APSY 389 – Addictive and Compulsive Behaviors – Spring 2026
Meeting Time: T/TH 3:00 – 4:20 PM
Location: Lecture Center 7
Instructor: Dr. Mitch Earleywine
Email: ireadthesyllabus@gmail.com
Office Hours: Outside classroom before class; Mondays 9–11 AM via Zoom –
https://albany.zoom.us/my/mearleywine
Join at https://albany.zoom.us/my/mearleywine
Just click the link during office hours, and I’ll be there!
No appointment needed—just drop in!
TA: TBA
COURSE GOALS:
The goal for this class is to change your life. In addition, all students who receive a
passing grade will know more about drugs and drug research than 99% of Earthlings.
Lectures are designed to create an experience that will make you examine assumptions,
notice your own affect, and contemplate changing the way you behave.
We’ll reach these goals by mastering material on:
- drugs of abuse and their mechanisms of action,
-formal research on substance abuse, dependence and problems,
- models of the development of addiction
- empirically validated treatments for substance-related problems
- prevention of drug use and drug-related harm
- policies designed to alter drug consumption
- research design employed in studies related to drugs
- educational techniques designed to enhance learning
-tacit assumptions related to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy
Required Texts
Hart’s Drug Use in Modern Society (Hart) (Sixteenth edition is fine.)
Earleywine’s Understanding Marijuana (UM) (Any copy is fine. All proceeds go to
charity.)
Earleywine’s Substance Use Problems (SUP) (SECOND edition. All proceeds go to
charity.)
We’ll be using these abbreviations below. If the syllabus says “Physiological Factors
Hart 4” that means look in Hart’s book and find a chapter with that title. It’s probably
Chapter 4 or one near there, depending upon which edition you have.
ALL TEXTS ARE REQUIRED. Flourishing in class requires reading these books.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Always do your own work. You’ll feel better about it in the long run.
As my overlords emphasize:
“Every student has the responsibility to become familiar with the standards of academic
integrity at the University. Faculty members must specify in their syllabi information
about academic integrity and may refer students to this policy for more information.
Nonetheless, student claims of ignorance, unintentional error, or personal or academic
pressures cannot be excuses for violation of academic integrity. Students are
responsible for familiarizing themselves with the standards and behaving accordingly,
and UAlbany faculty are responsible for teaching, modeling and upholding them.
Anything less undermines the worth and value of our intellectual work, and the
reputation and credibility of the University at Albany degree.” (University’s Standards of
Academic Integrity Policy, Fall 2013)
They continue with DISABILITY SERVICES:
Reasonable accommodations will be provided for students with documented physical,
sensory, systemic, medical, cognitive, learning and/or mental health (psychiatric)
disabilities. If you believe you have a disability and require accommodation in this class,
please register with Disability Access and Inclusion Student Services (DAISS). You can
contact DAISS at daiss@albany.edu, 518-442-5501 or visit the Disability Access &
Inclusion Student Services (DAISS) website. Once you have registered with DAISS, they
will provide you with an accommodation letter that you can send to your instructors to
receive your approved accommodation.
NOTE THAT THE DREADFUL PROSE ABOVE is NOT MINE. Do your own work. If
you need more time on the exams, set things up with DAISS and send me a reminder a
week before each exam. That’s it!
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE
PLEASE SEE: New York State Education Law (Section 224-A). I’m ordained. I
understand this stuff. Just let me know if you must miss because of religious
observance. We’ll work something out.
Evaluation
Your grade = Your best 3 midterms (100 pts each) + Final Exam (100 pts) = 400 total.
No rounding. No curve. YOU CAN’T DROP THE FINAL. You CAN drop your lowest midterm.
Grade Scale
388–400 = A
375–387 = A
360–374 = A–
348–359 = B+
335–347 = B
320–334 = B–
308–319 = C+
295–307 = C
280–294 = C–
268–279 = D+
255–267 = D
240–254 = D–
239 and below = E
Updated Semester Dates
First class meeting: Thursday, January 22, 2026
Last class meeting: Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Spring Break (NO CLASS): Tuesday March 17 & Thursday March 19, 2026
Reading Day: Wednesday May 6, 2026
Final Exam: Friday, May 8 – 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM (in regular classroom)
The final is not on the same day of the week nor at the same time as the class.
Semper memento
 Test 1: Thursday, February 5, 2026
 Test 2: Thursday, February 26, 2026
 Test 3: Thursday, March 26, 2026
 Test 4: Thursday, April 16, 2026
Final Exam: Friday, May 8 – 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM (in regular classroom)
Lecture Schedule
Date
Topic
Reading
01-22
Is this the class for you?
Drug Wheel article
01-27
Physiological factors/Drug
Action
Hart 4
01-29
Nervous system/Drug
Action
Hart 5
02-03
Drug Prevention/Harm
Reduction
Hart 17, Don’t Wake and
Bake article
02-05
Test 1 – Bring pencil and
ID!
-
02-10
Opiates
Hart 12
02-12
Major Stimulants
Hart 6
02-17
Minor Stimulants: Nicotine
Hart 10, Burton article
02-19
Minor Stimulants: Caffeine
Hart 11, INTERSTROKE
article
02-24
OTC meds
Hart 12
02-26
Test 2 – Bring pencil and
ID!
-
03-03
Steroids & Performance
Enhancers
Hart 16
03-05
Alcohol
Hart 9
03-10
Alcoholism
Hart 9
03-12
Treatment 1
SUP first half
03-17
NO CLASS – SPRING BREAK
03-19
NO CLASS – SPRING BREAK
03-24
Treatment 2
SUP last half
03-26
Test 3 – Bring pencil and
ID!
-
03-31
Sedatives + Inhalants
Hart 7
04-02
Psychiatric meds I
Hart 8
04-07
Psychiatric/Psychedelic
Cuijpers/E. & De Leo
04-09
Psychedelics/How is it
done?
E. Integration article
04-14
MDMA/Trauma/Couples
Wagner articles
04-16
Test 4 – Bring pencil and
ID!
-
04-21
Cannabis History/Gateway
UM 1, 3
04-23
Medical/Health
UM 7, 8
04-28
Cognition
UM 4
04-30
Social Problems
UM 9
05-05
JOYS OF PROHIBITION –
LAST CLASS
UM 10
Final Exam: Friday, May 8 – 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM (in regular classroom)
The final is not on the same day of the week nor at the same time as the class. It will be
the same format as all the other tests, 50 multiple choice items addressing the previous
5 lectures but with a tacit understanding of the key concepts we’ve covered all semester.
How to email a professor or TA.
Professors are eager to help you. Believe it or not, they have lives, feelings, and
quite a few other important tasks. Make sure you’ve read your syllabus before sending
questions; most syllabi answer relevant queries. If you email a question that appears on
the syllabus, instructors assume you haven’t read the syllabus. They make the
fundamental attribution error, too.
Pick a reasonable email address. Do you really want to email from an address like
‘sexyone@hotmail’?
Begin with a respectful salutation like “Dear Dr. X”. The standard greetings that
you use with your buddies are a bad idea. Emails that begin “Yo!”, “Hey Prof”, and
“Whazzup?” get deleted quickly. I assure you that none of your professors, regardless of
gender, sexual orientation, marital status, or degree, welcome anything addressed to
“Mrs.___”. Emails without greetings are also disrespectful. They seem dashed-off, as if
you are sending commands to your personal slave.
After the salutation, immediately acknowledge the recipient. “I know you’re
busy” is a great start. Beginning with these exact words will help me know that you read
the syllabus. “Thanks for explaining classical conditioning to me after class yesterday” or
something of that sort, is also a good way to continue. Then, get to the point in the very
next sentence. Be concise. Ask what you need to ask. “Can I schedule a time to discuss
strategies for the upcoming exam?” is a great way to get to the point. “I’m taking 19
credits this semester and my brother kept me awake all night” is certainly rough, but
probably irrelevant.
Be particularly careful with your tone. Transmitting nuances in prose in an
advance skill, and emoticons do not help. (See Giumetti’s work on how email generates
negative mood inadvertently.) USE I-STATEMENTS. “Your tests are really hard,” “That
classical conditioning lecture was tough to follow,” and “You sure do talk fast”, sound like
accusations. “I’m having trouble on the tests,” “I’m still unclear about classical conditioning,”
and “I’m unable to keep up with the pace of lecture”, sound more like a responsible adult
attempting to improve performance. (These expressions are “I-statements.” They’ve helped
me stay married for over two and a half decades.) Anything that reveals that you are taking
responsibility for your own performance will generate appreciation from any professor. I
recommend it as an approach to life.
Giumetti, G. W., Hatfield, A. L., Scisco, J. L., Schroeder, A. N., Muth, E. R., & Kowalski, R. M.
(2013). What a rude e-mail! Examining the differential effects of incivility versus support on
mood, energy, engagement, and performance in an online context. Journal of occupational health
psychology, 18(3), 297.
End with another acknowledgement. “Thank you for your time,” “I appreciate
your help,” or even “Thanks so much”, will do the trick. Then, sign your FULL name.
Include your student ID if your question involves scores on exams. Then ask yourself if
you should really send this email to the TA. Reread the message before you send it.
You might not receive a personal reply. Your professor will probably answer the
question in the next lecture, right at the beginning of class. BE THERE.
KAHOOTS:
Create a Kahoot account and search 'DrMitchEarleywine' (no spaces) for course quizzes.
Search DrMitchEarleywine (all one word) and you’ll see a bunch of quizzes with 2025 in the
title. Those are they. They’ll be in the “Drug Class” folder. The ones with titles comparable
to the lecture titles will likely look familiar and be relevant. Will exam questions be exactly
the same? No. Will they be comparable? Yes. For example, one Kahoot item reads something
like:
Which of the following is a PSYCHEDELIC?
Nicotine
Cocaine
Psilocybin
Benadryl
On the exam, I’ll probably have one like:
What category is appropriate for PSILOCYBIN?
Stimulant
Sedative
Psychedelic
Inhalant
See what I mean?
Love is boundless.