PSY111K: Basic Principles of Psychology
Instructor: John H. Krantz

General Information

Meeting Times: 1:00-1:50 MTWF
Office Hours: 3-4 T, 8-9 W, 3-4 W 10-11 F
Text: Psychology, 3rd ed. by Davis and Palladino
Text Web Site
The Psychology Place
Office: SC105 Phone: X7316
Email: krantzj@hanover.edu Class Discussion Group
Psychology Department Home Page

Announcements

January 8, 2001
Look here for other announcements throughout the semester.  To get a version of the syllabus to print out, click here.

Objectives

Welcome to Basic Principles of Psychology.  I hope that you will find this course enjoyable and beneficial.  So let me try to spell out what I hope you will gain from this course.  This course has a bit of a multiple personality disorder.  Don't worry we will define that disorder towards the end of the course.  However, this course does seem to have two identities (perhaps more): as a general degree requirement and as the introductory course to the psychology majors.  It also plays a role in the education department for those seeking certification, but that role is pretty similar to that of a GDR.  I want to talk about my objects for each of these roles so you can see where I am trying to head with this course.

First, this course is the first course in the social science sequence of Hanover's general degree requirements (IV.A.).  This is quite possibly the main reason most of you are here.  It is true that after the sequence most of you will not major in psychology.  So many of you will take at most one other psychology course so what should this course be about for you?  How can I make this time bearable, even useful for you?  Well, I think a basic knowledge of psychology and some of its principles is of value to any life.  You interact with people and knowing some of the ways we have tried to figure out what make ourselves and others tick is useful.  However, there is no way in 13 weeks that I can get you to understand in any deep manner the findings that psychology has uncovered.  Most situations that you come across will fall quickly outside of what we will cover in this course.  Thus, to enhance your time here I have some additional goals and I draw them from the purposes statement for Hanover College.  I am going to quote one paragraph (also one sentence):  "We seek to provide our students with training and experience that will enhance their skills in communications, in creative self-expression, in critical-reflection, in research, and in leadership."  It is my belief that every course should work towards as many of these goals as possible.  To understand how this course can contribute to these overall goals of your educations, remember that psychology is not a finished product.  It is an active field of inquiry.  What we think we know today is thought wrong tomorrow.  Science as reported in the press can often seem like we waver back and forth on issues.  That is because there is no such thing as a final statement of truth in science.  Just deeper levels of knowledge.  We seek truth, we do not have it.  Thus, I will work hard in this course to give you exercises and class experiences to help you see how we do inquiry in psychology.  To do inquiry requires research, communication, critical reflection, and even creative self-expression in a way.

Well, that was long winded.  The second identity of this course is as an introduction to the major.  There are several of you who will follow this route.  This course needs to serve as a foundation for your deeper explorations of the field of psychology as you proceed through the major.  Thus, the choice of content covered reflect many of the fundamental topics of the field.  We will also try to grapple with many of the significant and unanswered questions of psychology.  Thus, we will scatter broadly around the field to give some dimension to your appreciation of what psychology is inquiring about.  Fortunately, the goals above also fit for assisting in our investigation into psychology as a foundation for the major.

Schedule

Date Chapter and Other Assignments (Links are active)
Jan 8 Chapter 1: Psychology, Research, and You/Analyzing Arguments
Jan 15 Appendix: Statistics and Psychology/Descriptive Statistics/Measures of Variability
Jan 22 Chapter 2: Biological Foundations of Psychology/Action at the Synapse/Adult Brains Can Generate New Neurons
Jan 29 Chapter 6: Basic Principles of Learning/Principles of Learning in the Real World
Feb 5 Chapter 7: Memory/Test your Memory
Feb 12 Chapter 8: Thinking and Intelligence/Understanding Mental Models
Feb 19 Chapter 9: Developmental Psychology I/Classic Theories of Child Development
Friday, Feb 23 Midterm examination
Mar 5 Chapter 10: Developmental Psychology II/Alzheimer's and Aging 
Mar 12 Chapter 12: Personality
Mar 19 Chapter 16: Social Psychology: The Individual in Society/Investigating Social Judgments/Stanford Prison Experiment
Mar 26 Chapter 13: Psychological Disorders/Recognizing Mood Disorders
April 2 Chapter 14: Therapy
April 9 Chapter 17: Industrial and Organizational Psychology/Interactive Depth Figure (I'll explain this one)

The companion website:  http://cw.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/davis2/

The Text Version of The Psychology Place

Assignments

Chapter Quizzes:

On the first day that every chapter will be covered, a short 10 item quiz will be given covering the material in the text and associated web sources.  The quizzes are given at the beginning of the first class covering that material.  These quizzes will count for 35% of your final grade.  I will drop the lowest quiz.  If you miss one that counts as your lowest grade.

Examinations:

There will be a midterm and final examination.  Both examinations will be primarily multiple choice with the addition of an essay component.  The final will be cumulative.  The midterm will be 10% of your final grade and the final will be 15% of your final grade.

Reaction Papers:

There will be two reaction papers due throughout the term.  In these short reaction papers you are to find an article from the popular media (e.g., newspapers, Time Magazine) that deals with a psychological topics.  In your paper you are to identify the point of the article, i.e., what are they trying to get you to believe, and evaluate the evidence provided in support of this point.  The first paper will be 10% of your grade and the next will be 15% of your final grade.  The papers are due: 

Paper 1 Jan 31
Paper 2 March 21

Late Policy on the Papers:

The papers are late if they are not handed in at the beginning of class on the due date.  After that time they lose a letter grade.  They will lose a letter grade for each succeeding day that they are late.  Notice that these papers will be due on quiz days.  I will give the quiz at the beginning of class, right on time.  So if you are late, you will miss the quiz and lose a letter grade on the paper.

Grading

Participation:

If you add up the percentages in the assignment section you will realize that they do not add up to 100%.  They only at up to85%.  The other 15% comes from class participation.  I hope to do as much discussion in the class as possible, but discussion requires that more than I talk.   Thus, first you need to be in class.  Second, you need to add to the class discussions, talk without being called on, and actively use your intelligence to contribute to the class.

Grades will be assigned as follows:

A

93.4-100%

A-

90-93.3%

B+

86.7-89.9%

B

83.4-86.6%

B-

80-83.3%

C+

76.8-79.9%

C

73.4-76.7%

C-

70-73.3%

D

60-69.9%

F

< 60%