Psych 125: Principles of Psychology

Semester 1, 2002/2003

Psychology 125 surveys major topics in psychology. Classes will contain a mixture of lectures, demonstrations, discussions, and activities.

1. Understand the major areas of psychology, the central questions they pose and their prominent theories and findings
2. Be familiar with psychological research methods and how the scientific method is used to answer psychological questions.
3. Understand how behavior can be thought of as the result of evolutionary and/or cultural adaptation
4. Be able to apply psychological principles and theories to your own life.

5. Be able to explore psychological issues through literature.

- Psychology, Peter Gray; 4^th ed. ; Worth Publishers

- Scientific American Psychology Reader; Worth Publishing

All readings assigned are to be completed prior to class. I will give a number of ungraded quizzes (either in class or via email) to help you check your level of preparation. Important: Since the purpose of the course is to give an overview of the field, and since some of the class time will be spent on your research project, we will not be able to spend a long time on each topic in class. Your readings will cover each topic extensively, while in class only a few subtopics will be highlighted and/ or added. You are responsible for all materials covered in class and in the readings.

B+: 87-89%, B: 83-86%, B-: 80-82%

C+: 77-79%, C: 73-76%, C-: 70-72%

D+: 67-69%, D: 63-76%, D-: 60-62%

- four 1-hour exams (20% each, lowest score will be dropped)

- Final exam (22%)

- Poster project (15%)

- Research Participation (3%)

Because of the large class size, exams will consist of Multiple Choice Questions only. The final exam will be cumulative. Again: for the exams you are responsible for all materials covered in your readings or in class.

To help you understand the complexities of psychological research and also to give you the opportunity to learn about an area of psychology in greater depth, you will be conducting an empirical project in groups of 5 or 6. Each group will be working with a teaching assistant to develop a hypothesis, design a study, implement the study, analyze the data, and present the results to the class in the form of a poster.

The majority of this project will be worked on outside of class with your group. This project involves using the library to find appropriate psychological literature upon which to base your study, designing your study, collecting data, analyzing your data, and creating a poster for our poster session, which will be held in the last week of class. To make the project more manageable, there are a number of smaller due dates that will help keep you on track with the project. For each due date, your group will have to turn in an assignment that will count toward your final grade. You will receive a group grade for the empirical project.

To help you with the project, you will be assigned to a TA. The TAs for this course all have experience conducting research and are all psychology majors. They are excellent resources for you as you work on your projects. It is up to your group to contact your TA and set up a meeting time.

I am fully aware of the difficulties often arising from group projects. Chuck Huff (former chair of the Psychology department who is on sabbatical this year) has some excellent guidelines for group work posted on his website. Please refer to it before starting work with your group:

Serving as a participant in a variety of psychological studies should increase your understanding of psychological research methods and psychological theories. To receive your research participation points, you must (a) participate in three psychological studies and (b) read the background information given to you by the experimenter after your participation. If you do not want to participate in research, you can fulfill the research requirement by reading about research and writing a 1-2 page paper.

All psychological research conducted at St. Olaf College has been reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board to ensure it follows the ethical principles established by the American Psychological Association.

The syllabus indicates all test and assignment dates, so plan accordingly. Since you get to drop one test score, make-up exams will only be given for extreme circumstances that are documented (note from your doctor, advisor, etc). Late assignments will lose 10% per day.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE