PSYC 488 - 01 HISTORY & SYSTEMS SYLLABUS

Descriptive Information

Course Number: PSYC – 488
Section: 01 (M - W - F 12:00 pm – 12:50 pm; 240 Blanks Hall)
Course Title: History & Systems
Course Description: The focus of this course is the evolution of the field of psychology as an independent scientific discipline from its roots in Philosophy and Physiology. The history of psychology will be approached in terms of people, ideas and most importantly, schools of thought. Schools of thought or systems of knowledge will be examined in terms of the historical and social context in which they occurred as well as their contributions to the establishment of psychology as paradigmatic science.
Credit: 3.0
Pre-requisites: This course is an upper level course designed primarily for psychology majors. The course is a requirement for majors and is best taken after other requirements for the B.S. in psychology have been satisfied. Much of the theory and application gained from other departmental courses will be incorporated into this course in the context of their historical and philosophical antecedents.
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: 1) To understand the reasons that modern scientific psychology studies the topics that it does. 2) To trace the historical "threads" which connect the various sub-disciplines of psychology—connections that might otherwise remain obscure through exclusive study of psychological methodology and practice. Course Objectives: Because the primary emphasis of this course is the imparting of historical (factual) information, instructional activity will be primarily lecture based. However, because it is assumed that students have already had exposure to the methodology and content of modern psychology, successful completion of this course will require that the student reconceptualize the detail and minutia of scientific method in terms of the philosophical questions from which those methods evolved. Performance on objective examinations (see Grading section below) will be used to evaluate the ability of students to shift their perspective and fluidly follow the reciprocal connections from older philosophical questions to modern scientific methods of testing hypothesized answers to those questions. Course Content: 17th century mechanism, positivism, materialism as influences on modern psychology, 17th and 18th century empiricism as defining subject matter of psychology, 18th century sensory physiology as the immediate precursor to scientific psychology and historical development of the various schools of thought in psychology as it progresses toward the role of paradigmatic science.

Required Readings

 A History of Modern Psychology Eighth Edition By: Duane P. Schultz and Sydney Ellen Schultz

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 class schedule 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 FOUR (4) exams will be worth 50 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 4 exam grades.  A grade of "0" for a missed exam can be DROPPED --BUT IT CANNOT BE MADE UP!! Therefore, if you miss more than one exam it becomes very difficult to pass the class!!

Grading

Regular Exams = 4 @ 50 points = 200 minus 50 (I drop the lowest exam score)

Total points = 150

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 on each exam)