Text: Psychology in Action by Huffman, Vernoy, & Vernoy (5th edition, 2000)

Course Objective: To provide the students with a base of knowledge in psychology so that they can go on to further education in this field of study. The course will be taught with emphasis on furthering student interest in psychology and encouraging beginning research and thought. This course will benefit you as a student by increasing your knowledge and awareness concerning human communication, interaction and thought processes. Psychology is an extremely broad field, we will merely sample some of what it has to offer and develop a knowledge base that you can build on in your other psychology courses. Topics for this course will include behavior, sensation and perception, consciousness, learning, memory, thinking/language/intelligence, life span development I & II, gender and human sexuality, motivation and emotion, health psychology, personality, psychological disorders, social psychology, aviation psychology.

Requirements for Students: Pay attention to this part (3 parts). You will have four tests throughout the course of the semester, (including the final exam). The test dates are tentative (can be moved) and are listed below. The final exam will occur during the published time for fall semester exams for this time period. Any unexcused absence during a test or the final exam will result in a grade of zero.

1.) Test 1: Friday, September 15th
(last day to withdraw is September 22nd)
Test 2: Monday, October 9th (week of fall break)
Test 3: Monday, November 6th (election week)
Final Exam: Thursday, December 14th, 4:00 p.m.





2.) Research Participation: You are required to participate in some form of research activity. You may complete this requirement in one of the following ways:

A.) Complete 3 hours of experimental participation. You will notice opportunities (many, many) posted on the second floor (this floor) of Peabody where you may sign up to be a participant. Once you sign up, you are committed to participate. If you do not show up at your assigned time and do not give at least 24 hours advanced notice to the experimenter, you will have to complete three more additional hours of participation. (So do three hours, or no-show and do 6 to 9, i.e. please show up). When you complete your hour(s), the experimenter will provide you with a ?dit card,??ich you will then turn in to me. I cannot give you credit without that card.
*Students who complete all three hours without a no-show and before October 31st will receive five points added to the test of their choice.

B.) If you do not wish to participate in experiments this is your assignment: You may complete three opinion papers, each consisting of a two-page (typed, double spaced with 1??rgins) report that makes an argument about a topic covered in class. Each paper must make a single, clear and relevant point (for example, cognitive abilities tests adequately measure intelligence), offer supporting evidence derived from empirical research, and discuss contrasting opinions. Papers that do not follow these guidelines will not receive credit until written to my satisfaction.

Failure to complete the research participation requirement of this course (a or b above), will result in a commensurate point reduction (up to 50 points) from your FINAL grade.

3.) Independent Project: You will be required to complete an independent project during the course of this semester. For students who choose to participate in experiments (choice A from number 2 above), your project requirement is as follows: Choose one of the experiments that you participated in and write a three page critique. Along with the critique you must attach a research article relevant to the research you participated in. I.e. if you participate in a study that involves studying reaction time to visual stimuli presented on a computer display, you must attach an article that speaks in favor or disagreement about that research. This is a critique, so you are expected to decide if you agree or disagree with the research and why and list the strengths and weaknesses of the experiment that you participated in based on your own thoughts and ideas. You can ask the experimenter for leads to finding these articles as they have many they have already found. (You can participate in up to three experiments for your three hour credit, just choose one of these for your critique).

If you choose not to participate in the experiments, you will be asked to design your own experiment (meet with me concerning your topic for approval prior to September 1st if you decide to do this). This will also be three pages in length and must contain the reasoning for the design (why do you want to test this?), what you expect to find and why. You also have to attach a copy of an article related to the study you propose to design to your paper.

The independent project must be typed, double-spaced, 1??rgins with a copy of the article you use attached.

This project is due on or before November 13th. Failure to comply with the instructions to complete this requirement will result in a 50 point deduction from your FINAL grade. I.e. don?o it and don?ass this class. Projects will NOT be accepted late.

Class Participation: This class is structured around hands-on learning and interaction between all of us. I am not going to simply lecture, you will learn much more if you get to participate in the learning process. Therefore I expect that you will come to class prepared (meaning alert, ready to participate and ask questions). I am using participation in place of quizzes. If you fail to participate I will use pop quizzes to make sure you are paying attention to the class material. It is to your benefit to participate.

Supplementary Materials: The bookstore has several text packaging options available to you. All packages will contain the book and the ?e Note!??pplement. This supplement will be useful to you because it will contain the diagrams I will use in class so you can take notes on them without having to draw them (this is free with the textbook). Other packages include the CD (text on CD, with lots of neat features and has web links to articles on topics covered in the book and interesting web sites ?? this will help with the independent project! Packages also may include a study guide. Purchase the package that is most interesting or affordable to you. If you have the text/take note supplement you will be fine.

Test Taking Materials: You will be required to purchase your own SCANTRONS at the University Bookstore. You will need four of them. I will announce the type later in the semester.

Exam Description: I hate it, but all tests will be multiple-choice on SCANTRON forms. There are just too many students to use essays and short answers for tests. Be warned, there will be up to 4 forms of the exam passed out, so copying would not be wise as you will not likely have the same exam as your neighbor. See below for the cheating policy.

Cheating: You are on an honor system in this class. I DO NOT TOLERATE cheating, in any form. If you are caught cheating on a test you will receive an F for the course and will be prosecuted to the extent allowable in the student handbook. If you cheat (copy) on your individual assignment, you will receive a grade of zero for you assignment and prosecuted accordingly. I consider cheating to be looking off another person?est, plagiarism, or in any way using the work of someone else as that of your own. It is also cheating if you see someone else doing so and fail to turn them in. All I ask is you do your own work and do it honestly.

Attendance Policy: Attendance will be taken daily. Sorry, but if I don?his place will resemble a wind tunnel at NASA, not a college classroom. If you come, you need to be prepared to learn. I.e. no reading the DM, talking with friends or sleeping. If you are late, I accept that it happens once and I will be glad you came, but on your third late appearance it will be counted as one absence. You may take up to 3 UNEXCUSED absences. For each absence after your third you will lose 3 points off of your FINAL grade for the semester. If you call or e-mail me the day before for family, medical, athletic or other reasons, this is considered excused. If you are a part of an organization (academic, athletic, etc.) that travels, please give me a copy of your schedule within the first two weeks of school so that I will know your absences ahead of time. *You must give two weeks notice for test absences (for travel reasons, i.e. athletic, etc.) so that we can set up another time to take the test. If you are absent without excuse for a test you will receive a zero for that test.

Bonus: Anyone who has no absences for the semester will receive five points added onto their FINAL grade at the end of the semester. You will be rewarded for you hard work.



Grading: Your final course grade will be broken down in the following way:

Total: 500 points

4 exams: 100 points (each)
Independent Project: 50 points
Attendance: 25 points
Research Participation: 25 points

Total: 500 points

A = 450-500 points, B = 400-449 points, C = 350-399 points, D = 300-349 points,
F = < 299 points.

Note: Anyone receiving a D or lower on a test will be required to see me concerning his/her progress in the course NO LATER THAN THE WEEK FOLLOWING THAT EXAM. We need to head off problems at the start folks.


*Students with special needs: Please contact me within the first week of classes and let me know what your needs will be during the course of this semester. All information will be kept private and all necessary accommodations will be made.