Welcome to Principles of Learning I, a Masters Level course in the curriculum for the Degree, Masters in Animal Psychology. I'm pleased to offer you this course. This is an exciting course. General Psychology provides a comprehensive introduction to the scientific study of behavior and mental experience.
You will have 10 weeks in which to complete the necessary reading and written assignments. Please have your textbook prior to enrolling so that you can use your time most effectively. Day 1 will begin when I send you your first welcome email. Please keep careful track of your due date. When you are ready to access your exam please email me and I will arrange access. You must request the exams prior to your deadline. This course is worth 3 credit hours.
There is one (1) required textbook for this course.
Book 1: Exploring Psychology: 7th Edition, David G. Myers. Worth Publisher, 2008
ISBN: 0-7167-7141-1.
You can purchase any of your BSU textbooks here at the BSU bookstore:
There is one final exam for this course; Grades are based on completion of assignments, activities and exams.
The grading scale for this course is as follows:
90-100% = A
80-89% = B
70-79% = C
Below 70% = Fail
Final Exam 50%
Self evaluation 5%
Discovery & Intention Statement/chapter 10%
Research Report 25%
Journal 10%
TOTAL 100%
The aim of education about Psychology is to understand the study of behavior and the factors that determine and affect behavior.
You are encouraged to communicate with me. I am available as a teacher, coach, and mentor to assist you in meeting your goals for this course. Primarily, communication is through email. However, I am also available for conversation by telephone if you would like. Our classroom for this course has a "chat" room. I am also very willing to meet with you one-on-one in the chat room at your request. From time to time, depending on how many students are enrolled in this course at a particular time, we will have some scheduled group chats. You will receive more detailed information at the time such chat sessions are scheduled. Please keep my email address handy so that you can contact me whenever necessary. Upon registration, you will receive my email address. If at any time during this course you change your email address, please be sure to notify me right away.
Upon completion of this course you will have a foundational understanding of these topics:
To introduce psychology as a discipline and to describe the different perspectives from which psychologists examine behavior and mental processes.
To identify psychology’s most important subfields.
To demonstrate the limits of every day intuition and common sense.
To discuss effective learning strategies for mastering psychology.
To show how psychologists use three basic research methods: description, correlation, and experimentation.
To answer some of the frequently asked questions about psychology.
To describe the structure of neurons and explain how they communicate.
To discuss the nature of the nervous system.
To describe the major techniques for studying the brain.
To explain how behavior geneticist weigh genetic and environmental contributions to our various traits.
To explore both the nature and nurture of gender.
To trace the course of prenatal development.
To identify the competencies of the newborn.
To discuss the course of physical, cognitive, and social development in infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood.
To introduce some basic principles of sensation.
To discuss the visual process.
To describe the sense of hearing.
To explain the sense of touch and the process by which pain is felt.
To describe the sense of taste and smell.
To describe the basic principles of depth perception.
To discuss the nature of the sleep cycle and to describe the nature and functions of dreams.
To explore the truth about hypnosis.
To identify the effects of various drugs.
To describe biological, psychological, and social roots of drug use.
To present the principles and processes involved in classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.
To introduce memory as an information-processing system.
To explore how we construct concepts and solve problems.
To discuss language development.
To discuss genetic and environmental determinants of intelligence.
To present basic concepts of motivation.
To describe the basis of hunger.
To describe the major eating disorders and the causes of obesity.
To discuss sexual motivation, including sexual disorders, dynamics of sexual orientation and the strong human need to belong.
To describe the research on achievement motivation.
To present the major theories of emotion.
To present research on emotional expression.
To discuss the nature of stress.
To describe effective stress-management techniques.
To explore the meaning of personality.
To present the trait perspective.
To introduce and evaluate the humanistic perspective.
To describe and evaluate social-cognitive perspective.
To introduce the different perspectives on psychological disorders.
To describe the major mood disorders, and to explore their possible causes.
To describe the controversial dissociative disorders, and to discuss their possible causes.
To describe personality disorders, focusing on the antisocial personality.
To describe, explore the symptoms, types and possible causes of schizophrenia.
To present the major psychotherapies and to evaluate their effectiveness.
To describe the biomedical therapies.
To introduce the rationale and strategy of preventive mental health.
To introduce attribution theory.
To present the literature on social influence.
To describe the major findings on prejudice, aggression, and social conflict.
To explore factors that contributes to attraction, altruism, and peacemaking.
The history and Scope of Psychology
Research Strategies: How Psychologists ask and Answer Questions
Neural and Hormonal Systems
The Brain
The Nature and Nurture of Behavior
Development Issues, Prenatal Development, and Newborn
Infancy and Childhood
Adolescence
Adulthood
Introduction to Sensation and Perception: Vision
The Other Senses
Perceptual Organization
Perceptual Interpretation
Waking and Sleeping Rhythms
Hypnosis
Drugs and Consciousness
Learning
Information Processing
Forgetting and Memory Construction
Thinking
Language and Thought
Intelligence
Introduction to Motivation: Hunger
Sexual Motivation
Achievement Motivation
Theories of Physiology of Emotion
Expressing and Experiencing Emotion
Stress and Illness
Promoting Health
The psychoanalytic Perspective
The Trait Perspective
The Humanistic Perspective
The Social-Cognitive Perspective and Reflections of the Four Key Perspectives
Introduction to Psychological Disorders: Anxiety Disorders
Mood Disorders and Personality Disorders
Schizophrenia
Therapy
Social Thinking
Social Influence
Social Relations
If you have any questions regarding this program, you may contact admassistant@breyerstate.com
