General Psychology Syllabus for 2016-2017
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Instructor Information

Course Information

Recording Policy

Disability Statement

If you have a disability (learning, mental, physical) that affects your ability to participate effectively and have access to any program or service at Amarillo College please contact Disability Services at (806) 345-5639 . Our offices are located in the Student Service Center office 112. More information may be found at www.actx.edu/disability.
Disability Services facilitates access to all programs and services according to the ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, as well as other federal and state laws.

Amarillo College Web Accessibility Policy Statement

Amarillo College is committed to providing equal access to all programs and services, including all working, learning, and service environments that affect equal access for persons with disabilities. This commitment to provide equal access and opportunity for persons with disabilities is in compliance with federal and state law. Amarillo College also strives to provide Electronic and Information Resources (EIR) that are accessible to all authorized users.

If you find you are unable to access material in an accessible format please contact the Disability Services Office at (806) 345-5639 . This office will work in conjunction with other campus resources to address and accommodate your issue in a timely manner.

Statement for Mental Health and Advocacy & Resource Center:

As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning, such as strained relationships, increased anxiety, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, difficulty concentrating and/or lack of motivation. These mental health concerns or stressful events may lead to diminished academic performance or reduce a student's ability to participate in daily activities. Amarillo College offers services to assist you with addressing these and other concerns you may be experiencing. If you or someone you know are suffering from any of the aforementioned conditions, you can learn more about the broad range of confidential mental health services available on campus by calling the AC Counseling Center at 806-371-5900. The AC Counseling Center website is https://www.actx.edu/counseling/ . Also, if you are in need of social services (affordable housing, utilities, transportation, food, clothing, childcare, medical/dental/vision, legal), please call the AC Advocacy & Resource Center at 806-371-5439. The AC Advocacy & Resource Center website is https://www.actx.edu/arc

Amarillo College Tutoring for Success Policy:

Administrative Drop Policy

Students who do not attend class on or prior to the census date will be administratively dropped. Effective Fall, 2016

Student Withdrawal Procedures

Students who wish to withdraw from a class must:

• consult with their instructor to obtain a signed academic withdrawal request form to submit to the AskAC department for processing
• consult with the financial aid office if receiving financial aid
• consult with the Veterans Benefit Coordinator if receiving veteran benefits
• consult with their academic advisor to determine how withdrawing may affect their enrollment in future semesters
  • NOTE:  The Texas Education Code stipulates that students attending Texas institutions of higher education for the first time fall 2007 and later may not withdraw from more than six courses during their academic career, including courses from which transfer students have withdrawn at other Texas institutions of higher education. (Senate Bill 1231) Rule 4.10.

Privacy Statement

The Amarillo College Privacy Policy is found at https://www.actx.edu/-amarillo-college-privacy-notice , and applies to all Amarillo College students.  If you have questions about this privacy statement or you believe that your personal information has been released without your consent, send email to humanresources@actx.edu .

Course

PSYC-2301-003 General Psychology

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: RDNG 0331-minimum grade of C or a score on a state-approved test indicating college-level reading skills

Course Description

General Psychology is a survey of the major psychological topics, theories and approaches to the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Student Resources Student Resources Website

Department Expectations

Occupational License Disclaimer

Hours

(3 sem hrs; 3 lec)

Class Type

On Campus Course

Syllabus Information

Textbooks

Exploring Psychology, 9^th Edition, David G. Myers

Supplies

Access to personal computer or AC Computer Lab

Student Performance

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

1. Identify various research methods and their characteristics used in the scientific study of psychology.

2. Describe the historical influences and early schools of thought that shaped the field of psychology.

3. Describe some of the prominent perspectives and approaches used in the study of psychology.

4. Use terminology unique to the study of psychology.

5. Describe accepted approaches and standards in psychological assessment and evaluation.

6. Identify factors in physiological and psychological processes involved in human behavior.

Students Rights and Responsibilities

Student Rights and Responsibilities

Log in using the AC Connect Portal

In order to receive your AC Connect Email, you must log in through AC Connect at https://acconnect.actx.edu .

If you are an active staff or faculty member according to Human Resources, use "Exchange". All other students, use "AC Connect (Google) Email".

Expected Student Behavior

Active attendance and participation is expected; it really is the best way to learn.  As far as cell phones go, I do understand the need to be available in the event of an emergency. I am on call for area mental health crises and am part of the interagency Panhandle disaster team. I get it. Please let me know if you are on call for any form of emergency services. Otherwise, please silence your phone for the duration of the class and take the call after class is dismissed. Being available for your BFF who is having a really bad date is NOT “emergency services.” Please, no texting during class; if you’re focused on the texting, you’ll miss out on the class interaction. You do not multitask as well as you think you do, I promise. 

If you do miss class, it is up to you to get the notes from your peers. Trust me, you do not want my notes; they are largely in a mix of several languages and mean nothing to anyone but me. If you miss an assignment, it’s also up to you to make arrangements to get that information as well.

The tests are generally planned to be open-book as I am anticipating that they will be online. However, you will be expected to do your own test for yourself. Cheating will not be tolerated. There will be one essay written during this semester; no plagiarism is allowed. Cheating is considered academic fraud, and Amarillo College takes it very seriously.

In your academic journey, you will meet, and indeed, learn from many different people who have a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives. You do not have to agree with everyone, but I do expect everyone to be respectful of each others’ positions even when they differ. It is possible for vigorous debate to remain civil, despite what we see in the political arena.

Grading Criteria

Grades will be derived from the average of your highest 4 grades on 5 quizzes and one service project to be detailed separately. Attendance will also count as part of your class participation grade.

Attendance

I’ve tried this several ways, and what I’ve learned is that when I DO have an active attendance policy, students make more of an effort to show every time, and the grades for that semester are always remarkably higher. Therefore, I have concluded that it is in your best interest for me to count attendance as a part of your class performance. Science; it’s good stuff.

Calendar

Additional Information

SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS:

What is social responsibility? Social responsibility is an ethical structure which suggests that an individual has an obligation to act for the benefit of society as a whole. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the community and the individuals who live in them.

 

Steps to complete the SERVICE PROJECT: Here are the steps to complete for this project.

 

1. Download (open) these instructions, the VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES FOR SERVICE handout, and the READING GRAPHS AND CHARTS handout.
2. Go over the volunteer opportunities handout, and decide which agency/project you would like to participate in. If you have another idea, contact your instructor to get the ok on it.Remember, you have time constraints on this project, so you need to do something that can be done within that time.
3. Contact the agency and make any and all arrangements you need to with the contact person.
4. Do your minimum of 4 hours of service.If this is impossible for you, CONTACT YOUR INSTRUCTOR IMMEDIATELY so we can discuss alternative ideas and projects for you.
5. GET CONTACT INFORMATION FOR YOUR SUPERVISOR or CONTACT PERSON including their name, title at the organization, phone number and email, so we can contact them if we need to. You will include this information in Question #1 of your essay.
6. Write your ESSAY in the TEMPLATE provided for you in the SERVICE PROJECT folder, saving it to your computer as your work.Be sure you edit your work and/or take it to the WRITER'S CORNER for help!This is critically important to achieve a top grade, as a part of this assignment is about critical thinking, understanding poverty and the data about poverty, and communication.SERVICE is only a part of this assignment. Save your template to your computer.
7. Copy and Paste your essay to the Essay Test in the Service Project folder in the Content section. I’ve found this is easier than the dropbox method.

 

What WILL YOU BE DOING FOR YOUR SERVICE PROJECT?  For this assignment you will be required to serve a MINIMUM of 4 hours of community service at an agency of your choosing. You will be responsible for getting contact information including the name, title, phone number and email address for the SUPERVISOR or agency CONTACT PERSON for your project.  After completing the service you will be required to give that information in the 1st question on your essay, so we can contact your supervisor/contact person if we have questions about your project. In writing your essay, you must answer in complete thoughts and complete sentences.  Each question will be worth a certain amount of points totaling 100 points for this assignment.

 

how WILL YOU find out about places to volunteer?  You will find a HANDOUT with contact information for various organizations in the SERVICE PROJECT FOLDER entitled "VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES FOR SERVICE PROJECT".  This handout will give you lots of ideas and contact information for organizations you can do service with.  If none of these interest you, there is a link to VOLUNTEER MATCH AMARILLO that has dozens of ideas and contacts.  As well, if you have your OWN IDEA of something you would like to do, please check with your professor to make sure it will be applicable to this assignment.  A few examples of places you might be interested in that you will find on your list include:

• Snack pack for kids or KID'S Cafe
• High Plains Food Bank, AC FOOD PANTRY, or your local food bank
• Faith City mission or City Church or Salvation Army
• Family Support Services or Catholic Family Services
• Evelyn Rivers Projects (Sunshine House supports AC students and Christmas Project supports children)
• Dove Creek Equine Rescue or Amarillo Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
• Harrington Cancer Center (kids unit) or Hope & Healing Place or Ronald McDonald House

These are only a few examples.   See the VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES FOR SERVICE PROJECT HANDOUT for more ideas or go to VOLUNTEER MATCH AMARILLO for more ideas!      

 

how WILL YOU BE GRADED ON THIS PROJECT:  This essay will be worth 100 points or equal to an exam towards your final grade.  Your essay will be graded according to the rubric that is shown on the last pages of this document!  Below, you will find all the questions for your essay.  As well, you will find a TEMPLATE in the SERVICE PROJECT FOLDER, which you will USE to complete your essay.  Be sure you take time to notice what you will be graded on.  See Appendix 1.

            EDITING YOUR WORK: Good ideas require excellent writing to be understood! Please take time to EDIT your work carefully as you will be graded on your grammar and writing mechanics for the 5 part essay, along with the organization of your thought and the "knowledge you posses" related to the data and graphs on poverty, as well as the questions being asked about your project.  Write in complete sentences, remember punctuation and capitalization and proper grammar count!  JUST A NOTE: "I" is a proper noun and should BE CAPITALIZED! This is NOT A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR FRIENDS! It's a COLLEGE-LEVEL WRITING ASSIGNMENT! 

If you are not a strong writer, please submit your work prior to the due date to the WRITER'S CORNER for editing. You can contact them at the following web link and/or phone number: https://www.actx.edu/english/writerscorner or  (806) 345-5580. They are located in Ordway Hall, Room 102. 

Prior to UPLOADING your essay in the SERVICE PROJECT ESSAY DROP BOX, please be sure you edit it well, read it out loud to catch errors in your grammar and spelling, along with focusing your ideas to be clear and sharp.  After your final edit, SAVE YOUR DOCUMENT as a WORD file or a RICH TEXT FORMAT file on your computer in a location you can find it.  Your document should have either a .doc or .docx extension or a .rtf extension at the end of the file name. Then go to the DROP BOX, select BROWSE and retrieve your file. When you upload it, you should be able to see it in the TEXT BOX if it's a WORD file.  If it's a RTF file, you should see a box indicating the file is there. 

            CITING SOURCES:  A part of your grade will be over proper citing of sources for this project.  Remember, in the items that are required to have a bibliography/reference section, be sure you cite your source with the authors name, date of publication and that title of the source, and publisher along with any pages you used, or, if your source is an online source include the title , any author, date, and the web address stating "Retrieved from".    

For example:  Myers, D. (2014) Exploring Psychology (9th Edition).  Worth, pages 35-39.     OR

Henslin, J. (2016).  Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach.  Core Concepts (6th Edition). Pearson, page 102.

For an online source (particularly those related to your agency history) you will have a citation that looks like this:

High Plains Food Bank: About The Agency.   Retrieved May 21, 2016 from https://www.hpfb.org/Hunger

As well, be sure you cite your sources in the body of your text: For example:

The purpose of the High Plains Food Bank is to help "food insecure" families get the nutrition they need in the 29 counties of the Texas Panhandle (High Plains Food Bank: About, May 21, 2016).

Or: Myers (2014, p. 375) tells us that people must have their basic needs met before they can accomplish higher order goals.  This idea is put forth in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1970), which shows that needs like hunger and thirst must be met before people will go after personal goals like building self-esteem and attaining an educational degree.

HINT: IF YOU LOOK IN YOUR REFERENCE SECTION OF YOUR TEXTBOOK, you will find the proper FORMAT for any REFERENCE that you are using for this essay!

 

WHAT YOU WILL BE ASKED IN YOUR ESSAY:  Keep this information in mind as you do your service project, as these are the questions you will answer in your ESSAY EXAM (worth 100 points).

Detailed instructions will be provided for this assignment on the course page. Following are the rubrics by which the essays will be graded.

 

	Levels of Achievement
Criteria	EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS	MEETS EXPECTATIONS	MEETS MOST or SOME EXPECTATIONS & NEEDS IMPROVEMENT	DOES NOT MEET EXPECTATIONS	DID NOT ANSWER QUESTION
KNOWLEDGE QUESTION #1 Weight 20.00%	20 Contains clear, thorough responses to each of the parts of EACH of the questions identified in the assignment. It provides evidence that the student has diligently researched the history of the agency the agency/organization, the social issue the agency is concerned with, and the specific intervention(s) used to help the issue. It provides evidence that the student has diligently identified the tasks and worked alongside the staff at the chosen agency	17 Addresses almost all of the parts of the questions, and answers ALL the questions identified in the assignment. Provides some evidence that the student has researched the history, social issues and specific interventions of the agency with which they were involved. In second paragraph, student provides some evidence that he or she worked with staff at the chosen agency.	14 Does not address all of the parts of the questions in the assignment, or skipped one of the questions. It provides minimal evidence that the student has diligently researched the history of the agency, the social issue the agency is concerned with and the specific intervention used to help the issue, the social issue the concerned with and the specific intervention used to help the issue. Fails to provide clear evidence that the student has diligently identified the tasks and worked alongside the staff at the chosen agency.	10 Minimally addresses and or fails to answer some of the questions in item #1. It does not provide evidence that the student researched the history of the agency, the social issue the agency is concerned with or the specific intervention used to help the issue. It doesn’t provide evidence that the student has diligently identified the tasks and worked alongside the staff at the chosen agency	0 Did not provide an answer.
KNOWLEDGE QUESTION # 2 Weight 10.00%	10 Contains clear, thorough responses to the question identified in the assignment. It provides evidence that the student has diligently reflected on experiences, prior knowledge and new knowledge learned while working at the chosen agency.	8 Addresses the question identified in item #2, in a minimal manner and/or provides some evidence that the student has done some reflection on their experiences, as well as discussing previous and new knowledge gained while working at this agency. Needs improvement and some added depth.	7 Addresses some of issues raised by the question in item #2 in a perfunctory manner. It provides minimal reflection from the student regarding their experiences, prior knowledge and new knowledge gained in this experience. Needs a quite a bit of improvement. and depth of reflection on the experience.	5 Minimally addresses the items in the assignment. Provides very little, if any, evidence that the student has reflected on experiences, prior knowledge and new knowledge gained in this experience. Needs much more depth of reflection and improvement in communicating that experience.	0 Did not provide an answer.
KNOWLEDGE QUESTION #3 Weight 20.00%	20 Contains clear, thorough responses to each part of the question identified in the assignment. It provides evidence that the student has diligently applied or related concepts from at least 2 specific concepts from their textbook to their experience in their agency. Cited sources in the text and within the bibliography section.	17 Contains a minimum required response to the question identified and its parts. Provides some evidence that student applied and/or related at least 1 concept from the textbook to their experience at the agency. Cited source in text and within bibliography section.	14 Does not address all of the parts of question in the assignment and/or responses lack clarity and depth. It provides minimal evidence of the student’s reflective thought. There is only minimal indication that the student applied or related 1 concept from their textbook in this class to their experience in their agency. Fails to cite source in text or bibliography.	10 Minimally addresses the items in the assignment. It does not provide evidence of the student’s reflective thought. There is no specific indication that the student applied or related any concepts from their textbook in this class to their experience in their agency. Fails to cite source(s) in text and bibliography.	0 Did not provide an answer.
KNOWLEDGE QUESTION #4 Weight 10.00%	10 Contains clear, thorough responses to the question identified in the assignment. It provides evidence that the student has diligently described the impact he or she hopes to have by continuing to volunteer at their selected agency. If the student chose not to volunteer at their selected agency, then he or she described in detail one action step that they would be willing to do to apply some aspect of “social responsibility” that they learned in their volunteer work in their life.	8 Contains minimal response to the question identified in the assignment. Provides some evidence that student described the impact he or she hope to have by continuing to volunteer at selected agency. If the student chose not to volunteer at the agency, then he or she gave a brief but not specific description of at least one action step if that they are willing to do to apply some aspect of "social responsibility" that they learned in their volunteer work in their life.	7 Does not address all of the parts of the questions in the assignment. It provides minimal evidence that the student has diligently described the impact he or she hopes to have by continuing to volunteer at their selected agency. If the student chose not to volunteer at their selected agency, then he or she described one general and somewhat vague action step that they would be willing to do to apply some aspect of “social responsibility” that they learned in their volunteer work in their life.	5 Minimally addresses the items in the assignment. It does not provide evidence that the student has described the impact he or she hopes to have by continuing to volunteer at their selected agency or, if the student chose not to volunteer at their selected agency, then he or she failed to describe in any detail one action step that they would be willing to do to apply some aspect of “social responsibility” that they learned in their volunteer work in their life	0 Did not provide an answer.
KNOWLEDGE Empirical Data Question #5 Weight 25.00%	25 All five questions and all parts are correct indicating that the student has mastery over understanding empirical and graphical representation of data in social and behavioral sciences research	21 Four of the 5 questions were correct, and/or the student missed a few of the components in a couple of the questions, indicating student has an understanding of empirical and graphical representation of social and behavioral science research.	18 Three of the five questions were correct, and/or student missed multiple components within some of the questions, indicating that the student has difficulty and lacks a complete understanding of empirical and graphical representation of social and behavioral science research.	13 Two or less of the five questions were correct, and student missed multiple components within these questions, indicating that the student lacks understanding of empirical and graphical representation of social and behavioral science research.	0 0 points Did not provide an answer.
Organization Weight 5.00%	5 Information is clearly organized throughout the four questions on the essay, ideas flow nicely.	4 Some sections of the are well organized while others are loosely organized, lacking flow	3 Information is loosely organized throughout and there is a lack of flow of ideas.	2 Information is present, but very difficult to understand due to poor organization.	0 Did not provide an answer.
WRITING MECHANICS Weight 10.00%	10 Proper grammar and spelling used throughout the answer to the question. Minimum word count is exceeded.	8 Generally, grammar and spelling used are correct with a few errors. Minimum word count is reached.	7 Proper grammar and spelling used throughout the answer to the question with major errors. Minimum word count is reached or fell a little short at points.	5 Very poor grammar and spelling used throughout the answer to the question. Minimum word count is not reached.	0 Did not provide an answer.