3 cr A survey of contemporary psychology covering human development, intelligence, abilities, sensation, perception, motivation, emotion, learning, personality structure, disordered behavior, social psychology, and the physiological bases of behavior. Includes an overview of current theory, research methods, and controversial issues in the field. An introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics. Lectures are supplemented by computational laboratory sessions. 4 cr A laboratory course in the methodology of psychological research with emphasis on design, measurement, and statistical analysis appropriate for testing hypotheses in perception, learning, memory and other areas of general psychology.
Students design and conduct experiments and write reports.
Topics include classical and instrumental conditioning, reinforcement, extinction, punishment and avoidance, generalization and discrimination, and biological constraints on learning. An introduction to the study of the uniqueness of the individual. Emphasis will be on research methods and on theories as well as on some of the more important characteristics on which individuals differ. A study of how sensations emerge from physical energies falling upon sense receptors and get organized into the percepts we call events, objects and object properties of the real world including our self image. Topics include illusions, hallucinations, and normal experiences with all the senses, especially touch, hearing, and vision.