Welcome Letter Gen Psych Fall 2010 Hello and welcome to Psy 110-84/85 This course is intended to serve as your introduction to the field of psychology, which is defined as the scientific study of the human mind and behavior. We will be covering a huge amount of material at the rate of one chapter per week. Some of the topics include historical foundations, methods, biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, learning, memory, cognition, language and thought, motivation and emotion; human development, social behavior, personality, psychological disorders and therapies. As you make your way through the course, you will find lots of ideas that directly apply to your own life. You will be better able to understand yourself and other people. So, hang on tight, keep up with your readings and assignments, and enjoy the trip. Expectations: You will need a stable, broadband Internet connection to log onto the course on Black Board. This course operates on a weekly calendar. Starting with Sunday evening I will post to the Discussion Board the week's topics, "concept questions", and “activies”. By Monday you should be reading the chapter. During the week you should be answering the questions, doing the activity, and posting your responses to the Discussion Board. You are required to post at least twice per week, but you may improve your mark by posting more than the minimum. The activity and concept questions guide and structure your reading and studying. Each week, I will post up to 6 of these questions on the Discussion Board. While you must answer at least 2 of them, you should do as many as you can because your exams will be based on them. Be sure to read your classmates answers, and also my corrections and additions to the posts. Texts: Schacter, D., Gilbert, D., & Wegner, D. (2009). Psychology (1st ed.). New York: Worth. The less expensive loose-leaf version of the text is immediately available from the WPU Bookstore, or you can search online for the best deal. You only need the book. You are not required to purchase a special “online” or CD-ROM package. You will use the free companion website to do the course activities. You should have the text when the course begins on Sept. 1, because we hit the ground running. Grading: There will be 3 exams during the course, all on Black Board. Each exam will be a combination of "essay" and multiple choice questions. The exams are designed to assess your knowledge of the major concepts and basic terminology in the chapters. Together the exams count 60% of your course grade. The remaining 40% will be based on Discussion Board posts to the concept questions and activities.
