Welcome to the start of a new semester!! My records show that you are registered in my section of Introduction to Psychology. I thought I would welcome you a little bit early instead of waiting until the first day of class. And, for the students who are new to campus, I want to welcome you to Western as well! I am hoping we will have a great semester together.
I think Intro to Psych is a great course for any student to take. All of us can benefit from a better understanding of the causes of behavior as we go through life trying to make sense of our own behavior or that of friends, family, lovers, co-workers, politicians - whoever! Everyone needs to be able to critically evaluate the claims concerning behavior that are so much a part of news reports, commercials, and conversation.
This course will help you with each of these. Many of you, raising children - now or in the future - will be better prepared with some understanding of developmental psychology. And all of you, in one way or another, will cross paths with someone in the mental health field. Perhaps you already have, in school (counselors, school psychologists). Recent statistics indicate that 1 out of 4 Americans will suffer from some sort of psychological disorder in their lifetime. You or someone you care about is likely to seek out some type of mental health treatment or advice. Or you may hear information from someone in this field while on jury duty. This course will help you understand the qualifications of and differences between professionals in the field. In addition, about 1 out of 5 Americans will have some kind of
nervous system disorder or disease which affects behavior. Biopsychology or physiological psychology, the study of how your biology affects your behavior, can help you understand what is happening when someone you know is affected by autism or Alzheimer's disease or other neurological problem.
Psychology is not only concerned with treating behavioral problems. A good part of it is focused on normal behavior and improving the quality of life and our ability to function in a wide variety ofcircumstances (education, work, relationships, etc.). You can use what you learn to improve your life!
Intro to Psych is taken by almost every Western student. Now I know you may have your doubts about a class that is online as opposed to the normal class. It is easy to feel lost in the crowd, to think your participation is not important, and to assume you are on your own if you start to have problems. That is not the case here! I may not learn to associate many faces with names, but I do care about how you are doing, I applaud your efforts, and enjoy getting to know as many of you as Ican. I welcome office visits and e-mail.
(I am a very early morning person. Typically over the course of the semester you will receive various emails from me answering your questions usually around 4:30 am as I am in the fitness center at 5:00 am....kind of bi-polar, but that is another story.
I will do what I can to make our class a comfortable place so that you feel free to speak up. (Remember - nearly everyone here is just as new and as anxious as you!) I welcome questions and asking questions is one way to ensure I get to know you. Fight passivity! Let's make it feel like a smaller class. Become involved and you will have much better retention of the material. You'll get so much more out of college if you are not just a listener!
Remember Robin Williams in "Dead Poet's Society"? "Carpe diem!" (Seize the day -or, in this case, seize your education!).
While I feel like we can work together to make even our huge class a friendly and involving place, one thing that's more difficult to do is to design a course that "fits" all 40 students. If our class is like most others, about half of you have already had a psych class in high school, while about half are brand new to the subject. Some who took high school psych had excellent courses that were the equivalent of a college course (although often spread over a whole school year), whereas others took a course that only covered a small amount of the content we will be tackling this semester.
What this means is that inevitably sometimes we are going too slow for more experienced students or too fast for others. Many students who got by with memorizing definitions in high school may find test questions that ask you to apply your understanding to real-life situations pretty challenging, while others will find our multiple choice tests too simplistic. Realizing these difficulties I can only say I will try my best to teach an understandable, yet challenging course suited both for those who may never take another psych class in their lives and those who may go on to major or minor in psychology.
Students new to college often don't realize that now they must become independent learners, studying actively to learn from texts, because there is not enough classroom time to present all the knowledge and skills of a typical college course. Think about it - if you took a college-level (AP) psychology course in high school, you would usually spend about 180 class periods with your psychology teacher. But that is almost unheard of at colleges and universities.
Instead, we have about 16 weeks together and a great deal of learning (about 135 class periods worth) must occur outside the classroom when you are reading and working with text material. Our book is written in a conversational style that is easy to read. I think you will really like it. You are responsible for completing assigned reading.You will need a minimum of 2 hours per module (chapter) and additional time to do the study aids in the text
and online (practicing in as many ways as possible is recommended!). It is highly recommended that you map out a regular Study Schedule for your classes and try to stick to it.
To really master material most people have to actively work with the concepts. For that reason our class will not be just reading and tests. We will have several experiments during the semester related to the concepts we are covering. Since you can use your text and other resources, discuss assignments with friends, or consult with your prof or , the
conscientious student should be able to earn all assignment points. Almost all past students voted in favor of having some of the course points come from something other than exams. Last semester the points from the assignments allowed almost all students to significantly raise their grade above that which they would have earned from test scores alone.
There are various learning aids. Learning how to study and learn is very important in college since you do so much learning on your own. I am excited about the new semester and hope we will have a lively class even if we are online. Expect the unexpected! I look forward to our discussions and class activities.
Professor Daniels
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