Course Description

There are dozens of sections of INDV101, all of which meet the U of A's General Education Curriculum requirement of a course on Individuals and Societies.  What differentiates this course from the many others with the same designation is that it is taught from the perspective of psychology, by a professor of Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Neuroscience.  In short, that means my bias prompts me to focus on understanding the inner experience and overt behavior of individuals, both of which are shaped by biological and environmental factors.  On the biological side of the interpretation, this involves both genetic predispositions as well as biological factors that result from previous experience (e.g. an early illness).  On the environmental side, this involves factors within the individual, between individuals, and between the individual and society.  A recurring theme throughout this course is that any behavior or experience we seek to understand will have multiple causes. 

The course seeks to help you understand these causes by reviewing major research findings, theoretical principles, and methods in each of the major areas of psychology and related fields. Although it is an introductory course, some students consider it to be a rigorous course. One reason for this is the wide range of topics covered; yet all of these areas pertain to basic human experience. If you are willing to put in the required effort, then my own biased position is that you will find this course highly interesting and filled with discussions of complex and controversial topics. 

In this course we will focus primarily on the scientific explanations for different experiences and behaviors. In addition, we will look at some unanswered questions, theories, and controversies. An outline of the course is given below.  Note, completion of this course will serve as a prerequisite for further courses in psychology. Thus, if you complete this course, you do not need to take Psych 101 if you choose to be a psych major or take more advanced psychology courses.

 Text

The text for the course is a comprehensive but accessible text, and will serve as an excellent resource should you decide to retain your copy after the semester is over.  The text is:

Psychology (eighth edition) by David G. Myers (New York: Worth Publishers; 2007). Copies are available at the ASUA bookstore.

It comes bundled with a “clicker.”  You should bring this clicker to class each session.  More details about the clicker are provided below.

You will also be provided with two chapters from a soon-to-be published text: Psychology,  by D.L. Schacter, D.T. Gilbert, and D.M. Wegner.  We will be reading a chapter on Memory, and a chapter on Social Psychology, instead of the corresponding chapters in the Myers’ book.  Your feedback on these chapters is welcomed and appreciated, and a response card for the publisher is attached to the booklet containing these chapters.

Web Component to the Course

If you have not already noticed, I am encouraging you to access the web site for the course: www.INDV101.org.  Visit often.  This will have the most up-to-date information about the course at all times.  The web site contains an online version of this syllabus that will be updated should topics or readings be changed.  In addition to saving a large forest in paper, it will also:

¨       Provide important information concerning the class paper requirement;

¨       Serve as the means for you to turn in your papers; your papers must be turned in via the website; no paper copies will be accepted;

¨       Provide up-to-date grade information that you can access by entering your coded number;

¨      Allow you to track your attendance percentage;

¨       Provide links to lecture notes (not a substitute for lectures, but very useful to print in advance of lecture so that you do not need to write so much);

¨       Provide links to experiences designed to enhance your learning experience, such as streaming video segments, interactive demonstrations, and relevant websites;

¨       Provide links to the textbook website, which contains several tools that will aid your studying;

¨       Provide a mechanism for sending anonymous feedback to the instructor.
 

You can of course access the web pages with your browser of choice, but I've found in the past some troubles across various browsers.  For this reason, all pages will be designed to work with not only the nearly ubiquitous Internet Explorer by Micro$oft, but also the Mozilla Firefox browser, on open-source browser that will work on a variety of machines, including PC, Mac, and Linux. Mozilla's Firefox allows pages to be seen in their intended format no matter what type of computer you have.  You may obtain your free copy of firefox by using the button on the course homepage or going to http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

The use of Clickers

We will be using an interactive response system from iClicker.  You should have received the iClicker with your textbook, and should bring it to class each day.

Clickers allow me to create interactive demonstrations, to assess your comprehension of a topic under discussion, to assess preferences, and obtain feedback.  They also will allow me to check attendance.

The first thing you should do is to register your clicker.  Don’t do this on the website text book, but instead use the form I have created linked to the course home page: www.INDV101.org  (follow the link Register Your Clicker).

Register on the Textbook Website

The textbook website to accompany Myers 8^th Edition has many useful resources to assist you in your studying.  To use this website, you’ll need to register as a student user.  If you wish to complete any of the quizzes to apply towards your grade (see below), you will need to follow the registration directions linked to the course home page: www.INDV101.org (follow the link to Register on Text Website).  The important detail is for you to use your UA Net ID instead of your first name when you register.

Requirements and Evaluation

You are required to take five exams, write two papers, gain research experience, register for the class listserv, and attend class.  You may optionally substitute the results online quizzes for one of your exam scores (see below).  You are responsible for all lecture material and material in the assigned readings, so you are highly encouraged to come to class and do your reading.  Class attendance has routinely been shown to be one of the best predictors of final grades, with students who attend frequently doing much better on the exams.

Exams: There will be five equally weighted 50-point non-cumulative exams: four during the semester (February 7, February 28, March 28, & April 18), and one during the scheduled Final Exam period (Wednesday, May 9). All exams during the semester will be given during the regular class time. The exams will NOT be comprehensive; i.e., they will NOT cover material discussed or assigned before any previous exams (although concepts that were introduced and then once again referred to may be covered). Your total exam points towards your grade will be determined by an equal weighting of your scores on the three exams during the semester on which you score best, plus your score on the final exam; the test on which you score lowest during the semester will not be counted towards your final grade.  If you miss an exam during the semester, it will be treated as your lowest exam score. You must take the final exam, and it may not be dropped as your lowest exam. Because of the size of the class, exams will contain multiple-choice items. The exams will cover both readings and lecture in approximately equal proportion. You are responsible for material in any of the readings listed on the syllabus.

People learn best when they receive immediate feedback on their performance. Therefore, copies of the correct answers will be available for students to review after they turn in their exams on the scheduled exam days. Exams are the property of the instructor and may not be taken from the classroom.

In order to do well on the tests, you should keep current on the readings and attend class. It is very easy to get behind on the readings; strive to have the readings completed prior to the class period for which they are assigned.  I must also caution you against a strategy that I have been known to use all too often: procrastination.  The textbook has many pages that you are required to read.  I find that reading an entire chapter in a single sitting can be rather overwhelming.  You would be best advised to read fewer pages more often.  “Cramming” is an especially poor strategy for mastering the material you will need to know for the exams.

Quiz Option.  Realizing that not everyone can demonstrate their best learning in the classroom test environment, I offer the option to replace one exam score with a score based on the results of the online quizzes offered through the textbook companion website.  You can follow the link from the class home page www.INDV101.org to Textbook Website and complete quizzes for each chapter assigned on the syllabus.  There are two quizzes per chapter. You may take either or both, but the quiz with the highest score from that chapter will count towards your grade.  Each quiz yields a percent correct, and the average percent correct of the best quiz from each of the assigned chapters will then be used to determine your substitute exam score.  This substitute exam score will be computed by multiplying the average percent correct by 50 points (the number of points in a single exam).  If this quiz result is higher than your lowest remaining exam score, after already dropping the lowest score, then the quiz result will replace that lowest remaining exam score.  If you don’t complete all quizzes by the time of the final exam, I will simply compute your grade as described above using your three best semester exam scores plus the final exam score.

Written Papers.  The goal of the writing requirement, in addition to satisfying the University of Arizona general education requirement, is to provide you an opportunity to think critically about human behavior and experience, and to write a position paper on one of several controversial topics that I will provide you.  In order for the writing experience to be beneficial, you will receive feedback that can assist you with further writing.  You will therefore be required to write two 3-5 page papers, selected from among topics to appear on the class web site.  The first paper is due Feb 19, and you will receive feedback on that paper by March 7.  Then second paper is due April 2, and you will receive feedback on that paper on April 23.  Each paper is worth 50 points; the two papers thus comprise 100 points, or about 30% of your course grade.  Further details on paper requirements will become available on the class website: www.INDV101.org.  In addition to the formal feedback following each paper, you will be able to meet with me or with teaching assistants in advance of the due date to get feedback on your ideas, or on a draft or outline of your paper.  Finally, there will be a series of writing workshops provided in advance of each paper deadline.

Attendance.  Your attendance will be tracked using the clickers.  It is expected that you will attend at least 80% of the class lecture sessions, and will receive 25 points (about 7½% of your grade) for doing so.  Students attending more than 50% but less than 80% of the sessions will receive 12 points.  Students failing to attend at least 50% of the sessions will receive zero points.  You receive credit for attending each exam during the semester, so you need to miss no more than 5 class sessions to get full attendance credit, assuming you attend all four semester exams.  Attendance is counted on a given day only if you answer questions with your clicker throughout the lecture.

Research Participation: You are required to gain research experience by participating first hand.  Most students fulfill this requirement by participating in psychological research being conducted by the department of psychology. A full description of the Research Participation Requirement is attached to this syllabus or available at http://www.gened.arizona.edu/jallen/Research_Spring_2007.pdf or from the class website www.INDV101.org under the Syllabus link.. You must accrue 10 experimental credits or you will automatically receive a grade of "I" (Incomplete).  This amounts to between 2 and 3 hours of your time over the course of the semester, and following each experiment you will be given a detailed explanation of the research in which you participated.  This can be a very enlightening experience in terms of allowing you to see what psychological research is like from both the vantage point of investigator and participant. 

To participate in research, register with the experiment tracking website at experiments.psychology.arizona.edu or by following the Research Experiments link on the course website www.INDV101.org .  When you participate in a research project, the researcher will provide you with a credit receipt. You should retain these receipts and keep a record of projects in which you participate, noting specifically: date of participation, place of research project, researcher name, researcher phone number, experiment number, and the number of points promised. If any discrepancies result, this information will be vital in order to track down the source of the problem and to credit you with the appropriate points.  The experiment website will track your participation, and your instructor will receive a final tally of your participation at semester’s end.

If you object to being a research participant or simply prefer to write a third paper, you can fulfill the research experience requirement by writing a detailed synopsis of an original research article from a psychology journal; if you choose this requirement, your five page paper will be due on the date listed on the handout provided.  Note that this research paper option is separate from and in addition to the required paper assignments described above.   If you choose this research paper option, you must get your choice of an article to write about approved by the instructor by the day of the first exam (Feb 7). If you do not either earn 10 credits for research participation or turn in an acceptable research paper, you will receive an Incomplete in the course until such time as you complete the requirement. Details regarding the Research Participation Program are provided on the separate handout;  please read it over carefully.

Subscribing to the class email listserv: You are required to subscribe to the class listserv no later than January 26.  If you registered for INDV101-023 before January 3, you were very likely subscribed already, as I subscribed those on my class roster on January 3.  If you registered for the course later than January 3, or if your email listed with the registrar is incomplete or inaccurate, then you’ll need to join the listserv. 

As an incentive, you will receive 5 points (approximately 1½%) towards your grade for registering in a timely fashion.  You are free to register at any time, but you will only receive the 5 points if you registered by Jan 26.  The class listservice provides a method for me to distribute information quickly and easily. It also provides a forum for discussing topics of interest to class members. If you are not already subscribed to the list, send a message from your Email account to:
    LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
and include the following in the body of the message:
    SUB INDV101ALLEN Your Full Name

Grades: Your letter grade will be determined in the following way: The highest total score (based on the three best semester exams + the final exam + the two papers + signing up for listserv + attendance) attained by any student in the class will become the reference score for grading. (Note that this total may be comprised by the quiz result in lieu of one of the exam scores if a student selected this option.)  The student(s) with this highest total score will receive a grade of 100%. All other students will receive a percentage grade based upon this highest score, and the following scale will be applied:

90% & above = A
80%-89% = B
65%-79% = C
50%-64% = D
Below 50% = F

For example, if there are 330 possible total points, and the highest score attained by any student is 300, then 90% of 300 = 270; all students with total points greater than or equal to 270 would receive a letter grade of A. Similarly, 50% of 300 is 150; only those students with fewer than 150 total points would receive failing grades. This is not grading "by the curve"; with this system, it is conceivable that everyone could receive a letter grade of A.   Note that your 10 experimental research participation credits are not added into your total; participation is simply required to avoid receiving an incomplete.

This grading system will not be altered – not in general, and definitely not for any one individual.  I am always shocked that students will come to me after the end of the semester and ask that I change their letter grade because they are 1 or 2 or even more points from a cutoff for a higher grade.  To change an individual’s grade for this reason would be unethical, would violate university regulations, and would be unfair to the rest of the class.  Do not come to me to try to persuade me to change your grade; only grading or clerical errors are a valid reason for a change of grade.  Moreover, because this system is based not on the total number of possible points, but on the number actually attained by anyone in the class, it compensates for the overall difficulty of the exams.  Finally, there are many opportunities to perform well, including being able to drop your lowest of the four semester exams, being able to substitute quiz scores for another exam score, and receiving points simply for attending class and for subscribing to the class listserv.

Missed Classes and Make-up Exams

In the unfortunate event you should miss a class, you will have to borrow notes from another class member. You will also be held responsible for any changes or additions to the syllabus that are announced in class.

There are virtually no satisfactory excuses for missing an exam. (For a discussion of a variant of this problem, please see this link). No make-up exams will be offered. If you need to miss an exam, it will be counted as your exam with the lowest score and therefore will be the exam that will be dropped before computing your grade. As mentioned above, however, you must take the final exam. In the extremely unlikely event that travels will keep you from more than one exam, an alternative exam will be given only if prior arrangements have been made with the instructor at least two weeks before the scheduled exam.

Note that the final exam is slated late in final exam period.  The time is not negotiable, and no special arrangements will be made to assist students in finishing the semester early.  Please do not ask to take this exam early; I did not choose this time, but am bound by University rules to hold the exam at this time. 

Academic Honesty and Courtesy to Fellow Students

Cheating and plagiarism on any exam or paper will result in a failing grade for the course, a notice will be sent to the Dean's office, and expulsion from the University of Arizona can result.  If you are not familiar with the University of Arizona's Code of Academic Integrity, please see
http://www.abor.asu.edu/1_the_regents/policymanual/chap5/5-308.pdf .  Please note that prohibited conduct includes “all forms of student academic dishonesty, including but not limited to, cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty and plagiarism.”

Plagiarism is defined as any case where one person tries to take credit for the ideas or work of another.  This includes copying another class member’s work, using another student’s work and claiming it for your own, or placing verbatim in your paper the words of a published work.  This includes copying verbatim material from the Internet.  Cheating also includes copying someone else's exam answers.  If, when writing your paper, you are unsure of whether you may quote something or whether something would constitute cheating or plagiarism, please check with the instructor or the teaching assistants!

As a courtesy to fellow students, please conduct yourself in a courteous and considerate fashion during class. Consider the simple fact that there are over 500 students, and only one instructor. And although the instructor has the advantage of a microphone, even well intentioned conversations in the lecture hall can make it difficult for fellow students to attend to the lecture. Besides, it's just plain rude.

Cell phone?  Turn the gadget off.  MP3 player?  Put it away.  The newspaper?  Save it for later.  Blackberry?  Get a life.

Personal Responsibility

Please take personal responsibility for your work and your future.  Over half of entering freshman at the University of Arizona do not graduate.  You have the chance to beat these odds, but you need to take responsibility for working diligently in your classes, planning ahead for assignments and exams, doing your best, and taking responsibility for your performance.  This semester I am providing a wealth of study skills assistance, in the form of several preceptors devoted specifically to assist with the development of effective study habits.  Please take advantage of this excellent opportunity.  More details will be available on the website (www.INDV101.org).  There are also study skill aids on the textbook website in the form of flash cards and review material.  There will be review sessions.  There are office hours.  Please, come to office hours before you find yourself in grade trouble.  I will make sure that I and all TAs devote tremendous energy to those students who plan ahead and use office hours for studying and clarifying concepts.  I will have not have the same response for students who come to office hours wishing to convince me to change grades once such students are in grade trouble.    

Students with Disabilities

If you anticipate issues related to the format or requirements of this course, please meet with me.  I would like us to discuss ways to ensure your full participation in the course.  If you determine that formal, disability-related accommodations are necessary, it is very important that you be registered with Disability Resources (621-3268; drc.arizona.edu) and notify me of your eligibility for reasonable accommodations.  We can then plan how best to coordinate your accommodations.

Personal Psychological Problems

In a class this large, there will undoubtedly be some students having psychological difficulties or wanting to help someone who does. I am hopeful that you will learn some valuable things in this course, but there is no reason to believe that learning about psychology by itself will help you solve your own or someone else's psychological difficulties.  Although I am a licensed psychologist, I cannot serve as your or your friend’s therapist.  It is not ethical for psychologists to serve as someone’s counselor and additionally as someone’s instructor.  I can, however, point you in the direction of a colleague who could provide assistance.  It may be worth mentioning that nearly half the population will experience substantial psychological difficulty at some point in their lives.  Seeking help does not indicate a problem, but is a smart move if one is experiencing difficulties. 
  
There are many options for treating psychological difficulties.  These include taking prescription drugs, working to identify on counter-productive beliefs and thinking about the self and the world, engaging in relaxation techniques, working on past experiences, dealing with family and relationship problems, developing better social skills, learning better study habits, reducing study-related anxiety, and developing problem-solving strategies.  All of these approaches can be useful. Our knowledge of what works best, and for what type of problem, is limited, but we do know from research that obtaining help from a reputable mental health professional is definitely better than not doing anything. People do improve and change but not until they make the effort to do so. So if you are miserable, or for other reasons feel that you may have a psychological problem, by all means seek help! Pass this advice on to others in need. The easiest first step is to make an appointment to see someone with Counseling and Psychological Services at the Student Health Center, 621-3334.

So, Now That the Administrative Stuff is out of the Way, What Can You Expect?

The good news is that this course will cover a broad array of exciting topics, and you will learn a great deal during this course.  By the end of the course, you will be much better equipped to evaluate claims concerning human behavior, and you will have a better appreciation for the many different biological and environmental factors that influence our behavior and experience.  You will also know more about such fascinating topics as sex, drugs, consciousness, learning, amnesia, aging, mental illness, and psychotherapy.  It is my sincere hope that you will be better equipped to evaluate the many psychological claims you encounter in the future, that you'll have a little better idea of what makes us all "tick," and that you might apply some of what we cover this semester to make your own lives more fulfilling.

Tentative Schedule of Topics & Readings  (Link)

Handy Dandy Checklist