PSYC200 – Fall 2010

PSYC 200 Introduction to Professional Practices
Fall 2010
Thursdays 5:30 - 8:00 PM

Instructor: Michael J. Walk, M.S.
Telephone:
Cell: 240-994-9724 (9 am – 9 pm)
Website:
 http://www.jwalkonline.org
Email:
 michaeljameswalk@yahoo.com
Office Hours:
 Thursday 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
 Online Wednesday 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm
http://www.learncentral.org/vroom/enter/34749
Required Texts
Code
Text
APA
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Gram
Gramlich, C. A., Irvin, Y. D. B., & Hammer, E. D. (2009). Writing in Psychology : A Guidebook.
Breinigsville, PA: Borgo Press.
Stan
Stanovich, K. E. (2010). How to think straight about psychology (9th ed.). Boston: Allyn and
Bacon.
Stern
Sternberg, R. J. (2007). Career paths in psychology: Where your degree can take you (2nd ed.).
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Course Objectives
By the end of this course, you should be able to
1. conduct library and internet searches of the professional literature on topics in psychology;
2. write formal papers and other course assignments in a style and format consistent with APA
requirements;
3. critically evaluate information of a psychological nature presented in the popular and professional
media;
4. apply APA ethical principles in critical analyses of case studies in teaching, research, and
psychotherapy;
5. name a variety of career opportunities in psychology, and describe the academic preparation for and
professional expectations of those careers;
6. identify special needs and issues in the Baltimore community and region that may be addressed by
professional psychologists;
7. write a personal resume of educational and professional experiences that would facilitate graduate
school acceptance or employment; and,
8. effectively collaborate and communicate with peers and colleagues regarding scientific and
psychological issues.
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PSYC200 – Fall 2010
Tentative Sequencing of Topics/Activities/Assignments
Date
Class Topics
Readings Due
Assignments Due
In-Class Activities
9/2/10
Introductions, Syllabus,
Word 2007 basics, Writing for
the sciences.
Gram intro, ch 1; APA
Preface, Intro, ch 1 (p
9-11), ch 8 (p 225-231,
241-243)
--
Word 2007 tutorial, WebTycho tutorial
9/9/10
Communicating Scientific
Knowledge
Gram ch 2 (no p 29);
APA ch 2, 6
Essay Assignment #1
Conference #1
Literature Search Tutorial
(Langsdale 401)
9/16/10
Communicating Scientific
Knowledge (Part 2)
Gram ch 3-6; APA ch 7
9/23/10
APA Writing Style
Gram ch 7-8; APA ch 3
Single-Article Review
9/30/10
APA Writing Style
APA ch 4; Gram ch 9
Gram in-text
Assignment 1-3.
APA Practice Test #1
APA Scavenger Hunt
10/7/10
APA Writing Style
2-Article Summary
APA Practice Test #2
10/14/10
Science, Psychology, and the
Pursuit of Understanding
Stan ch. 1 – 6
APA Style Mastery
Test
--
10/21/10
Intuitions and Evidence
Stan ch 7 – 9
Essay Assignment #2
--
10/28/10
Probability, Chance, and the
Popular Image of Psychology
Stan ch 10 – 12
11/4/10
Professional Ethics and
Professional Associations
TBA; APA ch 1 (pp
11+)
Conference #2
Ethics Small Group
11/11/10
Career Paths – Clinical and
Counseling
Stern ch 4 – 10
Conference #3
Guest Speaker
11/18/10
Career Paths – Organizations
Stern ch 11 – 15
Term Paper Topic
Guest Speaker
12/2/10
Career Paths – Academia &
Other Areas
Stern ch 1 – 3; 16-19
12/9/10
Make-up time and writing a
resume / CV
--
Guest Speaker
Term Paper
12/16/10
FINAL EXAM
How Your Grade Will Be Determined
1.
Term Paper: You will write a term paper discussing a career direction in psychology or psychological
services that is of interest to you. Your paper must conform to APA style and structure standards, and must
be submitted at the date indicated above unless otherwise instructed. You must submit an acceptable term
paper to receive a grade for the course. This paper will be worth up to 50 points. You must have submitted
the topic of the term paper to me by 11/11/10.
2.
Writing Assignments: You will be given several writing assignments during the term. These assignments
will be based on a pre-determined topic or will be small pieces of your final term paper. Absolutely no late
or handwritten assignments will be accepted. Each assignment will be worth up to 10 points.
3.
Tests: You will be given an APA Style Mastery Test and a Final Exam. Each test will be worth up to 50
points.
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PSYC200 – Fall 2010
4.
Conferences: You will participate in online asynchronous conferences (discussions or forums) through
WebTycho. A prompt will be provided one week before the conference is due. The prompt will not be
visible until seven days prior to the conference due date. You must write a one- to two-paragraph
response to the prompt by 12:00 pm (noon) on the Sunday before the conference due date. Before the
conference is due, you must post comments for at least 2 classmates, and you must respond to comments on
your submission. Each conference will be worth 5 points.
5.
Attendance: Regular class attendance is expected of all students, and attendance will be taken at the
beginning of every class meeting. If you arrive late or leave class early, you will not be credited with a full
class attendance for that day. All students are solely responsible for turning any assigned work in on time,
for completion of readings, and for obtaining on their own the information presented in lectures for all class
meetings, attended or not. (Please note that I will not repeat lectures for students who have missed them.)
You will earn up to 20 points based on the percentage of scheduled class meetings that you attend.
6.
Pop Quizzes: From time to time, you may receive a pop-quiz based on last week’s class materials or the
assigned reading. These quizzes will be worth no more than 5 points each. Your lowest quiz grade will be
dropped.
7.
ALL submitted written work (except for in-class assignments) must be in typed or computer-printed form,
and must conform to APA style standards. All written work must be turned in at the BEGINNING OF
CLASS ON THE DUE DATE. 10 PERCENTAGE POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED FOR EACH DAY
LATE (unless an extension was requested—see #10, below).
8.
Make-ups: Make-ups for any graded in-class activities will be provided ONLY in the case of absence due to
serious, compelling, unanticipated circumstances beyond your reasonable control, and then ONLY ONCE
during the term. If you know in advance that you will not be able to attend class on the day of an activity,
you may arrange with me to complete that assignment AT AN EARLIER TIME. This option may be
exercised ONLY ONCE during the term.
9.
Extra Credit: You can earn up to 5 points of extra credit by participating in research conducted by UB
faculty and posted on the Sona-Systems website: http://ubalt.sona-systems.com . One hour of research
participation will earn 1 point of extra credit. These points will be added onto your final percentage grade.
10. Extension: You have the right to one (1) penalty-free 3-day extension on any written assignment (no
conference extensions) if and only if you provide a written request (on paper or email) stating the reason for
the extension. This request must be received no later than 24 hours prior to the start of the class on the
assignment’s due date.
Percentage
Grade
> 95
90 – 94
87 – 89
83 – 86
80 – 82
77 – 79
73 – 76
70 – 72
67 – 69
63 – 66
60 – 62
< 60
Letter
Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
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PSYC200 – Fall 2010
Classroom Conduct and Academic Honesty Policies
This is a college-level course, taught under the assumption that all members of the class are adults and with the expectation
that all members of the class will behave appropriately. Among behaviors that are not appropriate in this class are habitual
tardiness; sleeping; conversing with anyone while the instructor is speaking or while another student has been called on to ask
a question or express her/his ideas; use of “smokeless” tobacco products; use of a cell phone or pager; note-passing; reading
books, magazines, newspapers, etc., that are not related to the course while the class is in session; actions or words of
disrespect toward any class member; use of obscene language; any behavior reasonably construed to constitute sexual
harassment; and any other action that disrupts the opportunity for all students to learn. These and any other disruptive, rude,
or disrespectful behaviors will not be tolerated. You may receive one warning if you engage in such behavior. If you engage
in it again, you may be administratively dropped from the course. If you are in doubt as to whether some behavior might be
inappropriate, ask me. The general rule, though, is, “If you have to ask, it probably is not appropriate.”
All students also are expected to be honest and to do their own work. This includes quizzes, exams, term papers, homework,
extra credit work, presentations, and any other assignment to be completed in or out of this and any other class (unless
otherwise directly indicated by the instructor). Academic honesty includes, at the very least, submitting work that is yours,
giving appropriate credit whenever someone else’s work is used, and taking tests and completing assignments strictly
according to the conditions specified by the instructor. Any evidence to the contrary will result in a failing grade for this
course, as well the filing of a report of academic dishonesty with the Academic Integrity Review Board. Cheating will not be
tolerated under any circumstance. If you are not sure what the expectations are for any assignment, it is up to you to ask your
instructor for clarification. Do not guess!
For term papers, research reports, and other typed/word-processed assignments, you may have someone else proofread your
work prior to submission to check spelling, grammar, writing style, punctuation, proper vocabulary, correct (i.e., APA) paper
format, etc., and you are encouraged to make use of the services provided by the Langsdale Library and the Academic
Resource Center for the preparation of student papers. However, the work of actually researching and writing a paper is
YOUR responsibility.
The most frequently occurring problem behavior in this context is plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs when a person submits
written work as her/his own, when in fact the work has been done entirely or in part by someone else to whom the person has
not given appropriate credit. This includes any written work that copies the language, structure, ideas, or thoughts of another
(UB Student Handbook, 2006), work that has been paraphrased, and even the reporting of facts derived from another source
and not a part of common knowledge. This includes sources such as magazine or newspaper articles, encyclopedias,
dictionaries, pamphlets, brochures, other students’ term papers and reports, articles in professional journals, transcribed
interviews, live interviews, books, internet pages, CD-ROMs, etc. This list is not meant to be exhaustive. The fact is, if you
do not give appropriate credit to any source of your written words besides your own ideas or common knowledge, you have
committed plagiarism.
If you make a statement in a written assignment that is not original and is not general, public knowledge, then you
MUST tell the reader the source of the statement. This is done in APA format through in-text, parenthetical citations
of sources, and a reference page at the end of the paper. In general, you must give enough information so that the
reader can easily look up and verify the source. See the current edition of the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association for specific citation formats.
CAUTION! If the nature of an assignment is for you to express your own ideas and interpretations about a topic, and
if what you submit are largely or entirely the ideas and interpretations of someone else, even if you provide all the
proper citations, you will not have satisfied the requirements of the assignment.
Notice:
If you think there is any reason why you may require reasonable accommodation to be able to meet the
expectations of this course as indicated in this syllabus and as described by me, you must inform me immediately
after the first class meeting.
Right to Alter: The instructor reserves the right to alter this syllabus (schedule, reading assignments, number and type of written
assignments, tests, and conferences, extra credit, etc.) at any point during the semester by providing the class with notice of such change.
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