General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor Harold Washington College 30 East Lake Street Chicago, IL 60640 1 Social Science Department, room 1012 Phone: 312-­‐553-­‐5740 GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 201 P Three Credit Hours Fall 2010 M/W, room 1034 Instructor: Les White, Psy.D. Office: room 1007 Office hours: M: 3:00 – 3:45 p.m.; 8:20 – 9:00 p.m. T: 4:30 – 5:20 p.m.; 8:30 – 9:00 p.m. W: 3:00 – 3:45 p.m.; 8:20 – 9:00 p.m. TH: 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.; 8:30 – 9:00 p.m. Or by appointment; if office hours change, I will alert class and post on the hours on Blackboard Phone: 312-­‐553-­‐2673 email: 1white1.)
lwhite1@ccc.edu. (That’s l white1, not lwhite,1white nor
Blackboard: Information about the class will be posted on Blackboard, including syllabus, interesting articles, study guides, and sample questions to help you study (please note that these questions can be difficult and may cover topics that because of class time we cannot cover in depth). If you misplace your syllabus, please do not ask me to provide one; you can download one off Blackboard. Course Description: General Psychology 201 provides a historical survey of psychology and a study of the sensory and perceptual processes: learning, thinking, remembering, emotional behavior, motivation, mechanism of adjustment, and the total personality. Writing assignments as General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus 2 Les White, Psy.D., instructor appropriate to the discipline are part of the course. Prerequisite: Grade of C or better in Social Science 101 or English 101, or Consult of Department Chairperson. Course Objectives: This course will provide students an opportunity to demonstrate an understanding of the basic elements of psychology, including: 1. the discipline’s biological, cognitive, and social foundations (the bio-­‐psycho-­‐ social perspective) 2. Lifespan Development 3. Learning Theories 4. seminal Personality Theories 5. modes of treatment Student Learning Outcomes: By the end of the course students will be expected to demonstrate specific skills and anchor knowledge relating to general psychology. In this course students will become familiar with the following topics and learn the basic answers to the following questions: 1. What is psychology? (Study of behavior and mental processes) 2. What is the role that the scientific method plays in psychology? 3. How do neurons work (re the body’s communication system; Biological Bases of Behavior)? 4. What are the functions of the main structures of the brain (Biological Bases of Behavior)? 4. How does our memory work? (Memory) 5. How do we learn? (Learning Theories) 6. Why does language make humans special? (Language, Thought, Intelligence) 7. What do we define intelligence? (Language, Thought, Intelligence) General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor 8. How do humans grow and relate to others? (Lifespan) 3 9. What determines our personality? (Personality Theories) Student Learning Outcomes, cont’d: 10. How do we influence each other? (Social Psychology) 11. What are psychological disorders? (Abnormal Psychology) 12. What are today’s popular treatments? (Bio-­‐Psycho-­‐Social Perspective) Required Text: Because of the high cost of text books, General Psychology 201 will use an on-­‐line text written by Dr. George C. Boeree, a retired psychology professor from Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, PA (southern PA). Dr. George C. Boeree’s free web text Homepage: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/ On-­‐line texts: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/ General Psychology text: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsy.html Recommended Texts: A regular text can be very helpful. General Psychology texts tend to include study guides, exam-­‐type questions, many illustrations, and web links. Because General Psychology is a survey course covering many, many topics, there tends to be little difference between the texts that colleges use. Textbooks that Harold Washington College General Psychology courses use include: Ciccarelli S.K. & White, J. N. (2009). Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. (1st edition is fine.) Carpenter, S. & Huffman, K. (2010). Visualizing Psychology, 2nd Ed. Somerset, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. (1st edition is fine.) General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor Because of the high cost of textbooks, I suggest you find a used copy. If you wish to purchase another text not listed here, please check with me. Make sure the text includes topics listed in “Student Learning Outcomes” (previous page). 4 Course Requirements: 1. Readings: Students need to be familiar with the on-­‐line text assignments. These “chapters” can be challenging and too much to read all at once before an exam — so keep up with the readings! 2. Attendance and Class Participation: Regular and punctual attendance is required. All CCC District and College policies on attendance must be observed. (District and College attendance policies are listed in the college catalog and the Student Policy Manual: http://www.ccc.edu/ss/files/student policy manual final-­‐8-­‐ 16-­‐07 .pdf). Attendance is very important to this course otherwise you may feel overwhelmed by the amount of material we will cover. Much of the material to be covered is introduced via lecture and discussion and is not in the book. Because it is difficult to gauge class participation (some students are quiet, some want to be heard, etc.), participation is gauged and graded via attendance. Starting with the second class, each missed class will result in one point being subtracted from a student’s total number of grade points – regardless of doctors’ excuses and issues involving sickness, hospitalizations, your job, vacations, mechanical breakdowns, no computer, lack of paper, sewer backup, roof collapse, roommates, pets, other family members, deaths (of other people!), foreclosure, arrests, conflicting appointments, weather, rapture or other religious goings-­‐on, etc., etc., etc. (Exceptions may be made if, for example, you are contagious and in danger of infecting the whole class with something like H1N1. In this case, you must alert me before class and provide ample documentation.) Points may be subtracted if a student is often late to class. Students who miss a substantial number of classes or who are perennially late to class may fail or be asked to drop the class. There will not be any make-­‐up exams nor make-­‐up assignments. Assignments are due at the start of class on the assigned dates (duh!) – regardless of whether I collect them at the start of class or at the end. An assignment that is not turned in on time will be considered a missed assignment, and will not be accepted. A missed assignment will result in a lowered letter grade. General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus 5 Les White, Psy.D., instructor Because of the number of in-­‐class exercises, discussions, and assignments, I hope that everyone will participate in class. Remember, the only “stupid” question is the one that goes unasked. General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor 6 3. Exams: Five exams will be given during the semester. At the discretion of the instructor, and to gauge student learning, pop quizzes also may be given. If pop quizzes are given, the points awarded these will be subtracted from the points awarded the regular exams (total number of points at the end of the semester will equal 100). Exams and pop quizzes will be based on lecture and on-­‐line text material. Exam formats may include multiple choice, matching, and short answers. Exams may be cumulative. **NOTE**: There will be no make-­‐up exams nor make-­‐up pop quizzes. (Exceptions may be made if, for example, you are contagious and in danger of infecting the whole class with something like H1N1. In this case, you must alert me before class and provide ample documentation.) Also: arriving late for an exam disrupts the whole class. Thus, if you arrive late, after an exam has been passed out, you will not be able to take it. Just because an exam is scheduled for a particular day does not mean that we will not cover other material during that class time. Please also note: you are a student at Harold Washington College. We will follow Harold Washington College’s vacation schedule, not your own; thus, exams will not be given early or late to accommodate your schedule. 4. Assignments: To help students understand and reflect on what they are learning, there will be a number of in-­‐class and homework writing assignments. If I ask students to finish assignments that were started in class and to bring them in on another class day, these assignments must be typed, double-­‐spaced, in 12 font type, page numbered, and stapled. (Templates to help you organize your writing will be provided.) Your name and course section are to be included in the upper right hand corner of each page. Failure to follow these directions will result in loss of overall points (and perhaps a lowered letter grade). Poor grammar also will result in loss of points (and perhaps a lowered letter grade). Assignments are due at the start of class on the assigned dates (duh!) – regardless of whether I collect them at the start of class or at the end. An assignment that is not turned in on time will be considered a missed assignment. Late assignments, e-­‐mail submissions, or assignments that are dropped off in my mailbox or slipped under my door will not be accepted. General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor Plagiarism: 7 Any student who plagiarizes and/or is caught cheating on an exam will automatically fail the course and be reported to the administration. District and College policies on plagiarism are listed in the Student Policy Manual. Psychology Club: The HWC Psychology Club will host a number of events this school year. The Club tends to meet weekly, on Thursdays between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. Information on the Club will be provided in class. General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus 8 Les White, Psy.D., instructor Grading: Grades will be determined on a point system. As previously noted in this syllabus, pop quizzes and other assignments may be given at the discretion of the instructor. If pop quizzes are given, the same number of points awarded these will be subtracted from the points awarded regular exams. Failure to turn in homework that may be assigned will result in loss of points (and perhaps a lowered letter grade). Points for Exams 5 exams ...............................100 total points exam 1 = 10 exam 2 = 30 exam 3 = 20 exam 4 = 10 exam 5 = 30 Starting with the second class, one points will be subtracted from your total score for each class missed. (See “Course Requirements/Class Attendance and Participation”). Please note that because exams may be graded in class, points may be subtracted if you do not follow instructions (many of the psychological assessments we will discuss or read about involve following directions, so consider this part of the learning process!) A = 90 – 100 B = 80 – 89 C = 70 – 79 D = 60 – 69 F = 59 – below General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor COURSE OUTLINE 9 Please note: dates may change and, if possible, will be discussed ahead of time. Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes (cognition/thinking, how the brain works, etc.). This class will consider psychological topics from a “bio-­‐psycho-­‐
social” perspective: that is, how do our biological make-­‐up, our thoughts, and our culture/s influence our behavior. Psychology 201 covers an enormous amount of material, including the debate over whether psychology is an art or science (for example, with regard to psychotherapy, what “works”: intuition, experience, and common sense or the scientific method – the collection of data and measurement); lifespan development; the biological perspective and “building blocks” of behavior; sensation and perception and cognition; consciousness; memory; the seminal learning and personality theories; motivation and emotion; different modes of intelligence and intelligence and personality assessment; socio-­‐cultural-­‐organizational influences on behavior; and the effects of stress and good/bad health on behavior. Topics pertaining to psychology which are often in the news and which many believe are the “crux” of psychology – that is, psychological problems/disorders/mental illnesses and therapies/treatments – will be discussed throughout the class (these topics include, for example, depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, substance abuse, disorders first seen in childhood such as ADHD and autism, and psychotherapy and psychotropic drug therapies). 1. M 8/23 Overview and Introduction What is Psychology? Why Study Psychology? Dr. George C. Boeree’s free web text Homepage: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/ On-­‐line text: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/ General Psychology text: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsy.html Dr. Boeree’s Welcome (Intro to Psychology) Bio-­‐Psycho-­‐Social Perspective History of Psychology: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/historyofpsych.html General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor 2. W 8/25 Overview and Introduction; History, cont’d Boeree: History of Psychology Methods: Qualitative Methods Descriptive Statistics Correlation Experiments (Ciccarelli: The Science of Psychology) (Carpenter: Introduction and Research Methods) Introduction to Lifespan Development 3. M 8/30 Overview and Introduction; History, Methods, cont’d Lifespan Development (importance of stages) Boeree: Development Fetal Development Infancy Childhood Adolescence Psychological Problems of Childhood Piaget: Cognitive Development Moral Development Erikson: Psychosocial Development Aging Language Language Development (Ciccarelli: Development Across the Life Span) (Carpenter: Life Span Development I and II) 10 General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor 4. W 9/1 Lifespan Development, cont’d M 9/6 – LABOR DAY! 5. W 9/8 Lifespan Development, cont’d Biological Building Blocks of Personality (genetics, brain lobes, nervous system, perception) Boeree: Nature and Nurture: Genetics Human Evolution Neuropsychology: The Neuron The Action Potential Neurotransmitters The Central Nervous System Images of the Brain The Emotional Nervous System The Basal Ganglia The Cerebrum The Lobes (Ciccarelli: The Biological Perspective) (Carpenter: Neuroscience and Biological Foundations) 6. M 9/13
Exam #1
Biological Building Blocks, cont’d
11 General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor 7. W 9/15
Biological Building Blocks, cont’d
8. M 9/20
Biological Building Blocks, cont’d
9. W 9/22
Biological Building Blocks, cont’d
Sensation and Perception
Boeree: Sensation and Perception: The Senses Pain Perception (Ciccarelli: Sensation and Perception) (Carpenter: Sensation and Perception) 10. M 9/27 Sensation and Perception, cont’d 11. W 9/29 Exam #2 12 General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus 13 Les White, Psy.D., instructor 12. M 10/4 Consciousness: Sleep, Dreams, Hypnosis, and Drugs Boeree: (“Sleep” is listed under his chapter on “Emotion and Motivation” (Ciccarelli: Consciousness) (Carpenter: States of Consciousness) 13. W 10/6 Consciousness, cont’d Memory (sensory, short-­‐term, long-­‐term) Boeree: (“Memory” is listed under his chapter “Learning and Memory”) (Ciccarelli: Memory) (Carpenter: Memory) 14. M 10/11 Consciousness; Memory, cont’d General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus 14 Les White, Psy.D., instructor 15. W 10/13 Learning (classical conditioning; operant conditioning; observational and cognitive) Boeree: Learning and Memory Learning Memory (Cicarelli: Learning) (Carpenter: Learning) 16. M 10/18 Learning, cont’d 17. W 10/20 Learning, cont’d 18. M 10/25 Exam #3 General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus 15 Les White, Psy.D., instructor 19. W 10/27 Motivation and Emotion (motivation: importance of Maslow; emotion: physiological, cognitive components) Boeree: Emotion and Motivation Emotion Motivation (Ciccarelli: Motivation and Emotion) (Carpenter: Motivation and Emotion) 20. M 11/1 Motivation and Emotion, cont’d Thinking, Intelligence, and Language Boeree: Nature and Nurture Intelligence Selected Portions of the APA's Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns Language Language Development Language Origins (Ciccarelli: Cognition: Thinking, Intelligence, and Language) (Carpenter: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence) 21. W 11/3 Thinking, Intelligence, and Language, cont’d. More Lifespan Development! General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor 22. M 11/8 16 More Lifespan Development, cont’d. Exam #4 Intro to Freud’s Theory of Development 23. W 11/10 Personality Theories (includes the seminal theorists Freud, Adler, Jung) Boeree: Personality Sigmund Freud Trait Theories of Personality Individual, Existential, and Humanist Psychology (See also Boeree’s “chapters” on Freud, Adler, Jung, and other influential personality theories/theorists: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/perscontents.html) (Ciccarelli: Theories of Personality) (Carpenter: Personality) Boeree: Therapy Psychotherapy Drug and Other Medical Therapies (Ciccarelli: Psychological Therapies) (Carpenter: Therapy) 24. M 11/15 Theories of Personality (including Therapies), cont’d. General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus 17 Les White, Psy.D., instructor 25. W 11/17 Theories of Personality (including Therapies), cont’d. 26. M 11/22 Theories of Personality (including Therapies), cont’d. Social Psychology (includes topics such as group think; the Milgram obedience studies; fundamental attribution error) Boeree: Social Psychology Basics (http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/socpsy.html) Social Expectations Conformity Social Learning Prejudice Persuasion Nature and Nurture Race Sociobiology Culture A Psychosocial History of the Human Species Getting a Picture of a Society Culture "Personalities" (Ciccarelli: Social Psychology) (Carpenter: Social Psychology) Stress, Health, and Coping (includes Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome; coping skills; reviews of Neuropsychology and Maslow) (Ciccarelli: Stress and Health) (Carpenter: Stress and Health Psychology) General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus 18 Les White, Psy.D., instructor 27. W 11/24 Social Psychology, cont’d Stress, Health, and Coping, cont’d 28. M 11/29 Psychological Disorders (importance of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) Boeree: The Bio-­‐Social Theory of Neurosis Anxiety Disorders Mood Disorders Schizophrenia Personality Disorders Dissociative Disorders Somatoform Disorders (Ciccarelli: Psychological Disorders) (Carpenter: Psychological Disorders) 29. W 12/1 Psychological Disorders, cont’d. 30. M 12/6 Wrap Up and Review 31. W 12/8 Exam #5 General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor Dr. Boeree’s Online Texts 19 From http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/ General Psychology: General Psychology All the basics, from neurons to psychotherapy Psicología General Traducción al castellano: Nacho Madrid Personality Theories: New! Personality Theory: A Biosocial Approach Personality Theories The major theories, from Freud to Frankl Teorías de Personalidad Traducción al castellano: Dr. Rafael Gautier Persönlichkeitstheorien Übersetzung auf Deutsch: Diana Wieser Social Psychology: Social Psychology Basics From person perception to persuasion and much more Grundlagen der Sozialpsychologie Übersetzung auf Deutsch: Diana Wieser History of Psychology: History of Psychology From Thales to Thorndike, Socrates to Sartre, Plato to Piaget... Geschichte der Psychologie Übersetzung auf Deutsch: Diana Wieser Qualitative Methods: Qualitative Methods Workbook Phenomenological and other research methods Buddhism: Introduction to Buddhism The Buddha, Buddhist history, selections from the sutras... Introducción al Budismo Traducción: José Silvestre Montesinos General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor Dr. Boeree’s General Psychology e-­‐Text’s “Welcome” From http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsy.html 20 Dr. C. George Boeree Shippensburg University Welcome to the General Psychology e-­‐text! These pages were originally created for the students of my General Psychology classes at Shippensburg University. They deal with most of the issues covered in standard textbooks, but without the outrageous price tags. Psychology is the study of the mind, along with such aspects of mind as perception, cognition, emotion, and behavior. In some ways, it has only been around since the late 1800's, when people like Wilhelm Wundt, William James, and Sigmund Freud separated it from its various mother disciplines such as biology, philosophy, and medicine. But in other ways, it has been around as long as human beings have been discussing human beings. I suspect that cavemen and cavewomen probably sat around the fire talking about the same things we do: How come their kids are weird, why can't men and women get along better, what's with those folks from the next valley, how come old Zook hasn't been the same since that rock hit him, and what do dreams really mean. Today, psychology tries to be a science. Science is the effort to study a subject with an explicit promise to think as logically and stick to the empirical facts as tightly as is humanly possible. Other sciences -­‐-­‐ General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor 21 chemistry, physics, biology, and so on -­‐-­‐ have had great success this way. Our cave-­‐person ancestors would be astounded at our understanding of the world around us! But the subject matter of psychology (and the other human sciences) is harder to pin down. We human beings are not as cooperative as some green goo in a test tube! It is a nearly impossible situation: To study the very thing that studies, to research the researcher, to psychoanalyze the psychoanalyst. So, as you will see, we still have a long way to go in psychology. We have a large collection of theories about this part of being human or that part; we have a lot of experiments and other studies about one particular detail of life or another; we have many therapeutic techniques that sometimes work, and sometimes don't. But there is a steady progress that is easy to see for those of us with, say, a half century of life behind us. We are a bit like medicine in that regard: Don't forget that it wasn't really that long ago when we didn't have vaccines for simple childhood diseases, or anesthesia for operations; heart attacks and cancer were things people simply died of, as opposed to things that many people survive; and mental patients were people we just locked away or lobotomized! Some day -­‐-­‐ sooner rather than later, I think -­‐-­‐ we will have the same kinds of understanding of the human mind as we are quickly developing of the human body. The nice thing is, you and I can participate in this process! And this little e-­‐text is as good a place to start as any. General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus Les White, Psy.D., instructor Dr. Boeree’s General Psychology e-­‐Text’s “Table of Contents” From http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsy.html 22 Neuropsychology Nature and Nurture The Neuron The Action Potential Neurotransmitters The Central Nervous System Images of the Brain The Emotional Nervous System The Basal Ganglia The Cerebrum The Lobes Genetics Human Evolution Race Sociobiology Culture A Psychosocial History of the Human S
Getting a Picture of a Society Culture "Personalities" Intelligence Selected Portions of the APA's Intellige
Methods Qualitative Methods Descriptive Statistics Correlation Experiments Development The Senses Pain Perception Fetal Development Infancy Childhood Adolescence Psychological Problems of Childhood Piaget: Cognitive Development Moral Development Erikson: Psychosocial Development Aging Emotion and Motivation Personality Emotion Motivation Hunger and Eating Disorders Sleep Sexuality Sexual Orientation Love Sigmund Freud Trait Theories of Personality Individual, Existential, and Humanist P
Sensation and Perception Learning and Memory Learning Memory Pandemonium Psychological Disorders The Bio-­‐Social Theory of Neurosis Anxiety Disorders Mood Disorders Schizophrenia Personality Disorders Dissociative Disorders General Psychology, Fall 2010 Syllabus 23 Les White, Psy.D., instructor Language Somatoform Disorders Language Development Language Origins Therapy Psychotherapy Drug and Other Medical Therapies "We cannot put off living until we are ready.... Life is fired at us point-­‐
blank." -­‐-­‐ José Ortega y Gasset "We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine." -­‐-­‐ Eduardo Galeano "I like reality. It tastes of bread." -­‐-­‐ Jean Anouilh "Cloquet hated reality but realized it was still the only place to get a good steak." -­‐-­‐ Woody Allen