Course Description

Effective: 2019-08-01

General Course Purpose

Establishes a transfer social science elective that makes students aware of the basic concepts of psychology.

Course Prerequisites/Corequisites

Readiness to enroll in English 111 required.

Course Objectives

• SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Perspectives in Psychological Science
• Define psychology as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
• Identify and explain the primary objectives of psychology (e.g. describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling behavior and mental processes).
• Describe how psychology emerged and evolved as a scientific discipline.
• Identify overarching themes, persistent questions, or enduring conflicts in psychology, such as the interaction of heredity and environment.
• Identify and describe the major contemporary perspectives of psychology (e.g. psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, biological, and cognitive).
• SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Research Methods and Measurement
• Describe the scientific method and its role in psychology.
• Explain the strengths, limitations, and conclusions that can be drawn from various research
• Describe systematic procedures used to improve the credibility of research findings (e.g.
• Explain the ethical obligations of researchers toward their research participants, both human
• SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Critical Thinking
• Discern differences between personal views and scientific evidence in understanding
• State connections between diverse facts and theories.
• Identify arguments based largely on anecdotal evidence, personal experience, and poorly
• Describe attitudes associated with critical thinking such as tolerance of ambiguity and
• Apply psychological concepts, theories, and research findings as these relate to everyday life.
• BIOPHYCHOLOGICAL DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Biological Bases of Behavior
• Identify the major divisions and subdivisions of the human nervous system.
• Identify the parts of the neuron and describe the basic process of neural transmission.
• Differentiate between the structures and functions of the various parts of the central nervous
• Discuss the mechanisms of, and the importance of, plasticity of the nervous system.
• Describe concepts in genetic transmission.
• Explain how evolved tendencies influence behavior.
• Identify tools used to study the nervous system.
• BIOPHYCHOLOGICAL DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Sensation and Perception
• Describe processes of sensation and perception and how they interact.
• Explain the concepts of threshold and adaptation.
• Describe the capabilities and limitations of sensory processes.
• Explain the interaction of the person and the environment in determining perception.
• BIOPHYCHOLOGICAL DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Consciousness
• Identify states of consciousness.
• Distinguish between processing which is conscious (i.e. explicit) and other processing which happens without conscious awareness (i.e. implicit).
• Describe characteristics of sleep and theories that explain why we sleep and dream.
• Characterize the major categories of psychoactive drugs and their effects.
• Describe other states of consciousness such as meditation, hypnosis, and flow states.
• DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Life Span Development
• Discuss theories of cognitive, moral, and social development.
• Identify influences on prenatal development.
• Describe the role of sensitive and critical periods in development.
• Identify the major physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional changes across the lifespan.
• Explain the interaction of environmental and biological factors in development.
• DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Learning
• Describe the principles of classical conditioning (e.g. acquisition, extinction, generalization, discrimination).
• Describe the principles of operant conditioning (e.g. reinforcement, punishment, shaping, reinforcement schedules, extinction).
• Describe cognitive approaches to learning (e.g. observational learning, social learning).
• Describe applications of learning theories in real life (e.g. phobias, animal training, habit change).
• DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Language Development
• Describe the structure and function of language.
• Discuss the relationship between language and thought.
• Describe theories and development stages of language acquisition.
• Explain the relationship between language and the brain.
• SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Social Interactions
• Identify relationships between thought processes (e.g. attributions, attitudes, bias, and perception) and social behavior.
• Discuss obedience, conformity, and compliance in relation to behavior and their impact on the power of the situation.
• Describe how group dynamics influence behavior.
• Discuss the nature and effects of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.
• Discuss influences upon pro-social (e.g. altruism) and anti-social (e.g. aggression and conflict) behaviors.
• Discuss factors influencing attraction and relationships.
• Identify factors involved in influencing and persuading others.
• SOCIAOCULTURAL CONTEXT DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Sociocultural Diversity
• Discuss social and cultural diversity.
• Discuss psychological research examining diversity among individuals.
• COGNITION DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Memory
• Describe the differences between working and long-term memory.
• Discuss types of memory and memory disorders.
• Identify factors and strategies influencing how memories are encoded, stored, and retrieved.
• Explain how memories can be malleable.
• COGNITION DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Thinking
• Define processes involved in problem solving and decision making.
• Describe obstacles to problem solving and decision making.
• Describe aids to problem solving and decision making.
• COGNITION DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Intelligence
• Discuss different perspectives on intelligence (e.g. general intelligence, multiple intelligences).
• Discuss the history of intelligence testing, including historical use and misuse in the context of fairness.
• Identify current methods of assessing human intelligence.
• Discuss issues related to the consequences of intelligence testing.
• Discuss the influences of biological, cultural, and environmental factors on intelligence.
• INDIVIDUAL VARIATION DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Motivation
• Describe biologically based theories of motivation.
• Describe cognitively based theories of motivation.
• Describe humanistic theories of motivation.
• INDIVIDUAL VARIATION DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Emotion
• Describe the biological and cognitive components of emotion.
• Differentiate among theories of emotional experience.
• Describe how culture and gender influence emotional expression.
• INDIVIDUAL VARIATION DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Personality
• Compare and contrast the major theoretical approaches to personality (e.g. psychodynamic, trait, humanistic, and social-cognitive theories).
• Identify techniques of personality assessment.
• Discuss biological and situational influences on personality.
• Discuss stability and change of personality.
• Explain how culture and gender influence personality.
• INDIVIDUAL VARIATION DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Psychological Disorders
• Define psychologically abnormal behavior.
• Describe major models of abnormality.
• Describe the classification of psychological disorders.
• Describe symptoms and causes of major categories of psychological disorders (including schizophrenic, mood, anxiety, and personality disorders).
• APPLICATIONS OF PHYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Treatment of Psychological Disorders
• Explain different perspectives on treatment of psychological disorders.
• Explain why psychologists use a variety of treatment options.
• Identify biomedical treatments.
• Identify psychological treatments.
• Evaluate the efficacy of treatments for particular disorders.
• Identify ethical challenges involved in delivery of treatment.
• APPLICATION OF PHYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE DOMAIN - CONTENT AREA: Health
• Define stress as a psychophysiological reaction.
• Identify and explain potential sources of stress.
• Identify and explain physiological, cognitive, and behavioral strategies to deal with stress.
• Identify behaviors and attitudes that promote health.

Major Topics to be Included

• Biopsychology Domain: Biological Bases of Behavior
• Developmental and Learning Domain: Learning
• Sociocultural Domain: Social Interactions
• Cognition Domain: Memory
• Individual Variation: Personality
• One content area in Applications of Psychological Science