Introduction to Psychology (PSYC BC1001)
Michelle R. Greene
Spring 2024
Instructor: Michelle R. Greene, Ph.D
Email: mgreene@barnard.edu
Office: Milbank 415-B
Student hours: M: 9:00am - 10am W: 11:30am-12:30pm OR Book me via
calendar if this time does not work.
Teaching Assistant: Nechama Stein
Email: nms2202@barnard.edu
Student hours: Tuesday 2:45-3:45 on Zoom (see Courseworks for link)
Logistics: 2 lectures a week M, W 10:10-11:25pm in 328 Milbank Hall
Prerequisites: A desire to work hard and learn!
Course Description
Welcome to the captivating journey into your own mind! Have you ever wondered why we do what we do, feel what we feel, and think what we think? Get ready to explore the world of human behavior and inner experiences. Together, we’ll unveil the enigmatic choreography of perceptions, memories, thoughts, and emotions that make you, you! From the microscopic world of the cells and molecules that shape us to the powerful influences of our social surroundings, we’re about to embark on an odyssey that seeks to answer the timeless question: “What makes us who we are?” Psychology is a science, and this course will emphasize the theories behind our behavior, the methods used to study it, and the interpretation of research findings.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the basic concepts in psychology, including
specific research results that elucidate the scientific basis of
behavior.
- Articulate how psychological principles can apply to personal growth
and other aspects of everyday life.
- Draw logical and objective conclusions about behavior and mental
processes from empirical evidence.
- Evaluate the veracity of claims about behavior and thought processes by evaluating the evidence of psychological science.
Reading
- Spielman Psychology 2e
This is a free textbook. This is easier on you financially and is more environmentally friendly. However, there is an option to purchase a paper copy on the website for a low cost (about $30).
How to Succeed in this Course
Student Hours (a.k.a. Office Hours)
Office hours are scheduled time outside of class to meet with students. You can meet with me during office hours to discuss the class materials or other related interests. This could include asking for extra help, seeking clarification of something presented in class, or following up on an aspect of the class that you find compelling. You should also feel free to discuss majoring in psychology (if you are considering it), summer research opportunities, graduate school, campus events, and much more.
You are encouraged, but not required, to attend office hours. I find that it’s very helpful to get to know you individually during office hours in a relatively large class like this one. I might ask you to come to office hours if I’d like to offer some support. Please know that this is not a punishment like detention in high school. Office hours do not have a lesson plan. I assume you will “drive” these meetings with your own questions and thoughts. A good way to prepare for office hours is to review your notes from class and the readings and write down your questions beforehand.
Collaboration
Collaboration is the basis of all scientific discovery and is instrumental in learning. I strongly encourage students to form study groups and review material together if possible. I will provide opportunities in class for you to get to know one another and form friendships.
Resources from the Center for Engaged Pedagogy
These resources, including tips for studying, reading, and attending office hours, have been collated by the Center for Engaged Pedagogy. They are excellent – check them out!
Wellness
Although our thinking comes from our
brains, we are more than brains on a stick. Caring for your whole self
will enable you to flourish in your endeavors. We as a community urge
you to make yourself–your own health, sanity, and wellness–your priority
throughout this term and your career here. Sleep, exercise, and eating
well can all be a part of a healthy regimen to cope with stress.
Resources exist to support you in several sectors of your life, and we
encourage you to make use of them. Should you have any questions about
navigating these resources, please visit these sites:
Community Contract
Everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect in our classroom, and I am committed to making that happen. But this not only means your instructor treating you with respect, but also you treating each other that way. Disrespect or discrimination on any basis will not be tolerated.
Psychology is the study of our own minds, including some of our darker aspects. In this class, we will touch on topics such as mental illness, discrimination, and drug abuse. Please remember that these topics are not just sensitive in the abstract – they are also real for many members of the Barnard community, including those in this class. My expectation is that we approach these topics with compassion and sensitivity.
Policies
Students with Disabilities or Learning Differences
If you believe you may encounter barriers to the academic environment due to a documented disability or emerging health challenges, please feel free to contact me and/or the Center for Accessibility Resources & Disability Services (CARDS). Any student with approved academic accommodations is encouraged to contact me during office hours or via email. If you have questions regarding registering a disability or receiving accommodations for the semester, please contact CARDS at (212) 854-4634, cards@barnard.edu, or learn more at the CARDS website. CARDS is located in 101 Altschul Hall.
Academic Integrity
Approved by the student body in 1912 and updated in 2016, the Code states:
We, the students of Barnard College, resolve to uphold the honor of the College by engaging with integrity in all of our academic pursuits. We affirm that academic integrity is the honorable creation and presentation of our own work. We acknowledge that it is our responsibility to seek clarification of proper forms of collaboration and use of academic resources in all assignments or exams. We consider academic integrity to include the proper use and care for all print, electronic, or other academic resources. We will respect the rights of others to engage in pursuit of learning in order to uphold our commitment to honor. We pledge to do all that is in our power to create a spirit of honesty and honor for its own sake.
Cheating is bad, I think we can all agree to that. The less-acknowledged truth is that it’s not even worth it. Cheating cheapens the value of your work, and everyone else’s, and a single violation can literally ruin your entire academic and professional career. Students’ work will be held to the standards of the Honor Code. If you are concerned that your collaboration might put you at risk of an academic integrity violation, please come see me during office hours as soon as possible. In my experience, violations of academic integrity are acts of desperation. If you are ever feeling desperate enough that a few extra points in this course seem to be worth risking so much, please consider talking to someone first — that could be me, a friend, or even someone at the Furman Counseling Center. I want you to succeed, and I am happy to talk to you if you feel undue pressure from this course or anything else.
Technology
In our classroom, we are mindful of how we use technology for our learning and those around us. Although we’ll use devices to respond to polls, we will place them face down or in a backpack or pocket when not in use. You may use a tablet or laptop for taking notes, but I strongly encourage you to avoid having your laptop out for other reasons: laptop use is correlated with lower learning outcomes for you and those around you, and the act of taking notes on the laptop is less effective than hand-written notes. Please do not wear headphones or ear buds in class.
Psychology asks us to think about the nature of thought. One way to explore this question is by comparing human thought to that of machines. We may incorporate ChatGPT and other generative AI software during this course to assess the extent to which these systems legitimately think (versus parrot what they already know). I will inform you about when, where, and how such tools are permitted to be used for class work and assignments, along with specific instructions for attribution. Outside of these approved uses, ChatGPT and other generative AI software are not permitted and must be specifically approved by me. If you have questions about what is permissible at any point in the semester, please reach out to me. Please also note that this policy applies only to my class, and it is your responsibility to check with each instructor if ever you are unsure about what constitutes academic honesty in their class.
Late work
If you have a conflict with a scheduled exam (religious holiday, sports game, etc.), you must seek arrangements with Professor Greene to take a make-up exam at least one week prior to the exam date. If you miss an assignment or exam due to extraordinary circumstances beyond your control, please email Professor Greene immediately. If you have a private, personal situation that interferes with your ability to take an exam, you may discuss details with your Dean and/or visit the Counseling Center. Office staff will assess your situation and email Professor Greene if accommodations are appropriate. In fairness to all students, multiple exams and/or papers are generally not considered an appropriate reason for a make-up. Our 90% threshold for full participation points (see above) ensures that an occasional absence will not affect that portion of your grade. For zine components, late work will incur a 10% per day penalty.
Class attendance
I expect you to attend class. Class sessions will be spent on activities that deepen your understanding of the readings and prepare you for the exams. They are critical to your success. To check in with your understanding and to incentivize you to attend, I will ask you to fill out Exit Tickets at the end of each class for a small portion of your grade. Exit tickets will ask for your name, a take-away from class, and provide you an opportunity to ask any lingering questions you might have. If you turn in at least 90% of your exit tickets, you will receive full credit for this portion of the grade. I will not be recording class via Zoom for you to view on Courseworks. A good portion of our class time will be spent working on problems and case studies, and this active work does not come through online. If you are unable to attend class, please check in with a peer to get notes about what you missed.
Extra credit
I will not entertain requests or proposals for extra credit assignments.
Emergencies
I will inform you via the class email list if I must cancel a class due to an emergency. Please consider your Barnard or Columbia email to be the default place to look for class-related information and get into the habit of checking it daily.
A Note on Email
My goal is to deliver you the best possible course experience. Part of how I do this is by spending less time on email. The multitasking associated with email is associated with less productivity and more stress. We will see in this course that multitasking is a myth: not only are we limited to one task at a time, but we underestimate how much task switching harms our performance.
Therefore, I process all of my emails in one batch once a day. While I will always respond to you on the same business day, this means that you may go 23 hours without a response. Need a faster response? Stop by my office - I’m there most of the time and am happy to chat if my door is open! Need to meet with me? Feel free to send me a calendar invite (see the top of this syllabus for instructions). I kindly ask you to search this syllabus before asking questions about class policies.
Grading
Grading philosophy
No single assignment listed below is worth more than 15% of your final grade. This is intentional. This allows anyone to bounce back from a less-than-optimal score on any assignment. If you approach this course with consistent effort, you will succeed!
Assessed Components
Exams: 3x10% each plus a final exam of 15%
We will have three in-class timed exams during the course of the
semester. The exams are not cumulative, meaning that each exam will
cover the material since the previous exam (or the beginning of the
course for the first exam). But the exams are cumulative in the sense
that later exams may rely on concepts introduced earlier. For example,
we will discuss the brain early in the course — but later exams may
still mention the brain! Consider an analogy with a book trilogy: Each
book is “self-contained” in that you could read it and still enjoy
yourself, but there would be references you would miss if you read only
the third book without reading the first two. The exam dates are:
Exam 1: February 7
Exam 2: March 6
Exam 3: April 8
We will have a traditional final exam worth 15% of your semester grade. This will be cumulative, because as you will learn in our unit on learning and memory, there is a huge benefit to recalling information more than once!
Zine Project: 40% total
Your final course project will be to create a zine related to some
aspect of psychology. Zines are small, self-published print works.
Historically, many zines have raised the voices of women and femmes in
minoritized communities, creating tight communities between writers and
readers. Zines also play an important role at Barnard – our library
hosts one of the largest zine collections
in the world!
The topic of your zine is up to you, but I encourage you to find something that you want better illuminated in the world. For example, you can choose to write about the contributions of psychologists who are not well-represented in textbooks, bring awareness to the ethical implications of a specific research study, or champion a research question that has been under-studied.
This project will have several checkpoints throughout the semester to keep you on track:
- Zine collection visit and reflection (2%) due January 26.
- Topic selection (4%) due February 2.
- Annotated bibliography (6%) due February 16.
- Rough draft (8%) due March 1.
- Peer review (8%) due March 29.
- Final product (12%) due April 29.
Exit Tickets: 10%
I will ask for an exit ticket at the end of each class that you can
submit on your phone or other electronic device. The ticket will simply
ask for your name, and a take-away from that day’s session. There will
be an optional field that will allow you to ask any lingering questions.
This exercise serves three purposes: (1) it provides a small incentive
for you to attend and participate in class; (2) it allows you to reflect
on your learning, which has been associated with better learning; (3) it
allows me to understand and address the questions that the class has
about the content. You will receive full credit on this portion of the
grade if you submit at least 90% of your exit tickets.
Research Requirement: 5%
This semester you will have the opportunity to experience first-hand
what happens in a psychology research project by participating in
experiments currently being conducted by students and faculty members in
the Barnard Psychology Department. A representative from the Psychology
Department will describe this requirement after the program planning
period is over and a summary of this information will be posted on
Courseworks as soon as it is available. If you are under 18 years old,
you will need to obtain the consent of your parent or guardian in order
to participate. If you have ethical objections to the experimental
research requirement, please see me before the end of January
about an alternate assignment.
Your final grade will be determined on the following scale:
| Grade | Percentage | Grade | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | >95% | B- | 77-79% | |
| A | 90-94% | C+ | 74-76% | |
| A- | 87-89% | C | 70-73% | |
| B+ | 84-86% | D | 50-69% | |
| B | 80-83% | F | <50 |
Course Calendar
Unit 1: Fundamentals of the Mind
| Date | Topic | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01-17 | Introduction: How psychology will make you a better student | None | |
| 01-22 | Research methods: How to study the mind | Chapter 2 | |
| 01-24 | Neuroscience: Structure and function of neurons | Chapter 3.2 | |
| 01-26 | Zine collection reflection due on Canvas | ||
| 01-29 | Neuroscience: Structure and function of the nervous system | Chapter 3.3-3.5 | |
| 01-31 | Sensation: Our gateway to the world | Chapter 5.2-5.4 | |
| 02-02 | Zine topic selection due on Canvas | ||
| 02-05 | Perception: What does it all mean? | Chapter 5.5-5.6 | |
| 02-07 | EXAM 1 |
Unit 2: Cognition
| Date | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 02-12 | Attention: Selecting the important stuff | Cummings 7.2 |
| 02-14 | States of consciousness | Chapter 4.1-4.4 |
| 02-16 | Zine annotated bibliography due on Canvas | |
| 02-19 | Consciousness: your subjective experience | Chapter 4.5 to end |
| 02-21 | Memory: What are the types of memories? | Chapter 8.0-8.2 |
| 02-26 | Memory: How does it succeed and fail? | Chapter 8.3-8.4 |
| 02-28 | Learning by association | Chapter 6.0-6.2 |
| 03-01 | Zine rough draft due on Canvas | |
| 03-04 | Learning by rewards and punishments | Chapter 6.3-6.4 |
| 03-06 | EXAM 2 | |
| 03-11 | NO CLASS: Spring Break | |
| 03-13 | NO CLASS: Spring Break | |
| 03-18 | Thinking: Language, problem solving, and creativity | Chapter 7.3-7.4 |
| 03-20 | Intelligence | Chapter 7.5-7.6 |
Unit 3: Language, Motivation, Emotion, and Development
| Date | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 03-25 | Language | Chapter 7.2 |
| 03-27 | Motivation: What do you want and why? | Chapter 10.1-10.2 |
| 03-29 | Zine peer review due via email | |
| 04-01 | Development: Growing up | Chapter 9.1-9.3 |
| 04-03 | Development: Growing older | Chapter 9.4 and Chapter 10.3 |
| 04-08 | EXAM 3 | |
| 04-10 | Emotion: How do you feel about that? | Chapter 10.4 |