Tentative Syllabus

Textbook: Psychological Science, 2^nd edition by Michael Gazzaniga and Todd Heatherton (Norton Publishers, 2006) -- available at the UT Bookstore or, for the digital version, www.Nortonebooks.com.

DATE	Lecture Topic	Chapter Readings
Aug 30	Psychology: What makes us tick?	Chapter 1
Sept 4	The nature of scientific understanding, or how we go about understanding the mind	Chapter 2
Sept 6	Neurons, neurotransmitters, and scurrilous liars	Chapter 3
Sept 11	The brain: Don’t leave home without it
Sept 13	Sleeping, dreaming, and consciousness	Chapter 4
Sept 13*	1^st writing assignment due
Sept 18	TEST 1
Sept 20	Sex. Need we say more?	Chapter 9 (pp. 370-379)
Sept 25	Sensation and perception	Chapter 5
Sept 27	Learning, forgetting, and the nature of history	Chapter 6
Oct 2	Memories: Shopping lists, the magic number, and other nonsense	Chapter 7
Oct 4	Babies, little children, development, and the cruel world	Chapter 11
Oct 4*	2^nd writing assignment due
Oct 9	TEST 2
Oct 11	Solving problems and other reasons to get your mind in gear	Chapter 8
Oct 16	Let’s talk: How the words we use reflect who we are	Chapter 11 (pp 454-460)
Oct 18	Express yourself: The social functions of emotion Love at first fright: Where do feelings come from?	Chapter 10
Oct 23	A special treat: The revealing of new information
Oct 25	Stress, illness, and emotional disclosure
Oct 25*	3^rd writing assignment due
Oct 30	TEST 3
Nov 1	Freud and personality: Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll?	Chapter 9
Nov 6	Mental disorders	Chapter 13
Nov 8	Psychotherapy: When and how does it work?	Chapter 14
Nov 13	Personality in animals
Nov 13*	4^th writing assignment due
Nov 15	TEST 4
Nov 20	Who do you think you are?	Chapter 12
Nov 27	Social Physics: Birds, murder, and cocktail parties
Nov 29	Social behavior in Jericho, Guyana, & Queens, NY.	Chapter 15
Dec 4	Obedience to authority: The Milgram Project
Dec 4*	5^th writing assignment due
Dec 6	TEST 5

*All writing assignments must be completed and submitted by 11:59 PM on the assigned day.

Web Site Information. The syllabus, old tests, grades, personality feedback, and even a direct route to the experiments and prescreening page can be accessed by opening the following address:

www.psy.utexas.edu/jp301

Writing requirement information. Writing assignments must be submitted on the web through the internet address noted above. The writing assignments should be finished by September 13 (for assignment #1), October 4 (#2), October 25 (#3), November 13 (#4), and December 4 (#5) at 11:59 PM. Late submission = no credit. No excuses. Assignment 1 deals with a stream of consciousness experience; later assignments will deal with the course material at the time. Questions about the writing assignments should be directed to Yla Tausczik.