A broad survey of the major topics in psychology including, but not limited to, research methodology, biological and social factors influencing behavior, development, learning, memory, personality, and abnormal.
After successfully completing this course, you should be able to:
- Describe the basic processes underlying a variety of psychological phenomena, including development, emotion, motivation, learning, memory, and consciousness
- Demonstrate familiarity with major psychological concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical trends
- Discuss the ways that environmental and biological processes contribute to psychological phenomena
- Apply psychological concepts to general descriptions of human behavior as well as your own experiences and attitudes
The Exam-only track grading will be based on four midterm exams, with an optional comprehensive final exam. The four midterm exams will each cover approximately four chapters worth of material and will consist of 50 multiple choice questions, each worth two points (100 points per exam). The final exam is comprehensive, covering material from the entire semester, and is optional. The final exam will be the same format as the midterm exams. If your final exam score is higher than your lowest midterm exam score, then it will replace that score. If it is lower than your lowest midterm score, then it will be discarded. This means that there is no riskof lowering your grade if you take the final exam, because your final grade will be based on your four highest exam scores (modified by your research participation, see below). Each of the four exams will be worth 25% of your final grade.
Attendance will not be monitored. However, research indicates that you will learn more, retain more, and do better in class if you attend each lecture and take notes. In general, the more you can actively engage (e.g., ask questions, take notes, translate notes into your own words, draw diagrams), the better you will learn.
Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.
This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Social Sciences area.
Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help students master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.
This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:
- How do I understand human experiences and connections?
- Students will effectively analyze the complexity of human behavior, and how historical, economic, political, social, or geographic relationships develop, persist, or change.
- Intercultural Competence
- Perspective-Taking
- Persuasion
Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:
Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies: