PSYC 1001 General Psychology

INSTRUCTOR CONTACT:

Shaw Ketels

shaw.ketels@colorado.edu

About the course

The course provides a foundation for engaging with scientific research on human behavior, cognition, & emotion, and surveys the basic principles & theories of psychology. Topics include biological and hereditary influences on behavior; human perception, attention, learning, and memory, social cognition & behavior, personality, and mental illness & treatment. The content of this course is foundational for building an understanding of human perception, cognition, and emotion, and the reality constructed for us, through their synergistic interplay. It is thus foundational to all other areas of human endeavor.

Additional Information: Arts & Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Natural Sciences

MAPS Course: Social Science

Course Goals

1. …to provide an introduction to psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.
2. …to help you develop your critical thinking, especially with respect to psychological questions, theories, and experiments.
3. …to introduce the ways that psychologists (and other scientists interested in human cognition) systematically test their hypotheses about the world.

Course Overview

In this course, you’ll have assignments due each week, with all due dates listed on Canvas. All materials for the course are available for free online, and linked from Canvas.

Materials you’ll be responsible for engaging with include readings and podcasts with associated untimed questions, and curated video assignments with embedded questions. You’ll also create three short (1-2 minutes) educational videos, and respond to discussion board prompts. Finally, you’ll complete three sets of 50 timed cumulative questions.

Course Objectives

1. Recall important terms from psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.
2. Describe differences in methodology and topical focus among the various subdisciplines that make up the modern field of Psychology.
3. Describe the various post-graduate paths available to psychology graduates.
4. Apply understanding of evolution and natural selection to discuss human behavior.
5. Apply understanding of homeostasis to discuss human behavior.
6. Analyze human behavior at multiple levels of analysis.
7. Analyze human behavior with dual-process theory.
8. Evaluate controversial issues in psychology.
9. Synthesize information presented in the course to create original educational content.
10. Use multiple online technology platforms to complete course requirements.

Required Texts

The primary online course “textbooks” are two Open Educational Resource (OER), from NOBA and Lumen Learning. Both organizations promote and host OER educational materials.

All assigned podcasts, curated video assignments, and texts for required readings, are linked for free from the Course Schedule below, and also from each assignment on Canvas. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Grading Criteria

Discussion Board Posts: (13 * 10 pts) 130 pts

Video Creation: (2 * 100 pts) 200 pts

Video Questions: (28 * 10 pts) 280 pts

Untimed Reading and Podcast Questions: (24 * 10 pts) 240 pts

Cumulative Review Questions: (3 * 50 pts) 150 pts

Total: 1000 pts