Introductory to Psychology – Psychology 1315/006 Spring Semester 2008; Tuesdays/Thursdays 12:30 – 1:50 pm Life Science Bldg 100 Instructor: Marc Gomez Office: 411 Life Science Building Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00pm – 3:00pm 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, neurological and clinical psychological 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 that 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. Additionally, all students will be required to bring some form of picture identification (i.e., student ID, driver’s license, or passport) on exam days. Students will be asked to present the identification when submitting their test. Students who wish to find out what 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 All students enrolled in PSYC 1315 must complete SIX (6) research participation credits by the end of the last class day. This requirement may be satisfied by serving as a subject in an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved psychological study and/or by summarizing and evaluating published studies, in journals or in other sources, approved by the Sona Administrator. Credits/points 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. Specific questions/concerns should be addressed to the Subject Pool Coordinator, Marie Ramirez, at [email protected]. Extra Credit or Free Points There are several ways a student can earn extra credit or free points 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 two (2) extra points toward their final grade by participating in two (2) additional experiments or writing research article reviews as per the Sona handout requirements. A student has the option of doing two experiments, two article reviews or a combination of the two (e.g., one experiment and one review). Like the attendance policy, assigned homework other than the required reading is optional. I will only assign homework in addition to the reading if I believe the extra homework will benefit the student’s learning objective. Therefore, I will randomly select assignments to pick up to grant as extra credit (assuming it is right). Not every assignment will be picked up. 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
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