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Syllabus for PSYCH 100: Introductory Psychology |
Dr. John A. Johnson |
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Spring, 2012 |
Office 172 Smeal 375-4774 Office hours: MWF 10:00-10:50 |
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MWF 2:30-3:20 |
Email: <j5j @ psu.edu>
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This course is a broad survey or overview of the discipline of Psychology. The content of the course is arranged as follows. The first quarter of the course introduces general issues in the discipline such as historical development of the different fields, basic and applied research, scientific reasoning, and psychological methods and statistics. This introduction is followed by discussions of theories and findings in different fields of psychology, including Developmental Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Social Psychology, Neuropsychology, Perception, Cognition, Learning, Personality, and Abnormal Psychology. Students interested in pursuing any of the above areas in greater detail and depth will find that the Psychology Department offers courses that are devoted entirely to a single field.
Textbook and Class Attendance:
There is no textbook for the course. In the past I have made Psychological Science (3rd Edition, published 2010 by Norton) an optional book for students who wanted a textbook. But feedback confirmed what I suspected for years: students who read the textbook had no special advantage over students who did not. If you really, really would like to have a textbook, you can find new copies on line for around $90-100, or used copies for about half that price. Or, you can purchase a 180-day online version from the Norton Web site (http://www.nortonebooks.com/) for $46.66.
But, it is a fact that all exam questions come from material we cover in class, and many ideas that I present in class are not covered in any book. This means that it is absolutely vital that you attend every class, pay close attention, and take good notes. There are PowerPoint slides that go with my lectures for every class, but I guarantee that passing the course would be very unlikely if you only studied these slides alone without attending class. I therefore strongly suggest that you attend every class if you want to earn a good grade in the course.
If you are very ill, however, I encourage you to send me an email describing your illness as soon as possible and stay home and get better before you return so that you do not infect others. Public health considerations are more important than missed work, which can be made up. It might be useful for you to get to know one or more students in the course so that you can share notes, study together, and get each other caught up in the event that one of you misses a class.
Please read the campus procedures concerning delay or cancellation of classes due to weather conditions at: http://www.ds.psu.edu/weather.htm . If the campus announces a delay due to weather, this will not affect our class because the shortened class periods occur only before noon. Obviously, if the campus announces cancellation due to weather, we will not be meeting. If the weather is bad but the campus does not announce a cancellation, and you believe that driving conditions are too dangerous for you, please do not risk your life for the sake of class. This is a valuable class, but your life is more important!
The broad objective of the course is the same as the goal of psychology itself: to help you understand how the mind works and to understand why we behave the way we do.
I also hope to accomplish three more specific goals related to the process of understanding the mind and behavior:
1. I want to enable you to critically evaluate claims about the mind and behavior, no matter who is making the claim: someone off the street, the author of print or electronic media, or even a professional psychologist. I'd like you to be able to imagine, "What kinds of questions do I need to answer to decide whether a psychological claim is true?" I'd also like you to be able to tell the difference between what is true and what people wish were true about human nature.
2. I hope that you will become familiar with some of the important psychological theories and findings that have been offered to explain how the mind works and why we behave as we do.
3. The information in this course is about people in general, but hopefully it will increase your own self-understanding and be useful to some of your personal concerns and interests.
We will focus on the first goal during the first unit of the course (Nature of Psychology). In this unit I explain what goes on inside the heads of different types of psychologists--what interests them, how they think, and how they argue about what is true and what isn't true. This unit might be called "The Psychology of Psychologists."
During the remainder of the course I present ideas within specific areas of psychology, mostly through lectures. I also show several videos and demonstrate certain psychological principles with "mini-experiments" in class. Although the class follows a lecture format, I welcome comments and questions at any point. Don't be afraid to interrupt if you have questions or would like to share your ideas on a topic we are covering.
The third goal is actually a life-long project. What psychologists do and say influences how we raise our children, how we run our educational system, how employers treat employees, and how we evaluate our well being, among other things. I like to encourage an awareness of the impact of today's psychologists by bringing in news clippings and magazine articles or mentioning TV shows, movies, and Web sites with a psychological slant. Please feel free to do the same. I will be glad to discuss any information you come across.
Penn State DuBois welcomes students with disabilities into the University’s educational programs. If you have a disability-related need for modifications and/or reasonable accommodations in this course, please contact Diana Kreydt at the Office for Disability Services, 110G DEF Building, at 372-3037.
For further information regarding the Office of Disability Services, visit their web site at www.equity.psu.edu/ods/ . Instructors should be notified as early in the semester as possible regarding the need for modification and/or reasonable accommodations.
All students are expected to act with civility, personal integrity; to respect other students' dignity, rights and property; and to help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their own efforts. An environment of academic integrity is requisite to respect for self and others and a civil community.
Academic integrity includes a commitment to not engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or deception. Violation of academic integrity includes all of the following:
Students caught cheating on exams will receive a zero on that exam. Students caught cheating a second time and students violating academic integrity in any other way will receive an F for the course. In the case of more serious violation of any of the above points (multiple violations; organized, unauthorized, widespread distribution of exams, etc.), expulsion from the University will be recommended to the Director of Academic Affairs. Further information, including appeals processes, are described in Policy 49-20 of the current Policies and Rules for Students handbook.
To see a list of very specific things you need to know for each exam, browse to the ANGEL page for this course, https://angel.psu.edu/ , and follow the Study Guide links.
You'll note that two main topics—each corresponding to a PowerPoint presentation—are listed for most weeks. This is because I normally teach this course on a Tuesday/Thursday schedule in the fall. We therefore spend about 1.5 classes per topic.
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Week |
Class Meeting |
Topic |
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PART ONE: NATURE OF PSYCHOLOGY |
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1 |
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The what, when, how, and why questions in psychology;
Historical origins of experimental and measurement psychology |
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2 |
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(Monday – no class – MLK day) Perspectives in psychology; 20th century psychology |
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3 |
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Nonexperimental methods in psychology;
Experimental method in psychology |
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4 |
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Recording and analyzing data in psychology
Friday—EXAM 1: NATURE OF PSYCHOLOGY |
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PART TWO: EVOLUTIONARY BASIS OF BEHAVIOR |
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5 |
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Genes and behavior genetics;
Nature and nurture |
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6 |
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Evolution;
Human evolution |
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7 |
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Non-human Ethology;
Human ethology, Motivation & emotion |
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8 |
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Mating and parenting; Friday—EXAM 2:EVOLUTIONARY BASIS OF BEHAVIOR |
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3/5-3/9 |
* * * SPRING BREAK - NO CLASSES * * * |
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PART THREE: THE BRAIN, COGNITION, AND LEARNING |
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9 |
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Structure and operation of the nervous system; Structure of the brain |
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10 |
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Hormones and pheromones; Perception |
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11 |
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Learning;
Memory |
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12 |
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Monday—EXAM 3: BRAIN, COGNITION, AND LEARNING PART FOUR: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Personality
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13 |
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Perspectives on psychological
abnormality;
Anxiety, Somatoform, Dissociative, Sexual, and Personality Disorders
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14 |
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Treating anxiety, mood disorders, and schizophrenias;
Treating childhood disorders |
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15 |
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Knowing ourselves;
Catching up, as necessary |
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Finals Week |
Exact |
EXAM 4: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES |
Grading:
The grade you earn will be determined by your performance on four multiple-choice exams. Details are presented below.
Exams
All four exams contain 40 questions that cover only the material in the most recent quarter of the course. All questions will be multiple choice, and you will mark your answers on computer-scored answer sheets. You may bring one sheet of 8.5 x 11" paper with notes (on both sides) to the exam. Strategies for creating a useful study sheet will be presented in class. Please bring two number 2 pencils to each exam. Also, please bring your student ID card so that you can code your student number correctly on the answer sheet.
Sample multiple choice questions can be found on ANGEL. You are encouraged to study these questions and talk with other students about the answers. But on the day of the examination you must take the test on your own, without help from other students, books, and notes. Each of the four exams is worth 40 points.
Computation of Letter Grade
Grades will be based on the total points earned out of 160 possible points. See the table below.
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Point Total |
Letter Grade |
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148-160 points |
A |
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144-147 points |
A- |
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141-143 points |
B+ |
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132-140 points |
B |
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128-131 points |
B- |
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125-127 points |
C+ |
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112-124 points |
C |
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96-111 points |
D |
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96 points |
F |