GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY SYLLABUS - PSY 011
Spring 2024 (2242)
Section 030: M W F, 1:00 to 1:50
AF 101

Professor: Dr. Robert S. Ryan
Office: 385 Old Main
Office hours: Mon. 11 - 1; Tues. 12 - 1; and Wed. 11-1. Also, you are welcome to drop in at my office, 385 Old Main, any time to try to catch me. I can usually take a few minutes to help you unless I am tied up with something very important or time sensitive. It doesn't have to be during my office hours. (teaching and office hours schedule) You can drop in any time I'm not teaching, in a meeting, or busy with some other commitment (you can ask me to temporarily share my Google calendar with you to see my specific meetings, and other commitments). However, if you are going out of your way to see me, whether during my office hours or not, then it is always best to call me on my cell (610-698-9108) right before you want to come, just in case I am not available because of something unexpected. For example, I could be with another student who just stopped in. If you call or visit my office during a time you thought you could catch me and find that I am not there right at that moment or I don't answer the phone, don't assume I'm not available. First, knock on my door if it is closed. Also, I could have just stepped away from the office or my phone for a few minutes. So if you don't see me in my office, and I don't answer when you knock or answer the phone when you call, always wait at least a few minutes and try again.

Office Phone (But I'm often away from my office phone. It's better to email me.): 484-646-4325
E-mail: rryan@kutztown.edu
Home Phone: Only if absolutely necessary. Email me to ask for my cell phone number.
Website: http://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan

Required Text:

Good news: your textbook for this class is available for FREE online! If you prefer, you can also get a print version at a very low cost.

Your book is available in web view and PDF for free. Be assured this free texbook is an excellent, peer reviewed, textbook. It is not free because it is inferior. It is provided by OpenStax.org, which is supported by Rice University and several philanthropic organizations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others.

To view the text online, it is best to do it in the following way. Use a right click on the following link and open the Psychology - OpenStax website in a new tab: https://www.openstax.org/details/psychology-2e . Don't worry if you get a message saying your browser may not be supported. Your browser may work just fine. If it doesn't, then try another browser. You may see a request for a donation to help support OpenStax. It's not required, but if you can, it would be helpful if you give a donation.

Under Book Details you will see a list of ways to "Get the book." You can choose how to view the text. I recommend "View online". When you click on "View online"you will be taken to the textbook. If you wish to view the book in a new tab, then right click on "View online." (In either case, be patient if it loads slowly at first). You will be taken to Chapter 1. On the left there will be a Table of Contents that you can use to navigate through the text, as well as other resources.

You can also choose to purchase a print copy of the book. Don't just search the internet or Amazon to find the book. OpenStax has it's own page on Amazon where you will find the best value. Start on the Psychology OpenStax website. Under "Book Details," click on "Order a print copy." In the pop up that appears, click on "Order a personal copy." That will enable you to either purchase the text, or rent it for considerable savings.

Optional Additional Resources:

1. Go to https://openstax.org/partners. That will take you to OpenStax Tech Scout 
   
2. Click on "Books" and in the drop down menu scroll down to "Social Sciences."
   
3. Then scroll down and click on  "Psychology".
   
4. Click on the page behind the drop down menu.
   
5. You should see that at the top of the page it now says "34 results."
6. You can scroll through them and see if you want to buy any of them. But they are not required.
   

Course Description: An introduction to the scientific study of behavior and thinking. It includes a summary of the history of psychology and careers in psychology, psychological research, biopsychology, sensation and perception, learning, memory, lifespan development, personality, social psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, psychological disorders, and therapy and treatment.

Readings:

Each chapter will have an Introduction and several numbered sections. For example, Chapter 1 has an Introduction and sections 1.1 through 1.4. Each section will have a list of learning objectives at the top. Then will come the reading itself. The reading may be divided into sub-sections. There may also be "Links to Learning", which will take you to outside resources such as videos or news items. At the end of the chapter there will be Key Terms, a Summary, Review Questions, Critical Thinking Questions, and Personal Application Questions. Be sure to read the entire chapter.

Weekly Quizzes and the three Exams:

You will have 10 online weekly quizzes on D2L (20 questions each - one point per question). The weekly quizzes will cover material from the chapter readings. The first quiz could have questions about this syllabus and about the instructions for the course. Quizzes on any given chapter may include a question or two from previous chapters to check your retention. A retention check question could be, but will not necessarily be, identical to one that you had seen previously. Quizzes may include multiple choice, matching, true/false, and fill-in questions.

The first five weekly quizzes (for the first half of the course before the Midterm Exam) will be open and available starting Monday of Week 1 at 5am. You can start any of those weekly quiz earlier than its assigned week, but you must finish it by the end of the assigned week. Once you open a quiz in D2L, you will have 20 minutes to complete it from the time you open it. If you stop taking the quiz, you will receive credit only for the questions you completed. You can take a quiz three times with the highest score counting for your grade. However, most of the questions will change each time you try the same quiz. Any questions on the learning objectives will not change. Because of the "Drop two lowest quiz grades" (details below) policy, there are no make-up quizzes. The quizzes will be due on a Sunday at 11:59pm of the week in which they are assigned (see the Graded Assignments column in the Weekly Schedule below).

The three Exams will consist of a "First Half" Cumulative Exam on D2L, a "Second Half" Cumulative Exam on D2L, and a Final Exam, in person, in the classroom, from 11am to 1pm on Friday of Exam Week.

The "First Half" Cumulative Exam will be open right after the last class before it is due. It will be due at 11:59pm on the Sunday at the end of Spring Break. It will cover Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7. It will have 48 questions and will be worth 48 points (about 8 questions per chapter - one point per question). Any question could be, but will not necessarily be, identical to one that you had seen previously. The question may include multiple choice, matching, true/false, and fill-in questions. Once you open the "First Half" Cumulative Exam in D2L, you will have 60 minutes to complete it from the time you open it. If you stop taking the "First Half" Cumulative Exam, you will receive credit only for the questions you completed. You can take the "First Half" Cumulative Exam only once. It will be due by Sunday of the scheduled week at 11:59pm. You must take the "First Half" Cumulative Exam during the scheduled time described in this paragraph.

The second five weekly quizzes (for the second half of the course before the Final Exam) will be open and available starting Monday of Week 9 at 5am. The policies for the second five weekly quizzes will be the same as for the first five.

The "Second Half" Cumulative Exam on D2L will be open right after the last class before it is due ( NOTE: It is due on the next Thursday at 11:59pm, not on Sunday ). It will have 48 questions worth one point each. It will cover Chapters 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 15. The policies regarding number and types of questions, for the "Second Half" Cumulative Exam will be the same as for the "First Half" Cumulative Exam. You will have 60 minutes to complete it from the time you open it. If you stop taking the "Second Half" Cumulative Exam you will receive credit only for the questions you completed. You can take the "Second Half" Cumulative Exam only once.  It will be due by Thursday of exam week at 11:59pm. You must take the "Second Half" Cumulative Exam during the time it is open.

The Final Exam will be in person, in the classroom, from 11am to 1pm on Friday of Exam Week.  It will consist of 20 multiple choice questions covering some important concepts from the whole course.

Research Experience Requirement:

You are required to earn 3 "Research Participation Credits." Each participation credit is worth 5 points towards your course grade. You earn the participation credits in either of two ways, either by actual participation as a subject in a study, or by doing the "alternative." You can "mix and match", that is, earn some of the credits one way and some of them in the other.

The first way, by actual participation, is the best. Read the online instructions first, by right clicking on the link at the end of this paragraph to open it in a new tab. At the end of those instructions, don't click on the link to the KU Psychology Department subject pool run by sona-systems just yet. Instead, come back to this page and continue reading the instructions below. Read these instructions first: Instructions for research participation.

After you have read the online instructions, read the rest of these instructions before creating an account on the subject pool website. By creating such an account, you will be able to satisfy the research requirement by participating as a research subject in a study being conducted by faculty or students at Kutztown University (either by going to the KU campus, or by participating online). The amount of credit you will receive is based on the approximate amount of time required to complete the participation. Each full hour of participation is worth one full credit. The description of each study will tell you how much credit you will receive.

I strongly encourage you to actually participate as a research subject because it is the best learning experience. It is possible to actually participate even without having to go to the KU campus to do so. Some of the studies require you to make an appointment in a time slot for that study and to keep that appointment by coming to the appointed location on the KU campus at the appointed time. However, there are also studies that you can do online. The online studies are often surveys. There also may be some that involve other kinds of activities, but still activities that you can complete online.

To create your subject pool account, use a right click on the following link to open the Psychology Dept. Subject Pool website, provided by sona-systems, in a new tab: https://kutztown.sona-systems.com/. Click on "Request Account" and follow the instructions.

The second way to earn the Research Participation Credits is to do the "alternative." The alternative to actual in-person participation as a research subject is to read a peer reviewed journal article that reports a psychology study and to write a 5 page paper summarizing the study, with special emphasis on what the research subjects experienced. Each such paper will count as 1 "Research Participation Credit." If you wish to do the alternative, please contact me so that I can direct you to some appropriate peer reviewed journal articles and give you further instructions for how to write the paper.

The Research Experience Requirement is due by Sun. of the 14th week at 11:59pm.

Discussions:

There will be a discussion forum with a total of five topics. The discussions will be done in the third, sixth, tenth, thirteenth, and fifteenth, week. Each topic will ask you to comment on something or answer some questions. The questions are about your thoughts on the topic. There is not a right or wrong answer. You are required to post at least one reply to each week's topic. There are 5 possible points for each discussion reply. I will read the replies, and as long as it is a thoughtful reply, not just something that was obviously posted just to get the points, I will give you all 5 points. You will either get all 5 points or none. There will be no partial credits. You will be able to check to see that you got the points by looking in Grades.

Each of the discussion topics will open at 5am on Monday and will close at 11:59pm on Sunday of the week for that discussion. You have the whole open period to read the topic and make your reply. If you miss the deadline there will be no make ups.

You will receive credit for making one thoughtful reply to the topic. After I have read it, approved it, and given you the grade, you will be able to see other replies. Once that happens, you will be able to make more replies if you wish, although you are not required to, and there will be no more credit given for additional replies. If you do make some additional replies, to keep it easy for everyone to read, it is best to reply to the topic itself, not to someone else's reply. However, if you do wish to reply to a specific other student, and get a conversation going with that student, then reply to that student. In any event, all posts to the forum must be civil, polite, and considerate of others' feelings.

I may reply to your discussion replies, or I may send the class an email about what I am seeing on the discussions. I sometimes do this because students' replies sometimes contain misconceptions or misunderstandings that I wish to clarify or correct. 

"Drop two lowest quiz grades" policy: Your lowest two quiz grades will be dropped. Only quiz grades will be dropped. Any zeros for missed discussions will not be dropped. If you get a zero on one of the quizzes, even if it was due to something that you feel was not your fault, you will have to use up one of your drops for that quiz. Therefore, you should plan to do everything you can to make sure you take all of the quizzes and leave the drops for any unexpected emergency that may come up. If you purposely miss a quiz or two, thinking that you can always drop them, then you won't have the drops available to save you if something unexpected happens. The drops can either both come from the same half of the quizzes, or one from each half.

Use of AI, such as ChatGPT:

Assessment:

Your final grade is based on the percentage of the total points you earn (after your two lowest quiz grades are dropped). There are 10 quizzes on D2L to start, but after the 2 drops there will be 8. Those 8quizzes, at 20 possible points each, will equal 160 possible points from the D2L quizzes. The "First Half" Cumulative Exam and the "Second Half" Cumulative Exam, both on D2L, will have 48 points each. The Final Exam will have 20 points. That's a total of 116 Exam points. The five D2L discussions are worth 5 points each for another 25 points. The research experience requirement is worth 15 points. That adds up to a total of 316 possible points from the D2L assignments, the discussions, the research experience, plus the in person Final Exam. There will be an additional required 34 points for attendance in the face-to-face classes. That adds up to a total of 350 points for the course. Therefore, your grade will be the total number of points you earn from the 8 quizzes that are not dropped, plus however many points you earn from the "First Half" Cumulative Exam, the "Second Half" Cumulative Exam, the Final exam, from the discussions, from attendance, and from the research experience requirement, divided by 350, and then multiplied by 100 to give you your percentage grade. Your percentage grade will be converted to a letter grade as shown below. There will be no extra credit, and no curving of grades. The grades will be straight letters, with no pluses or minuses.

A = 90%     B = 80%    C = 70%    D = 60%    F < 60%


A percentage grade ending in anything less than five tenths of a point will be rounded down. A grade ending in five tenths of a point or greater will be rounded up. (For example an 89.499... is a B, but an89.500... is an A).

Attendance: All students are required to attend the face-to-face classes as much as possible. There are 42 classes over the whole semester. Attendance will be taken in all classes. You will earn one point for each class you attend up to 34 points. Therefore, to earn the full 34 points you can miss no more than 8 classes. Those 34 points constitute about 10% of the 350 points for the course. As shown above, each 10% of the points moves your grade up one full letter grade.

As we all know, things happen. So if you miss a few classes just use them as part of the 8 class "grace period." Please don't email me asking to be excused for the absence and given the point. However, if you encounter a more serious problem that prevents you from attending more than 8 classes, then, by all means, email me to let me know what happened. If the reason for the absence is acceptable, you will be excused for the absence and given the points.In order to be excused, you must provide written documentation that your absence was necessary. It must come either from a University official (e.g., coach, club advisor) saying you were participating in a University sponsored activity, or from a doctor, ordering hospitalization or bed rest because of a serious injury or illness, or from someone at the health or counseling center saying it was necessary for you to miss class. It is always your responsibility to bring the documentation to me.

Reasons such as a minor physical illness (e.g., sore throat, headache), minor emotional distress (e.g., family or relationship problems), minor injury (e.g., broken finger, sprained ankle), or minor personal emergency (e.g., car breakdown, flooded basement) will not be considered sufficient to excuse an absence without written verification of the seriousness of the problem (e.g., from a doctor or nurse for illness or injury, or family member or counselor for a family or personal emergency).

Please understand, the purpose of the documentation is not to please me. Rather, the reason is this: Conscientious students seldom miss class or need to make up tests, and only do so when truly necessary. Such students feel it is unfair for other students to be permitted to be any less conscientious. Therefore, they are willing to provide documentation of an acceptable reason to ask for special consideration (such as a make up test) because they would want the same thing expected of others. I am assuming that you are just such a conscientious student.

Please understand that "excusing" you only means excusing you from missing the attendance points. It does not mean excusing you from understanding the material on which you will be graded. It is always your responsibility to make sure you understand the material. You can always see me for one-on-one help if you need it.

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Other Course Policies

Academic Honesty: It is my intention to uphold the academic honesty policy of Kutztown. Academic dishonesty involves any attempt to obtain academic credit or influence the grading process by means unauthorized by the course instructor."  Click here for the complete academic honesty policy . The student conduct page on Kutztown's website can be found at this link: student conduct . 

Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities who need special accommodations must make their requests and submit documentation to the Disability Services Office (215 Stratton Administration Building, 610- 683-4108, direct any emails to the Provider of Services to Students with Disabilities, Ms. Linda Lantaff, lantaff@kutztown.edu). The Disabilities Services office will then provide the student with a letter to the professor asking for appropriate accommodations. The letter should be sent to Dr. Ryan immediately.

Tentative Weekly Schedule

This is a tentative course syllabus and subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.