Fall 2004                                                                                                         0.5 Credits

 

Psychology 110 L

Demonstrations for Fundamentals of Psychology

 

Catalog Description: This lab is offered only in the fall semester and is restricted to incoming freshmen Psychology majors. The lab will be taken in conjunction with the section of PSYCH 110 for first year Psychology majors. It will be team taught by the psychology faculty and will entail exercises, simulations, and applications. This course is required only for students who enter the University as freshmen Psychology majors and who are enrolled in the Psychology majors’ fall section of PSYCH 110. Students who transfer into psychology need only to take PSYCH 110 or its equivalent. The course is graded pass/fail. The course is open only to Psychology majors.

 

Time & Place:            W 4:00-4:50, 211 Alumni Memorial Hall

 

Instructor:                  Christie Karpiak, Ph.D.            Office:  AMH 129

                                    Phone: 941-5886                     e-mail: karpiakc2@scranton.edu

                                    Office Hours: M & F 10:00-11:00, W 3:00-4:00, and by appointment

 

Required Text:

 

Hock, R. R. (2002). Forty Studies that Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research (4th Ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

 

Lab Goals:

This lab will involve demonstrations, exercises, engaging activities, and presentations on topics that correspond with the course content of Psychology 110. The idea is to provide opportunities for you to see in action and actively engage with material from many of the central research areas within the field of psychology, simultaneous with our class discussion of these areas. As with the course, this lab experience can help you begin to identify areas that are most interesting to you. An added bonus, and one that can prove of great value as you proceed toward your degree, is the opportunity to meet and learn about the interests of your psychology faculty here at the University of Scranton.

 

Evaluation:

The lab is graded on a pass/fail basis. A pass is earned by having excellent attendance, passing the short papers from 10 of the demonstrations, and earning a passing grade on your presentation of the assigned subject from the lab text (see below).

 

            Attendance:      If you miss three or more labs you will fail.

 

Papers: A paper is assigned for each demonstration. Questions to help guide your response to each demonstration are listed below. These papers should be brief (no more than two double-spaced pages). Although discussion of the lab with your classmates is encouraged, papers should contain your own thoughts and observations. Mass-produced responses will be graded as failed.

 

            Papers are due the Friday immediately following each lab and will be collected in class. Late papers will not be accepted, so turn them in on time. If you are not enrolled in the 110-9 course, you should submit papers on time via e-mail attachment, Blackboard, or hard copy hand-delivered to my mailbox on the second floor of AMH.

 

            Presentation: Working with a partner, you will learn as much as you can about one of the classic studies from the Hock text and present it to the class in an approximately 10-minute presentation. Your summary should include:

                        1.         Explanation of the question(s) the study was designed to answer

2.         Clear description and/or demonstration of the procedures the researchers used (e.g., participants, equipment, measures, what they did)

3.         Results and implications    

4.         Brief treatment of any major findings since the original study, and/or current state of knowledge about the topic

           

Presentations will be graded using the form at the end of this syllabus.

 

 


 

Lab Schedule (subject to change)

 

Date                 Topics covered in class                          Faculty in lab

 

Sep 1                Critical Thinking, Science                       Karpiak

 

Sep 8                Research, Evolution, Genes                    Hogan/Karpiak

 

Sep 15              Neurons, Brain, Body Rhythms              Cannon

 

Sep 22              Sensation & Perception                         Cannon

 

Sep 29              Learning & Conditioning                        Karpiak                       

                        Presentations Groups 1 - 4

 

Oct 6                Social & Cultural Context                      Baril

 

Oct 13              Thinking & Intelligence                          Hogan

 

Oct 20              Memory                                                Buchanan

 

Oct 27              Emotion & Motivation                            TBA    

                        Presentations Groups 5 - 8

 

Nov 3               Personality                                            Karpiak           

                        Presentations Groups 9 - 12

 

Nov 10             Development                                         Slotterback                   

 

Nov 17             Stress & Coping                                    O’Malley                                             

 

Dec 1               Psychological Disorders                         Karpiak           

                        Presentations Groups 13 - 16

 

Dec 8               Psychotherapy                                      Norcross

 

 


 

Due Sept. 3:

  1. Describe one of today’s demonstrations
  2. How do you think it was done?
  3. Describe the relationship between the demonstration and a relevant topic from the 110-9 course text

 

Due Sept. 10:

1.     Describe one of today’s demonstrations

2.     Describe a pattern you noticed in your performance (and that of your partners) across the trials of that demonstration

3.     What is one possible reason for the pattern you observed?

 

Due Sept. 17:

1.     Describe one of today’s demonstrations

2.     Describe the relevance of that demonstration to a topic from the 110-9 course text

3.     In what way did the demonstration enhance your understanding of that topic or the way researchers go about studying that topic?

 

Due Sept. 24:

1.     Describe one of today’s demonstrations

2.     Describe the relationship between that demonstration and a specific relevant topic from the 110-9 course text

3.     In what way did the demonstration enhance your understanding of that text material?

 

Due Oct. 1 (Groups that present today do not need to turn in this thought paper):

1.     Which presentation did you find most interesting? Why?

2.     Describe the relationship between the study presented and a topic from the 110-9 text

3.     Develop one good question left unanswered by this study that you believe needs to be answered through future research.

 

Due Oct 8:

1.     Describe one of today’s demonstrations

2.     Describe the relationship between that demonstration and a specific relevant topic from the course text or from current events/news

3.     In what way did the demonstration enhance your understanding of that material?

 

Due Oct 15:

1.     Describe one of today’s demonstrations

2.     Describe the relationship between that demonstration and a topic from the text

3.     In what way did the demonstration enhance your understanding of that text material?

 

Due Oct 22:

1.     Describe one of today’s demonstrations

2.     Describe the relationship between that presentation and a topic from the text

3.     How could the demonstrated concept be applied to improve study skills?

 

Due Oct 29 (Groups that presented do not need to turn in a thought paper):

1.     Which presentation did you find most interesting? Why?

2.     Describe the relationship between the study presented and a topic from the 110-9 text

3.     Develop one good question left unanswered by this study that you believe needs to be answered through future research.


 

Due Nov 5 (Groups that presented do not need to turn in a thought paper):

1.     Which presentation did you find most interesting? Why?

2.     Describe the relationship between the study presented and a topic from the 110-9 text

3.     Develop one good question left unanswered by this study that you believe needs to be answered through future research.

 

Due Nov 12:

1.     Describe one key feature of the demonstration

2.     Describe the relationship between that feature and a topic from the text (it does not necessarily have to be from the chapter on development)

3.     In what way did the demonstration enhance your understanding of the text material?

 

Due Nov 19:

1.     Describe the demonstration

2.     Describe the relationship between the demonstration and a topic from the text (it does not need to be from the chapter on stress & coping)

3.     In what way did the demonstration enhance your understanding of the text material?

 

Due Dec 3 (Groups that presented do not need to turn in a thought paper):

1.     Which presentation did you find most interesting? Why?

2.     Describe the relationship between the study presented and a topic from the 110-9 text

3.     Develop one good question left unanswered by this study that you believe needs to be answered through future research.

 

Due Dec 10:

1.     Describe one key feature of the demonstration

2.     Describe the relationship between that feature and a topic from your text

3.     In what way did the demonstration enhance your understanding of the text material?

 


Group                                                                                                                         

 

Topic                                                                                      

 

I.          Coverage of Basic Content (completeness, accuracy)                           

 

            a.         research question                                                                     

 

b.                  procedures                                                                              

 

c.                   results                                                                                      

 

d.                  recent findings                                                                          

 

 

II.         Quality of presentation

 

a.         clarity of communication                                                           

 

b.         demonstrations/examples/media                                               

 

 

                                                                        Total:                                                   

 

Each area is rated on a 5-point scale. Total points possible=30. Passing grade=20 points.