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FYC Cluster F1 “The Psychology of Everyday Life” Common Syllabus
Philosophy, PHI 010, MW 12.50-2.45, Roosevelt 201 (Office: Heger 215, tel. ext. 34991, phimvm@hofstra.edu); Office hours: Mon 10.45-12.45,
and by appointment.
Psychology, PSY 001, MW 2:55-4:50 pm, Neth 021: Prof. Shafritz (Office: Hauser 201, tel. ext. 3-4856); Office hours: Thurs 1:30 – 4:30 pm, and by
appointment)
Writing, WSC 001, sec F1/TR 9:35-11:00 am. Neth 016 and sec. FA/TR 2:20 -3:45: Prof. Lay (Office: Mason 308, tel. ext. 3-0074; Office hours:
Wednesdays , 9:00 – 11:00 am and by appointment)
Cluster Description: Everyday life is filled with complexities that range from the minor to the extraordinary, including life-altering choices that
affect our relationships, career options, health and well-being. Especially for first-year college students, it may seem that every aspect of life requires
thought and attention, pretty much all at the same time. In this cluster, we examine psychological and philosophical approaches to the challenges of
everyday life. Issues include personal goals, conformity, stress, relationships, health-promoting versus health-damaging behaviors, self-deception,
and the role of morality and ethics in defining a good individual life. You are encouraged to think critically about the topics studied, to understand
how they apply to your life, and to express and examine your opinions about current controversies.
Blackboard: Some of the courses in this cluster have active Blackboard sites. Class announcements may be made through Blackboard; some
assignments may be made through Blackboard; some assignments may have to be turned in through the Blackboard site. You have to check each
course for the information about that course.
Email: Some professors in this cluster primarily use email to contact students and post announcements. If you do not intend to use your Hofstra
assigned email address, make sure that you set up your Hofstra email to forward messages to the account that you do use. You'll only have to set up
forwarding once for the semester, unless you change your email address during the semester. It is your responsibility to ensure that email goes to
your active email address.
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Abbreviated Course Descriptions
PSY 001, Introduction to Psychology (Prof. Shafritz)
This course will provide an overview to psychology as a modern science. We will discuss the various themes covered under the general
umbrella of psychology. The main emphasis will be a broad understanding of the field of psychology and how psychological research over the years
has created a rich knowledge base and insight into how we think, feel, and act, both as individuals and as groups. An additional emphasis of the
course will be to differentiate what well-controlled research studies actually reveal about human behavior from our preconceived notions of how
people behave. Topics covered in this course that relate to the other courses in this cluster include moral and ethical behavior, cultural and social
influences on behavior, and how emotions guide behavior.
PHI 010, Introduction to Philosophy (Prof. McEvoy)
Philosophy is concerned with questions such as, “Is there a god?” “What is the mind?” “How can we know what the morally right thing to do is?”
and “Do we truly know anything?” This course will introduce you to some of the ways philosophers have addressed these and other philosophical
questions, and consider how they affect our daily lives.
WSC 001, Defining Writing/Defining the Writer (Prof. Lay)
This course will engage participants in the ways of writing from the invention process, drafting, organization, revision practices, and
presentation. Students will consider the way language works and the power and limitations of language to make meaning. The course aims to raise
awareness about the nature of language and demonstrate how it contributes to our understanding of the everyday. Course readings are drawn from
contemporary American writers as well as from student writing. Through in-depth reading and writing experiences, students will consider how
language influences thought and contributes to critical thinking.
** PLEASE NOTE:
This document gives an overview of all the courses in the cluster. Each course will have its own syllabus as well with details about readings,
assignments, grading, attendance, course policies and so on. It is possible that during the semester there may be adjustments in one or more
courses, and it is your responsibility to keep abreast of the schedule and any changes thereto in each of your classes. This overview document
will not be updated during the semester. Changes and updates, if any, would come from the instructor for each course.
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Week-by-week Cluster Outline
Date
9/3 –
9/4
Phi 10 Intro to Philosophy (MW 12.50-2.45)
Prof. McEvoy
Introduction: What is Philosophy?
PSY 1 Intro to Psychology (MW 2:55-4:50)
Prof. Shafritz
No class meeting this week
Pojman, 33-41 (recommended)
No
classes
9/5 – 9/6
WSC 1 (F1/TR 9:35-11:00; FA/TR 2:20 -3:45)
Prof. Lay
Introduction
Are you a writer? What is a writer anyway?
Getting ready to write in a digital age;
discussion of affordances of print and digital
texts; making a course blog and a coursespecific twitter.
Mark Edmundson, “Who Are You and What
Are You Doing Here?” (89-101)
9/9 –
9/13
9/16 –
9/20
What is Philosophy?
Mon:
Plato: “The Allegory of the Cave,” 18-21.
Euthyphro (Link on Blackboard)
Topics: Course Introduction, History of
Psychology
Topic: small object/LARGE SUBJECT:
Crafting and Researching an Argumentative
Essay
Chapter 1
Wed:
Bertrand Russell, “The Value of Philosophy,” 2732
Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough, “Object of
Affection” (167-175)
Philosophy of Religion
William Paley, “The Watch and the Watchmaker,”
90-92.
David Hume, “A Critique of the Teleological
Argument,” 93-100.
Bryson, A – B (3-32)
Mon
St. Thomas Aquinas, “The Five Ways,” 58-61.
Paul Edwards, “A Critique of the Cosmological
Argument,” 80-89.
Wed
St Anselm, St. Gaunilo, 100-103
Topic: Research Methods
Chapter 2
Chapter 15, pp. 473-475
Topic: How do I know this is good?: Reading
Like a Reviewer
Wesley Yang, “Paper Tigers” (274-295)
Bryson, C – D (33-63)
Quiz 1 Wed
Paper 1 due
Peer editing of Paper 1
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9/23 –
9/27
Mon
Topic: Biological Basis of Behavior
Topic: How Language Works
John Hick, 125-130.
B.C. Johnson 120-125.
For Monday: Chapter 3, pp. 73-87 and 105-119
Malcolm Gladwell, “Creation Myth” (139-153)
For Wednesday: Chapter 3, pp. 88-104
Paul Collins, “Vanishing Act” (67-77)
Wed: The Ethics of Belief
Pascal, 131-134
Clifford,134-139
Bryson, E – F (64-83)
Lab 1 due Monday 9/23
Paper 1 Revision Workshop
9/30 –
10/4
Mon
James 140-148.
Wed: Epistemology
Plato, Meno (photocopy).
Descartes, “Cartesian Doubt and the Search for
Foundational Knowledge,” 188-194.
Topic: Brain and Behavior; Sensation,
Perception and Attention
Chapter 4, pp. 131-139, 157-158, 167-168
(section on bottom-up and top-down processing);
For Wednesday: Chapter 7, pp. 273-278
Paper 1 Due Wed Oct 2nd
10/7 –
10/11
Topic: Thinking in Metaphor
Benjamin Anastas, “The Foul Reign of ‘SelfReliance’” (1-5)
Excerpt from Lakoff and Johnson (linked on
course blog).
Bryson, G – H (84-100)
Lab 2 due Monday 9/30
Topic: Consciousness and Sleep
Topic: Ways of Seeing:
Descartes (cont’d) Descartes, “Cartesian Doubt
and the Search for Foundational Knowledge,”
286-9, plus photocopied reading.
For Wed.: Chapter 5, pp. 181-185, 192-210
Jose Antonio Vargas, “Outlaw” (262-273)
Wed
John Locke: “The Empiricist Theory of
Knowledge,” 194-206
Midterm Exam 1 on Monday 10/7
Mon
Dudley Clendinen, “The Good Short Life” (63-66)
Bryson, I – K (101-116)
Lab 3 due Wednesday 10/9
10/14 –
10/18
Mon
David Hume, “The Origin of Our Ideas,” 215-218
Hume:
“Skepticial Doubts…,” 259-270.
Topic: Learning – Classical and Operant
Conditioning, Social Learning
Quiz 2 Mon
For Monday: Chapter 6, pp. 223-238
Wed Hume (Cont’d)
For Wednesday: Chapter 6, pp. 239-259
Ethics
Relativism: 478-492
Topic: The Four-Letter Word Project
(Making a Visual Argument)
Joseph Epstein, “Duh, Bor-ing” (102-110)
J. Anthony Blair, “The Possibility and Actuality
of a Visual Argument” (linked on course blog).
Bryson, L – M (117-137)
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10/21 –
10/25
Mon
Relativism (cont’d)
J.S. Mill, “Utilitarianism,” 537-543
Wed
Mill (cont’d)
Topic: Memory
Topic: Now You See it, Now You Don’t:
Selective Attention and the Writing Process
For Monday: Chapter 7, pp. 267-272, 279-297
For Wednesday: Chapter 7, pp. 298-313
Excerpt from Cathy Davidson, Now You See It
(linked on course blog)
David J. Lawless, “My Father/My Husband”
(193-206)
Lab 4 due Wednesday 10/23
Bryson, N – O (138-154)
Paper 2 due
Paper 2 Revision Workshop
10/28 –
11/1
Mon
Wed
Immanuel Kant, “The Moral Law,” 525-536
11/4 –
11/8
Topic: Emotion and Motivation
Immanuel Kant, “The Moral Law,” 525-536
Topic: Writerly Identity: Re/collecting
Writing
For Wednesday: Chapter 10, pp. 421-444
Garret Keizer, “Getting Schooled” (176-192)
Quiz 3 Wed
Midterm Exam 2 on Monday 10/28
Bryson, P – R (155-178)
Mon: Free Will & Determinism
Topics: Personality; Social Cognition and
Behavior
Topic: Drafting a Partial Literacy Narrative
Introduction, 400-405
Baron D’Holbach, “We Are Completely
Determined,” 405-410
William James, “The Dilemma of Determinism,”
411-420.
Wed
James (cont’d)
Corliss Lamont: Photocopied Reading
Jonathan Franzen, “Farther Away” (111-138)
For Monday: Chapter 13
Bryson, S – T (179-203)
For Wednesday: Chap. 10, pp. 448-449,
Chap. 12, pp. 513-532, Chap. 13, pp. 608-612
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11/11 –
11/15
Mon
Topics: Social Behavior Part II; Development
Topic: Reading Matters
For Monday: Chapter 12, pp. 537-559
Geoffrey Bent, “Edward Hopper and the
Geometry of Despair” (43-51)
Lab 5 due Monday 11/11
Bryson, U – W (204-217)
Topic: Physical and Social Development
Topic: Where Ideas Come From
For Wed.: Chapter 9, pp. 365-380 and 405-407
Alan Lightman, “The Accidental Universe” (207-217)
W.T. Stace: “Compatibilism,” 443-449
Wed
Philosophy of Mind
Descartes: “Dualistic Interactionism,” 290-292.
Gilbert Ryle, “Exorcising Descartes’ “Ghost in the
Machine,” 293-298.
11/18 –
11/22
Mon
Paul Churchland, “On Functionalism and
Materialism,” 310-320
Wed
The Meaning of Life
William Lane Craig “The Absurdity of Life without
God,” (photocopy).
Thomas Nagel, “The Absurd,” 633-640.
Bryson, Y – Z (218-221)
Midterm Exam 3 on Monday 11/18
Paper 3 due
Paper 3 Revision Workshop
Quiz 4 Wed
11/25 –
11/26
11/25
Follows
Friday
schedule
T’giving
Break
11/27 –
11/30
No class meeting this week
Wed
Bertrand Russell, “Reflections on Suffering,” 641643.
Topic: The Reader in the Text
Richard Sennett, “Humanism” (244-254)
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12/2 –
12/6
Personal Identity
Mon
John Locke, “Our Psychological Properties Define
The Self,” 365-368.
Topic: Cognitive Development; Psychological
Disorders
For Monday: Chapter 9, pp. 381-392, 408-416
Topic: The Writer in the Text
Marcia Angell, “The Crazy State of Psychiatry”
(6-28)
Wed
David Hume “We Have No Substantial Self with
Which We Are Identical, 369-71.
12/9 –
12/11
Paper 2 Due Mon 12/2
Mon
For Wednesday: Chapter 14, pp. 617-637
Lab 6 due Monday 12/2
Derek Parfitt: Photocopied Reading.
Topic: Psychological Disorders continued;
Treatments for Disorders
Wed: Wrap up and Review
For Monday: Chapter 14, pp. 638-656, 663-669
Quiz 5 (make-up only) Wed
For Wed.: Chapter 15, except section 15.3
Final Exam Monday 12/16 1:30 – 3:30,
201 Roosevelt.
Lab 7 due Monday 12/9
Wed., 12/18:
1:30 p.m., Netherlands 021
FINAL EXAM
Topic: As Good As It Gets
Robert Boyers, “A Beauty” (52-62)
Reading
Days
12/12 12/13
12/16 –
12/21
Finals
Paper 4 due
F1 – Tues, 12/17 10:30-12:30 in Netherlands 16
FA – Thu, 12/19 1:30-3:30 in Netherlands 18
FINAL EXAM