The University of Maryland

European Division

Lecturer: Michael S. Ofsowitz
E-mail address: mofsowit @faculty.ed.umuc.edu
Term 3, 2000-2001 (Monday & Wednesday or Tuesday & Thursday)


Textbook:
Psychology (6th edition), David Myers. Additional readings, selected by the lecturer, will be distributed in class.

Introduction to Psychology:
(3 credit hours): An introduction to the study of behavior and mental processes. Psychologists are interested in explaining behavior, and (in humans) how the mind works. The course will attempt to develop the student's psychological imagination ­ an awareness of things grounded in psychological science. Successful completion of this course requires a willingness to learn the language and methods used by psychologists in their attempts to explain behavior and mental processes, and perhaps an open mind.

Psychology is a field that attempts to scientifically figure out what makes the human creature tick. Some of the basic questions psychologists try to answer are things like: How does a person know what's going on around them? Why do we see what we think we see? How do we remember things? Why do we act at all? How do we learn new tricks? How do we form habits? How do we manage to get along with one another? How does one person influence another? How do we come to know who we are? Do we act differently in groups? Where does intelligence or creativity come from? Where do mental abilities go when we get old? What happens when things go wrong ­ where do oddities come from? How does a person qualify as having a behavioral disorder? Who is really a loon? How are behavior and mental problems dealt with? Are these mental problems really illnesses, and are there cures?

To answer questions like these we have to learn the language and methods of psychology ­ that is, the way psychologists describe things, and the way they get at answers. The language of psychology makes it possible to avoid problems commonly created by unclear manners of speech or writing. And the methods of psychology ­ scientific methods ­ allow us to escape the constraints of uncritical beliefs and opinions and forces that get us to agree or disagree with these. Using scientific methods, we search for realities ­ answers that withstand the tests of skeptical scientific scrutiny. However, you'll soon realize that this course raises as many questions as it answers ­ such is the state of psychology at the moment.

The problem with psychology: Students often think psychology is going to examine problem cases ­ the insane, distressed, incontinent, otherwise disordered, and so forth, along with some pop themes like actualizing self-potential, detoxifying relationships, and maintaining chemical balance in the brain. In reality, most of what psychologists do is focused on normal people and the attempts to explain how a normal person works, and that in detail. We don't worry about "what makes some people so arrogant" as much as we worry about things like "how is it possible to see in three dimensions?" Interest in insanities, mental illnesses, etc. is a part of psychology, but it's not the central part. Second, students often think psychology is going to be easy, after all it sounds fun. Well, maybe it's fun, but if it were easy we'd know more about psychology than we know about physics. (I'm not the first to say that.) In other words, explaining atomic energy is easy; explaining happiness is tough. But both use the same principles ­ those of science. Students are often surprised about how scientific their introductory psychology courses are. And third, almost everyone comes to their first psychology class with assumptions and beliefs about how people function, what's good for teaching people new things, where personality comes from, and so on. We often cling to these assumptions and beliefs because they've gotten us through years of life and they may have been acquired from persons we respect highly (parents, friends, clergy...). In other words, we just know they can't be wrong. But in psychology we try to look at the human creature from a rather sober, scientific viewpoint, and what we see often challenges many of our thoughts ­ even those we most strongly believe in. What this means for you, the student, is that you have to come to class prepared to be exposed to explanations of mind and behavior that may seem counterintuitive, and you also should be prepared to confront scientific evidence that contradicts, and hopefully shatters, some of your beliefs. This may seem simple in print, but heed the warning: without an open mind, willing to learn what psychologists know and think about behavior and mental processes, you probably won't do well in class.

General purpose and objectives:
The objectives of this course are twofold: one, to introduce you to the work of psychologists, and two, to contribute to the larger puzzle that is your general education. It's expected that you will understand each of the sections described in the outline of lectures and assignments. Within each section there are many concepts, findings, and theories that you are expected to understand, though they are too numerous to list here. If you develop a good grasp of the materials presented in this course you should be able to understand some of the basic components underlying the behaviors and mental processes of the human organism and the scientific methods used to ascertain them. You should then be able to comprehend, with a skeptical eye, the various discussions going on around us ­ in the media and in private ­ that have to do with reasons and tendencies of human behaviors and the functioning of the human mind. If you work hard in this class and put thought into the topics you should also come away with an improved general ability to research and think about college-level subjects.

Responsibilities:
Students are responsible for acting, thinking, and working like college students. See the additional study and writing guides ("How to Study" and "How to get an A") for an idea of how much work you're expected to put into this course. (Also see the survival strategies handout.) During class, come prepared to listen to and understand what I have to say. The class will be in a lecture and discussion format, and you will be held responsible for attempting to understand the lectures, the discussions, and the readings (whether these all coincide or not). Your primary job as student is to learn how to think about psychology, not how to pick out right answers from a list of possibilities. Keep in mind that my interpretation of psychology is not the only interpretation, so you should be prepared to question what I have to say with the knowledge and ideas you have been exposed to from other credible sources. (Questions can be asked directly on the spot, and issues can be raised for discussion, and you can always talk to me in private.) Regarding your written assignments, you may show me outlines and rough drafts prior to the due dates; I expect your final drafts to be neat, well thought-out and organized, free of plagiarism, and on time. Scheduling arrangements can be made for work-related absences that interfere with tests and homework assignments, although such arrangements are at the discretion of the instructor.


Grades:
Grades for this course are based on the following: there will be seven weekly quizzes (given at the start of class on Mondays) containing two 5-point questions each; your best 10 (of the 14 possible) answers will provide your total quiz grade, which is worth 40% of the final course grade; you may make-up a missed quiz only once ­ all other missed quizzes are final. See page 5 of this syllabus for quiz point-grade conversion details. Three homework assignments (numbers 1, 2, & 3, below) worth 10% each, and a final exam worth 30% of the final course grade round out the grading. You'll need a total grade of "90" or better for an A, "80" for a B, "70" for a C, and so on. This means that your entire course grade is calculated on the basis of written communication. Please take care and try to develop good writing habits. And keep in mind that there are few right answers to complex questions: usually there are good answers and lousy answers. If you're anticipating or having trouble in class, see the hints for introductory courses.

Michael S. Ofsowitz:
Born and raised in Rochester, N.Y. Studied psychology and sociology at The University of North Carolina-Charlotte, before going to Tulane University for graduate study in social psychology. I've been teaching with the European Division since 1990, and usually teach: PSYC 100, PSYC 221, PSYC 334, PSYC 341, SOCY 100, SOCY 105, SOCY 230, SOCY 300, and SOCY 430. My dominant interests concern the relationship of macro and micro social structures to interpersonal interaction and personality. My dominating non-academic interests center around my kid (an eight-year-old boy), my appetite (for French-styled cooking, with an emphasis on game), and comedy. Since I am not part of the U.S. military, try to avoid calling me "sir." Also, since the University of Maryland European Division has no formal titles (but we're getting them soon), use of the label "professor" is colloquial at best (I'll be an associate professor, though). Feel free to call me Mike, Michael, Mr. Ofsowitz, or "teach." (A teaching philosophy statement is available, too.)

OUTLINE OF LECTURES AND ASSIGNMENTS:

Week 1:

A) Introduction to psychology: The study of behavior. (Textbook: Introduction & Chapter 1; Handout 1)

B) Facts, theories, references, and B.S.: Reading a college text and judging the validity of sources.

What is science? Where do we get our information? What makes psychology a scientific field of study?

Week 2: Don't forget about the weekly quiz, given each Monday/Tuesday.

A) Personality. (Textbook: Chapter 14, esp. 489­511; Handout 2)

One of the topics students seem to always be waiting for, so I decided to put it up front. In academic psychology, however, it's not the central issue it once was. Personality theories (and there are many of them) try to explain the motivating systems underlying a person's individual mental processes and behavior patterns, especially as related to social life.

B) Abnormal and clinical psychology. (Textbook: Chapters 15 & 16; Handout 3)

The other topic students are always waiting for. Understanding abnormalities is best done once we have ideas of normalities, but we'll have to make do. The interest here is in the reality of mental illnesses, the categories assigned to mental illnesses, and the methods used in treating mental illnesses.

Week 3:

A) The brain and nervous system. (Textbook: Chapter 2, & pp. 85-103 Handout 4)

Textbooks jump right into the physiological aspect of psychology, but we've put it off a little. The gray matter shall wait no longer. There is, after all, an essential biological component of mind and behavior.

B) Brain, cont.

Week 4:

A) Research methodology. (Textbook: Chapter 1 again; Handout 5)

Textbooks cover research methods early on, and you'll notice that the reading takes you back to chapter one. I thought you'd like to get an idea about what psychology involves before covering the methods used to generate knowledge in the field. This section looks at how we do science in psychology.

B) Memory and forgetting. (Textbook: Chapter 9; Handout 6)

Memory is a big topic in psychology, and it's central to understanding the mind. How does a human remember things? How does information get into memory and how does it get back out? Why do we forget?

Homework assignment one due (Wednesday/Thursday)

Week 5:

A) Sensory systems: Vision (Textbook: pp.171-188)

Sensation examines the way the physical world comes into our heads. We'll only examine the visual system along with some issues common to all sensory functioning. Part of this section is heavily biological.

B) Thinking. (Textbook: pp. 357-372; Handout 7)

What goes on in our minds when we try to make decisions or solve problems? How are our minds tricked into simplifying things so that we seldom get the kinds of detailed and unbiased thoughts that experts of topics tend to have? Can we learn to be less biased in our thinking habits?

C) Intelligence. (Textbook: Chapter 11; Handout 8)

The main controversy about intelligence surrounds the way that it's measured, especially when looking at differences in the average scores between large groups of people (males v. females, whites v. nonwhites, etc.). What is intelligence? How is it acquired? And are the tests of intelligence a valid measure of anything?

Week 6:

A) Learning. (Textbook: Chapter 8; Handout 9)

Another big topic in psychology. Learning examines the ways we pick up new behaviors, the ways we come to exhibit behaviors in new situations, and the ways behaviors become ingrained as habits.

B) Learning, cont.

Homework assignment two due (Wednesday/Thursday).

Week 7:

A) Social psychology. (Textbook: pp. 643­656, 666­674, 677­682; Handout 10)

We don't cover everything in the text ­ by now you've noticed that. In this section we'll examine some of the traditional issues in social psychology ­ person perception, aggression, and attraction.

B) Social psychology, cont.

Week 8:

A) Child psychology. (Textbook: pp. 124-153; Handout 11)

Last, but not least. Many of the previous topics have implications regarding child development, so there is no harm putting this off until the end. Here, if time permits, we take an explicit look at issues of child development and adolescence.

B) FINAL EXAMINATION (yes, it's cumulative).

Homework assignment three due (Wednesday/Thursday).

The writing assignments will be detailed in class. The following guidelines apply to all assignments.

Assignments one, two, and three (each worth 10% of your course grade) should be 500 ­ 1000 words in length each. All assignments will be graded for thought content, clarity, and English (grammar, syntax, spelling, organization, etc.). All assignments should be typed. If you are unable to find a typewriter or computer (although these are often available for student use in libraries), make sure your papers are neatly written and readable. Illegible or messy papers will be returned without grades. Papers should be double-spaced, neatly ordered, and stapled together. Don't forget to number your pages.

If you are not satisfied with a grade on an assignment, you may rewrite the assignment and hand in an improved version. The rewritten work is eligible for a maximum 2/3 letter grade improvement (i.e., a change in grade is not guaranteed, and the maximum improvement will be 2/3 of one full letter, such as from B­ to B+), however, I will not provide comments or justifications for the rewritten work. (This option does not apply to tests.)

Assignments turned in late will be devalued one-third of a grade (e.g., from B to B­) for each class period. However, due-date extensions can be given for consecutive excused absences.

A note on the weekly quizzes. Each completed quiz answer will receive a numerical score from zero through five points. Your 10 best answers will be used to calculate your total quiz grade based on the following scale: 48 or more= A+, 44-47= A, 40-43= A-, 37-39= B+, 34-36= B, 30-33= B-, 27-29= C+, 24-26= C, 20-23= C-, 17-19= D+, 14-16= D, 10-13= D-, 9 or less= F.

For return of your final examination and last homework assignment, bring a self-addressed envelope (large enough to hold whatever you wish returned). No stamp is required for APO addresses.

A note on absences:

Since the military environment often leads to unexpected absences, it is to your benefit as student to be prepared to seek help from, and to give help to other students. If you miss class for any reason, you should find out from other students what went on in the class you missed. Ask for copies of notes, or, if available, tape recordings. I am available to clarify any problems you might have in understanding the material or the assignments, but I can not review entire classes for each student absence. Due to the nature of the course, repeated absences are likely to result in lower grades. In other words, attendance is not mandatory, but tests and homework assignments will relate to material covered in the classroom, which is not always the same as material covered in your textbooks and other readings. Therefore, absences can severely influence your ability to get a good grade in the class.

Incomplete (grade of I):

The grade of I, or incomplete, is available for special cases where the student is unable to finish the course by the scheduled end of the term. To receive an I, students who are having problems finishing the course as scheduled must fulfill the following requirements: 1) 55% of the graded assignments must be completed at the time of the request; 2) 60% of the class sessions must have been attended by the end of the course; 3) the student must provide evidence of a valid reason for not finishing the graded assignments by the end of the course; 4) the student must request an incomplete in writing, prior to the last day of the course, and this request must include the reason for the request and a date by which the work for the course will be completed (which should not exceed one week from the expiration of the reason for the I). Granting the grade of I, and setting a date for its completion remain at the total discretion of the instructor. For students who are unable to finish the course as scheduled, alternatives to the grade of I include the W (withdrawal) and the F(n) (failure for non-attendance).

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is academic dishonesty. In other words, it's a big word for cheating. If you are caught plagiarizing, or cheating in some other form, then you may wind up failing the assignment you were working on, or, if the infringement is serious, the course as a whole. The common form of plagiarism is using someone else's work as if it were your own. That is, by copying the work of another person and presenting that work as if you wrote it, you are plagiarizing. To avoid plagiarism you should learn how to paraphrase and how to use quotation marks. Basically, if you copy anything word-for-word from a previously published source (another book, a magazine article, etc.), using three or more consecutive words, you must put the passage within quotation marks and show where the material came from with a footnote or other reference. If you put the ideas of someone else into your own words (and not just a rearrangement of the original words) you don't need the quotation marks but you still need to show where the material came from.

Under no circumstances should you ever use the work of a fellow student in any of your written work. Consulting with other students is encouraged, but when it comes to writing, you must write your own product. Anything else is down-right cheating. (Never let another student borrow a paper of yours for any purpose other than getting a general idea about the assignment or issue at hand.) Also, if you plan on using something that you had once written for another course as a piece of work for credit in this course, you must get prior approval.

I highly recommend that you get an English manual of some sort to help you avoid some of the common mistakes that result in accusations of plagiarism. The Harbrace College Handbook is one such manual.

Respect:

Go light on your fellow student, and show patience.
Assume your fellow student has good intentions.
Don't try to deceive your fellow students, don't be ambiguous or obscure when discussing.
Allow others to play Devil's advocate.
Take a joke, but don't insult anyone.
Treat the classroom as a confidential situation, and don't gossip.
Listen to others when they speak, pay attention to them, and hope they'll do the same for you.
Allow others to decline comment.
Speak in the first person; recognize that your opinions are your own and that you don't speak for others.
Try to be accurate and try to defend any of the claims you make.

Michael Ofsowitz

European Division