PS100-08 Fall 2009-2010

Introduction to Psychology

Text: Lilienfeld, Lynn, Namy, & Woolf (2009). Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding.

Instructor: L.W. McCallum larrymccallum@augustana.edu

Online Syllabus: www.augustana.edu/users/psmccallum/ps100 fall 2009-2010/syllabus fall 2009-2010.htm

Textbook Website:

Information about APA referencing format: APA STYLE SAMPLE

Weblink to your research participation requirement: http://augustana.sona-systems.com/

PA: Kelsey Unseth

This course is designed to do the following:

Introduce you to, or remind you of, a particular way of thinking about the world. Specifically, we will examine how science and scientific thinking help us navigate and understand the issues and information in psychology and our everyday lives.

Review some of the basic information across a selection from the sub-disciplinary areas of psychology. As an introductory course this will necessarily be a cursory examination but is intended to give you an idea about some of the breadth of areas of interest in our discipline.

Require you to engage in at least three levels of learning and encourage a fourth: (Aristotle’s version)

Sensory—reading, attending class;

Remembering—recognize terms and information from the reading and class;

Recall—spontaneously generating data from your experience in the course; and

Thinking—using and combining information into useful new understanding.

How will your learning be assessed?

Attendance is not required. Your access to information including class material is at your discretion.

Exams—there are two types of exams.

Multiple choice—on the five occasions listed below, there will be a 50 item multiple choice exam. The questions will come from the text and class material. Some will be written by the textbook authors, others by the instructor. These will include

Factual

Definitional

Relational

Analytical

Short answer—on each exam there will be a few short answer items where you will be required to either

Fill-in information (e.g., a diagram)

Provide definitions or descriptions

List information

Provide a short (4-5 sentences) answer to a question

Essay items—on two of the exams there will be at least one essay item. The essays will be designed to require a new and unique combination of information from various sources. Length of the answer will likely be less than a page.

Participation in research

Each student will be required to serve as a participant in three research studies, and up to 2 extra credit studies (each extra study up to 2 will add 1% to your grade). Generally, these will be studies conducted by our upper-class psychology majors. You will be assigned a research access code where you can sign-up for the participation. Please note: if you sign-up and fail to show-up without appropriate advance notification you will be required to complete and additional study in order to meet the requirement (e.g., if you sign-up for two and miss one you will need to do 3 total to meet the requirement). If you object to such participation, please see me and we can discuss alternatives, but the alternatives will likely require more actual time by their nature. Please note that here will not likely be opportunities available after week 9, so try and complete yours early.

Journal referencing. See link below for reference assignment.

Reading research papers. Attached to the syllabus is an assignment for reading and eventually outlining a journal article in psychology. See link below for practice paper.

Weekly Timetable

Week 1

August 24 Introduction pp. 13-21

26 The science Chapter 1

28 Research methods Chapter 2 reference assignment due

Week 2

August 31

September 2 EXAM 1

4 Biological Chapter 3 practice paper, guidelines, sample outline