10 Fun Psychology Games & Activities For High School Students

High school is a time especially when students find themselves surrounded by innumerable fields and opportunities. Psychology too, is an emerging field in today’s world. As immersive as the subject is, we understand how it can be confusing to figure your way out through it.

Psychology is a field with widely spread divisions and paths, each different from the other. However, before opting for the field, wouldn’t it be great if you could get a glimpse of them, and that too in fun and interesting ways?

Psychology games and activities can guide you through this. The creative and interactive format of games and activities helps you expand your knowledge and get more clarity on the subject matter. In this article, you will find fascinating games and activities to deepen your interest and knowledge of psychology.

Psychology games and activities for high school students

Studying psychology must involve activities, games, and exercises that elevate one’s interest in the subject, engagement in class, and taking one’s knowledge of the subject to an expansive level.

Here are 10 interesting psychology games and activities:

1. Psychology jeopardy

Psychology jeopardy

The game of Jeopardy is famous for its fun and exciting nature. It increases one’s engagement in class and elevates interest levels. This activity is suitable for use in a classroom or peer group setting. Students must divide into teams of two or more. The teacher will ask questions to each team, and they can select the field of psychology they prefer to answer from. 

Each correct answer will earn the team ten points, but if they answer incorrectly, five points will be deducted from their score. Teams will have thirty seconds to answer each question. For example, if they choose cognitive psychology, a question may be “What are the three types of memory?” or if they choose biopsychology, a question may be “What is the basic unit of brain function?”

2. Psychology Pictionary

Psychology Pictionary

Pictorial and visual games and activities are beneficial in encouraging a student’s participation as well as alleviating their lack of understanding. The game begins by dividing the students into teams of two or more.

One student from each team will then come forward and receive a commonly understood phrase from psychology. Without using words or writing, the student will have to draw objects or scenarios that represent the phrase. 

The other members of the student’s team must guess the given word within sixty seconds, and if they get it right, the team earns a set number of points. For example, a student could draw objects like spectacles, couches, and sleeping z’s to represent Sigmund Freud or draw a man and a stick together to form the word “humanistic,” which is an approach in the field of psychology.

3. Word cross puzzles

Word cross puzzles

Brain games like wordcross puzzles promote memory, critical thinking, and problem-solving. These are the core aspects of cognition and hence may help the children experience the concepts they are going to study. 

Formulate the word cross puzzle in a way that contains all terms related to psychology, along with their hints or definitions. For instance, the questions “Who is often called the father of experimental psychology?”, or “What is the name of the technique used by Freud that is related to sleep?” organized as “across and down” elaborate on different aspects of psychology along with acting as a brain teaser.

4. Mind mapping

Mind mapping

Mapping out one’s thoughts can aid in adapting to various situations, developing skills such as situational interpretation, and solving problems. This practice can be useful in psychology classrooms or study sessions to help organize one’s chosen field, job prospects, advantages, and challenges.

To begin this activity, students need to create a mind map on paper or a hardboard, categorizing their psychology field of interest (e.g. industrial psychology or criminal psychology) and dividing it into potential job prospects and current positions. 

Lastly, students can list internship programs, courses, and additional subjects under each category. To make the process enjoyable, organizers can incorporate sticky notes, highlighters, pinboards, and threads to create a visual representation of their ideas. This exercise can help individuals better understand their interests and discover ways to expand their knowledge.

5. Movie analysis

Movie analysis

Watching movies and shows is a technology that we all have in common. Why not use it to our advantage? Visual learning is an engaging and creative way to teach and to conduct this activity, select and show psychology and mental health-related movies that are appropriate for high school students.

After watching the movie, organize a group discussion in class where students can analyze the concepts, layers, and characters of the movie. This will help students to visually understand what they may study and deal with in the future. Visual presentations also help students develop a higher sense of empathy and comprehension, which can enhance their overall skills.

6. Emotional wheel

Plutchik’s emotion wheel is a visual representation of one’s emotions divided into a colored wheel spectrum. The emotional wheel can be understood in three main ways: the categorization by colors, overlapping layers, and mixing the emotions. Give the emotional wheel in the form of self-evaluation worksheets to students in a class to let them understand their own emotions better. 

Research has found that helping individuals expand their emotional vocabulary can help them regulate their emotions more effectively[1]. Attempting this worksheet as a self-evaluative activity helps the students to learn more about what they’ll be understanding in psychology and their perception of the subject’s prospects might be cultivated as well.

7. Myth-busting

Myth-busting

Psychology is an intriguing subject, but it is also surrounded by many misconceptions and myths. To dispel these myths, organize a myth-busting activity in the classroom or with friends. Ask each student to research and bring 10 common psychological myths to the class. 

Then, randomly select students to present one myth and challenge their classmates to debunk it with facts. For example, the myth that more sleep leads to happiness is false – in reality, sleeping more than eight hours can actually cause fatigue. This activity encourages interactive learning and collaborative effort among students.

8. Debates

Debates

Debates and brainstorming activities include efficient analysis, critical thinking, and logical reasoning. These activities, referring to psychology are inclusive of topics that are already in debating sequences, for example, the debate of nature vs. nurture. Conduct this debate in the classroom or in peer groups. Randomly call two students to come forward or students can voluntarily participate in the same. 

To conduct the activity, provide a topic and set a timer of 30 seconds. The first student to say “for” or “against” will be given the chance to speak, depending on their stance. The other student will then speak in the opposite stance. This activity not only stimulates quick thinking and analysis but also encourages active participation among students.

Research has shown that using debate in higher education as a pedagogical tool affects the promotion of higher order and critical thinking[2]. This activity does not only include expanding one’s knowledge of psychology as a subject but also inculcates team effort, and confidence and boosts self-esteem.

9. Skits and role-plays

Skits and role-plays

Skits boost a student’s confidence and help them healthily get over their stage fright. Skits and role plays are team activities and can be performed in a classroom setting as well as in peer groups. Just like role-play scenarios, ask students to select the psychological topics of highlights and discussions and together plan the sets of dialogues and enact scenes. 

These topics may include general discussions like “the importance of mental health” or “breaking the stigma behind mental health”, or can be more elaborative and specific like disorders. In this case, students would have to divide themselves into different roles, one of them, say, acting as the therapist, another one as the client, and the others as their friends, relatives, and family. They will then enact a scene that discusses what the disorder is about, and what treatment plans are advisable for the same.

10. Psychology book club

Psychology book club

Book clubs are always a fun space to engage in. For extensive readers, being in a book club where you can suggest new books makes them look forward to the day. As future psychologists, what can be more interesting than analyzing the characters of your favorite books? 

To begin, students need to get together to discuss and share their views on books that may be related to psychology or the ones that touch on mental health. They may also analyze their favorite high school drama books and characters and associate them with different psychological theories. For example, all the Potterheads get together to discuss the parenting styles of each of the Harry Potter character’s parents or predict the personality types of the novel characters.

Wrapping up

Being interested in psychology is great, but it doesn’t leave the challenges behind. Studying a subject often has some restrictions and limitations according to one’s schedule and curriculum. This may make the subject feel a little boring. 

Games and activities in classrooms exhibit higher chances of productivity and engagement. Such activities do not just help students participate in the classroom and become interactive but also widen their knowledge and expand their horizons.

References : 

  1. Kircanski, K., Lieberman, M. D., & Craske, M. G. (2012). Feelings into words: Contributions of language to exposure therapy. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1086-1091.
  2. Camp & Schnader, 2010; Ng et al., 2004; Roy & Macchiette, 2005; Ryan & College, 2006

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