REQUIRED TEXTBOOK:
Gazzaniga, M.S. (2018). Psychological Science (6th ed.). New York: Norton.
A NOTE ABOUT THE CONSTRUCTION AND SCORING OF EXAMS:
All of the exams given in this class will be cumulative, because there's no reason to forget what you've just learned the minute a particular exam is over. So, any material covered earlier in the course (in either the textbook or in the lectures) will be fair game on a later exam. That said, in every case, the bulk of the questions on each exam (approximately 80%) will be about the most recently covered material (i.e., the material covered since the preceding exam), and the rest (about 20%) will cover material we learned earlier in the course.
Also, note that I will grade using both a curve and non-curve, depending on how everyone is doing. This will benefit everyone; if everyone does well on an exam (say greater than 90% correct), everyone (to my mind) deserves an "A" and that is what everyone will get. It is, however, possible that there will be a wide range of scores, and that they will not be particularly high. Even if no one does better than, say, 90%, I will NOT downgrade everyone; rather, the students whose scores are RELATIVELY high will do well, and those whose are not, will not.
Be aware that I do not like to categorize students until the last possible moment, which is my way of saying that you should not expect bold letters ("A", "D", etc.) on your returned exams. I am not aware of any good reason to label, for example, Hendrix’s 90 an “A-“ but Morrison’s 89 a “B+". Rather, I will attempt to make clear to everyone where they stand among the continuum of students that make up the class (I will do this by scoring exams numerically). By the end of the semester, when I am required to draw lines, it will be clear (both to me, and to each of you) who is deserving of what grade.
ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATIONS:
Please note that I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate students with disabilities. For Pitzer students, to request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Pitzer's Academic Support Services (PASS) in the Office of Student Affairs to inquire about accommodations and support services (https://www.pitzer.edu/student-life/academic-support-services/). It would be best for any interested students to contact PASS early in the semester so that a collaborative plan can be developed for the academic year. PASS will work with students to identify reasonable and appropriate accommodations. If you attend another one of the Claremont Colleges, please contact your home college’s disability officer; you can get more information about that by contacting the Claremont Colleges Student Disability Resource Center here: sdrc@cuc.claremont.edu.
STANDARD CONTENT WARNING:
Please note that the material covered in this course may be challenging to some students, because it will cover topics related to human psychology, possibly including subjects such as mental illness, depression, suicide, psychosis, child neglect or maltreatment, pathological behaviors, sexual behaviors, evolution, obesity and/or eating disorders, recreational drug use/abuse, or any of several other topics that some individuals might find re-traumatizing. Please feel free to step outside during a class if you need to. Having said that, please be aware that these are standard topics of discussion in psychology courses, so any of the information covered in the course could appear on exams or quizzes.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MATERIAL ON THE MCAT:
For more information on the psychological section of the MCAT, please click here.