. This project helped the seniors to prepare for the overnight experience, which always happens near the end of the first term.

The project helped the students learn how to create hypotheses, sub-hypotheses, and what to do if they get them wrong or right. This project is an in-class lab done with all the seniors, and the number one goal is for the students to come up with hypotheses and sub-hypotheses for checking the development of young children. It had everything to do with child development, like recognizing colors and shapes, and physical skills, which are many of the things they do in psychology.

There’s a method to Mr. Irelan’s madness when picking out what age of kids to use. “I find it’s a lot easier to start our students out on a project with younger kids and then they work their way up,” explained Mr. Irelan. Most of the students agreed that the hardest part of the project was resisting the urge to laugh at their subject when they did something funny. “Trying not to laugh when the kids were doing very funny things and saying funny things,” was a challenge, said senior Zach Vanlerberg.

The students also learned to be more observant about how people act at certain times and in certain situations. “To be more observant of what people do and analyze why they’re that way,” were outcomes reviewed by senior Franny Marino.