Course credit
3 credit hours
Course description
Survey of basic principles in psychology. Course requires participation in psychological research; or an alternative acceptable to both students and the department which provides a similar educational experience.
Delivery
This course is available in a web-based format, utilizing web pages and MyCourses, a computer conferencing program. MyCourses requires Internet access and a web browser — no additional software is required. Students may need access to someone who can assist with computer set-up.
Prerequisites
none
Instructor
Heather C. Peterson, MA, Forensic Psychology
Evaluation
15 assignments, 1 research requirement, a final research project, 4 exams
Overview
This course, Introduction to Psychology, satisfies the Individual and Institutional Perspectives requirement of the Social Science Category in the Liberal Arts Core at the University of Northern Iowa. It is designed to provide an introduction to the study of behavior with emphasis in the areas of learning, cognition, motivation, personality, behavioral disorder, therapy, and social influence. An understanding of the impact of both theoretical perspectives and experimental evidence on the formulation of the science of human behavior is also stressed. Psychological theories and principles are utilized to explain and predict behavior.
Psychology is the scientific study of mind, brain, and behavior. Some of what you will learn may seem like "common sense," or at the very least familiar to you because you will be learning about topics that you can relate to. However, one of the most important things you will learn is that some of what we believe to be "common sense" is not true at all, and that even "common sense" principles should be evaluated scientifically. You will learn about psychology from several different viewpoints: psychology as an academic science, psychology in life (yours included!), and psychology in the broader world. All course assignments and materials are designed to bring psychology to you from these different areas.
You may be entering this course thinking it will be “easy,” interesting, and maybe fun. Well you’re right about the last two but not the first! An introductory psychology course necessarily covers a great deal of material, and contrary to all of your notions about what psychology is, much of it is challenging. Each of your chapters is actually its own specialty area in psychology and psychologists and researchers will spend their whole working lives on one area. So there is a lot of material to cover and you will get a “taste” of each major area in psychology. Personal values, memories, and reflections are an important part of learning about psychology, however, you will learn that understanding the material cannot just be done from a personal perspective. Rather, you must also learn about the material from a scientific point of view. You will have to develop and/or hone your study skills in order to do well in this course.
Objectives
Field of Psychology
Scientific Methods in Psychology
Biological Psychology
Altered States
Sensation and Perception
Development
Learning
Memory
Cognition
Intelligence and its measurement
Motivation
Emotions, Health Psychology, and Stress
Personality
Abnormal Behavior
Therapy
Social Psychology
Course organization
Written Assignments:
For each chapter there is a 40 point written assignment. For each assignment you are required to respond to two of the four essay questions provided. All answers are to be typed and double-spaced (APA style), and students should limit each answer to two to five pages. Each response is worth 20 points. An excellent response will be clear and concise while demonstrating a detailed understanding of the concepts as well as your critical thinking skills.
Extra Credit: After each written assignment you will find an extra credit opportunity. This may involve watching a film, reading a book, or completing a task and writing a short report (2-5 double-spaced pages, APA style) on your experience. Each extra credit opportunity is worth up to 10 points, and is to be submitted along with the written assignment. In addition to these written extra credit opportunities, there will also be a few extra credit questions on each exam.
Research Requirement:
Experiment participation is a departmental requirement designed to expose students to the research process in psychology, as well as provide a critical service to psychologists conducting research at the university—psychologists need human subjects to do their research. Therefore, every introductory psychology student at UNI is required to participate in 4 credits (1 credit=1 hour) of experiments. This credit is graded complete or incomplete and carries no point value. (Students receive an “incomplete” in the course until the requirement is fulfilled).
Due to the online nature of this Guided Independent Study course, reading research reports has been chosen as an alternate assignment and is required in lieu of actual experiment participation. See the Research Requirement document for further instructions.
Final Research Project:
In addition to the credit/no credit aspect of the experiment participation alternative, a 100 point final research project is also assigned to augment that requirement. This assignment may be submitted at anytime throughout the duration of the course. You are allowed to use the article from your Final Research Project to fulfill one of the four required credits for this research/experiment requirement.
Exams:
Each exam will consist of approximately 20 multiple choice questions (worth one point each) per chapter covered. There will be four proctored exams. Examination request forms are included at the appropriate places in the Course Content.
The breakdown of exams is as follows:
Exam 1: Chapters 1-3 = 60 points
Exam 2: Chapters 4-7 = 80 points
Exam 3: Chapters 8-11 = 80 points
Exam 4: Chapters 12-15 = 80 points
Grading
| Course Requirements: UNI Guided Independent Study requires that you complete all assignments and exams to pass the course. | |
| 15 Written Assignments | 600pts |
| 4 Exams | 300pts |
| Final Research Project | 100pts |
| TOTAL | 1000pts |
| Grading Scale: | |
| A = 93-100 |
C = 73-76 |
A- = 90-92 |
C- = 70-72 |
| B+ = 87-89 | D+ = 67-69 |
| B = 83-86 | D = 63-66 |
| B- = 80-82 | D- = 60-62 |
| C+ = 77-79 | F = less than 60 |
Cheating & Plagiarism:
Cheating is any sort of activity that results in you turning in work (written assignments, reports, extra credit) where you are not the SOLE contributor and developer of the ideas. You are bound to the University’s ethics policies and the consequences of cheating/plagiarizing are not worth it. Do your own work!
If you have a disability that could affect your performance in this class: UNI is committed to equal opportunity in education for all students, including those with documented physical disabilities or documented learning disabilities. It is the responsibility of students to contact the Office of Disability Services (213 Student Services Center-- 319-273-2676) to arrange for documentation and accommodation.
Textbook(s)
Myers, D. (2008). Exploring Psychology 7th Edition. Worth Publishers.
* Additional readings may be required. It will be the student’s responsibility to obtain these materials as assigned.
Texts are available from www.bookfinder.com
University Book and Supply carries most books used in guided independent study.
To search for textbooks by course, click on "Select a Campus Term" and select Univ.Northern Iowa - Guided Independent Study
Visit the store at 1009 West 23rd Street, Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Phone: 319-266-7581 or 800-728-7581
Fax: 319-277-1266
E-mail: bookstore@panthersupply.com
Suggested Resources:
http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/exploring7e/default.asp This site provides students with access to free online resources including study guides, practice quizzes, simulations and demonstrations, as well as additional web links.
http://www.learner.org/resources/series138.html This site provides 26 half-hour “Discovering Psychology” video programs designed to provide an overview of all topics while featuring demonstrations, classic experiments and simulations, current research, documentary footage, and computer animation. These videos may be used as both a preview and review to each specialty topic in psychology.
http://www.apastyle.org This site provide instruction on writing, citing, and referencing work in APA style.
http://0-www.library.uni.edu.unistar.uni.edu/
http://scholar.google.com/ These sites are both resources which will assist you in locating peer reviewed academic/scholarly research articles.
To enroll
ONLINE
GIS enrollment information
IN PERSON
UNI Continuing and Distance Education
2637 Hudson Road (corner of 27th St. and Hudson Rd.)
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0223
Campus map (Look for Building 31)
For more information
Cindy Klodt, Guided Independent Study
UNI Continuing and Distance Education
319-273-2123 or 800-772-1746
ContinuingEd@uni.edu