PSYC 101:  General Psychology

Course Overview

PSYC 101 is structured to provide you with an overview of the many areas of the rapidly changing science of psychology. No prerequisite is required, and no prior knowledge of psychology is assumed. This survey course will introduce you to many of the underlying principles and approaches believed to guide human behavior, including biological factors, learning, memory, social cognition, intelligence, emotion, and personality.

This class is not a self-help course; it is an introductory science course.  You might gain some insight into your own behavior or the behavior of others along the way, but that is not the primary focus of this course.

The majority of the course will be spent learning about normal human behaviors and the techniques that psychologists use to research these behaviors.  We will discuss psychological disorders and treatments, but only during the last few weeks of the course.

[top]

Required Text

Wayne Weiten, Psychology: Themes and Variations, Briefer Version, 7th edition, Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. ISBN: 978-0495100584

The text is available from Friday Center Books & Gifts. You can order the text online, or you can print out the book order form to fax or mail with payment as indicated on the form.

[top]

Objectives and Expectations

In completing this course you will be able to:

• define both the science and the practice of psychology
• identify the various subfields and specialties within psychology
• understand the importance of the scientific method to the study of psychology
• explain the conditions that allow experimental research to infer cause-and-effect relationships
• compare different theoretical and methodological approaches to behavior
• master terms, names, concepts, scientific experiments, and theories vital to the understanding of psychology as a science
• apply psychological principles and findings to solve real problems
• critically evaluate sources of information found on the World Wide Web.

In this course you will be expected to:

• complete textbook assignments. This involves:
  • reading all assigned chapters
  • completing an online quiz after mastering each “unit” of the text
• participate in an ongoing structured discussion forum. This involves:
  • initiating discussions on proposed and related topics
  • responding to musings posted by your classmates and professor.
• submit all written assignments by the due dates.
• successfully complete the midterm and final exams. Complete information will be given to you as we approach both exam dates.

In order to complete PSYC 101 successfully, you will need to spend approximately three hours a week reading required assignments online, including items posted to the discussion forum. You will need to spend an additional two to three hours “surfing” the Web, evaluating Web sites, and posting to the discussion forum. The required text readings and assignments (quizzes, exams, discussion forum participation) should require another six to nine hours of your time each week.

Yes, it can be quite time-consuming. But, it is only fair to compare that figure to the time you would spend if you were taking the course on campus—you would spend three hours per week in the classroom and an additional six to nine hours per week doing the required readings, completing the written assignments, and preparing for exams. (And that estimate might be a bit low...)

Please note that the e-mail address associated with your UNC Onyen (almost always a UNC e-mail) must be working, as this is how all communication from the instructor occurs. I have no other way of contacting you and you will not receive any announcements concerning the course if your UNC e-mail is not working properly.

[top]

Grading and Exams

Grade by percentage:

• 28%—quizzes 
• 20%—midterm exam
• 25%—final exam
• 14%—discussion forum participation
• 13%—Web papers

Grade by point value (out of a total of 1,000 possible points):

• quizzes—280 points (14 quizzes x 20 points each)
• midterm exam—200 points
• final exam—250 points
• discussion forum participation—140 points
• Web papers—130 points (2 x 65 points each)

Your final grade will be based on the total number of points you accumulate and determined with the following scale (minus and plus grades will be awarded):

900 - 1,000 = A (900-929 earns an A-; more than 930 earns an A)

800 - 899 = B (800-829 earns a B-; 830-865 earns a B; 866-899 earns a B+)

700 - 799 = C (700-729 earns a C-; 730-765 earns a C; 766-799 earns a C+)

620 - 699 = D (620-669 earns a D; 670-700 earns a D+)

619 and below = F

Late Policy

Please pay attention to all due dates. Early submission is accepted and encouraged. Late discussion forum posts and Web papers will not be graded. Late exams will be penalized 25 points per day late. Submit your work early if you are worried about meeting a deadline.

Please note that as wonderful as the Internet is, it is not perfectly reliable; nor are individual computers, routers, service providers, etc. It is your responsibility to ensure that you complete assignments from a reliable computer with a reliable connection. DO NOT count on smartphones to complete assignments on time as dropped connections are common

Quizzes

You will take your quizzes online within the course, using Sakai. You may take the quizzes open-book. It will be good practice for the exams if you first write down the answers you think are correct without looking at your book, and then check any answer you are unsure of before submitting the quiz. Do not access or attempt to access a quiz before you are ready to take it.  Each quiz will be graded automatically and information on your performance returned to you.  

Most quizzes are due by Sunday of each week, but there are a number of exceptions.  Please pay close attention to the Lesson Schedule for all of the due dates. You may take the quizzes at any time during the week of the Lesson.

Quizzes are due by 11:00 pm Eastern Time on the date indicated.  ALL quizzes must be completed, and they must be submitted ON TIME.

Examinations

There will be one midterm and one final examination. Unlike the quizzes, exams are to be taken closed-book. You are not to look at your text, the course Web pages, or any other material, using only your memory and understanding of the course material.

On exam day, the test will be made available at 12 am. Your exam must be submitted before 11:30 pm on the exam day.

[top]

The Discussion Forum

You must maintain an active presence in the discussion forum—our electronic “classroom.” This will be considered your participation grade for the course. If your participation is not at an acceptable level, you will receive an e-mail message directly from the instructor.  Please read this brief section on “Netiquette” before posting. You will access the discussion forums via the link in the sidebar.

In using the discussion forum, you will be expected to do at least two of the following EACH week:

• respond thoughtfully to questions posed by the instructor;
• post a question or comment that occurs to you while working through the readings;
• respond to a question or comment posted by a classmate;
• generate your own insightful questions that probe deeper into the subject material;
• comment on a link that you have explored (listed or newly discovered).

How will discussion postings be rated or graded? As I read your postings, I will ask myself:

• Did you do the requisite reading(s)?
• Did you think about this issue?
• Have you read and considered earlier postings?
• Are your answers relevant? insightful? appropriate?
• Did you post at least twice during the week?

The discussion forum will be open continually, and it is meant as a place for you to exchange information, share ideas, share opinions, form opinions, and help each other throughout the semester.

All posts to be graded for a particular week should be posted by the quiz deadline for that week. Additional posts are welcome and encouraged. Continued discussion among all of us will help everyone master the material.

I will be checking in on the discussion forum once or twice per week and adding some comments. My hope is that the discussion forum will serve primarily as a vehicle for you to learn from and interact with each other. If there are any specific questions you want me to answer, it is more efficient to e-mail me than to post your question on the discussion forum (see Communicating with the Instructor).

Please note that your posts do not have to be “smart” or well-informed to get credit; they just have to be there. Students who post the minimum twice per week will probably fall in the B+/A- range for this portion of their grade. Students who regularly go beyond the minimum will get higher grades. While you are encouraged to post often, occasionally a student will get carried away and regularly post 6-10 times per week. This is excessive and generally results in the class “tuning out” the over-poster.

[top]

Communicating with the Instructor

If you ever have any questions about anything—course content, course mechanics, something from a Web reading, something your Aunt Hilda once did at Thanksgiving dinner, quizzes, dreams, and so on, please e-mail me your question and I will do my best to respond within twenty-four hours (usually much faster Monday through Friday). E-mail will be the most efficient way of communicating with me, and you should all feel very free to use this. Please try to remember to begin the subject heading of all e-mails to me with “CCO PSYC 101.” Occasionally my e-mail has a nasty habit of filtering out perfectly legitimate e-mails. To minimize the likelihood of this happening, try to communicate with me from your UNC e-mail account. (The UNC mail server seems to interact particularly poorly with Yahoo; gmail tends to work fine.) If you haven't heard back from me within twenty-four hours and it's not a holiday or school break, please re-send your e-mail.

Please read the “E-mail” section in Course Mechanics. Note that messages regarding the course will be sent to your UNC e-mail address, so you will need to make sure you have taken steps to receive those messages.

[top]

Web Papers

You will be required to complete two brief “Web papers” on topics of your choice. These papers will give you an opportunity to expand upon some of the discussion forum assignments and delve a bit deeper into a particular topic or idea that interests you. You should choose a topic that we have covered in the course, and find three relevant Web sites that expand upon this topic.

The Web papers should be brief—about two pages each—and should include:

• a brief introduction, including any relevant information from the text, Lesson Notes, and Discussion Forums
• a description of what you have learned from your Web explorations
• a brief conclusion or statement that reflects your personal interpretation or analysis of what you have learned.

You should cite the sources you use in the body of your papers using American Psychological Association (APA) format. There is a link from UNC's library homepage that provides details on the APA citation format.

You should also include a reference list with URL information that includes a brief summary of each Web site used. Do not include these summaries in the body of your paper.

Due dates:

• Web Paper 1:  Friday, September 23
• Web Paper 2:  Friday, November 11

The papers must be submitted on or before these due dates.  You are encouraged to submit them early, especially if there is a chance that you will miss the deadline, because I will NOT accept late Web papers.

[top]

Study Strategies

SQ3R—Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review

• Survey—look over the material, flip through the chapter, notice the main headings and the length of each section. Choose a GOAL for this reading session. I suggest one (self-contained) section of the chapter. Never try to read more than 20-30 pages at one sitting; you won't retain much, and it will be a waste of your time.
• Question—write down a few questions that you have after flipping through the chapter. You need to start thinking about this subject matter before you start reading. The idea here is to get your brain ready to accept some information.
• Read—now it is time to start reading. Read for meaning—think and integrate as you read. Keep in mind that you are not reading a novel.
• Recite—talk about what you have read. There are lots of ways to do this, and the discussion forums set up for this course are designed for just that purpose. Let's discuss what you just read!
• Review—later, after you have finished reading, review what you (should have) learned—with the textbook closed. How much do you remember? Return to any parts that are sketchy.

P.O.W.E.R. is another study technique:

• Prepare. Before we start a journey, we need to know where we are headed. So what are the goals of each chapter? At the beginning of each chapter, Weiten introduces the topic and identifies the main topics to be covered. 
• Organize. An outline at the beginning of each chapter and some preview questions at the beginning of each section will help you to organize the information.  Read the outline and these questions to get an idea of what topics are covered and how they are organized. 
• Work. The key to the P.O.W.E.R. learning system is actually reading and studying the material presented in the book. In some ways, this is the easiest part. However, you need the motivation to conscientiously read and think about the material presented.  Remember that the main text is not the only material that you need to read and think about. It is also important to read the boxes, the marginal glossary terms, and the special sections in order to gain a full understanding of the material. Also, be sure to read the Lesson Notes and assignments on the Web page for each lesson (see Lesson Schedule for links to the lessons). 
• Evaluate. In each chapter, you will find special boxes called “Concept Checks” at various points and a practice test at the end of the chapter. These are great ways to determine how effectively you have mastered the material. You will also find valuable quizzes on the textbook Web sites: Companion Website and ThomsonNOW.
• Rethink. The final step of the P.O.W.E.R. learning system requires thinking critically about the content. Re-analyze, review, question, and challenge assumptions. Do not just accept the information as facts. Does it make sense?  Every chapter contains “Critical Thinking Applications.” These sections encourage you to develop a deeper understanding of the material rather than just memorizing facts.

[top]

Academic Policies

By enrolling as a student in this course, you agree to abide by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill policies related to the acceptable use of online resources. Please consult the Acceptable Use Policy on topics such as copyright, net-etiquette, and privacy protection.

As part of this course, you may be asked to participate in online discussions or other online activities that may include personal information about you or other students in the course. Please be respectful of the rights and protection of other participants under the UNC-Chapel Hill Information Security Policies when participating in online classes.

When using online resources offered by organizations not affiliated with UNC-Chapel Hill, such as Google or YouTube, please note that the terms and conditions of these companies and not the University’s Terms and Conditions apply. These third parties may offer different degrees of privacy protection and access rights to online content. You should be well aware of this when posting content to sites not managed by UNC-Chapel Hill.

When links to sites outside of the unc.edu domain are inserted in class discussions, please be mindful that clicking on sites not affiliated with UNC-Chapel Hill may pose a risk for your computer due to the possible presence of malware on such sites.

Honor Code

Remember that as a student of UNC-Chapel Hill, you are bound by the University's Honor Code, which states that “It shall be the responsibility of every student at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity.”

All graded academic work must include a pledge comprised of the following: “No unauthorized assistance has been received or given in the completion of this work.”

An especially serious Honor Code violation is plagiarism. If you are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, please familiarize yourself with this plagiarism tutorial, courtesy of UNC Libraries.

[top]

Course Mechanics

E-mail

A few notes on using e-mail to submit your course work:

• All e-mail messages must include the course name, PSYC 101, and your last name in the subject line.
• Please submit your work as a Word attachment.
• If you do not receive a response acknowledging that your instructor has received your assignment within 24 hours of submitting it, resend it, stating that this is your second attempt.
• Run a virus scan each week.
• As much as technology serves us, it also inevitably fails us.  Don't wait until the last minute to do your work.  Back up everything.  Because this is a computer-based class, it is unacceptable to use the lack of a computer or computer failure as an excuse for late work or not participating in the discussion forum.

[top]

We recommend that you use the E-mail feature of Sakai for this course.strong> There is an E-mail link in the left navigation bar. Select Compose a Message, select your recipient(s), click the CC box to send a copy of the message to recipients’ e-mail addresses (otherwise the message will be internal to the Sakai site), put "CCO PSYC 101" in the Subject line, and compose your message. Then click Send. By using Sakai's e-mail, a copy of any messages you send will be automatically saved in the Sakai site. 

All communication from me will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail address. You can use your preferred e-mail program to access your UNC e-mail account, called HeelMail, by following the instructions on the “About HeelMail” page on UNC’s Information and Technology Services Web site. Under “Useful Links” you will find a Help document called “How to access HeelMail using your preferred e-mail program.”

Library Services and Resources (including e-reserves)

Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online have access to the UNC Library System. Visit Distance Education Library Services to access a wide array of online services and resources including e-reserves, online databases, online journals, online books, and live help with research and library access.

Most online resources require you to log in with your Onyen and password. If you have any trouble finding the resource that you need or logging in to a resource, you can contact the library through the contact information at Distance Education Library Services. You can chat live about your problem, or send an e-mail to request assistance.

[top]

Lesson Schedule

Please note that our course follows the UNC-Chapel Hill academic calendar. All due-date times are Eastern Time. If you are in a different time zone, plan accordingly. It is essential that you adhere to the scheduled due dates and times.

The structure of the course is based on the structure of your textbook, but we will be skipping around some chapters and returning to others later in the term. We will use the following schedule:

[top]