General Psychology PSY Spring 2011

Transcription

1 General Psychology PSY Spring 2011 Professor: Dr. Christina Brown Office: Shannon Hall 111 Office Phone: (314) Office Hours: Wed and by appointment PSY 101 CRN: Class time: Tues/Thurs 12:45-2:00 pm Location: Lecture Hall KA (Kelley) Teaching assistant: Aaron Shilling, TA Office Hours: Thurs 3:30-5pm & by appt. in Shannon 011 SI Leader: Tom Scott, Required Readings Gazzaniga, M., Heatherton, T., & Halpern, D. (2010). Psychological science (3 rd ed). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN: The textbook can be purchased new or used for around $60 from sellers on Amazon.com, AbeBooks.com, and Half.com. Course Description This course is an introduction to psychology, which is the study of mind, brain and behavior. The focus of this course will be psychological science; that is, scientific research about mind, brain, and behavior. Although we will spend time discussing theories, particular attention will be paid to scientific findings and the scientific process. How does our brain process thought and emotion? How do our genes influence our personal characteristics? Is human behavior today a product of our evolutionary history? What motivates people to socialize? Why does emotional stress affect our physical health? What cognitive changes occur from infancy to childhood? Why did that one incident of bad chili make you nauseous every time you see chili afterwards? Are emotions universal? Why do colors look different depending on whether the room is light or dark? Is there such a thing as personality? Why do some people become depressed while others are paranoid schizophrenic, and what medicines and therapies treat these disorders? What makes people conform to group pressure? Why do we hold stereotypes about groups of people? These are just a few of the issues that psychologists study. My purpose for this course is to introduce you to the various areas of psychology and to the methods of psychological research. As you will see, psychology is a broad field that covers diverse topics, from neurological functioning to the experience and expression of emotion. Each topic we will cover (which will correspond to the chapters of your textbook) represents a distinct area of psychology that is a field in and of itself. Because psychology is so broad, I hope that at the end of the semester you will walk away with an understanding of the basic issues studied in each area of psychology and the awareness that there is more to psychology than therapy and mental disorders. Should you desire to take additional classes in psychology, you can find an entire class on any of the topics we will cover. Course Objectives To increase your understanding of the human mind, brain, and behavior To appreciate the value and necessity of scientific research in psychology To apply psychological concepts to your own life To be able to identify psychological principles when they occur, outside of class To understand the basic concepts of each area of psychology

2 2 COURSE SCHEDULE Date Topic Text Due Tue 1/18 Introduction & syllabus review 1 (quizzes due at 11:45pm) Thur 1/20 Intro & Research Methodology 2 Mon 1/24: Practice quiz (no grade) Tue 1/25 Research Methodology 2 Thur 1/27 Research Methodology 2 Mon 1/31: Chapter 2 quiz Tue 2/1 Biological Foundations 3 In-class quiz on article Thur 2/3 Biological Foundations 3 Tue 2/8 Biological Foundations 3 Wed 2/9: Chapter 3 quiz Thur 2/10 The Mind and Consciousness 4 Mon 2/14: Chapter 4 quiz Tue 2/15 Sensation and Perception 5 Thur 2/17 Sensation and Perception 5 Mon 2/21: Chapter 5 quiz Tue 2/22 Exam 1 Thur 2/24 Learning 6 Tue 3/1 Learning 6 Wed 3/2: Chapter 6 quiz Thur 3/3 Attention and Memory 7 Tue 3/8 Attention and Memory 7 Thur 3/10 Attention and Memory 7 Mon 3/21: Chapter 7 quiz Tues 3/15 Thur 3/17 NO CLASS Spring Break NO CLASS Spring Break Tue 3/22 Motivation and Emotion 9 Thur 3/24 Motivation and Emotion 9 Tue 3/29 Motivation and Emotion 9 Wed 3/30: Chapter 9 quiz Thur 3/31 Human Development 11 Tue 4/5 Human Development 11 Wed 4/6: Chapter 11 quiz Thur 4/7 Exam 2 Tue 4/12 Social Psychology 12 Thur 4/14 Social Psychology 12 Mon 4/18: Chapter 12 quiz Tue 4/19 Personality 13 Mon 4/25: Chapter 13 quiz Thur 4/21 NO CLASS Holy Thursday Tue 4/26 Disorders of the Mind and Body 14 Thur 4/28 Disorders of the Mind and Body 14 Tue 5/3 Disorders of the Mind and Body 14 Mon 5/4: Chapter 14 quiz Thurs 5/5 Thurs 5/12 NO CLASS MPA conference Final Exam 12:00-1:50pm

3 3 METHODS OF EVALUATION EXAMS There will be three exams, consisting of two regular exams and a final exam. The exams will contain only multiple choice questions. The first two exams will test material covered since the previous exam and they are each worth 100 pts. The final exam will mostly test material covered since Exam 2 but will also test material covered earlier in the semester. That is, the final exam is cumulative. It is worth 150 pts. In accordance with SLU policy, students cannot take the final exam early and you should drop the class if you cannot take the final exam during the appointed time (May 12 th at 12:00-1:50pm). QUIZZES About the Quizzes There will be an online quiz for each assigned textbook chapter. Students will access the quizzes through the Blackboard course website. (To access: Go to log in, click Tools, click SLU Global, and finally click SP2011-PSY General Psychology. ) The quizzes can be accessed by clicking on Assessments on the left side of the course website. You will be able to take a practice quiz on Chapter 1 between January 18 th at 3:00pm and January 24 th at 11:45pm. Your score on this practice quiz will not count toward your grade. I recommend taking the practice quiz so you re comfortable with the format of the quizzes before taking the ones that will count toward your grade. There will be one quiz for each assigned textbook chapter starting with Chapter 2, meaning there will be 11 quizzes total. The due dates for the chapter quizzes are on the course schedule. Each quiz will consist of 10 questions, each question worth 1 pt (e.g., answering all of the questions on a quiz correctly will earn you 10 pts in the class). You will have 15 minutes to complete each quiz. The questions will appear on the screen one at a time but you can go back to earlier questions. You must start the quiz no later than 11:45pm on the day it is due. If you take more than 15 minutes to complete the quiz, you will receive 0 pts for that quiz. All questions on the quizzes will be taken directly from the textbook, so you must read the textbook to do well on the quizzes. Although you can use your textbook during the quiz, a minute and a half per question is not enough time for you to flip through the chapter to find the correct answer if you haven t already read the chapter. However, if you read the chapter carefully and review it before the quiz, you should be able to answer the questions accurately without referring to the textbook. (And if you don t know the answer, you will at least remember where to look in the text because you ve read the chapter and are familiar with the material.) Again, you must read and study the textbook to perform well on the quizzes. Treat the quizzes like exams and prepare accordingly. The quizzes are open-book and open-note. They are not open friend, meaning that you cannot ask for another person s help when taking a quiz. This is considered cheating and you will be charged with academic dishonesty (which will result in an F and a report of academic dishonesty to the college). Although the quizzes will each contain 10 questions, these 10 questions will be randomly selected from a pool of over 100 questions. Therefore, it s unlikely that another student in the class will get the same 10 questions as you (in fact, you re unlikely to share any questions). However, if you re caught trying to share the questions from your quiz with another student (or vice versa), both of you will be charged with academic dishonesty. Your Grade on the Quizzes The time limit for the quiz is 15 minutes. If you go past 15 minutes, you will receive 0 pts for the entire quiz. Blackboard has no way to force-end the quiz after the time limit, so to enforce the time limit students who take more than 15 minutes will receive a 0 on the entire quiz. Your elapsed time is displayed continuously while you take the quiz so you always know how much time is left. To submit the quiz, go to the last question (click the >> button if you need to skip ahead to it) and click Save

4 and Submit. You must click Save and Submit before 15 minutes to receive points. I will provide a 10-second grace period such that students whose quizzes are timed at 15 minutes 10 seconds will still receive credit. No exceptions will be made. There will be 11 quizzes total but only your 6 highest quiz scores will count toward your grade. In other words, you can drop your 5 lowest quiz scores. If you miss a quiz, your score for that quiz will be 0 and that will be one of the 5 that is dropped. Because only 6 of 11 quizzes will count toward your grade, no students will be allowed make-up quizzes for any reason. If you are sick or your computer crashes during the quiz, then that quiz will be one of the 5 dropped. To get the highest quiz scores possible, you should plan to take every quiz and to drop your lowest scores instead of simply choosing not to take a quiz that week. You never know when you will have an emergency that will prevent you from taking a quiz, so you should save the 5 dropped quizzes for emergencies and for quizzes you performed poorly on. Each quiz will be available on Blackboard for one week before the deadline so you will have plenty of time to take each quiz. Take the quiz in a quiet place where you will not be interrupted (e.g., the library). Take the quizzes on a computer connected to the internet with a LAN cable and not a wireless (WiFi) connection because you might lose your wireless signal while taking the quiz. Again, no make-up quizzes will be allowed because you can drop your 5 lowest quiz scores and you have an entire week to take each quiz before the deadline. You will be able to see your score on the quiz immediately after you submit it, but you will not be able to see the correct answers until after the following class (e.g., if the quiz is due Wed 2/9, you can see the correct answers after class on Thurs 2/10). 4 CLASS ACTIVITIES Throughout the semester there will be class activities that will count toward your grade. The activities will only be announced in class (in some cases, you will complete the activity in class) and they won t be announced in advance so it is important to attend class regularly. (If you don t attend class on the day of an activity, you cannot receive points for that activity.) These activities may include (but are not limited to) participation in demonstrations of an experiment, worksheets completed individually or in groups, participation in group discussions, and brief written activities to complete at home. I will announce how many points a particular activity is worth at the time of the activity. Simply completing an activity does not guarantee that you will receive all possible points. You must earn the points by performing well on the activity (e.g., contributing to a discussion, solving a worksheet, writing a thoughtful answer to a question posed in class). RESEARCH REQUIREMENT Psychology is a science and most of what you will learn in class and in the text is the result of psychological research. Psychologists conduct studies to test hypotheses about behavior, the mind, and the brain. Because research is fundamental to psychology, all students must complete a research requirement established by the Department of Psychology. There are two ways to complete the research requirement: (1) You can participate in psychology experiments conducted at SLU. and/or (2) You can write brief papers in response to research articles. You must complete 14 credits of research. Participating in a 30 minute experiment will give you 1 research credit (a 1 hour experiment is worth 2 credits) and writing a paper about a research article can earn you 2 credits (incomplete or poorly written papers will not earn the full 2 credits). You can satisfy the research requirement by completing both of these activities (you don t have to choose only experiments or only papers). For example, you can participate in ten 30 minute experiments and write two papers to complete 14 credits. The research requirement is worth 7% of your final grade (35 pts).

5 5 If you participate in psychology experiments and complete 13 credits without missing any sessions you ve signed up for (without any no-shows, you will get the 14 th credit (1 hour) for free. If you write 6 brief research papers and turn them in by May 3 rd instead of by May 12 th, you will get the last 2 credits (1 hour = 1 paper) free. About participating in experiments You can find and sign up for psychology experiments at SLU by using Sona, an online system in which researchers post sessions for experiments that students can sign up for. You will receive a separate handout about how to use Sona. To access Sona, go to: All studies posted on Sona have been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at SLU. This means they have been reviewed and considered ethical experiments that pose no harm to participants. However, if you feel uncomfortable during an experiment you are free to leave at any time. You will not be penalized if you quit an experiment due to discomfort. If you are completing a questionnaire or survey in an experiment, you can leave any questions blank that you feel uncomfortable answering. Because the experiments have been approved by the IRB it is unlikely that you will feel discomfort, but in the event that you do it is always your right to quit the experiment or to leave questions blank. However, most students enjoy participating in experiments and find them to be fun and interesting. Moreover, participating in experiments gives you firsthand knowledge about how psychological research is conducted. When you sign up for an experiment, you are agreeing to a scheduled appointment and you are obligated to show up at the scheduled time. If you need to cancel an experiment beforehand, you can cancel your session in Sona or you can contact the researcher directly (contact information is provided on Sona). The researcher administering your session is a real human being who will be waiting for you in a laboratory. If you don t show up without canceling your session in advance, this person will unknowingly wait for you and you will waste his or her time. If you find that you can no longer participate in an experiment due to illness, an emergency, or a schedule conflict, please contact the researcher to cancel your session. To reward students who do not miss any of their scheduled sessions (no no-shows ), students who complete 13 credits of experiments without any no-shows will be awarded the 14 th credit for free. Friday May 5 th is the last day to participate in an experiment for research credit. About research papers The research you read about in the textbook and learn in class was first published in psychology journals. When a researcher conducts an experiment that has meaningful results, he or she writes about the research and submits it to a journal. The paper is then critically reviewed by fellow researchers and, if they determine the research to be of high quality, it is ultimately published in a journal. In other words, psychology experiments (which you can participate in) are the first step of the research process, and publication as a journal article is the last step. For each article you read and write a brief paper on, you can earn 2 research credits. You will find a folder with articles from the journal Psychological Science on the course Blackboard website in the Research Requirement folder. Your research papers must be on articles from this folder.

6 Instructions for Writing the Paper Each paper on a research article should contain the following sections: (1) A header with the title of the article, the authors names, and the year the article was published. (2) A word summary of the research. (Your summary should not include the title, authors names, authors affiliation, or other extraneous information.) (3) Research components: Identify the independent variable(s), dependent variable(s), and hypothesis (or hypotheses). (4) Ideas for future research. These ideas must be your own ideas, not something proposed by the authors. All article papers should be typed in Times New Roman 12 pt font (the document should be double-spaced with 1-inch margins on all sides). You should describe the research in your own words (paraphrase; do not use more than two direct quotes in your summary). Research papers are due on Thursday May 12 th at the start of the final exam (12:00pm). You can either them to me as attachments (.doc,.docx, or.rtf) or give me hardcopies in class. 6 ACADEMIC INTEGRITY & HONESTY CLASS POLICIES Violations of academic honesty are taken very seriously. Don t cheat. Don t plagiarize. Your academic career could be ruined, and cheating and plagiarizing just aren t worth it. All work you submit should be your own. If you are struggling in the class, please meet with me or the teaching assistant for help. As a student at SLU you are obligated to abide by its policy on academic honesty, which you can read here: The University is a community of learning, whose effectiveness requires an environment of mutual trust and integrity. Academic integrity is violated by any dishonesty such as soliciting, receiving, or providing any unauthorized assistance in the completion of work submitted toward academic credit. While not all forms of academic dishonesty can be listed here, examples include copying from another student, copying from a book or class notes during a closed book exam, submitting materials authored by or revised by another person as the student s own work, copying a passage or text directly from a published source without appropriately citing or recognizing that source, taking a test or doing an assignment or other academic work for another student, securing or supplying in advance a copy of an examination or quiz without the knowledge or consent of the instructor, sharing or receiving the questions from an on-line quiz with another student, taking an on-line quiz with the help of another student, and colluding with another student or students to engage in academic dishonesty. Any clear violation of academic integrity will be met with appropriate sanctions. Possible sanctions for violation of academic integrity may include, but are not limited to, assignment of a failing grade in a course, disciplinary probation, suspension, and dismissal from the University. All acts of academic dishonesty will be met with a minimum sanction of a grade of 0 on the assignment and a report of academic dishonesty sent to the College of Arts and Sciences. Policy on translators for international students: International students who wish to use electronic translators on the exam must speak with me to receive approval. If their request is approved, they can use only their own translator during the exam and cannot share a translator with another student.

7 7 ACCOMMODATIONS FOR DISABILITIES Students with documented disabilities should meet with me during office hours (or by appointment) to set up disability-related needs or accommodations as soon as possible. Out-of-class tests must be scheduled with the Testing Center at least one week before the exam (it is the student s responsibility to schedule OCTs) and students with other accommodations (e.g., attendance) must meet with me during the first two weeks of class to arrange their accommodation. Requests to use accommodations that fall outside of these time frames will not be granted. Such accommodations will be made in conjunction with the Disability Services office. If you have a disability that requires accommodation, you must contact the Disability Services Program Manager, Mark Pousson (poussonj@slu.edu; ; BSC 331), about your disability before you can receive accommodations in class. All inquiries about disability services are confidential. Please see SLU s policy and services for people with disabilities at the following website: ATTENDANCE You will not be graded on your attendance, but there will be material on the exams that is only covered in the lectures. In addition, we will occasionally have brief in-class activities for which you can receive points. I will not announce when we will have them in advance, therefore it is important to attend regularly. CLASS CONDUCT During class we will have discussions in which students are encouraged to express their own opinions and views. Respecting other students opinions and values no matter how much they differ from one s own is essential to creating a comfortable environment that fosters intellectual discussion. I respect each of your opinions, and I ask that you do the same for other students. Debate is an excellent way to facilitate critical thinking, but respect for others must be maintained in all discussions. In addition to respecting the opinions and values of others, it is also important that students show respect by not disrupting the learning of others. Examples of such disruptions are arriving late, talking with other students during lecture and when another student has the floor during discussion, letting a cell phone ring, texting during class, and using laptops and cell phones for activities other than note-taking (which can distract other students by drawing their attention to your device). For this reason, I ask that you make every effort to arrive on time and do not chat with other students during class. Furthermore, turn off your cell phone or any electronic device that emits sound. Do not send cell phone text messages in class. If you use a laptop to take notes, refrain from engaging in computer activities unrelated to the course as this is distracting to other students. If you plan to engage in these activities during class, I would rather you not attend class because these behaviors are disruptive to students who are trying to learn. EXAM MAKE-UP POLICY No make-up exams will be allowed after the exam has been given unless you have an extenuating circumstance, which is limited to severe emergencies: death, life-threatening illness, and serious accidents. You must provide proof of the emergency. In the event of a foreseeable schedule conflict (which you must have a good reason for; e.g., you cannot reschedule the exam to attend a baseball game or because you have another exam on the same day), you must submit a request to make up the exam in writing at least five days before the exam. (And we must set a specific date and time for you to make up the exam prior to the exam.) In the case of other emergencies that arise immediately before the exam, please contact me (by or phone) or the Psychology Department (phone: ) as soon as possible before the exam. If

8 8 you miss an exam without contacting me ahead of time in accordance with this policy, you will receive a 0 on that exam. LATE ASSIGNMENTS Quizzes cannot be taken late. Students can make up missed class activities if they have documentation excusing them from class (e.g., physician s note) but they must contact me no later than one day after the missed class and the activity must be completed within one week of missing class. If students who write papers for the research requirement turn those papers in late, 10% will be deducted from each paper for each day it is late (the first 10% will be deducted on May 12 th if the papers are turned in after 12:00pm). GRADES Your final grade in the class will be based on the number of points you earned divided by the total number of points possible (please refer to the page on grading for specific details). If you have an issue with your grade on an assignment (e.g., if you think it was graded in error), you must notify me within a week after the assignment is returned to you or after your grade is posted on Blackboard. I will not consider grade disputes raised after this time. It is your responsibility to make sure that your assignments have been turned in. If an assignment is to be submitted to Blackboard, you should verify after uploading that the assignment was indeed submitted. The instructor reserves the right to modify the syllabus at any time during the semester. If this occurs, students will receive a hardcopy of the revised sections.

9 9 GRADING Each assignment is worth a certain number of points. Your grade in the class will be based on the total number of points you earn. To calculate your grade, sum the points you have earned on all assignments and divide that by the total number of points available (475 pts). The resulting percentage will determine your letter grade based on the following distribution: A A- B+ B B % 90-92% 87-89% 83-86% 80-82% C+ C C- D F 77-79% 73-76% 70-72% 60-69% 0-59% Assignment Total points possible Your score Exam Exam Final Exam 150 Research requirement 35 Class activities 20 Article quiz on 2/1 10 Quiz 1 10 Quiz 2 10 Quiz 3 10 Quiz 4 10 Quiz 5 10 Quiz 6 10 TOTAL 475 You can use the table above to keep track of your grade in the class. To calculate your current grade at any point in the semester, sum your current points and divide that by the total number of points possible up to that point (i.e., all completed assignments). You can record your quiz scores in the table below. Your 6 highest quiz scores will count toward your grade. Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 9 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 You can record the points you earned on class activities in the box below.