PSYC 105 - Introduction to Psychological Science

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

This course is designed to introduce the student to fundamental psychological processes, their nature and development, and contemporary methods for their study through a survey of the major research areas in the field. Areas covered include the biological and evolutionary bases of thought and behavior, motivation and emotion, learning, memory, thinking, personality, developmental, and social psychology. Some sections of this course are taught as a traditional introductory survey. Other sections may take a more topical focus to their survey. In all sections, students are expected to participate in three hours of psychological research during the semester. The Department.

Topic for 2019/20a: Saving the planet: What’s Psyc got to do with it? This topical Introduction to Psychological Science focuses on climate change. It covers all of the topics of an introductory survey course, examining many of them through the lens of humans’ relationships with their environments, broadly construed. We apply the tools of evidence-based reasoning to identify facts and misinformation in climate change narratives. As we consider the genetic and physiological scaffolding of human and non-human behavior, we focus on organisms’ adaptations to and effects on their environments. We examine the role of the natural environment in physical and mental health and consider how insights from Psychological Science may inform individual and collective behaviors that support a sustainable environment. Sue Trumbetta.

Topic for 2019/20b: Sex on the Brain: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the science of psychology via an exploration of contemporary research and theory on sex and sexuality. Special attention is devoted to scientific methodology in the study of sex and sexuality in order to give you a solid understanding of how psychologists and other scientists conduct their research and build theories about phenomena associated with sex.

Please note: This is not a human sexuality course; it is a psychology course that uses the study of human sexuality to introduce you to psychology. You leave the course not only with an understanding of the physiological, evolutionary, learning, developmental, personality and social psychological perspectives on human sexual behavior, among other topics, but also with the necessary knowledge and conceptual tools to continue your explorations in psychology and other experimental sciences. Randy Cornelius.

Open to all classes.

Enrollment limited.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS