PSY 201A — Introduction to Psychology, Part 1

Course Overview:
Psychology is about your experience with the world. Your desires, motivations, your influence on others, memory, dreams, reactions, fear, lust, your childhood, language, personality, and your mental health — these are all topics we’ll explore in some detail in your introductory psychology course. Of course, since this is an introductory survey of psychology, the topics will have to be covered in broad stroke. If you study well in this course, you’ll learn a lot about how and why you behave the way you do, and about the behavior of others toward you.

Course Goals:
1. Learn how we study human behavior, including some of the key vocabulary you’ll need to engage in discussions about psychology.
2. Understand that psychology is not hocus-pocus psycho-babble, but rather a disciplined, scientific exploration of the nature (and nurture) of human behavior.
3. To practice using the scientific method to investigate behavior, including conducting experiments using sophisticated equipment for measuring behaviors and mental processing.
4. Discover things about yourself, and how you interact with the world around you.
5. Apply an understanding of psychological principles to your experiences, and your observations of others, so you can make better decisions about how to respond to others, and even to make better public policy decisions.
6. Last but not least, to have some fun while you learn psychology at the same time.

Catalog Description:
First term of a two-term sequence in introductory psychology covering the history of psychology, scientific methods, the brain, nervous system, sensation, perception, consciousness, human development, learning, memory, language, and cognition. Taught from a sociocultural approach which assumes that gender, culture, and ethnicity are essential to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion. Meets cultural diversity requirements for Associate Degrees.

Required textbooks:
Lefton, L. A. & Brannon, L. (2006). Psychology. 9th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon Publishers. ISBN 0-205-47500-0
Bell, J. (2004). Evaluating psychological information. 4th Ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon Publishers. ISBN 0-205-43511-4

Textbook Study Resources:
Textbook web site: http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_lefton_psychology_9
MyPsychLab web site: http://www.coursecompass.com/ -- Use the course ID I gave you in the first class session to register.

Weblog:
To see my weblog, which includes interesting information about psychology I gather in my daily Internet travels, point your browser to: http://danaleighton.edublogs.org

Podcast:
I podcast my lectures for this class. The podcast includes lecture audio, and the slides from my presentation. To see more details, click here.

If you have iTunes installed, use the following link to subscribe:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=200199659

For information on viewing the slides in the Artwork Viewer, see:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301462

To download iTunes, go to:
http://www.apple.com/itunes