Instructor: Cordelia Aitkin

Office Hours: Thursday, 3:00 – 4:30, or by appointment, Busch Psychology, A-Wing, Room 134.

E-mail: cdaitkin@rci.rutgers.edu

 

Course Description: This course is designed to introduce you to the field psychology. As such, we will cover a representative sample of the major theories and the major subfields of psychology.

Required Text: Nairne, J. S. (2006).  Psychology:  The Adaptive Mind, 4th Edition. The study guide is not required, but you may find it helpful.

Exams: There will be three multiple choice exams, and a final. All four exams are worth 100 points each. Only the final will be cumulative. All exams will be based on material from both the book and from lecture. Exams will only be administered on the dates specified in the syllabus. Make-up exams will require a signed letter from the Dean of Students. NOTE: Make-up exams will be essay exams.

Cheating/Plagiarism: Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Anyone caught cheating on an exam will recieve a zero for the exam, and will be reported to the Dean of his or her College. Students are expected to adhere to the University Policy on Academic Integrity (http://cat.rutgers.edu/integrity/policy.html)

Research: All General Psychology students are required to participate in research in order to pass the course. There are two ways to fufill this requirement:

• Participate in 5 RPUs worth of experiments
• Completing a written assignment.

For details, go to http://psych-s.rutgers.edu/research/test/rules.html. The website of available experiments and how to sign up is here: http://psych-s.rutgers.edu/research/test/

Extra Help: If you feel concerned about your grasp of the material, I encourage you to take advantage of my office hours, and the TA's office hours. They are times set aside specifically for you to ask for help from us outside of class. If the set hours are inconvenient, I am also available by appointment. You may also send us questions over e-mail, but be aware that it can be difficult to explain certain concepts and ideas in this format. Please see this section http://mleddy.blogspot.com/2005/01/how-to-e-mail-professor.html for tips on how to contact professors over e-mail.

Please note: I am not in e-mail contact after 5 pm on weekdays, or at all on weekends.

Extra Credit: DO NOT request extra credit. Extra credit will be offered solely at the discretion of the instructor, and only to the entire class. There will be no individual opportunities for extra credit. See the above section about additional help if you are concerned about your grade in the class.

Grading: There will be no curving of grades.

Final letter grades will be based on the percentage system:

Lecture Schedule (Subject to Change)