Introductory Psychology

Winter term, 2006

Psychology 101

Doug Crowne & Teaching Assistants

Section 002

Introduction to the course

The course

Psychology is a broad and diverse discipline with many areas of scientific inquiry and practice. In Introductory Psychology, we shall survey the things that psychologists do, what they have discovered, and what the practice of psychology is like. The objective of the course is to give you experience in thinking psychologically about individual and social behaviour, human development, motivation, cognition and language, intelligence, about brain processes and their relation to behaviour, and about disorders of behaviour and their treatment. The course consists of lectures and demonstrations, films, and the readings.

Meeting time

The course meets Tuesday and Thursday, 8:30—10:00 AM.  The schedule and dates of topics and exams is in the Course Outline.

Course website

You will find the course outline, announcements, exam dates and content, exam marks, and everything else about Psychology 101 Section 002 through UW-ACE.  Simply go to this URL:  http://uwace.uwaterloo.ca/, log on with your Quest/UWdir userid and password.  Select Psych 101 from the list of your courses on UW-ACE, and you’re off and running.  If you have difficulty logging on, go to Searchable HELP on UW-ACE.

Lectures and text

The text by Myers is well written, and it contains as much about psychology as you ever thought there could be. The lectures won’t simply duplicate the text; that would be boring and would insult your intelligence. We will expand on topics you’ll find in the text, develop them in greater depth, and try to show you how knowledge in the science of psychology is acquired. The lectures complement the text, adding depth, perspective, and interesting additional ideas; the course is not complete without them.

A note on the text.  There are two versions of Myers’ Psychology.  They are the same book in different formats.  Ours is Myers, Psychology.  Seventh Edition in Modules.  The other, organized by chapters, is Myers, Psychology.  Be sure you get the Modules version.  If you happen to have gotten the wrong one, don’t despair.  Go to Lessons on the course web site and open the folder, Helpful Hints and Tips.  Open the file Module-Chapter Conversion for a table that will enable you to convert Psychology to Psychology in Modules.

Lecture outlines

Each lecture begins with an outline of the ideas and concepts to be discussed. The outlines prepare you for the lecture and help you to organize your thinking. These lecture outlines are available at the course web site, http://uwace.uwaterloo.ca/. You can download them before each lecture.  Please be sure to bring your Lecture Outlines to class.

Examinations

There will be two midterm examinations during the term and a final examination. The dates and times are shown in the Course Outline. The midterm examinations will be written in locations shown in the Course Outline. The exams are not cumulative. Each examination will cover approximately one-third of the course material. All exams will be multiple choice. Half the questions will come from the text and half from the lectures. You can expect 100 questions on each exam. Each examination will count for 1/3 of your grade. Please be sure to bring a sharpened #2 pencil and a good eraser to each exam. Grades for each exam will be based on the actual distribution of scores, and there will not be a fixed, a priori proportion of As, Bs, Cs, etc. At the end of the course, the distribution of final grades will be made by summing the points on each exam.

Preparing for exams

1. Do keep up with the reading, and don’t let it go until a cram session the night before the exam. Cramming is very inefficient, and you simply won’t learn and retain enough to do well.
2. Use the Study Guide (see the Course Outline). You will find exercises and questions that will help you to review, and you will find sample questions like those that will be on the exams.
3. Ask us. If you don’t understand something in the text or in the lectures, ask in class or come to see me or one of the TAs. We are there to help and are glad to. Despite what you may have heard, we are not ogres and do not glare, growl, or bite.
4. What could be on an exam? If something is in the text (particularly if it’s emphasized) or is discussed in the lectures (again, particularly if emphasized), it could well show up in exam questions.
5. A week or more before each exam, I will post an exam from the last year or two on the course Website.
6. Don’t miss lectures or skip or skim text chapters. The lectures don’t duplicate the text; they add to it, and the text chapters are important. If you do have to miss a lecture, borrow someone’s notes, and have him or her go over them with you. Come see one of us if you need additional help. We won’t bite your head off.  Honest.
7. For some hints on writing multiple choice exams, see the file Hints on Writing Multiple Choice Exams in the Helpful Hints and Tips folder.

Participation ins experiments

Faculty members and graduate students in the Department of Psychology are actively engaged in research on a variety of psychological questions. Some will be studying processes of thinking or of memory, others social behaviour or questions about personality. They need participants in their experiments. In return for your participation, you will be credited with one percentage point for each experiment, up to a maximum of five. These points are then added to the points earned on the exams. Further, each experimenter will tell you what the experiment was about, what the hypotheses were, and what he or she is finding. By serving as a participant, then, you will learn at first hand just how psychologists go about studying human behaviour experimentally. To receive credit for participation, you must fill out and submit a "Participation Sheet" signed by the researcher. The researcher will give you the Participation Sheet. If he or she doesn’t, be sure to ask for it. The procedures by which you can volunteer will be announced later.

Another way to earn bonus points

Review of Articles. If you are not called for enough experiments to gain 5 experiment participation points or if you would rather not take part in research, you can earn bonus points in another way. You may submit short reviews (1-2 pages) of articles relevant to psychology from the popular press. An article can be from almost any publication provided that it has genuine psychological substance. To receive credit, you must follow the format specified in the course web site. Each correctly prepared review (they must be typed) will count 1 point. The total of experiment participation and review points may be no more than 5.

The form to use in submitting reviews

Note. Participation in bonus activities is entirely optional. To receive credit, submit your Participation Sheets and Review Articles no later than the last day of classes. Keep copies of your Participation Sheets or Review Articles that you submit. Psych 101 is a large course; we’re pretty good at not losing things, but we’re not perfect.

What to do if you're having trouble with the course

First, run, do not walk, to my office or one of the TAs. We are there to help, and we really can give you some useful tips. Don't just ignore a bad midterm, and if you find that the lectures or the text are puzzling that's a sure signal to seek some help.

Second, use the Study Guide (I know – I said that already). The Study Guide contains a large, exceptionally helpful, and interesting variety of exercises and self tests. A regular amount of time devoted to the Study Guide will pay dividends in your grade.

Third, this is a course that no one should have to fail. We have devoted a lot of time to planning the topics, the lectures, and the readings. Keep up with the lectures and readings, put in a little extra effort on the Study Guide, consult me or one of the TAs if you need to, and you should pass with ease.

Note on avoidance of academic offences

All students registered in the courses of the Faculty of Arts are expected to know what constitutes an academic offence, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for their academic actions. When the commission of an offence is established, disciplinary penalties will be imposed in accord with Policy #71 (Student Academic Discipline). For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students are directed to consult the summary of Policy #71 (Student Academic Discipline) which is supplied in the Undergraduate Calendar (p.1:11). If you need help in learning how to avoid offences such as plagiarism, cheating, and double submission, or if you need clarification of aspects of the discipline policy, ask your course instructor for guidance. Other resources regarding the discipline policy are your academic advisor and the Undergraduate Associate Dean.

Student computer accounts and psychology newsgroups

All undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts may obtain free computer accounts on Waterloo Polaris (other faculties have similar accounts). The accounts give students free access to all Polaris applications (e.g., word processing, electronic mail, spreadsheets, statistical and graphic packages, and access to the Internet). Students may purchase printing privileges at PAS 1080 using their WATCARDs. Note that library catalogue searches and journal article searches are available on the Internet (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca).

There is a newsgroup on the computer for Psychology undergraduate students (news:uw.psychology.ugrad). A newsgroup is a bulletin board on the computer. Examples of postings include information on colloquia, changes to course offerings, career information, deadlines for applying for scholarships, tips for applying to graduate school or faculties of education, exam preparation workshops, and available research assistant positions. Anyone (on- or off-campus) can read the news postings and anyone can post news that will be of interest to Psychology students. Psychology majors are strongly encouraged to read the Psychology Undergraduate Newsgroup at least once a week.

Websites

There are a number of psychology websites.  Here are some to look up and check out.

http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/ (UW’s Psychology Department home page)

http://worthpublishers.com/Myers.   (This is the text’s website, an online 24/7 study guide.  One of its resources is a list of websites for each module to enrich your view of psychology and provide additional study help.)

https://www.socialpsychology.org/ (This is a very good site with lots of excellent material on a variety of psychological areas. The section on intelligence is especially provocative and interesting. You can learn about your emotional intelligence, test your IQ [45 minutes], and discover memory techniques that will help you to remember more effectively.  Search for “intelligence testing,” then scroll down the list.  An online intelligence test is #12.)

http://www2.psych.purdue.edu/~coglab/VisLab/demos.html (Excellent experiments in perception, neurocognition, memory you can perform.)

http://www.apa.org/ (The American Psychological Association website, with all kinds of information about psychology from the largest psychology organization in the world)

Our classroom

Humanities Theatre is not a regular classroom.  It is one of the university’s theatres for artistic performances, lectures, and other university community events.  We have to use it in Psych 101 because there is no other campus space large enough.  It’s a super theatre; let’s all do our part to help keep it that way.  The house rule is that no food or drink (except water bottles) are to be brought in.  Please observe it, and please do your bit to pick up any litter you spy when you leave.

Professor and teaching assistants

Doug Crowne.  I was born in Brooklyn, New York (I can still talk Brooklynese) and grew up in Southern California.  After service in the Navy right after WWII, I went to Antioch College in Ohio for my undergraduate education (in history).  I did my master’s degree at the University of Rochester and Ph.D. at Purdue University in clinical psychology.  I taught at Ohio State University, Northwestern University, and the University of Connecticut before coming to the University of Waterloo in 1971.   I became a Canadian citizen in 1978.

My research has been in two very distinct areas of psychology – personality and personality measurement, and behavioural neuroscience.  With colleagues and students, I studied a motive called the need for approval.  In behavioural neuroscience, I did work on mechanisms of spatial orientation, attention, and learning, whether nonhuman animals have lateralized brains, and what role the transfer of information between the cerebral hemispheres plays in recovery from unilateral brain injury.

In Ontario, professors get turfed out when they reach 65.  I didn’t retire to the couch, endless sitcoms, and a diet of beer and pretzels, however.  I’ve continued to teach Introductory Psychology and Personality Theory, and to write – on the teaching of introductory psychology (In Search of Psyche, 2003) and personality (Personality Theory, just finished and in press).

What do I do for fun?  I do all the cooking in my house (‘cause I like to, not because I have to), I’m a serious, competitive tennis player, and I build and fly radio controlled model aircraft. Oh yes, and then there’s the ballroom dancing that my wife and I do. . . .

Ryan Kennedy.  Ryan has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies (1998) and a Master’s degree (2001) in Local Economic Development – both from UW.  His graduate work specialized in social marketing, marketing communication and behaviour change on issues related to climate change.  Working on the Residential Energy Efficiency Project (REEP), Ryan helped design and promote a community delivery model for Natural Resources Canada’s EnerGuide for Houses.  The REEP model has since been deployed across the country and in communities around the world.  Post masters, Ryan worked locally for a solar engineering firm (ARISE Technologies) as their marketing and communications co-ordinator.  Most recently Ryan was working for the Region of Waterloo Public Health as a Health Promotions Officer, specializing in social marketing initiatives and community-wide behaviour change initiatives.

As a PhD student, Ryan is working with Dr. Geoff Fong in the Health Psychology Lab on tobacco research.  Ryan has two remarkably cute kids at home, had a career as a stand-up comic, and is a columnist with Alternatives Journal – Canadian Environmental Ideas and Action.

Beth Lee.  I was born in Seoul, Korea.  I have undergraduate degrees in Biology and Psychology from Seoul Women’s University and Choong-Ang University, respectively, in Seoul, Korea.  I did my master’s degree in clinical psychology at Choong-Ang University.  I moved to Canada in 2000 to pursue a Ph. D degree. Currently, I am working under the co-supervision of Drs. Geoffrey Fong and Mark Zanna.  My research interests are twofold. 1). Cross-cultural aspects in persuasion and attitude:  My preliminary research involved examining the strategies and techniques utilized in print advertising by comparing how industry approaches differ in Korea from those in North America.  Also currently I examine whether there are cultural differences in dealing with ambivalent attitude toward social issues.  2).The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation-South East Asia Project:  I am particularly interested in examining how cultural norms and psychological aspects influence in various patterns of smoking behaviour.

Vivian Lo.  I was born in Halifax, NS and grew up in Singapore.  After my high school, I returned to Canada and completed my undergraduate degree in Mass Communications and Psychology from Carleton University in 2004.  Thereafter, I worked as a Research Executive with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) in Singapore and helped design research studies on intergenerational crimes, conducted programs evaluations and examined social trends in juvenile delinquency.  Currently, I am in the first year of my graduate studies at the University of Waterloo specializing in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and am working with Dr. John Michela on corporate visions and entrepreneurship research.  I enjoy travelling, reading, rollerblading and learning to play the guitar.

Office, office hours, e-mail, and telephone

Dough Crowne

PAS 3006

Monday and Thursday, 10:00—11:00 AM

E-mail:  Please send e-mail via the course website(http://uwace.uwaterloo.ca/) to me or the TAs.  If need be, use dcrowne@uwaterloo.ca

Telephone:  888-4567, Ext. 3052

Teaching Assistants

Ryan Kennedy

PAS 3237

Monday, 2:30—4:30 PM

Beth Lee

PAS 3265

Tuesday, 1:00—3:00 PM

Vivian Lo

PAS 4232

Wednesday, 12:30—2:30 PM

Course outline

Required Reading: Myers, D.G. Psychology.  Seventh Edition in Modules.  Worth Publishers, 2001.
Straub, R.O. Study Guide to accompany David G. Myers Psychology (Seventh Edition).

Go to UW-ACE/Psych 101