WESTERN UNIVERSITY LONDON CANADA Department of Psychology Psychology 1000 Section Online Introduction to Psychology

Transcription

1 WESTERN UNIVERSITY LONDON CANADA Department of Psychology Psychology 1000 Section Online Introduction to Psychology 1.0 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION An introductory survey of the methods and findings of modern scientific psychology. The following topics will be covered: history and methodology, biological psychology, sensation and perception, learning and motivation, verbal and cognitive processes, developmental psychology, social psychology, individual differences (intelligence and personality), and clinical psychology. Antirequisites: Psychology 1100E, the former Psychology 1200 Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course. 2.0 COURSE INFORMATION Instructor: Dr. Shelley Cross-Mellor Office: 8210 SSC (locked area) Office Hours: by appointment scrossmellor@gmail.com Teaching Assistant: TBA Office: TBA Office Hours: TBA TBA If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you. Please visit: for more information on these resources and on mental health. Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at ext for any specific question regarding an accommodation.

2 3.0 TEXTBOOK Required: Passer, M.W., Smith, R.E., Atkinson, M.L., Mitchell, J.B., & Muir, D.W. (2011). Psychology: Frontiers and Applications. Fourth Canadian Edition. Toronto: McGraw Hill Ryerson. Note: this text comes shrink-wrapped with a passkey for CONNECT when purchased new. This is not required. However, I strongly believe that you will find CONNECT very useful and therefore it is recommended. There are practice quizzes for each chapter as well as many other useful study aids. 4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES This course is an introductory level survey of the methods and findings of modern scientific psychology. The goal is to provide students with an overview of various topic domains within the realm of psychology. As such, students will be exposed to diverse theoretical viewpoints and various methods and procedures for the scientific investigation of psychological issues. Note: Modern psychology is scientific in nature. Consequently, we will spend a lot of time discussing science-related topics such as research design, neural functioning, sensory mechanisms, etc. Each chapter in the text covers a major interest area in psychology. Following each chapter, students will be able to identify the major concepts and terminology for that topic area. In addition, when presented with a hypothetical problem or case, students will be able to assess and evaluate the problem and choose the best solution. 5.0 EVALUATION Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages: 70% 1000-level and 2000-level courses 72% level courses 75% 3000-level courses 80% 4000-level courses The Psychology Department follows the University of Western Ontario grading guidelines, which are as follows (see A One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level A Superior work that is clearly above average B Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory C Competent work, meeting requirements D Fair work, minimally acceptable F below 50 Fail

3 There will TWO exams during the course. The first exam will be held during the December exam period (December 6-17) and will be set by the Registrar s office. This exam will consist of 100 multiple choice questions (Chapters 1 8 plus the Appendix ) and is worth 40%. Questions will be based on both the text and the online lecture material. The final exam will be scheduled by the Registrar s office during the final exam period in April (April 11-30). The second exam will consist of 100 multiple choice questions and is worth 40%. This second exam will cover both text and online lecture material related to Chapters Please note the Office of the Registrar schedules exam dates and times please do not make any travel arrangements during the exam period until the exam schedule is finalized. In addition to the exams, there is a research requirement (Check Research Papers on OWL) that involves reading & reviewing an original research paper in psychology (under Assignments on Owl). A link to the papers and instructions are posted on the website. You should write NO MORE than the maximum of 4 pages (i.e words). Feel free to use bullet points where appropriate. This review is worth 10% and is due on January 30th at 11:55 p.m. Finally, there is an online discussion requirement (under Forums on Owl). You will be assigned to a group of about 20 students and twice during the course, you must go online and discuss specific issues about a video/website that will be assigned to view. There will be one required online discussion during the first half of the course, and one during the second. Each discussion is worth 5%. The marking scheme will be posted on our OWL site. The first online discussion (in the side bar Forums) will run from Friday October 17 Thursday October 23 The second online discussion (in the side bar Forums) will run from Friday February 27 Thursday March 5 EVALUATION SUMMARY Midyear Exam: 40% Final exam: 40% Online Discussions - 10% (2 - each worth 5%) Research Review: 10% 6.0 LECTURE SCHEDULE Topics will be covered in the following order during the course. Lecture dates are given so that you can keep up with the readings, but of course, you can access the lectures in any order and time frame you like. Lectures are intended to highlight certain areas of each topic -- there is not enough time available to us to cover all the material. However, you are responsible for all the material in the text. Please note that there is a fairly heavy reading load in this course you will need to cover approximately at least one chapter every week. Thus, it is important for you to keep up with the readings.

4 First Term Chapters: Week 1 September 12, 2014 Introduction to the Course Week 2 September 19, 2014 Chapter 1: Psychology The Science of Behaviour Week 3 September 26, 2014 Chapter 2: Studying Behaviour Scientifically Week 4 October 3, 2014 Chapter 3: Biological Foundations of Behaviour Week 4 October 10, 2014 Chapter 4: Genes, Evolution and Behaviour Week 6 October 17, 2014 online discussion #1 Week 7 October 24, 2014 Chapter 5: Sensation & Perception Week 8 October 31, 2014 Chapter 6: States of Consciousness Week 9 November 7, 2014 Chapter 7: Learning and Adaptation Part One Week 10 November 14, 2014 Chapter 7: Learning and Adaptation Part Two Week 11 November 21, 2014 Chapter 8: Memory Week 12 November 28, Review Mid-year TEST (40%): Chapters Appendix; Date: TBA - December 6-17 Second Term Chapters: Week 1 January 9, 2015 Chapter 9: Language and Thinking Week 2 January 16, 2015 Chapter 10: Intelligence Week 3 January 23, 2015 Chapter 11: Motivation and Emotion Week 4 January 30, 2015 Chapter 12: Development Over the Lifespan Week 5 February 6, 2015 Chapter 13: Behaviour in a Social Context Part One Week 6 February 13, 2015 Chapter 13: Behaviour in a Social Context Part Two Week 7 February 27, 2015 online discussion #2 Week 8 March 6, 2015 Chapter 14 - Personality Week 9 March 13, 2015 Chapter 15 Stress, Coping and Health Week 10 March 20, 2015 Chapter 16 Psychological Disorders Week 11 March 27, 2015 Chapter 17 Treatment of Psychological Disorders Week 12 April 3, 2015 Review Final TEST (40%): Chapters 9-17; Date: TBA April 11-30, 2015

5 7.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link: As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between The University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com ( Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University. 8.0 OTHER INFORMATION Office of the Registrar web site: Student Development Services web site: Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following: - Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct - Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations - Policy on Attendance - Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines - Policy for Assignments - Short Absences - Extended Absences - Documentation - Academic Concerns Calendar References No electronic devices, including cell phones, will be allowed during exams.