Course Syllabus

Course Description

This course presents an overview of the field of psychology, a field that emphasizes the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. Topics include history, methodology, biopsychology, life-span development, sensation and perception, consciousness and altered states, learning and memory, thought and language, intelligence, motivation and emotion, personality, psychopathology and therapy, stress and health, social and cultural influences. ADVISORIES: English 1A or 1AH. (A, CSU-GE, UC, I) (C-ID PSY 110).

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Textbook

Great news: your textbook for this class is available for free online!
Psychology 2e from OpenStax, ISBN 978-1-975076-45-0

You have several options to obtain this book:

• View online (Links to an external site)
• Download a PDF (Links to an external site)
• You can also purchase a low cost print version from the Reedley College bookstore. 

You can use whichever formats you want. Web view is recommended -- the responsive design works seamlessly on any device.

Course Requirements

This will be a 100% online course. You will not have to log on at designated times. Lectures and class activities will be accessible on your own schedule (asynchronous course); however, there will be due dates for discussion posts, assignments and exams. You will have to check-in and complete an introductory discussion response by the first week of class (1/15/2021) in order to not be dropped from the course. The introduction discussion response is worth 20 points and is mandatory to stay in the course after the first week as it will be the way to assess that you are attending and participating in the course.

Discussion Posts

Two different discussion topics or questions will be posted each week and will correspond with the chapter or topic being discussed that given week. One discussion response will be due each Wednesday while the second one will be due each Friday. You WILL have to respond to the discussion posts in a thorough and thoughtful manner and ALSO respond to two different replies submitted by your peers. This means you will submit a total of six replies each week (two to me and four to peers). Your response to the original discussion post should be a thorough paragraph in which you make reference to information from course content or text book, at a minimum and responses to your peers should be no less than 4 complete sentences. Responses of “I agree with you” or “I can relate to that” are not enough. The reply you submit to the original discussion post will be worth 10 points. The two replies to your peers will be worth 5 points each for a total of 20 points each discussion post. You will have the ability to earn a total of 40 points each week in discussion responses. Total semester points available for discussion posts is 640 points. The discussion posts will be available by Monday mornings at 8:00 AM and will be due the same week on Wednesday and Friday by 11:59 PM.

Psychology Topic Paper

There will be two psychology topic papers assigned this semester. I will assign a topic and ask you to write a response and summarize what you have learned in the course as it relates to the topic. There will be specific questions and information to include in your paper that will be provided as we get closer to this assignment. I like to do this because there are times you have information you do not always want to share with everyone else in class or in discussion boards and this type of assignment allows for critical thinking without worry of others knowing the content. One topic paper will be due halfway through the course and the second will be due at the end of the course. Each topic summary paper is worth 50 points for a total of 100 points.

Exams

There will be three midterms and a final.  All exams will be worth 100 points for a total of 400 possible points in exams and will be a combination of 50 multiple choice, true-false, and/or fill-in questions. All exams will be assigned on the dates below (Friday 8:00 AM), but will be due by 11:59 PM on Monday. This gives you four days to complete the exam. Students will have 1.5 hours to complete the exam. Once you start the exam, the 1.5 hours begins. The final exam will be available from Saturday, May 15, 2021 and is scheduled to be due on Wednesday, May 19, 2021 by 11:59 PM. You'll have to be flexible if the scheduled dates/times are inconvenient for you. Because of the nature of an online course, make-up exams may be difficult to accommodate.

Professionalism

Online learning is not everyone’s favorite BUT due to COVID-19 online courses are likely a big part of your life right now. You need to be a very self-directed and personally responsible student to be successful in online courses. Online you do not see your instructor twice a week, reminding you of what’s due next class, or discussing other projects. Therefore, you need to use your motivation and skills to successfully embark on this course. I will also make myself available through Canvas mail, email and/or zoom to help you throughout the course. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns related to the course. We will work together! Remember that tutoring, DSP&S, counseling and other resources to help you succeed will still be readily available online.

Computer problems, electrical shortages, and other malfunctions do occur, and it is your responsibility to complete work by the deadline regardless of any of these problems.  Please do not write to me to ask for extensions because your computer crashed, or you were unable to ‘get online’ to complete the work at the last minute. You are given several days to complete an assignment, therefore, if your technology fails on the last day the assignment is due, you will not be excused from the deadline unless there was a serious issue. I recommend you always complete your work before the deadline to prevent any problem of this sort.

Course Drop Policy

Students who do not review the week 1 module and complete the check-in task at the end of the module by 1/15/2021 will be dropped as that would be considered being a no show.

Plagiarism

Please note that plagiarism is a violation of Reedley College policy.  Anyone deemed to have submitted plagiarized work will automatically receive a failing grade.  Plagiarism may include, but is not limited to, failing to provide complete citations and references for all work that draws on the ideas, words, or work of others, failing to identify the contributors to work done in collaboration, submitting duplicate work to be evaluated in different classes without the knowledge and consent of the instructors involved, or failing to observe computer security systems and software copyrights. Again, all assignments, tests, and quizzes are to be completed on an individual basis; collaboration with other classmates or anyone else is not allowed unless instructed otherwise.

Students with Disabilities

If you have a verified need for an academic accommodation or materials in alternate media (e.g. Braille, large print, electronic text, etc.) per the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, please contact your instructor as soon as possible.

Grades

The following scale will decide final grades. There will be a total of 1160 points possible from the three 100-point midterms, the 100-point final, the two 50-point papers, and 660 points from discussion posts.

Grading Scale

Course Schedule

This syllabus is subject to (very probable) change and/or revision during the academic term.

Have a GREAT SEMESTER-If you have any questions, just ask!