SYLLABUS
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY 2301
Fall 2008 4W001
BEFORE YOU GET STARTED
In order
for you to have a very successful semester and to eliminate many frustrations
students have with Distance Education you will be required to read and
understand 3 documents; syllabus, how to submit assignments, and frequently
answered questions. These items are located on the homepage and in the Week One
orientation folder also located on the homepage. Doing on line orientation is
advisable for students not familiar with Evista. There is an online tutorial link in the
Getting Started page.
PRACTICE EXAM
Located in
the Week One orientation folder is the practice test or assessment. The assessment quizzes you on 3 documents; syllabus, how to submit
assignments, and frequently answered questions. You may take the assessment as
many times as you wish. This will help you learn how to take an assessment online
and to submit the assessment for grading.
This will also help you with course instructions. When you have answered all questions
correctly, you earn points and you may then begin this course. You must have a perfect score before
beginning the class.
______________________________________________________________________
CATALOGUE
DESCRIPTION
An introductory
course with the elementary principles of human behavior. Designed especially for those students
majoring in the social or biological sciences, premedicine or education.
(4201015125)
None
“Any student with a documented disability (e.g. physical,
learning, psychiatric, developmental, vision, hearing, etc.) who needs to
arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the Disability Support Services
(DSS) Counselor at the beginning of each semester. Faculty members are
authorized to provide only the accommodations requested by the DSS Office.
DEAN AND DEPARTMENT CHAIR CONTACT
Dean of BELS Division: Barbara Buchanan. barbara.buchanan@lonestar.edu
Department Chair of Social Sciences: Jared Cootz. jared.cootz@lonestar.edu
(936) 273-7000
INSTRUCTOR
CONTACT INFORMATION
Irv
Lichtman; irv.lichtman@lonestar.edu. (936) 273-7000
|
2008 - 2009 Learning Outcomes for
PSYC 2301 |
REQUIRED MATERIALS
Plotniki,Rod.
(2005) Introduction to Psychology. Belmont, California : Thomson Wadsworth Publishing. (8E edition)
TOPICS
Biopsychological
perspective
Behavioral
Perspective
Cognitive Perspective
Developmental
Perspective
Psychological
Disorders and Therapy
Psychoanalytic
Perspective
PLAGIARISM AND
CHEATING
In the case of
plagiarism (claiming that words and ideas of others are your own and/or not indicating
the source of ideas), the instructor reserves the right to give the student a
zero for the assignment. In the case of
cheating during the course of a quiz or unauthorized collaboration on a writing
project, the instructor reserves the right to give the student or students a
zero for the quiz or assignment. All
work must reflect individuality even thought you may choose to work
collaboratively.
NOTICE OF
INSTRUCTOR’S RIGHT TO MODIFY THE SYLLABUS
The instructor
reserves the right to modify this syllabus and will notify the class of any
changes in a timely manner.
WITHDRAWL/DROP
POLICY
The instructor reserves the right to withdraw a student
after determining that the student is not satisfactorily completing assigned
work. In most cases the instructor will deny the student access to the course
when there is a critical need to communicate with the student. It is the
student’s responsibility to contact the instructor in order to work out a
mutually agreed plan to remove the deficiency or deficiencies in question. Ultimately, it is the student’s
responsibility to withdraw from the course to avoid receiving a failing grade.
INSTRUCTOR’S
RESPONSE TIME TO STUDENT
The instructor responds to students within 8 hours. The instructor goes on line a minimum of two
times daily; afternoon and evening.
There are times that instructor may have to deviate from this schedule
and students will be notified. Under the
most unforeseen circumstances the instructor will respond within 24 hours.
COURSE CALENDAR
This is an important
tool. Every time you logon you need to
check your calendar for important postings.
This tool will keep you up to date as to when course requirements are
available to you as well as the date and time of deadlines to submit work.
FOLDER
Each
folder contains learning modules that pertain to an assessment. A learning module contains all information
you need to complete an assignment and assessment. Items in the learning module
include written assignment, power points, psychology simulation, critical
thinking exercises, helpful web links, supplementary activities, reviews,
videos, and discussions. Below is a more
detailed description of the contents.
Module Power Points
Powerpoints
are an excellent way to review for exams, obtain information for the module
written assignments, and to understand key course objectives. * You will need Microsoft Word .doc to
view and work with all online documentation. Without high speed internet, it takes
approximately 2-4 minutes to download the powerpoint presentations.
Video
Clips
There are video clips showing historical information about
the module topic. It is not mandatory that you view
them. You must have high speed internet to download or this will take
several minutes to load.
Written Module Assignments
There are 10 written
assignments each worth 25 points for a total of 250 points. Please follow your course calendar for dates of
submissions. Each written MODULE assignment is located in the learning modules.
All assignments are released at 10 am and have deadlines of 9 pm. Instructor makes comments on each
assignment. Always read instructor
comments prior to emailing to ask a question.
Download and fill out assignment
and Upload or attach and submit. Always
download and save to your computer before uploading and submitting.
Up to 3 bonus points are awarded for assignment submitted
prior to the cutoff or deadline date.
The assignment and all questions must be fully completed. There are 10 written assignments for a
possible total of 30 bonus points.
Discussions
You are
required to respond to10 discussion questions.
You are required to respond to instructor’s discussion question from each
assigned module and another student’s discussion from the
same assigned module. There
is a response to the instructor’s lead question which is at the beginning of
all questions. This discussion MUST
be one full page or approximately 200 words or no credit will be
issued. ** Minimum of 200 words for credit. You
must also respond to another student’s discussion in addition to the discussion
of the instructor. Your response
to another students discussion must be a minimum of 100 words for credit. There
are a total of 2 discussions (200 words and 100 words) per module for 10 points
per module.
Psychology Simulations
The simulation are
interactive and a good way to understand many of the key learning
concepts. This is not a mandatory
assignment but for learning enrichment.
Module Web Links
The web links for each module add additional opportunity to
find supplementary information for each topic.
This is not a mandatory assignment but for learning enrichment.
Critical
Thinking Exercises
These exercises may be used to expand you knowledge on each
module topic. This is not a mandatory
assignment but for learning enrichment.
Assessments
There are 5
assessments and a Final exam for a total of 6 exams. You
will drop the lowest of the first 5 assessments but the final exam is not
dropped.
Each is worth 100
points for a total of 500 points. Dates and times will be posted on the course
calendar. All exams are online. The final exam is mandatory. You have 3 attempts for all exams (except for the final)
during the testing period and the highest test score counts. You have two
attempts for the final.
Journal Assignment (Journal
Article + Journal Report) Folder
You are required to
read and submit an article and a report from a psychological journal. You will first select a topic. You will then
select a scientific psychology journal
from an approved APA Subject List.
The link to the American Psychology Association subject web site is
located in the Journal Instructions in the Journal Assignment folder. You will
submit a copy of the journal article and report which is worth 100 points. If
it is submitted on the due date there is a 20 point bonus for a total of 120 points. The precise requirements as well as criteria
for grading are located in this folder. An example of this assignment is also
located in this folder. Take the time to
review the example. You must submit an
electronic copy of the Journal Article together with your Journal Report. (Journal Report + Copy of Journal Article =
Journal Assignment)
The Journal article is to be in pdf
format and the report is to be a word document. Both are uploaded first and
then both are submitted together. You may combine the report and the article
into one word doc file. The first method
is easiest because many of the articles are downloaded in pdf.
The questions for your report are located in the file titled “Becoming
Acquainted with Research. Your course calendar specifies the dates when the
Journal Assignment is due. **Journal
articles that pertain to Dreams are prohibited
The journal assignment may not be submitted
prior to the due date.
No credit issued if copy of journal article is not submitted with
journal report and copy of journal must specify the name of journal, date of
journal article, name of journal article and volume number in such manner that
is easily readable by the
instructor. Do not hyperlink your
journal article. This, too, will result in no credit. The instructor does not have the time to surf
the web looking for your journal article.
EXTRA CREDIT
The extra credit
assignment requires you to find an article from a scientific journal of
psychology. This assignment is simply an
additional article from a journal on the APA subject list. You may earn up to 50 points. You must submit extra credit
under Extra Assignment .
GRADE
CALCULATION
Written chapter
assignments 250 points
Discussions 100
points
Journal Report 100 points
4 Exams 400
points
Final Exam 100
points
Practice Exam 50 points
TOTAL 1000
points
Extra Possible Points
Extra Credit 50 points (Must meet qualifications)
Assignment Bonus
Points 30 points (3 points for each assignment
complete and submitted early)
Journal
Assignment
20 points (Bonus for submitting on Due date)
Total Possible Points 1100 points
GRADE
CALCULATOR
895-1000 points = A
795-894 points = B
695-794 points = C
594-694 points = D
Below 594 = F
REVIEW
**All work
must be Microsoft Word Doc., rtf. or pdf. No other format is acceptable.
**All
discussions are posted to for public view and not attached to emails.
**NO
ASSIGNMENT OR DISCUSSION is ATTACHED TO AN EMAIL.
**Anything attached to an email will not
receive credit under any circumstances.