PSYC200: General Psychology

Syllabus

Lake Washington Institute of Technology

 

 

Time:	MWF 1:30-2:50	Credits:	5
Instructor Name:	Sharon Raz, Ph.D.	Web Resource:	http://lwtech.instructure.com
E-Mail Address:	Sharon.raz@lwtech.edu

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Students will learn the stages of human development from infancy throughout the life span. Stages will be discussed in terms of physical, social and psychological. Normal growth and development are discussed for each developmental stage. Also addressed are deviations from normal as behaviors which interfere with function. Practical applications are made.

 

PREREQUISITE:

 

ABED 045, or ABED 046, or equivalent placement score

 

GLOBAL OUTCOMES:

 

This course teaches to the global outcome of Intercultural Appreciation.

 

STUDENTS OUTCOMES:

 

Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

 

• Discuss the general concepts of human development and behavior
• Understand basic psychological terminology, concepts, and theories
• Describe how biological, psychological, and social factors affect behavior
• Explain the developmental theories of Erickson, Piaget, Kohlberg, and others
• Describe the physical, mental, emotional, and social developmental characteristics at each developmental stage throughout the life span
• Describe possible blocks to normal growth and development at all stages
• Define the critical periods in development
• Explain the impact on the individual and the family when individuals have not developed along expected patterns
• Describe the stages of death and dying as defined by Kubler-Ross

 

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION

 

The methods of instruction include: lecture, group discussion, online discussions, reading, and writing assignments, and presentations.

 

TEXTBOOK(S) AND REQUIRED TOOLS / SUPPLIES /MATERIALS

 

Lifespan Development, by Lumen Learning, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/lifespandevelopment2

 

GRADING

 

Your final grade will be based on the following assignments:

             

Introduction Discussion: 50 points

Discussion Board Essays: 10 out of 11 discussions. 20 points per discussion, 200 points

Research Project: Research project and students’ presentation, 300 points

Research references: 50 points

Research First draft: 50 points

Personal Essay: 150 points

Film Analysis presentation: 100 points

Class Participation: 100 points

 

A minimum grade of 2.0 is required for technical courses, general education requirements, progression in a sequence of classes, to satisfy a prerequisite, and graduation requirements.

Description of Grade Components and Assignment Guidelines

 

Introduce Yourself

 

As a class, we would like to know each other better, so we could form better social connections.

Please put together a short introduction of yourself. You can use a PowerPoint presentation, a Word file or any similar software.

Here are some topics that you can use to introduce yourself:

your name, the academic program that you are part of, your interests, hobbies, or favorite things, and a picture that represents you.

After posting your introduction, please reply to at least two of your peers’ introductions.

 

Discussions

There are 11 online discussions, one for each module. Only 10 answers would be part of your final grade. The Discussion Board Essays must be at least 300 words each. Essays greater than 300 words is acceptable. Essays should be well organized with complete sentences and minimal grammar/spelling errors

After answering the discussion question, you have to respond to at least one of your peers.

 

Research project – References

 

For this stage of your research, you will submit three references for your research paper. For this draft, you will be required to provide a minimum of three sources, and each of them are different:

 

A source providing coverage of the last five years of recent trends related to your topic.

 

A source providing reference to your concept, which can be older than five years.

 

A source describing your concept in the context of another culture/country.

 

Source types note:

your sources should be of high academic quality and relevance. Please consider using ProQuest or EBSCOhost (located on the Research Databases library site page here (Links to an external site.)) to find academic journal articles, peer- reviewed journal articles, and other high-quality materials.

 

 

Research project: 

Your research project consists of a written report and a classroom presentation. You will choose one life stage:

 

Infancy

Early childhood

Middle childhood

Adolescence

Emerging adulthood

Adulthood

Late adulthood

Death and Dying

 

Your project will explore the psychological, physiological, and social challenges and opportunities experienced by people in this life stage. When describing your topic, you should include: 

 

A summary of the life stage you chose to write about, the main challenges and opportunities in this life stage. When describing your topic, you should include relevant statistics. You can use different examples to illustrate the physiological, psychological, and social aspects that affect this life stage.

 

The recent trends, important events, or new studies related to the life stage that you are researching. This part of the essay will include information about current research being done on the life stage. Scientists are always working on new ways to understand human life better. For this section, you will choose at least one current article (written within the last five years) relating to the chosen topic. You will write at least one paragraph to explain what the scientists who wrote the article discovered (summarize the research) and explain how the research in the article improves on or changes past knowledge of the life stage (analyze the importance of the research).

 

Cultural comparison: This part of the essay will include information about how a culture other than mainstream American culture views the life stage that you chose to focus on. Describe the life stage that you chose to explore in a country other than the U.S or in a different American or international sub-culture and compare them to the trends in the U.S. You would examine the challenges, opportunities, and expectations for people in a culture other than the mainstream US, how cultural norms and values impact the ways in which social issues are addressed in different countries.

 

4. conclusion and summary

 

Research Paper Guidelines:

 

You must use at least 3 sources in your paper and include a reference sheet to cite them. Since this is a research assignment, you will need to include specific quotations from sources in your essay. Part 1 should reference at least one source, Part 2 should reference at least one source, and Part 3 should reference at least one source. You may use additional sources.

All papers handed in should be stapled, double-spaced, with 12-point font and 1-inch margins.

3. Number your pages.
4. All sources and examples used need to be cited in a separate reference page at the end of your paper in APA format.

 

The following links provide examples of APA guidelines:

-Purdue University Online Writing Lab: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2

-For an electronic article from an online periodical/journal (not in a library database: 

Bernstein, M. (2002). 10 tips on writing the living Web. A list apart: For people who make websites, 149. Retrieved from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving

 

Audience: 

 

Your assumed target audience is not very familiar with the specifics of psychology, so in Part 1, you will need to define your concept and explain what it is, how it works, and how it affects people with specific examples from your source.

 

Essay Expectations:

 

A clearly stated, specific, straightforward thesis. (The thesis will need to include your topic—i.e. your psychological concept—and give the reader a sense of the progression of the essay.)

An organized structure in which key points are grouped with their supporting examples. (Body paragraphs will need to include topic sentences, specific evidence, and analysis to explain the relevance of the evidence. Each paragraph will need to stay focused on its topic.)

Specific, detailed examples to support the thesis and subtopics. (These examples will come from your sources.)

Analysis, not just description. (Once you have provided an example, you will need to explain to your reader how that example proves your point, why it is important, how it relates to the main topic, or why you chose that example in particular.)

Clear, readable, precise prose. (Please edit your final draft to get rid of grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, as well as awkward sentences.)

Academic style. (This essay should analyze and explain the topic. It should not include personal pronouns like “I” and “you,” slang, or informal language.)

 

Lifespan Personal Essay:

 

 

Personal Essay Purpose:  

 

For the personal essay assignment, we will learn about physiological, psychological, and social concepts and practice critical thinking and inter-cultural appreciation by exploring life stages in depth and relating them to our own experiences or ideas.

 

Assignment:  

 

Choose a life stage (or two) and relate the lifespan terminology to your own experiences, the experiences of someone you know, or anything you have read or seen. How do your experiences (or an acquaintance’s experiences) relate to what you learned about these life stages? 

 

Your grade will reflect your understanding of the subject, and the use of terminology and theories from your textbook.

 

Film Analysis presentation:

Sometimes art imitates life. Many feature films or movies portray characters who are displaying some physiological, psychological, or social challenges. Choose a movie or film and focus on a specific stage of life. Analyze the characters’ development from physiological, psychological and social points of view. Your grade will reflect your understanding of the subject, and the use of the terminology and theories from your textbook. 

This is a group assignment. You can choose your group members and divide the work between you, so that each group member would be responsible of a different aspect of the film. The final product of this assignment would be a group presentation to the class.

Course Related Resources

 

The following websites may be helpful to you for further resources on some of the topics we cover in this class and/or current events related to psychology. This list is by no means comprehensive; rather it is intended to be a starting point as you gather information about issues of interest to you.

• American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/
• Positive Psychology Center: http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/
• Implicit Association Test Project at Harvard: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo
• Birth Order Research: http://www.birthorders.com/
• The Myers and Briggs Foundation: http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/
• Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/
• Global Oneness Project: http://www.globalonenessproject.org/
• Colors Northwest Magazine: http://www.colorsnw.com/
• Common Dreams News Center: http://www.commondreams.org/
• Community Alliance for Global Justice: http://www.seattleglobaljustice.org/
• Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: http://www.fair.org/index.php
• Media Education Foundation: http://www.mediaed.org/
• Ode Magazine: www.odemagazine.com
• Yes Magazine: A Journal of Positive Futures: http://www.yesmagazine.org/
• A list of websites that address interconnected issues involving prejudice: http://www.understandingprejudice.org/links/connect.htm

 

LWIT Grading System

 

Points	Letter
4.0	A	Excellent performance
3.9-3.7	A-
3.6-3.3	B+
3.2-3.0	B	Above-average performance
2.9-2.7	B-
2.6-2.3	C+
2.2-2.0	C	Average performance
1.9-1.7	C-
1.6-1.3	D+
1.2-1.0	D	Minimum performance
0.9-0.7	D-
0.0-0.6	F	Unsatisfactory performance

 

Decimal grading scale for this course

98.0-100.0=4.0                                                                                  

96.0-97.99=3.9

94.0-95.99=3.8

92.0-93.99=3.7

90.0-91.99=3.6

88.0-89.99=3.5

86.0-87.99=3.4

84.0-85.99=3.3

82.0-83.99=3.2

81.0-81.99=3.1

80.0-80.99=3.0

79.0-79.99=2.9

78.0-78.99=2.8

77.0-77.99=2.7

76.0-76.99=2.6

75.0-75.99=2.5

74.0-74.99=2.4

73.0-73.99=2.3

72.0-72.99=2.2

71.0-71.99=2.1

70.0-70.99=2.0

69.0-69.99=1.9

68.0-68.99=1.8

67.0-67.99=1.7

66.0-66.99=1.6

65.0-65.99=1.5

64.0-64.99=1.4

63.0-63.99=1.3

62.0-62.99=1.2

61.0-61.99=1.1

60.0-60.99=1.0

59.0-59.99=0.9

58.0-58.99=0.8

57.0-57.99=0.7

56.99 and below=0.0

 

COURSE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

 

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to follow the college student conduct code, WAC 495D-120, which prohibits cheating and plagiarism. See the Student Handbook for more details on the code.

 

Computer use, phone, texting, etc. 

• Cell Phones, iPods, texting, and Pagers: Use of cell phones, audible pagers or texting is not allowed inside the classroom.
• Computer Use: Users are limited to applications listed on screen menus. They are not allowed to play games, use chat rooms, or use e-mail unless part of instruction. They are not allowed to install programs, alter system configurations, defaults, system settings, system files, program files, data files, desktop configuration.

 

Equal Opportunity Information

Lake Washington Institute of Technology is an equal opportunity college and is committed to principles of diversity.  The college accepts students without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or status as a disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran.

Campus Security

Your safety and security are taken seriously at the college.  The campus hires security personnel and off-duty police officers.  All incidents of confirmed or suspected crimes are reported. If you require assistance or would like to report an incident, please dial 425-739-8224. 

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR LEARNING

Disability Services, West Building, W207

If you have a physical, psychological, medical, or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact the Disability Support Services office. They will coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. All information and documentation is confidential. DSS is located in W207 in person, by phone 425-739-8300, or by email dssinfo@lwtech.edu. For additional information please refer to http://www.lwtech.edu/student_life/disability_support_services/default.aspx

 

Computer Lab - Hours are posted on the entrance to the Library

 

Peer Tutoring - Peer tutoring is available for students who are having difficulty in a class. If you would like to request a tutor, please contact the coordinator in the Academic Skills Center to obtain and complete the appropriate paperwork. If you have any general questions about tutoring, please contact at tutor@lwtech.edu

 

Writing Center - Informational handouts, special grammar practice software, and writing tutorials are available in the Writing Center. There is no fee associated with the use of Writing Center computers or printers. Hours vary by quarter and are posted on the entrance.

 

Bookstore:  http://www.lwtech.edu/Student_Life/Bookstore.xml

 

Library-Learning Commons:  http://lwtechlearningcommons.com/

EMERGENCY INFORMATION

• Evacuation procedures—posted in each classroom
• School closures – Please check http://www.lwtech.edu/about_lwtech/emergency_communications/default.aspx in case of inclement weather
• Campus Security Phone: 425-739-8224, Room E145
• IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: In support of the college safety plan, the Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) uses collaboration, information collection, risk assessment, and intervention to create a safe campus community. Based upon reports of student behavior, the BIT plans preventive strategies and interventions to assist students, faculty, and staff in supporting students who may be at risk. Please use our online reporting form to contact us.