Introductory Psychology: Course Philosophy
Samuel D. Gosling & James W. Pennebaker
Psychology
is a field that examines how and why we think, feel,
and behave in the ways that we do. The goal of this course is for you to get a basic
understanding of the major topics surrounding the mind and behavior. As you
will learn, there are a number of overlapping methods and theories. For
example, people who study brain activity use the same general methods as those
who investigate group behavior. As we move from topic to topic, pay attention
to the continuity of ideas and approaches. We particularly want you to see how
psychological theories relate to other concepts as well as to your everyday
life.
Last
year, we introduced a new way of teaching psychology that had not been tried at
UT before. For most of our careers, we
had both taught a variation of this class for several years on our own. Last year we integrated our approaches into a
single coordinated class. Based on the
student feedback, this new approach was successful. This year, we will be
expanding on this approach and will be sharing the same lectures, syllabus,
readings, and exam dates. Except for
slight differences in the exams and the assigned Teaching Assistants, the 2:00
and 3:30 classes will be the same.
Because we need to maintain the bureacratic divisions for the two
classes, please attend and take the tests for the class that you signed up for.
This is the 5th year in a
row that we have both used the book Psychological Science (2nd
edition) by Michael Gazzaniga and Todd Heatherton. This is a vibrant book by two top researchers
at
In addition to the book itself, take
advantage of the textbook website. It
has some great exercises as well as practice tests on it. Note that your
reading/using it is completely optional.
You can get to it by going to:
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/psych/psychsci2
In many respects, you are getting two
courses for the price of one. The lectures often focus on recent developments
in the field, whereas the book presents a broad and even picture of the major
topics in psychology. To get a thorough understanding of psychology, we urge
you to attend all the lectures as well as read all of the
book. The best way to prepare for exams
is to read all of the material and attend lectures. Afterwards, talk with
others in the class about the topics we have covered. Actively talking with
others about the theories and ideas of the course helps to organize them in
your mind.
Tests and grading. Although psychology is fun and exciting,
don't expect it to be an easy course. Having taught this class dozens of times,
we expect you to immerse yourself into the readings and lectures. As you can
see in the syllabus, there are 5 tests and no final. This is an idea
class as opposed to a simple fact class. We are more concerned
with the ideas and implications of what Freud or Skinner thought than with
their birthdays or favorite colors. All of the exams will stress psychological
concepts and their relationships to other concepts and to practical examples.
Although the lectures and readings are
the same for both classes, the Pennebaker and Gosling sections will have
separate exams. If you are signed up for
the 2:00 class, you can only take the 2:00 exam; ditto for the 3:30 class. The two sections will have different test
questions and may emphasize slightly different issues. Because any given lecture may be somewhat
different in one class versus the other, be sure and attend the class you
signed up for.
Tests are non-cumulative. The format of the test
will be multiple-choice questions. You will be tested on the content of the
textbook and lectures (including demonstrations and videos). You are learning a lot of material
so don’t let the work pile up to the last day. Everyone is expected to
take tests at the regularly scheduled time. The best 4 out of 5 exam grades
will be used to determine the course grade. You can drop any of the exams
for any reason BUT YOU
Example 1: You miss one exam because you wanted to go to Barton
Springs—no problem as you can just drop that exam;
Example 2: You miss one exam because of a documented illness/injury—no
problem as you can just drop that exam;
Example 3: You miss two exams through illnesses/injuries documented for
both exams—no problem, you can take one make-up exam;
Example 4: You miss one exam because you went to Barton Springs and you
miss another exam because of documented illness—this is a problem because you
used up your get-out-of-jail card when you went to Barton Springs, so one of
your exam scores will be 0
The final grade is based on four exams
and the completion of the writing requirement. Your four highest exams are
worth 22.5% each and the lowest exam is worth 0% (i.e., you do not include it
in the final grade). In other words, you can do terribly on one of the exams
and overcome it by doing well on the other exams.
Writing Requirement. One goal of this course is to provide
you with information and techniques that help you think about psychological
issues. The writing requirement for this course will involve your writing 5
short thought pieces. These writing samples will be very different from
standard essays. During the first two weeks, for example, you will write a
“stream of consciousness” paper. Later in the semester, four additional writing
assignments will be announced. All of these samples must be written on the class
web page. The writing samples that you turn in will not be graded in a classic
sense. Rather, merely turning in all the samples will assure you full credit
for the writing requirement. Note that we expect you to take the assignments
seriously.
The writing assignments are worth 10%
of your final grade, or 2% for each one.
Another way to think about this is that the failure to turn in all of
your writing assignments would be like taking 10 points off of your final test
average. Or conversely, turning in all of the assignments will be like adding
almost a full letter grade to your test average. But be careful in thinking
about this. Let’s say you take all the
exams and your exam average is exactly 85%.
If you turned in all of your writing assignments, your final average
would be:
85 X .90 + 100 X .10, or
86.5%
If,
however, you didn’t turn in any of your writing assignments, you final average
would be:
85 X .90 + 0 X .10, or 76.5%
In other words, the difference between turning in all of your
assignments and none of them results in a 10 point difference. However, it is a common mistake to think that
turning them in will bump your grade up a full letter grade above your test
average.
You can connect to the Writing
Assignment web page by way of the home page for this class on any computer on
earth that has access to the Internet. Once there, go to the Writing Assignment
that you need to complete and enter your UTEID and name, and then write for at
least 20 minutes. When finished, press the SUBMIT button, and your life will be
beautiful. You can use your own computer or any university computer in the
various UT libraries or computer labs.
Experiment
Requirement. UT has one of the most productive research departments in the
country. One reason for its success is that faculty and students are constantly
conducting experiments that are eventually published in journals and books. As
part of the educational experience of Introductory Psychology, you are required
to participate in 5 hours of faculty-sponsored research or to write a 5-page
research paper. To read more about the experimental requirement, go to:
http://www.psy.utexas.edu/psy/undergrad/courses/info/301experiment.html
If
you do not complete the experimental requirement, your grade in psychology will
be blocked and you will face a bureaucratic nightmare of epic proportions
trying to deal with it in future semesters.
Teaching assistants. For the Pennebaker-Gosling class, you
are officially signed up for either the 2:00 or the 3:30 class. Your exams and access to Teaching Assistants
is based on the class time you signed with.
In both classes, we have a remarkable group of Teaching Assistants who
are actively involved in graduate research.
If, at any time, you have any questions about the lectures, reading, or exams, don't hesitate to contact any of the TAs
during their office hours or via email.
In addition to answering your questions about the readings and lectures,
the teaching assistants will conduct periodic review sessions.
For the 2:00 section, Brent Hughes and Jon Rein
will serve as TAs. Brent is in his first year of graduate school in Social
Psychology. His research focuses on social
neuroscience using state-of-the-art imaging tools. John is a third year graduate student in
Cognitive Psychology. He is studying the
ways people categorize, label, and think about objects in their environments.
For the 3:30 section, Michael Buhrmester
and Tracy Kwang will oversee the TA roles.
Both Michael and Tracy are starting their first year of graduate school
in Social Psychology. Michael’s research interests include the nature of the
self.
Finally, Yla Tausczik will be in
charge of the writing assignments. Yla
is a second year graduate student in the Evolutionary Psychology program. Her research deals with how women view male
status across social class and American subcultures. In her role as the Writing Czar, Yla will be
responsible for keeping records about the writing assignments as well as exam
scores.
Computing your final grade. Your Final Grade will be computed in the following
way:
Lowest
exam = 0%
4 other exams @ 22.5% each = 90%
5
writing assignments @ 2% each = 10%
At the end of the semester, grades will be assigned
in the following way:
89.5 – 100 = A; 79.5 to
89.49 = B; 69.5 to 79.49 = C; 59.5 to 69.49 = D; 59.49 and below = F
There are no exceptions
to this grading scheme. No extra
credit. No amount of begging, pleading,
bribing, or heartfelt sorrow will change your final grade.
In-class experiments and projects. Over the course of the semester, we like to
give people the opportunity to see psychology in action. Consequently, we will
often include questionnaires, little experiments, or brief projects. These are educational exercises that are
entirely optional. Because it can be
helpful to tie people’s responses on one questionnaire with their responses on
another exercise, we ask you to provide your UTEID as a way to connect your
responses. If you don’t want to do this,
that’s OK. We will never connect your responses
to your name or grade. Participation in these exercises is completely unrelated
to your grades or any other feature of the course. If you have any concerns,
please contact us immediately.
Other support. UT runs the
We hope you enjoy the course. If you have any questions, email one of us or
drop by our offices.