INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY PSYC 255 January 17- May 3 MWF 10:10 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. TERRIL 319 SPRING 2007 Instructor: Kathryn Roecklein, M.S. Contact: (802) 881-8895 Office Hours: by appointment Office: John Dewey Hall 361 Email: [email protected] The Course The main purposes of this course are: • To examine how the areas of health, illness and medicine are studied from a psychological prospective, • To introduce you to the main topics and issues in the area of health psychology and • To train you to judge the scientific quality of research on psychology and medicine. The Text The text required for this course is Health Psychology, Sixth Edition (Shelly E. Taylor) ISBN10: 0-07-310726-3; ISBN13: 978-0-07-310726-4. Class will be devoted more to introducing and summarizing topics fully dealt with in the text and clarifying difficult areas, rather than repeating the material in the chapters. More importantly, I will bring in current topics from the field and give you as much hands on experience with the subject matter as possible. You are responsible for all the material in the assigned readings even if not covered in lectures. I urge you to bring up any problems you have with the readings during class, and in order to do so, you’ll need to read the assigned chapters before the corresponding class period, according to the schedule below. Please feel free to ask questions and offer constructive comments during or after lectures. Groups I believe that learning is best achieved if students actively participate in class instead of sitting back and listening to lectures. To facilitate active learning I will conduct group activities. Groups of 3-4 students will be created by random assignment. You will also be given discussion topics and group activities from time to time. Groups will also be asked to make a class presentation at the end of the Semester (see below). Each person’s participation will be monitored, so I encourage each student to self-monitor their own activity and that of group members in an effort to ensure balanced and equivalent participation levels. Grading and Requirements There will be three exams, article presentations, a group presentation and twopapers: I. Exams will be in a short answer format. There will be time to review before each exam. Each of the three exams will consist of short answer questions only. The second and final exams (exams 2 & 3) will be cumulative in the sense that you’ll be required to integrate material covered through the semester. II. Article Presentations will be assigned for each class, one student per class (25 students = 25 articles). We will go over how to do an article presentation on January 26th when I will do the article presentation and we can talk about what is expected. Articles presented in class may be tested, and each student is required only to read and present one article, although if you’d like a copy, just ask. III. For the Group Presentations, you will be required to choose a disorder or topic area (not covered in class lectures) and present it according to guidelines, which I will discuss in class and provide a detailed handout for. I will also do a model presentation on January 22nd and give you chances to ask questions about the assignment. Group presentations will occur during the last couple weeks of the course, and the groups will be assigned randomly, with 3-4 members in each group. IV. BEHAVIOR CHANGE PROJECT: We all have behaviors that we would like to do more off, and some that we want to do less of. This assignment will allow you to take what you learn in this class and make a direct change to your life. You will write two papers for the behavioral change project: Part I is your Plan and Part II is a Final Report, which documents your procedure and success (with measured outcome variables) with changing a behavior of your choosing. Examples include but are not limited to: a. Exercising b. Diet or eating behavior c. Smoking d. Drinking e. Time management f. Developing a relaxation practice Both papers should not exceed 5 double spaced pages (should be spell-checked, grammatically sound, in a 10-12 point font, and have 1 inch margins). You are strongly recommended to sign up with the campus Writing Center to get your paper checked and critiqued. If you would like to make an appointment with the Writing Center, call 656-4075 (on-campus 6-4075). Writing Center Address: 244 Commons Living & Learning Center. Your topic is due February 12th, Plan papers (Part I) are due on March 2nd, and Final papers (Part II) are due on March 26th, so you’ll have 24 days to implement your plan between submitting the plan on the 2nd and the results on the 26th of March. No exceptions to the deadlines, and you must print them out and turnthem in as hard copies, although I’d like an e-mail copy as well. Also, please include your e-mail on the paper you describe your topic on so that when I review the topics, I can contact you to approve or make suggestions. Complete and specific details regarding each assignment will be covered in class during the model presentation. The change projects will be kept confidential, unless you decide to share your paper with others. Part I is worth 5 points, and Part II is worth 10 points, for a total of 15% of your final grade. Course Grades will be assigned in the following manner: Exam 1 20% Behavioral Change Papers - Total 15% Exam 2 20% -Part I 5% Exam 3 20% -Part II 10% Group Presentation 15% Article Presentation 10% A+ 97-100 B+ 87-89 C+ 77-79 D+ 67-69 A 93-96 B 83-86 C 73-76 D 63-66 A- 90-92 B- 80-82 C- 70-72 D- 60-62 F below 60 [unthinkable] NO make-up exams will be given. Because exam dates are specified well in advance and scheduled during class times you will be expected to be able to take all of them. Exceptions for catastrophic cases will be reviewed individually, and will require that your Dean is provided with documentation of said catastrophe, and the Dean sees fit to contact your professors and excuse you from class. No Late papers or assignments will be accepted – you will receive a Zero. Early papers will be accepted.Schedule Class Date Topic Chapter 1 Jan. 17 Syllabus & Text (Yael Nillni - guest) n/a 2 Jan. 19 Syllabus and Assignments n/a Group Presentation Assignment Discussion 3 Jan. 22 Model Group Presentation by Instructor: