Psychology 1101 /Fall, 2011 12:30 TR Instructor:Dr.
John Achee Office:Psychology 406Phone:542-2174 e-mail:jachee@uga. edu Graduate assistants:Email:Assigned students: Pablo Gorapablogor@uga. eduA-L Amey Kulkarnikulkarni@uga. eduM-Z NOTE: Please use these email addresses when contacting us, rather than the eLC email address Textbook:Psychological Science (3rd Ed. ) by Gazzaniga, Heatherton and Halpern Additional readings may be assigned.
If so, they will be made available via the library’s electronic reserves. Course objectives:The main academic objective is that you leave with a broad understanding of some of the areas of practical and theoretical interest to psychologists. For example, we will cover issues as diverse as social interactions, memory, dreaming, learning, and emotion, as well as many others. We will also discuss how the brain and other biological processes are related to all of these different experiences.
It is equally important that you find the class enjoyable and interesting, so feel free to express your comments or criticisms about the class.Hopefully, you will discover that regular discussion and participation on your part will increase your enjoyment of the class as well as your understanding of the material. Office hours: In order to make meeting with us more convenient for you (and for us), neither the instructor nor the graduate assistants will have regularly scheduled office hours, but instead will be available by appointment. You can also talk to the instructor before and after class. Most problems will be handled via e-mail, but scheduling appointments allows us to be easily accessible for face to face meetings at times that will fit your schedule.
Attendance policy: Regular class attendance is strongly recommended, but it is not mandatory with respect to your course grade (i. e. , will not figure directly into your course grade). However, regular attendance will be essential to performing well in the class. Hopefully, you will find class enjoyable and interesting enough to want to come to class regularly. Experiment participation: You will be required to participate in psychological experiments being conducted in the Department of Psychology.
This participation will not figure directly into your course grade, however failure to complete this requirement will result in a grade of “I” (Incomplete). The details of this requirement will be explained in a separate handout. Testing and grading policy: There will be 4 exams, including the final exam. The final will not be comprehensive. Exams will cover the assigned material from the textbook (whether covered in class or not) and material from the lectures (whether covered in the textbook or not).
Exams will be of mixed format: primarily multiple choice with some short definitions, fill in the blank, etc. There will be no makeup exams given. However, you will be allowed to drop any exam score that is missed due to an excused absence and replace it with the middle-ranked score of your other three test grades. If you miss an exam with an unexcused absence, you will receive a grade of 0 for that exam that will not be dropped. If you miss a test, it is your responsibility to convince me that the absence is excused (e. g.
, doctor's note). If you know you will miss a test, try to tell me beforehand.If you unexpectedly have to miss a test, simply tell me why you had to miss the test when you return to class. You will be required to write 3 short reaction papers throughout the course of this semester. Each reaction paper must be typed, stapled (or paper clipped, etc. ) and double-spaced, and should reflect your reaction to and thought about some topic that we discussed in class or that you read about in your text.
The papers should NOT be simple summaries of what we discussed, although that may be a small part of each paper. Papers that are only summaries of what we discussed will be graded harshly.The most important requirement is that the papers demonstrate that you have thought about the topic in question above and beyond what we discussed in class. Ideally, you should relate something that we discussed in class to some other aspect of your life. For example, you can relate the topic to something you discussed in another class. Or, you can describe an event from your life or something that you read about in a book or magazine or something from TV or movies, clearly detailing and explaining how it is an example of the topic in question.
DO NOT repeat examples that I used in class, even if they really happened to you. Due dates:1st paper – Tuesday, October 4 2nd paper – Tuesday, November 1 3rd paper – Thursday, December 1 NOTE: Reaction papers are due no later than the end of class on these dates. You may (and probably should) turn them in earlier. Papers will not be accepted late or via email under any circumstances. Grades will be assigned according to the following scale: 87. 5 – 89.
999 = B+77. 5 – 79. 999 = C+60. 0 – 69. 999 = D 92. 5 – 100 = A82.
5 – 87. 499 = B72. 5 – 77. 499 = C0 – 59. 999 = F 90.
– 92. 4999 = A-80. 0 – 82. 499 = B-70. 0 – 72.
499 = C- Each exam will count 22. 5% of your course grade, which means your exams will count for 90% of your final grade; the remaining 10% will come from your homework. Academic honesty: All academic work must meet the standards contained in "A Culture of Honesty. " Students are responsible for informing themselves about those standards before performing any academic work. Any violation of these standards will be dealt with in the strictest way possible as allowed by University policy.
Tentative Course Outline Class business IntroPsychology as scienceChap. 1 ; 2 Sigmund FreudChap. 13 (pp. 571-575) Social influenceChap. 12 (pp.
545-552) Biological bases of behavior: Neurology and geneticsChap. 3 The mindChap. 4 Developmental psychology:Chap. 11 Learning Chap. 6 Motivation and emotionChap. 9 Sensation and PerceptionChap.
5 MemoryChap. 7 Psychological DisordersChap. 14 Exam schedule: Test 1-Thursday, September 8 Test 2-Thursday, October 6 Test 3-Thursday, November 3 Test 4 - Tuesday, December 13, 12:00 noon The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.
