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Bernadette Berardi-Coletta, Ph.D.                                                             Winter/spring 2002

Office:  1054D BSB                                                                                Office phone: (312) 413-1314

Hours:  Tue. &Thus. – 12:15 to 1:00p.m.                                                       Voice mail:  (312) 857-7227

                                                                                                            Mail box:  Psychology Office BSB

Psychology 100: Introduction to Psychology

Lectures:  Tue. & Thurs. 11:00 a.m. – 12:15p.m.

Location:  250 BSB

Requirement: Must be concurrently registered in a discussion section that corresponds to this section of PSCH 100.

Description and objectives: I think of PSCH 100 as my opportunity to show you/tell you about the most interesting and exciting aspects of psychology.  This course will give you a brief overview of what psychologists do and how they do it.  After carefully reviewing many introductory texts, I chose the one that I think will be the most useful to you. I think that Carole Wade and Carol Tavris (the authors of the book) have a good sense of how to present complex ideas in a brief format that should leave you asking more questions rather than giving you the idea that what they have presented is the whole story.  Additionally, they have provided excellent supplemental material to help you explore your interests in psychology.  These include:  Video tapes to accompany the text, hundreds of color overheads that they have created, a free student study guide and free access to a web site called The Psychology Place that has learning activities, research news, Op Ed essays, links to Scientific American articles that are related to topics in the text and answers to frequently asked questions about psychology.  Using the study guide is especially  important.  It provides you with practice on items that are similar to those you will see on tests. 

This course will provide you with an overview of the major areas in the field of psychology.  Because it is a survey course, we will cover many diverse areas within the field.  The following areas will be emphasized: major models in psychology, major principles of psychology applicable to the learning of psychology, research methods in psychology, social psychology, the organization of the human brain and the biological bases of behavior, principles of learning, major theories of personality development, intelligence, and psychological disorders.  Upon completion of this class, you should be able to identify the major theories, terminology, principles, processes and methods in the above areas.

Texts:          All of the books for this course are published by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Required Texts: Psychology (6th edition) by Carole Wade and Carol Tavris (2000).

                           Study Guide and Practice Tests by Tina E. Stern (this comes bundled with your text).

                           Media User's Guide by Carole Wade and Carol Tavris (this also comes with the text).

                           Contemporary Readings in Psychology: A New York Times Reader by Erik J. Coats (2000).

Optional Texts: Forty Studies that Changed Psychology by Roger Hock.

                           The Psychology Major: Career Options and Strategies for Success by R. Landrum, Stephen Davis and Theresa Landrum.

                           How to Think like a Psychologist by Donald McBurney.

                           Psychobabble and Biobunk by Carol Tavris.

Specific reading assignments are listed in the attached Course Schedule.  Please read the assigned reading BEFORE that topic is covered in class.  Expect to read everything more than once!

EVALUATION:  Your final grade will be a function of four tests (50%), two short critical thinking papers (20%), discussion section participation and attendance (20%), and experimental credit (or its equivalent) that is a Psychology Department requirement (10%).

Tests : There will be 4 non-cumulative (covering only the material since the previous test) tests in this course.  Each test will consist of 50 multiple-choice questions.  Be aware that you are responsible for all areas of a chapter - even if they are not discussed in class.  Each question will be worth 0.25 points (a quarter of a point).  Thus, you can earn as many as 50 points on the four tests (50 X 4 X 0.25 = 50).

If you miss a test, you must attend the scheduled make-up session or you will forfeit any opportunity to earn the points from that test.  NOTE: No make-up test will be available for a student who misses Test 4.  The make-up tests will differ from the regular tests only in the following way.  For 10 randomly selected questions from the regular test, you will have to explain why the alternative you selected is the correct one.  If your explanation is incorrect, you will not receive credit for the item even if you selected the correct alternative.

Critical Thinking Papers: You will write two critical thinking papers for this class, each of which is to be 3-4 pages long.  Your papers must be typed (NO exceptions!) with margins of no more than 1".  Your critical thinking papers will be based on articles that originally appeared in the New York Times and are contained in Coat's (2000) book Contemporary Readings in Psychology.  Each article in the book is followed by 5 questions that are intended to make you think critically about the article that you just read.  Your papers will consist of your thoughtful and carefully reasoned answers.  Your answers to each of the five questions will be graded on a 2-point scale: 2.0 = Excellent (a model of good critical thinking and communication), 1.5 = Good (a few minor defects), 1.0 = Mediocre (not good, not bad), 0.5 = Poor (some serious defects) and 0.0 = Terrible (an example of how not to think and communicate).  Thus, you can earn as many as 10 points (5 x 2 = 10) on each paper and, thus, 20 points on both papers.

The first paper must be based on a reading from Section I (Neurobiology of Human Behavior) or Section II (Cognition and Consciousness) of the Coat book and will be due in your discussion section the week of October 1st.  The second paper must be based on a reading from Section III (Developmental Questions), Section IV (Personality and Social Behavior) or Section V (Psychopathology and Its Treatment).  The second paper will be due in your discussion section during the week of November 26th.  No late papers will be accepted.

Discussion Section: You will receive one-third point for each discussion section meeting that you attend for at least 45 minutes.  Thus, you can earn as many as 4.67 points for attendance (.33 x 14 = 4.67).  For each discussion section meeting that you make a positive contribution to (by bringing in good questions or interesting information that is topic relevant or actively participating in classroom discussions and activities), you can earn one point.  Thus, you can earn 14 "active learner" points.  If you have perfect attendance, you will receive an additional third of a point.  Thus, you can earn a total of 5.0 attendance points.  Similarly, if you actively participate during every meeting of your discussion section, you will receive one extra active learner point.  Thus, you can earn a total of 15 active learner points.  This means that you can earn 20 points if you attend every discussion section and actively contribute to each one.

Psychological Experience Credit (PEC): As part of this course, you are expected to earn 8 Psychology Experience Credits (PECs).  Like any other course requirement, these credits will be factored into your final course grade.  You may earn your 8 PECs by any of three methods: (1) participating as a subject in IRB-approved research studies conducted under the supervision of Psychology Department faculty, (2) writing summaries of published empirical research using the resources of UIC's Daley Library, and/or (3) participating as a simulated client in one or more professional training sessions conducted by, and for the purpose of training, advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology.  You have the option of earning all 8 PECs by any one of these methods, or you may earn some PECs by each method.  The requirement is simply that you earn a total of 8 PECs.  A separate document that explains each of these methods in greater detail will be distributed in class, and is also available online at www.uic.edu/classes/psych/psych100/.

Each PEC you earn, up to a maximum of 8, will count for 1 point toward your course grade, with an extra two points awarded if you complete all 8 PECs.  Thus, for example, if you earn 6 PECs they will count for 6 points, whereas if you earn 8 PECs, they will count 8 + 2 = 10 points.

Letter Grade: Your final grade will be a function of the total number of points scored on the 4 tests, 2 papers, in discussion section and earned as PECs.  The maximum number of points you can earn is 100 points (50 for the tests, 20 for the papers, 20 for discussion section and 10 for experiments).  The total number of points that you earn will determine your grade.  That is:

                                                         A =   90 or more points

                                                         B =   80 to 89  

                                                         C =   60 to 79

                                                         D =   50 to 59

                                                         E =   fewer than 50 

POLICIES: As a matter of courtesy, please see your TA first about any problems you are having.  If your TA can’t take care of the matter, he or she will contact the instructor.  The professor will be the final arbiter. 

Code of Academic Integrity: The University of Illinois at Chicago expects its students to act honestly in all academic work.  They should not plagiarize, cheat or fabricate in their work.  In terms of this class, there are three important areas of academic integrity: Plagiarism, cheating and fabrication. 

Plagiarism: Representing someone else's work as your own or providing materials for such a representation is plagiarism.  To avoid plagiarism, students must acknowledge the source whenever: (1) quoting another person's actual words;  (2) using another person's idea, opinion or theory; (3) borrowing facts, statistics or other illustrative material-unless the information is common knowledge. 

Cheating: Intentionally obtaining or attempting to use unauthorized materials or information (notes, texts or study aides) or unauthorized help from another (looking at a test paper, asking another student a question during an exam) in any work submitted for evaluation for academic credit is cheating. 

Fabrication: Intentional and unauthorized falsification, invention or copying of data, practicum experience, research or laboratory findings, or bibliographic references or citations in any academic course work is fabrication and a violation of academic integrity.

Anyone found in violation will be subject to immediate failure as well as the implementation of formal proceedings dictated by University policy.

Course Schedule

Web page created by Jordan Lippman on 02/19/2002

Contact Jordan with questions: jlippman@uic.edu