Welcome to Introductory Psychology!
This course offers an overview of the history, status, and promise of scientific and applied psychology, a field that connects to both the natural and social sciences. Students will learn about the biological and evolutionary basis of psychological processes, and ways those processes are influenced by social and cultural contexts. For students who may major or minor in psychology, this course serves as a foundation for upper level courses. However, it also designed to serve all students, for whom this knowledge is a general contribution to a liberal arts education.
Looking for course materials?
Click here to see our course in Canvas (enrolled students only)
When and where?
Lectures
WHEN: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11:45am-1:00pm
WHERE: Griffith Theater, located on the lower level of the Bryan Center
Our first day of class is Thursday, January 11th
Lab/Discussion Sections
Sections meet once a week for 50 minutes. Every student is enrolled in a specific discussion section.
Check out our section schedule for specific times, locations, and the name of the Teaching Fellow leading your section.
What will I learn?
Conceptual foundations of psychology: How to recognize and describe a wide range of psychological concepts and themes and associated scientists.
Application and connection: How to recognize the psychological dimension of everyday experience, as well as important social problems (e.g., education, healthcare).
Critical thinking: How to apply an open-minded yet critical stance to psychological claims, including those that appear in popular portrayals of psychological science.
Scientific literacy:
o How to recognize a variety of scientific methods that are used to answer scientific questions, and critically evaluate their strengths and limitations.
o How to understand the basic components of an empirical research article and how to find articles on topics of interest.
Scientific research skills: How to generate original research questions and define methods for addressing those questions.
Collaborative thinking: How to support others’ learning in small and large groups.
This course is taught by a team of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. Learn about our team!
What can you expect from your instructors?
We expect a lot of ourselves. We truly believe that learning about psychology can be a transformative experience and our responsibility is to teach you some of the most valuable insights and skills that the field has to offer.
We believe that learning is an active process that should be fun and challenging. We design class activities and assignments to be fun and motivating while also challenging and expanding your intellectual abilities. Some things you do in this course may feel easy and others may feel quite difficult. We see that as a natural part of learning and not something to avoid.
We will support your success by clearly communicating our expectations. We will provide all essential information through Canvas and also through emails to the class. We will do our best to streamline our communications and prioritize essential information.
We will work to make everyone feel welcome. We aim to create a “trusting space” that is respectful to the diversity of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, ability, culture, religion, and socioeconomic status of all students.
We will be supportive and fair. We know all students need extra support and flexibility sometimes. We work to provide that while also ensuring that we are treating all students equitably and fairly.
We are always making improvements. We will ask for your feedback many times throughout the course to help us improve your learning experience. Learn more about the ongoing improvements we make in this class.
What do your instructors expect from you?
We want you to engage. We provide a variety of ways to engage with psychology in this course, including reading, listening, writing, discussing, and more. We expect you to engage with all aspects of this course and to think deeply and critically.
We want you to do your part to ensure a trusting, inclusive community for your classmates and instructors.
During class discussions (in lecture and section), we expect students to welcome one another, listen to one another, and treat one another with respect.
We expect students to follow our policies regarding in-class technology to protect the learning of their classmates.
We expect students to protect one another’s physical safety by wearing masks when required.
We want you to act with integrity.
We want you to take advantage of the expectations and advice that we provide for how to succeed in this class.
Visit the Canvas site for the class regularly (several times a week). All course materials, including a weekly reminder of your assignments, a link to your textbook and InQuizitive quiz, important announcements, assignments, exams, and extra resources will be found in Canvas.
Please always look for and read emails from the instructors and from your TF.
We want you to communicate your needs. If there is something going on that affects your ability to learn in this class, we want to help, but to help, we need to know about it.