Office: 234
Phone: 248-2571
E-Mail: ldixon@catfish bbc.peachnet.edu
Hours: 10:55 - 12:00 MW, 2:00 - 4:40 T, 9:15 - 12:00 TR

MIDTERM

March 3, 1999(Last Day to Drop Class Without Penalty)

January 8, 1999 -- Pretest (Multiple Choice)
February 19, 1999 -- Exam #1 (Multiple Choice)
March 26, 1999 -- Exam #2 (Multiple Choice)
April 2, 1999 -- Project due
May 5, 1999 -- Exam #3--Final Exam (Multiple Choice, Time 10:10 a.m.-12:10 p.m.)
April 16, 1999 -- All extra credit attempts due
April 30, 1999 -- Deadline for all work to be turned in. No assignments or extra credit accepted after this date.

January 18, 1999 -- Martin Luther King Holiday. College offices closed.
April 5 - 10, 1999 -- Spring break for students
April 9, 1999 -- College closed
April 14, 1999 -- Early Registration--No classes

April 30, 1999 -- Last day of this class and for semester

Week 1	Orientation to course, syllabus Definition of Psychology Careers in Psychology
Week 2	History and Scope of Psychology Research Methods in Psychology: How Psychologists Measure and Test Their Ideas Introduction to Theories
Week 4	Introduction to Physical and Biological Mechanisms Brain and Nervous System
Week 6	Sensation: How People Experience the Outside World How People Make Sense of the World: Perception
Week 7	How People Learn: Conditioning Models
Week 8	Social and Moral Development
Week 9	What Drives Behavior: Mechanisms for Motivation
Week 10	How People Remember Things: Information Processing Model How People Solve Problems: The Human Intellect
Week 11	Psychological Testing and Assessment
Week 12	Mental Disorders: How Things Get Off Track
Week 13	Help for people with Mental Disorders: Psychotherapies
Week 14	States of Consciousness
Week 15	How People Assess and Evaluate Others: Social Cognition Responding to Authorities Relationships

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

The college catalog describes this course in the following way: "This course is a broad survey of the major topics in psychology including, but not limited to, research methodology, biological and social factors influencing behavior, development, learning, memory, personality, and abnormal behavior." The course goals include the following

• introduce major core concepts and theories in psychology
• engage students in basic skills of psychological research
• introduce students to researchers, psychologists, and others who have made significant contributions to psychology
• increase awareness of the application of psychological principles and theories in everyday life
• encourage students to evaluate the validity of research findings and reports
• encourage students to apply psychological concepts to their own lives
• increase awareness of the danger of blindly accepting or rejecting theory and research without careful, objective evaluation
• introduce students to the ethical standards governing the work of psychologists and research in psychology
• introduce students to biological bases to behavior
• lay a foundation for more advanced study in psychology and/or other social sciences
• help students to understand the complexity of behavior
• increase understanding of physical, intellectual, social, and personality determinants of behavior
• increase understanding of various states of consciousness
• increase awareness of the multitude of treatments for mental disorders
• describe symptoms of various mental disorders
• describe some means of measuring individual differences
• provide opportunities for students to use their oral, written, and computational skills

• Dixon, L. & Lugo, J. O. (1996). Living psychology: An introduction. Redding, Cal.: CAT.
• Dixon, L. & Lugo, J. O. (1995). Student handbook for Living psychology: An Introduction. (4th ed.). Redding, Cal.: CAT.
• American Psychological Association. (1995). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.). Washington, DC: APA.
• Computer Disk Students will need to have available at least one 3.5" disk.

• American Psychological Association (1986). Careers in psychology, APA: Hyattsville, MD.
• Miller, N. E. (1985). The value of behavioral research on animals. American Psychologist. 40 (4), 423-440.
• Test Item File For your convenience, a test item file is on reserve in the library.

About 25% of our classroom time will be used to present lecture material. The lectures will serve two functions:

1. To elaborate upon and explain some of the more significant and/or difficult topics from the textbook.
2. To supplement the text by covering additional topics.

Please note: Lectures are not intended to be a repeat of what is in the textbook. Lectures will contain information not found in the text and you be tested on this material.

The project requires you to create and turn in a portfolio that illustrates your exposure to, knowledge of, or experience with, or achievement of the following list of objectives. Your portfolio may include outlines of topics, bibliographies of sources, papers you have written, articles you have read, research designs, glossaries of terms that you create, printed materials from the internet, and other items that might serve to meet the requirement. Since the intent of this project is to engage students in methods of studying other than reading the textbook, photocopies of information from the textbook will receive a zero grade. Outlines and written discussions of information from the textbook are encouraged.

Include a title page with your project. Follow the title page with a list of the objectives. Number and type each objective on a separate sheet of paper. Follow the objective with a paragraph stating how the items you have attached were used to help you address the objective, how relevant you found the information, what you learned from the information, and other details that help connect the information to the objective. This paragraph should include at least five sentences. It is your responsibility to make sure it is clear how each item you have attached relates to the objective. The objectives should be numbered as they are in the following list. Items turned in without an objective indicated will receive zero points. If copies of articles or other printed items are turned in, the complete source must be provided. Include a reference page, if you have made citations.

You should approach this project with the goal of achieving the objectives listed and providing evidence of your efforts. Choose an attractive and appropriate means of organizing, binding, and keeping your work together. Five points will be deducted for each objective not addressed or not identified. Spelling, appearance, grammar, organization, and writing style will be graded. * Remember that double spacing is a basic APA requirement. For those who do not know any better, students are expected to do their own work. Students who choose to do otherwise will earn a zero on this project.

1. Describe at least 15 major subfields of psychology.
2. Outline and describe the details of at least the following research methods that psychologists: experiment, observation, case study, interview, survey, questionnaire, correlation.
3. Describe some basic quantitative concepts, state how psychologists use statistics in evaluating evidence, and compute some simple statistics.
4. Outline and describe features of at least six major theories in psychology.
5. Describe the historical development of psychology as a science including philosophies and early psychologists who had an impact.
6. Describe physical, psychological, and social determinant of behavior.
7. Define at least 20 basic psychology terms.
8. Identify 20 leading contributors to psychology and describe their work in the field. These should be people who have made outstanding contributions, not organizations.
9. Identify and describe several applications of psychological principles to real life situations.
10. Outline factors that influence perceptions and state how perceptions might influence behavior.
11. Develop psychological arguments based on evidence, make observations, provide descriptions, make inferences about behavior and write a scientific paper using the writing style of the American Psychological Associations.
12. Describe at least 10 psychological disorders and the behaviors associated with them.
13. Identify and state how certain factors may motivate behavior.
14. Describe techniques and procedures used in popular forms of psychotherapy including at least psychoanalysis, client centered therapy, rational emotive therapy, Gestalt therapy, and behavioral therapy.
15. Describe various forms of consciousness including sleep, dreaming, day dreaming, hypnosis, medications, and states related to drug use.
16. Discuss psychological standards of ethical treatment toward humans and animals in doing research.
17. Describe ways psychological concepts, principles, and skills can be applied to enhance personal adjustment.
18. Express your own views, thoughts, and apprehensions about behavior and topics in psychology.

Class participation will consist of points earned in class on certain group, written, and oral activities. Credit will range from 5 to 15 points per activity. If you miss class participation activities due to absence or tardies for any reason, I suggest you take advantage of the extra credit activity, as make-up class participation activities will not be administered. If no one earns 100 points class participation, the class participation grade will be curved based on the highest number of points earned.

Regular class attendance is important for you to understand the material in this class. The responsibility for regular attendance is entirely yours. Things like illness, or death or illness in your family are understandable reasons for missing class. In any event, the following procedures apply:

1. Absence from a lecture session. The student is responsible for material covered in class.
2. Absence from scheduled examination: The student is responsible for the decision to be absent on the day of a scheduled examination. Eleven (11) points will be deducted from the exams which are taken late. The 11 points will be waived only when the instructor judges the absence to be justifiable and the make-up exam is taken within a reasonable time.

Students may earn 30 points extra credit to improve their grade by doing a presentation in class on any topic related to psychology. Textbook chapters are not options for extra credit. The presentation must include visual and/or auditory aids. Thorough coverage of the topic is expected. an extended outline of the topic and presentation must be typed and turned in. The presentation and the outline will be graded. A title page should be attached to your outline. Students who plan to do extra credit should clear their topic with me and let me know when they want to present.

There will be three multiple choice exams administered during the semester. The final exam will have the same format as the pretest and consist of 100 multiple choice items.

Your course grade will be based on your performance in the following categories:

Exam 1 -- 100
Exam 2 -- 100
Exam 3 (final) -- 100
Class Participation 100
Project -- 100

Total: 500

The following scale is used:

90% -100% = A
80% - 89% = B
70% - 79% = C
60% - 69% = D
59% and below = F

Students are asked not to make tape recordings of class lectures nor discussions. Students are encouraged to speak freely on and state their opposition to topics and issues involved in the content of this course. On some occasions, personal information is revealed during class discussions in psychology classes, therefore, I feel tape recordings are inappropriate.

Withdrawal from class after Midterm (see date on cover page) produces an automatic "F" grade. Students facing a non-academic emergency can withdraw from school after midterm with the permission of the Dean.

The college catalog states that the "I" is available only for non-academic reasons and that an "I" must be removed during the following academic semester or the "I" will be changed to the grade "F" by the Records Office.

If you use the words of someone else without citing them, you are committing plagiarism and will be penalized on assignments where plagiarism occurs. A paper will be assigned the "F" grade if there is extensive plagiarism.

Eleven (11) points will be deducted from scheduled tests that are taken late.

Double spacing is a simple and basic APA requirement. Therefore, up to eleven (11) points will be deducted from papers that are not double spaced.

Encyclopedia Sources (this includes on-line encyclopedias) are not acceptable as major sources of information and will be accepted only when used to support information from professional articles and books. Standard dictionaries should also not be used for defining psychological terms. Encyclopedias nor dictionaries will be counted in the required number of entries in your reference page.

APA is the required writing style for all typed assignments and papers for this course.

The date stated on the from of your syllabus is the deadline for all assignments and other work to be completed and turned in. No assignments will be accepted after this date and students will not be permitted to make up exams they missed during the semester.

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