PSYC 377 - Physiological Psychology Syllabus

descriptive information

course number: PSYC 377

section: 01 (t th 11:00 am –12:20 pm; 305 blanks hall)

course title: Physiological Psychology

 course description: physiological psychology is an interdisciplinary field which studies the neurochemical, neuroanatomical and neurophysiological control of behavior and thought processes. the overall goal of this course is to not only introduce you to this discipline, but to also give you an appreciation for how knowledge is acquired in this area. while much of the course will examine the effects of psychoactive drugs on behavior and cognition, it is important to realize that drugs which are abused act on neural systems that have evolved because they give organisms an adaptive advantage. so to better understand drugs which can be abused, we need to also understand the systems on which those drugs act. accordingly, one of the specific objectives for this course is for you to gain an understanding of the neurochemical/physiological bases of normal behavior, emotions,thoughts, appetites and, in short--almost any topic that is of interest to psychologists in general.

 credit: 3.0.

 pre-requisites: this course is an upper level course designed primarily for psychology majors who are enrolled in the board certified subsance abuse counseror concentration. much of the theory and application gained from other departmental courses will be incorporated into this course in the context of their neurochemical/neurophysiological correlates. completion of general education requirements in biology/chemistry is helpful but not required.

instructor: Dr. Gerry Hecht; 225 Blanks Hall; 771.2990; gerald_hecht@subr.edu

office hrs: "virtual office hours" via email are available at any time-"in person" office hours by appointment.

course goals and objectives

general goals: the course will be roughly divided into three sections.  in the first section, we will cover some of the basic principles of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology at the cellular level.  in the second section we  will examine how these individual brain cells (neurons) are organized in the nervous system --the pathways of neuronal communication--and the associated psychological phenomena which they generate. the third section will focus on  specific in depth analysis of current research in this area of study.

course objectives: because the primary emphasis of this course is the imparting of anatomical, physiological and biochemical facts and the behavioral and cognitive measurement of the effects of these drugs, instructional activity will be primarily lecture based. however, successful completion of this course will require that the student understand the reciprocal relationship of brain function (physiology) to behavior and mental processes (psychology). objective examinations (seegrading section below) will be used to evaluate the ability of students to navigate fluidly from the realm of the physiological to the realm of the psychological.

required readings

Carlson, N.R. (2004) Foundations of Physiological Psychology. 6th edition. Allyn & Bacon.

Hecht, G.S., Spear, N.E., and Spear, L.P. (1999).changes in progressive ratio responding for intravenous cocaine throughout the reproductive process in female rats. dev psychobiol, sep;35(2):136-45.

Woolverton, W.L., Hecht, G.S., Katz, J.L., Newman, A.H. (2001). further studies of the reinforcing effects of benztropine analogs in rhesus monkeys. psychopharmacology,  (berl). 2001 apr;154(4):375-82.

Hecht, G.S., Spear, N.E, and Spear, L.P. (1998). alterations in the reinforcing efficacy of cocaine in adult rats following prenatal exposure to cocaine. behavioral neuroscience, 112(2) 1-9

course requirements

a lecture/discussion format will be used. readings will be assigned for each class (see schedule). lectures will either supplement material contained in the readings or present new information that is related to assigned material but not contained in the text. class attendance is not mandatory, however it has been my experience that missing class is deadly (in terms of examination scores). the exception to this attendance policy is exam dates. failing to attend class on the day of an exam will result in a grade of zero for that exam (as noted in grading below, the lowest exam grade will be dropped).

student evaluation

see the exam dates and announcements portion of the web site for exam dates. questions will primarily consist of short-answer items but may also include multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, true/false, and matching items. test questions will be drawn from material covered in the text and lecture. although each exam will focus only on new material, the information presented in this course is somewhat cumulative in nature. thus, students should review old material when studying for each exam. each of the three regular exams will be worth 50 points. the cumulative final exam will be worth 100 points. students arriving late to class will not be given extra time to take the exam.

important: i do not penalize students for poor class attendance... however: i do not give makeup exams!! my policy is to drop the lowest of the three regular exam grades.  the cumulative final exam is never dropped and cannot be madeup!! therefore, if you miss more than one exam it becomes very difficult to pass the class!!

 grading

regular exams: 4 @ 50 points minus the lowest exam = 150 points

a = 135    +

b = 120-134

c = 105-119

d = 90 - 104

f =   <    90

grades are not negotiable, and i do not round up! if you don’t want to end up a few points short of a grade, be sure to earn bonus points on the exams (there is usually an extra credit item).