1. PS124 Introduction to Psychology Unit 1
Nichola Cohen Ph.D.

2. Overview Get to know each other Class expectations and the syllabus
What is Psychology?
Questions
So, let me start by telling you a little about myself.
My name is Nichola Cohen, you can call me Nichola if you are comfortable with that.
I was born and raised in the north east coast of Ireland.
I did my undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
I then went to Durham in England to study for my Ph.D
I came to the US in 2005 to work on my research. I spent a year working at Dartmouth College in NH and 4 years at Brandeis University, just outside of Boston MA.
I have been teaching here at Kaplan since August 2010.
Outside of academics, I have also worked in various roles as a support worker for children and adults with developmental disorders.
As you can see, I have moved about quite a bit, and this has left me with a bit of a strange accent! If you have any difficultly understanding me, or if you need to me slow down during our seminars please let me know.
I am really looking forward to teaching this class and getting to know you all.
So now that I have told you a little about me, I would love to learn something about all of you.
Let’s start by finding out where is everyone is from?
Why did you decide to study Psychology, and what is your educational goal (what are you trying to accomplish - BA, PhD)?
One of the main reasons I decided to study Psychology was because it covers such a diverse range of topics. In turn, this leads to lots of different opportunities.

3. Syllabus Please read it!
Reading: Introduction to Psychology by Charles Stangor
Each week 1-2 chapters
Check the reading tab for each unit
For the most part the details I am going to be covering now will be the same across all units of this course, but there may be some differences in grading rubric, word length requirements, late policy etc. Please be sure to read your syllabus carefully and if you have any questions ask your instructor.
Book is available in Doc Sharing
Please note that the chapters are not taught in order so make sure you check the reading tab each week to make sure you are reading the appropriate chapter!!!

4. Flex seminars Choice of seminars You only need to attend 1 seminar
Please see the syllabus for times
You only need to attend 1 seminar
Or you can complete seminar option 2
Your professor will access the rosters for all seminars in the cohort to grade you for your participation
A couple of things I want to be sure to mention today. First, computer issues…I know this can be a concern of students.
Please know that I am sympathetic to technological difficulties you may encounter. Many technological problems during seminar can be solved by logging out and logging back in. If that doesn’t work, you should call tech support.
I also want to mention that at times the server will boot us out of seminar. If you get booted out/lose connection, just log back in.
I also know that sometimes it feels like we go fast in seminars. Do your best to keep up. Don’t worry about perfect sentences or grammatical errors. Just have fun and chime in!
Please remember that to receive full credit for seminars you must participate and substantially contribute to the discussion. Saying “I agree” or “I disagree” does not count as substantial contributions. To receive full credit you must share your own thoughts to questions or discussions. Your responses should help further the discussion.
If you find you are typing your response and you see someone else has given the same answer as you before you get the chance to hit send, don’t worry, send your response anyway.

5. Deadlines All assignments and DB posts are due by 11.59 PM EST Tuesday
Late penalty is 1 letter grade per week
Extensions can be granted for extenuating circumstances
me in advance!
Late work for Units 1-4 will not be accepted more than 3 weeks after the due date
Because of the conditional admission policy, late work will not be accepted for Unit 5
Late work for Units 6-8 will not be accepted after the last day of Unit 8
Late work for Unit 9 will not be accepted after the Saturday of Unit 10
Please consult the rubric to see additional important information about grading and late policies
DOUBLE CHECK THE LATE POLICY FOR THIS COURSE

6. Discussion board
You should post 1 primary response and 2 peer responses
Primary post = 200 words
Peer responses = 75 words
Posts must be substantial
You must make reference to the reading
4 points for this!
APA formatting required
Psychologists can be either researchers or practitioners; one thing they have in common is that they use the scientific method within their work (Stangor, 2010)
Stangor, C. (2010). Introduction to Psychology. Flatworld Knowledge.
How do you make a post substantial?
The more you are present in discussions, the more you will get out of them, so if you can try to log onto the discussion boards at least a few times during the week.
In addition, I will sometimes ask follow-up questions, or point out if you have missed something, so it is important that you check back on the discussion board regularly.
If you write your posts in a word processing program it will count the words for you as well as do spell and grammar check. Then you can just copy and paste it into the discussion. You will lose points for your posts if they do not meet the length requirements. So please do a word count.

7. Projects Projects: Units 4, 7 and 9 Start thinking about them early
Read the rubric!
Unit 4 project = 125 points
Unit 7 project = 125 points
Unit 9 project = 135 points
If you follow the rubric you will do well in your projects.

8. Quizzes Quizzes: Units 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8
20 multiple choice questions
1 hour
Can only access once!
Do the reading before you access the quiz
You can also take the practice quiz before you take the real quiz
You can use your book to help you with the quiz, but you should do the reading first.
Grades for the quizzes will be available on submission.

9. Questions Course questions section Email me Discussion board Seminar
If you see a question from a fellow student and you know the answer, please feel free to answer it. Remember, we are all in this together and you will learn best if you work as a team. It is also great to hear things from different perspectives – the more answers you get the more you learn!

10. CLAs and GELs
The purpose of CLAs are to measure your mastery of the skills and knowledge described by the course outcomes
We want to see you achieve mastery on these assessments
GELs measure your general education skills across your degree program
We do not expect you to achieve mastery of a GEL at this point in your studies
I want to discuss briefly Course Level and General Education Level Assessments as many students are confused by what these are
Please note that while these assessments are important they do not affect your final grade, they are assessment criteria we use to determine how well students are doing at achieving the objectives of the course. This information is important for us to know where there are areas of weakness in the course so we can address any problems with the course.

11. Course outcomes
PS124-1: Apply psychological theories, processes, and concepts to human behavior.
Assessed with Unit 4 project
PS124-2: Examine how various theories of neuroscience explain human development and behavior.
Assessed with Unit 7 project
PS124-3: Discuss psychological disorders and treatment approaches.
Assessed with Unit 9 project
I want to stress again that we want to see you achieve mastery on these course outcomes. There is a separate CLA rubric for each assignment, please consult this rubric when you are completing the assignment. CLA rubrics are available in the course home section of our course.
In addition to the course level outcomes for this course, there are 2 general education level outcomes. Once again, please take a look at the rubric for these outcomes, although keep in mind that we do not expect you to achieve mastery of the GELs – only the CLAs
GEL-1.1: Demonstrate college-level communication through the composition of original materials in Standard American English
GEL-7.1: Identify the ethical issues within the field of psychology
Both will be assessed in the Unit 9 project

12. One final thing…. Be nice! please respect each other
As you have seen already, we are all from different places and we will all have different life experiences. Please respect each other’s diversity and opinions.
Be honest, but be respectful.
You don’t all have to agree with each other. In fact, I think you can learn more from each other when you disagree. But, you should respect each other’s points of view.

13. What is psychology?

14. What is psychology? The scientific study of the mind and behavior
What sorts of psychologists are there?
What do all psychologists have in common?

15. What is psychology? The scientific study of the mind and behavior
Psychologists all rely on scientific methods
Research psychologists – use scientific methods to create new knowledge
Psychologist-practitioners – use existing research to enhance the lives of others
include counseling, clinical, and school psychologists

16. Levels of explanation within psychology
Psychologists understand behavior at different levels, from lower-level biological factors to higher- level cultural factors.
Social and cultural
Interpersonal
Lets take a psychological disorder such as depression and consider how it could be understood at each of the different levels. First, social and cultural. What sort of social or cultural explanations might there be for depression?
Biological

17. Levels of explanation within psychology
Psychologists understand behavior at different levels, from lower-level biological factors to higher- level cultural factors.
Social and cultural
E.g. Gender influences depression
Interpersonal
Psychologists who study depression at the highest level would study things like how depression differs across cultures and gender. For example, it has been shown that depression incidence is higher in women.
So what about the middle level of explanation, the interpersonal. What sort of explanations might account for depression at the interpersonal level?
Biological

18. Levels of explanation within psychology
Psychologists understand behavior at different levels, from lower-level biological factors to higher- level cultural factors.
Social and cultural
E.g. Gender influences depression
Interpersonal
E.g. Individual thought processes influence depression
A psychologist who looks at depression at the interpersonal level would consider how an individuals thought processes might influence depression.
What about a biological level of explanation?
Biological

19. Levels of explanation within psychology
Psychologists understand behavior at different levels, from lower-level biological factors to higher- level cultural factors.
Social and cultural
E.g. Gender influences depression
Interpersonal
E.g. Individual thought processes influence depression
Some psychologists would study how genes or neurotransmitters influence depression. This sort of work helps lead to the development of different drugs to help alleviate the symptoms of depression.
So now we have considered the different levels of explanation what do you think it the most useful level?
All levels of explanation are important!
Biological
E.g. Genes and neurotransmitters influence depression

20. What challenges might Psychologists face studying the mind and behavior?
We have said already that Psychology is a science. Why might Psychology be a more difficult science than some of the other scientific disciplines?

21. What challenges might Psychologists face studying the mind and behavior?
People display individual differences on psychological dimensions.
Behavior is produced by many factors.
The causes of behavior are often outside conscious awareness.

22. The history of psychology
I am now going to briefly discuss the history of psychology. We will only spend a few moments here discussing the history, because Kaplan offers an entire course on the History of Psychology!
Does anyone know what disciplines psychology emerged from?

23. The history of psychology
Psychology evolved from philosophy and physiology
How do you think philosophy and physiology contributed to psychology?

24. The history of psychology
Psychology evolved from philosophy and physiology
Philosophy: Asked similar questions to Psychologists BUT did not experimentally test them
Physiology: Relied on controlled experimental observation and experimentation which became the methodology for Psychology

25. Schools of thought in psychology
Throughout the evolution of psychology various “schools of thought” have emerged. Does anyone know what I mean by a school of thought?

26. Schools of thought in psychology
Group of psychologists who share similar ideas and theories and investigate similar problems
Examples:
Structuralism: goal was to identify the basic elements or “structures” of psychological experience
Functionalism: goal was to understand the purpose of psychological characteristics
Psychodynamic psychology: understanding human behavior focusing on the role of unconscious processes
Behaviorism: the scientific study of behavior, not the mind
Cognitive psychology: studies mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgment.
Social-cultural psychology: study how social situations and the cultures influence thinking and behavior

27. Subdisciplines and career paths in psychology
Psychology is not a single discipline, but a collection of many subdisciplines. Each of these subdisciplines leads to a variety of different career opportunities within psychology and we will discuss some of these now

28. Subdisciplines and career paths in psychology

29. Subdisciplines and career paths in psychology

30. What is psychology? The scientific study of the mind and behavior
Psychologists all rely on scientific methods
Research psychologists – use scientific methods to create new knowledge
Psychologist-practitioners – use existing research to enhance the lives of others
include counseling, clinical, and school psychologists
Earlier in seminar I showed you this slide which explained what psychology is and the fact that psychologists can be either research psychologists or psychologist practitioners. Now that we have discussed in more detail what sorts of things you can do as a psychologist, lets now discuss what you would like to do with your psychology degree once you graduate.
First, do you think you will be a researcher or a practitioner?
For those of you who want to be practitioners, what sorts of area would you like to work in?
For those of you who are interested in research, what sorts of things would you be interested in studying?
- For example, I am a researcher and I am interested in things such as how we learn and remember new information. I am also interested in studying the different brain areas involved in psychological processes