Introductory to Psychology – Psychology 1315/001 Summer Semester 2008; Mondays/Wednesdays 6:00 – 7:50 pm Life Science Bldg 424 Instructor: Marc Gomez Office: 411 Life Science Building Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 5:15pm – 5:50pm or by appointment Mailbox: Psychology Department, Box 19528 Email: [email protected] Web links: webct.uta.edu; http://www.uta.edu/psychology/; http://uta.sona-systems.com/ Required Textbook: Psychology by James Nairne, 4th edition Recommended/supplement: study guide Course Description/Objective This course is designed to expose students to the field of study encompassing several areas of psychology. Specifically, students will be exposed to social, personality, cognitive, developmental, and neurological concepts. The course is designed to interest and meet the needs of both majors and non-majors of psychology. Mastery of such areas of psychology will come in the form of exams throughout the semester. Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to identify pertinent psychological concepts (i.e., principles, approaches, and theories) through a combination of lectures, activities, videos, class discussions, and assignments set forth in the course outline. Attendance Policy Class attendance is not required; however, I encourage you to attend. Students who regularly attend class tend to do better on the exams than those who only appear on exam days. Material covered in class may not appear in the textbook. If you miss a class, the onus is on you to get the notes from one of your classmates. Tardiness is unacceptable. Please be on time. If you are late, you may miss important announcements and extra credit opportunities. Additionally, if you plan to leave during class please tell me in advance. Class Participation I will conduct class in a manner that encourages student involvement by maintaining an open, informal atmosphere for everyone to discuss topics related to psychology. Respect for other student’s opinions and contributions, regardless of whether those beliefs are contrary to their own beliefs will be upheld. Classroom Behavior Noise devices such as pagers, cellular telephones, and iPods during class are disruptive to other students as well as the instructor. Please make it a habit to have all such devices turned off prior to the start of class. Laptops are permissible for taking notes only. Exams There will be FOUR (4) non-cumulative exams throughout the semester. Exams are used as a measure to demonstrate a student’s knowledge over material leading up to that particular exam day. The exams will cover information in your textbook, as well as additional informationdiscussed in class. Both textbook and class lectures compliment each other. Students who do not read the textbook, but attend lectures run the danger of failing. Likewise, a student who reads the textbook, but does not attend class runs the chance of failing. In short, a student who reads the textbook AND attends class will be better prepared for exam day. Each exam will consist of 50 multiple choice questions worth two (2) points each. Students arriving after the scheduled class start time, on the exam date, may be turned away. That is, a student will not be given an exam once one has been turned in. There will be NO make-up exams given since a student’s lowest test score will be dropped. I respect personal situations which call for absences and that is why I’m allowing the lowest grade out of the first 3 exams to be dropped. Exam 4 (“final examination”) is NOT optional and the grade on this particular exam will not be dropped. Students are asked not to wear ball caps or any other head covering that prevents the proctors from seeing their eyes. Students who wish to see the questions they missed on examinations are invited to meet with me in my office during office hours or by appointment. Specific grades will not be discussed during class. Research Participation Requirement The psychology department requires that all students taking introduction to psychology complete a 6-credit research requirement. The main way in which you will be able to complete this requirement will be by participating in experiments conducted by department faculty and their research assistants. In lieu of participating in experiments, you may choose to write reviews of approved research articles. Completing this assignment will be done via Sona (http://uta.sona-systems.com/). A departmental handout detailing this requirement (and important deadlines) can be found at www.uta.edu/psychology (under links). Any questions pertaining to this assignment that are not covered in the handout can be addressed to Marie Ramirez at [email protected]. Participation credits are NOT added to the course grade for completion of this requirement; however, failure to complete a minimum of 6 credits by the last class day will result in an incomplete for the course regardless of your earned letter grade. Extra Credit or Free Points There are several ways a student can earn extra credit on exams throughout the semester. I may give a random word to the class throughout the semester that will appear as an exam question. This is an incentive for students to attend regularly. A student can earn up to four (4) extra points toward their final grade by participating in two (2) additional experiments or writing research article reviews as per the Sona handout requirements. Each additional .5 participation credit will earn the student 1 point on their final grade. A student has the option of doing experiments and/or article reviews. Like the attendance policy, assigned homework other than the required reading is optional and will be awarded as extra credit. I will only assign homework in addition to the reading if I believe the homework will benefit the student’s learning objective (as well as exam grade). There may be other extra credit opportunities as the semester progresses.Grading The course grade will be based on a point scale which will comprise of the mean of three exam grades (the best two exam grades out of the first three given and exam 4). The grade for each exam will be the % [point] correct of exam questions. The final grade distribution will be based on a 300 point distribution and will be strictly adhered to. A = 270 – 300 pts (90% or higher) B = 240 – 269 pts (80% - 89.9%) C = 210 – 239 pts (70% - 79.9%) D = 180 – 209 pts (60% - 69.9%) F = under 179 pts
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