PSY 101

Media- Based
Introductory Psychology

Syllabus for

Section 01 - T/Th 8:00 AM

Section 02 - T/Th 2:00 PM

View Intro Calendar/Schedule

Grading Scale   Instructor Access

NOTE: Please contact me either in class or by e-mail for appointments. Phone calls rarely find me and I check voice mail far less than e-mail!

About the Course
This course presents an introductory topical survey of the various aspects of Psychology as both a scientific and an applied discipline. Unique to this particular offering of Psy 101 is its sole reliance on electronic text, tutoring and certification as well as the in-class use of annotated video presentations. These annotated video presentations will substitute for traditional lectures. However, because my annotations and intended group discussions of each video are considered critical to your full understanding of each, videos will not be made available outside of class if you miss a class. Viewing videos alone does not substitute for coming to class and participating! Grades for the course will be determined by a combination of electronic certification tests and in-class testing using the following procedures and rules:

Electronic Certification of Text Mastery

50% of your final grade for the course will be determined by the composite (average) grades established through electronic certification of chapter readings for ALL of the 17 chapters of text and tutorials assigned. Any missed certification tests count in this average as a zero for each skipped chapter. Certification testing on any and all chapters takes place as follows:

1) You may take any chapter certification test as many times as you wish, with only the maximum obtained score counting towards your eventual course grade. Maximum scores are maintained on an internet server, and you must have an active connection with that server at the time of submission of your test results for the grade to be recorded. Only a score greater than your previous score for that chapter will be recorded to the server.

2) You may take any chapter certification at any time UP TO MIDNIGHT of the published Certification Due Date for that chapter. Thus a test due on, say, Jan 20, 2001, will have to be completed before 11:59 PM of Jan 20, 2001. When midnight starts Jan 21, your test scores will no longer be accepted by the server. Attempts to start a chapter test after this date will also give you a message that the due date for that chapter has expired and the test is no longer available.

3) At some point during the semester you may be required to use tutoring services in the electronic text system if your initial certification scores are sufficiently low to suggest that tutoring would be helpful in teaching you the text materials.

4) At anytime any student may be asked to come to a laboratory setting to take/retake a certification test under supervised administration. In the case of a retake, if the existing maximum score for that chapter certification test is not matched or exceeded, the maximum score obtained under supervised administration may, at the instructorıs discretion, apply as the maximum score and in such cases the test will be administratively ³timed out² to block further administrations of the test for that student.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You may observe from the schedule below that tests are typically timed-out on Monday prior to Tuesday classes and on Wednesday prior to Thursday classes. There is a reason for this. All readings should be accomplished prior to the presentation and discussion of video materials covering that same topic. Because there is only one day between the Tuesday class and a subsequent Wednesday due date for the next chapter, all students are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to anticipate due dates in advance and both read and certify well before deadlines. In fact, waiting until the last few hours of the deadline date will almost always create sufficient traffic on the server as to make it less than 100% reliable. If you wait until the last minute it is quite likely that you may miss submitting your test score successfully. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE; instead, certify often and certify early!

Required Textbook

Kasschau, R. A. (2002). Psychology: Exploring Behavior. Winter Park, FL: (AI)2, Inc.

(Purchase on-line at www.psych-ai.com)

In-Class Testing of All Materials Covered
50% of your final grade for the course will be determined by the composite (average) grades established through in-class testing, including a final exam that is equivalent to 2 normal in-class tests. In-class tests will cover the video, lecture/commentary material, and any discussion material, as well as assigned text/tutorial materials. NOTE this means you will be tested on text assignments both electronically and in-class.

Testing and Grading

The scale for final grades for the entire course will be:

A Final Word on Policy ­ Cheating and/or Plagiarism: It is the policy of this course that any cheating and/or plagiarism will subject you to an automatic F for the entire course and a reporting of the incidence to appropriate administrative processes that may result in your dismissal from Rollins. As herein defined, outside certification testing via computer may not be conducted by anyone but yourself to apply to your grades. Neither may tests be conducted while using notes, printed test items/answers, or any other prompting materials or activities. Help from others or other materials is cheating!

Discalimers: The following schedule is a publication of my best intentions for the coverage of topics and due dates. Because something almost always gets in the way of best intentions to keep them from being realized, I reserve the right to change any of these topics, assigned due dates for chapter certifications, or any rules or procedures published in this syllabus. Changes will be announced in class and posted on the electronic bulletin board that is built into your electronic text. You must launch your text to read anything posted on this bulletin board. There is also a personal messaging system built into the text which may substitute for my e-mailing any given individual student.

Schedule of Classes, Tests, and Reading Assignments

Week 1 - GettingStarted:

Class 1 - Tues, Jan 13: Introduction to Course, Syllabus, and Mechanics of Electronic Text

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 1 "Psychology: Its Nature and Nurture" Certification Due Jan 14

Class 2 - Thurs, Jan 15: In Class - Discovering Psych - 1: Past, Present, and Promise

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 2 "Methods and Data" Certification Due Jan 19

 

Week 2 - Psychology as a Discipline:

Class 3 - Tues, Jan 20: In Class - Discovering Psych - 2: Understanding Research

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 3 "Early Development: Creation to Adolescence" Certification Due Jan 21

Class 4 - Thurs, Jan 22: In Class - Discovering Psych - 5: The Developing Child; Discovering Psych - 17: Sex and Gender

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 9 "Language and Communication" Certification Due Jan 26

 

Week 3 - Developmental Issues:

Class 5 - Tues, Jan 27: In Class - Discovering Psych - 6: Language Development

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 4 "Development: Adolescence to Death" Certification Due Jan 28

Class 6 - Thurs, Jan 29: In Class - - Discovering Psych - 18: Maturing and Aging

 

Week 4 - Checking Up and a New Start:

Class 7 - Tues, Feb 3: In Class - TEST 1

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 7 "Learning" Certification Due Feb 4

Class 8 - Thurs, Feb 5: In Class - Discovering Psych - 8: Learning

 

Week 5 - Processes of Adaptation:

Class 9 - Tues, Feb 10: In Class ­ More on Learning

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 8 "Remembering" Certification Due Feb 11

Class 10 - Thurs, Feb 12: In Class - Discovering Psych - 8: Remembering and Forgetting

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 5 "Physiological Processes" Certification Due Feb 16

 

Week 6 - Physiological Foundations of Behavior:

Class 11 - Tues, Feb 17: In Class - Discovering Psych - 3: The Behaving Brain

Class 12 - Thurs, Feb 19: In Class - Discovering Psych - 4: The Responsive Brain

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 6 "Sensation and Perception" Certification Due Feb 23

 

Week 7 - Sensory Processes:

Class 13 - Tues, Feb 24: In Class - Discovering Psych - 7: Sensation and Perception

Class 14 - Thurs, Feb 26: In Class - Discovering Psych - 13: The Mind Awake and Asleep

 

Week 8 - More on Physiological Foundations:

Class 15 - Tues, March 2: In Class - Discovering Psych - 14: The Mind Hidden & Divided

Class 16 - Thurs, March 4: In Class - TEST 2

 

Week 9:

-- SPRING BREAK ----

-- MARCH 6 - 14 --

Week 10 - More on Processes of Adaptation:

Class 17 - Tues, March 16: In Class - Discovering Psych - 10: Cognitive Processes

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 10 "Motivations" Certification Due March 17

Class 18 - Thurs, March 18: In Class - Discovering Psych - 11: Judgment and Decision Making

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 11 "Emotions" Certification Due March 22

 

Week 11 - Individual Behavior:

Class 19 - Tues, March 23: In Class - Discovering Psych - 12: Motivation and Emotion

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 12 "Testing" Certification Due March 24

Class 20 - Thurs, March 25: In Class - Discovering Psych - 16: Testing and Intelligence

 

Week 12- Personal Processes:

Class 21 - Tues, April 2: In Class - TEST 3

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 13 "Personality: Theories" Certification Due March 31

Class 22 - Thurs, April 1: In Class ­ Discovering Psychology ­ 15: The Self

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 14 "Personality: Mental and Behavioral Disorders" Certification Due April 5

 

Week 13 - Therapy and Health:

Class 23 - Tues, April 6: In Class - Discovering Psychology - 21: Psychopathology

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 15 "Personality: Therapies" Certification Due April 7

Class 24 - Thurs, April 8: In Class -Discovering Psychology - 22: Psychotherapy

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 16 "Social Behavior of Groups" Certification Due April 12

 

Week 14 - Social and Group Processes:

Class 25 - Tues, April 13: In Class - Discovering Psychology - 19: Power of the Situation

Assignment - Psychology: Exploring Behavior - Chapter 17 "You and Groups" Certification Due April 14

Class 26 - Thurs, April 15: In Class - Discovering Psychology - 20: Constructing Social Reality

 

Week 15 - Bringing it All Together:

Class 27 - Tues, April 20: Review #1

Class 28 - Thurs, April 22: Review #2

 

Week 16 - Last Week:

Class 27 - Tues, April 29: In Class - TEST 4

 

Finals:

Section 01 - Tues, May 4, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Section 02 - Tues, May 4, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM