Course Goals:
The major goals for the course are that we all arrive at a greater understanding of ourselves as biological, cognitive, social, and experiencing organisms. We will be examining human experience and behavior from a number of different viewpoints and examining results that have been obtained with a variety of different methodologies, as we try to develop ways of understanding ourselves. A major goal for the course is the development of basic generalizable models of our functioning that apply to a variety of behaviors and situations. Our purpose is to provide frameworks to enable you to understand not only past and current work in the field, but perhaps also new discoveries that are likely to emerge in the future. We will be examining several areas and issues, including how we experience the world and behave in it, how we represent and remember the world and solve problems in it, how our behavior originates and develops under the influence of both our genetic endowment and our experiences, how we interact with and are affected by others, how our personality is formed and operates, (or fails to operate, and what can be done about it).

We will be taking a scientific approach in exploring these issues, coupled with the recognition that we are often dealing with issues of great humanistic concern. What this means is that as we examine different areas of psychology we will constantly be asking what we know (our scientific models and theories), what the basis for it is (what data exists to support our theories), and how we come to know it (our methodologies) and finally, what implications it has for enriching our lives and the lives of others. You will also discover that in addition to knowledge, you have obtained some thinking and writing tools. One of the most important of these is some practice at scientific thinking applied to complex psychological issues; the ability to evaluate evidence, reach reasonable conclusions based on empirical evidence, and reject unwarranted claims.

Finally, perhaps the most important thing about the course is that the subject matter of psychology is ourselves and how we "work". It is an exciting and fascinating topic for me and I hope it will be for you as well. I look forward to sharing with you this exploration of the behaviors, mental processes, and social interactions of some unusual two-legged biological organisms who have decided to take a look at their own functioning and attempt to develop a scientific understanding of it!
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Lecture:
The lectures will attempt to relate the text and other material to some major themes or questions that we will develop as we begin each section of the course (and also each class) and examine some of their implications for the course goals described above. There will also be plenty of opportunities in the lecture sessions for questions and discussion. It is my hope that some of the discussion will spill over not only to the recitations, but to office visits and/or other more informal discussions (invitations to lunch/etc. would be most welcome) as well.

It is important that you attend regularly and stay for the entire lecture. The lectures form the "backbone" of the course, tying the other activities together, and the lecture material and style of analysis will be prominently featured on the exams. In particular, we will start most of the lectures with a question that we will then attempt to answer, and those questions and their (often fairly elaborate) answers will constitute a significant part of the focus of the exams. In addition, there will frequently be thought provoking questions raised in lecture that you will be asked to generate short (1 or 2 sentences) answers to. These will be collected and they will count as 5% of the course grade. These latter questions and answers will help you focus on significant issues as well as serve as evidence of your attendance. If there is a problem with your answer, you will receive feedback.  Due to the layout of the room, people walking in or out during lecture are disruptive to others, and you are asked to try to not do that. Another, more serious issue is the use of electronic devices during class. It is NOT allowed. The only exceptiono is if you want or need to take notes on a computer, you can do so by sitting in the front row of the class on the right side. The use of computers is distracting to the people around you so they're only to be used there and only for note taking.

Topic outlines of the lecture material will appear on the course web site a day before the lecture so that you know what we'll be discussing. (You are expected to take your own notes-the outlines only help with that and the major activity of posing and answering a significant question for each lecture will only happen in lecture.) The lecture is the central activity of the course and it is important to attend regularly if you are going to understand the material and its implications, receive the other intellectual benefits of the course and do well on the exams.
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Recitation Sections:
The required weekly recitations will be used for help in clarifying and extending your understanding of the course material, for discussion of psychological issues (often based on the article for that week or a question you will be provided with), help on the paper (an opportunity to critique/give feedback to a fellow student on the rough draft of their paper), preparation for the course examinations, short quizzes on the reading material, small "fun" exercises that illustrate psychological phenomena, and anything else that you and the course TAs find useful in facilitating your understanding and exploration of the course material. The recitation time will also be used for short presentations on your paper; what question you were investigating, what interesting things you found out about your paper topic in researching and writing the paper and what conclusion(s) you reached. There will also be reviews before each major exam and there will be evening review sessions as well prior to each exam. In no case are the recitations and review sessions a substitute for attending lecture! You will be expected to register for the recitation section that you actually attend. Course records are kept by section, so being in a section other than the one you are registered in creates large problems in your receiving credit for your work.
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Lab Experiences:
You will be asked to do a number of short laboratory exercises or other assignments that help illustrate some of the major findings and methodologies of Psychology, map those findings onto your own experience and/or guide you in some explorations of enlightening psychological material. These will occur weekly, will all be assigned via the lab portion of the course web site, and will take a number of forms. Some of them will be on a Psychology server, a few will consist of very short written assignments, and many will involve you doing an assignment on the web. In some cases they will involve you "running yourself" as a subject in a brief experiment, analyzing the data and answering a small set of questions about the experiment and your results. (These labs are not to be confused with the departmental experimental requirement that will be explained during the first class meeting.) Instructions will be provided on how to access the labs and what the particular assignment is for each week. The labs are to be turned in to recitation each week. The weekly lab assignments (along with occasional other assignments) can be found on the course web page where they'll be posted one week ahead of time (on Wednesdays preceding Wednesday due dates.) They are designed to be done within the week they are posted so that they best relate to and illustrate the course material being covered that week. A maximum of two late labs will be accepted if turned in within two weeks of the due date. Additional late labs will be awarded a maximum of 1/2 credit and will in no case be accepted after Dec. 2.
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Research Paper:
You will be asked to write a short (5-7 page) paper that is based on a psychological topic chosen in conjunction with your TA. The paper assignment and some of the resources available to help you with it are described more fully in Paper Assignment and the approach we will use to grade it in Paper Grading Strategy & Criteria . You will also be asked to do an oral presentation of the highlights of your paper--what you learned, what you found to be important and interesting, etc.-- in recitation.
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Research Participation:
This final activity is a departmental requirement that gives you first hand exposure to experimental research and allows you to contribute to the knowledge base of psychology. This research participation assignment can be fulfilled in one of two ways, both of which will be described in the first class meeting. It is an obligatory assignment, and department policy decrees that a grade of incomplete (followed by a one letter grade reduction if not finished by the end of the next semester) be awarded for the course if the experiments are not completed. If you miss the first class or have questions about this requirement, please contact Ms. Erin Donahoe BH332D, x86026, as soon as possible to sign up for this requirement. Click here to sign up for an experiment.
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Film Presentations:
There will be a number of special Tuesday evening film presentations of some very interesting films including Wild Child, A Beautiful Mind, and Awakenings. The evening films will be shown at 7:00 p.m. Locations and dates are posted on the schedule page. If you are not free at the time of the showings you can see the films on your own in the video department in the basement of Hunt Library.
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Grades:
Your final grade will be calculated from your two hour exams: 15% each, your paper grade: 15%, lab/assignment grade: 15%, lecture attendance: 5%, final exam grade: 20%, and section (recitation): 20%, (apportioned as: quizzes, 40%, attendance, 40%, paper presentation, 20%, and active participation up to a 5% "bonus"). This adds to slightly more than 100% and thus includes a bit of a "bonus" in grading. Make up exams will only be scheduled by prior arrangement (i.e. contact on or before the day of the exam.) in cases of illness, sanctioned school activities or other equally serious or extreme circumstances. The course exams will be of mixed format (short/medium answer essay, problem solving, matching, fill-in) with short/medium answer essay predominating. The goal of the exams will be to test understanding rather than merely recall. There will be a review session prior to each exam for those who would like to attend.
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Course Web Site:
There is a web site for the course organized around a home page that can be found at: http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~kotovsky/85102/home102.html. You should add this address to your bookmarks so that it is easy to reach. We will be adding material occasional readings, occasional "fun" or other assignments and most importantly, the lecture outlines and weekly lab and other assignment instructions to this site and you should check it frequently. I would advise checking it before each lecture for the outline and the assignment(s) that will be due in the next week's recitation. It is the central organizational entity for the class.
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Textbooks:
The required book for the course is Psychology, 8th ed. by Henry Gleitman, Allan Fridlund and Daniel Reisberg (Norton, 2010). The Gleitman textbook is an excellent one. It is written with scientific accuracy, and it is very careful in presenting well founded theories along with supporting data and in developing the relationships between Psychology and other fields of knowledge. We'll discuss how to use it. There will also be a number of readings available on the course website, to expand on some topics from the textbook and also as a basis for recitation discussions.
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Cheating
While we don't expect cheating to occur, if it does it will not be tolerated, either on quizzes, exams, the term paper or in other aspects of the course. If you are unsure of what constitutes cheating please consult the CMU student handbook. The penalty for cheating will depend on the circumstances, but in almost no case will it simply be limited to a reduction in grade for the item in question.
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Help:
We (the course instructor, teaching assistants, and secretary) all want you to succeed in this course. We are here to help you learn and if you have any trouble or problems, or have questions or issues you would like to discuss, please let us know--come in, call, email, whatever. You can come in during office hours, or if you aren't available then, make an appointment for another time. Do not simply assume there is nothing that can be done and disappear in one way or another from the course. Also, please remember the study guide if you find the text tough going or simply as an ancillary aid. If you are unable to reach your TA or me, you can also contact either Head TA, Jennifer Hirsch and Eva Dundas.
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