general psychology Firouz meroei milan Course book 1

Course description: This course will provide an overview of the diverse field of psychology. Many think of psychology as primarily having to do with abnormal behavior and therapy. While it does of course address these areas, psychology is much broader, encompassing a wide range of topics having to do with human behavior. This includes memory, learning, emotion and motivation, human development, social behavior, biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, and the science of psychology as a discipline. This course will cover the most major concepts in these areas. 2

You will learn how to integrate psychology into your daily lives and apply the information discussed to your own experiences. Psychology is truly everywhere! You will soon see how. You will also learn to evaluate information critically. Through a study of the science of psychology as a discipline as well as numerous examples of research, you will learn how to be a discriminating consumer of research. 3

Learning Goals: Specifically, students will be able to: a) Explain and be able toassess the relationship among assumptions, method, evidence, arguments, and theory in social and historical analysis (subgoal i); and b) Apply concepts about human and social behavior to particular questions or situations (subgoal n). This course also satisfies the following Psychology Department Learning Goals: - Students will know the leading terms, concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical trends in psychology. - Students will apply psychological concepts and content to become engaged citizens. - Students will use critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and, when possible, the scientific approach to ask, answer and understand questions related to behavior and mental processes. 4

Exams & Grading There will be three exams – two hourly exams and one final. The breakdown will be as follows: Exam 1 – 20% Exam 2 – 20% Final exam – 60% 5

Course schedule History of Psychology Week 1 Approaches and Schools of Psychology Week 2 Subfields of Psychology Week 3 Memory Week 4 Memory: Storage & Retrieval Week 5 Memory: Forgetting Week 6 First exam Week 7 Conditioning and Learning: Classical Conditioning Week 8 6

Conditioning and Learning: Operant Conditioning Week 9 Conditioning and Learning: Operant Conditioning Week 10 Conditioning and Learning: Partial Reinforcement Week 11 Intelligence Week 12 Assessing Intelligence Week 13 Motivation Week 14 Motivation: Hunger, Thirst, and Eating Disorders Week 15 Second exam Week 16 7

Social Motivation Week 17 Emotion Week 18 defense mechanisms Week 19 Abnormality Week 20 Stress Week 21 School Health Promomtion 1 Week 22 School Health Promomtion 2 Week 23 Review Week 24 8

Sources Hergenhahn, B.R. (2005). An introduction to the history of psychology. Belmont, CA, USA: Thomson Wadsworth. The American Psychological Society: Responsible Conduct of Research Myers (2004). Motivation and work. Psychology. New York, NY: Worth Publishers 9