UCLA

Psychology Department
Psychology 10: Introductory Psychology
Winter 2016
Instructor:
Classroom:
Course Time:
Office Hours:

Elizabeth Goldenberg, Ph.D., goldenbergteach@gmail.com

WG Young CS50
Tuesday & Thursday 2:00pm-3:50pm
Tuesday & Thursday 12:30pm-1:30pm & by appointment; Franz Hall 2250

Teaching Assistants
Name: Julia Morgan
Email: jemorgan@ucla.edu

Office location: Franz 1193

Office hours: Tuesday 12:30-1:30; Thursday
1:00-2:00

Name: Peter Clayson

Email: peter.clayson@gmail.com
Office location: Franz 3264
Office hours: Thursday 12:15pm-1:45pm (starting
2/4)

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to provide you with a broad overview of the field of psychology, which is the
scientific study of human thought and behavior. We will survey the major subareas of psychology,
including biological, cognitive, developmental, social, and clinical. In order to make this course as
comprehensive as possible, we will cover the material at a very brisk pace. Therefore, it is very important
that you attend class, keep up with the reading, and engage with the material by actively participating in
class or stopping by office hours.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1) Identify the major subareas of psychological research and understand how each subarea contributes
to our overall understanding of the mind, brain, and behavior;
2) Understand the research methods used by psychological scientists to design and conduct studies;
3) Evaluate research claims critically, whether they come from scientists or from the popular media;
4) Discover areas of psychology that you would like to learn more about through additional reading or
coursework.
TEXTBOOK
Myers, D.G. (2015). Psychology: Eleventh Edition in Modules. New York: Worth Publishers.
This textbook is required and may be purchased at the UCLA bookstore or online. Hardcover, loose leaf,
and ebook formats are acceptable, but use earlier editions at your own risk. A copy will be available on 2hour reserve at Powell Library; the reserve copy is under the name Darvick.
For all lectures, there is required reading from the text. Please keep up with the reading, as you will be
responsible for all of the material in the assigned modules even if it is never discussed during lecture. The
reading should be completed BEFORE the corresponding lecture.
SPECIAL NEEDS
Please inform me at the beginning of the quarter regarding any disability or special needs that require
specific arrangements. Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability
should contact the instructor privately as soon as possible. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities

at (310) 825-1501 in A255 Murphy Hall, to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with
documented disabilities. Service guideline information is available at the OSD web site:
http://www.osd.ucla.edu.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
All academic dishonesty will be handled according to UCLA guidelines. Cheating and plagiarism will
result in a zero on the exam or assignment, and will be reported to the Dean of Students.
OFFICE HOURS & APPOINTMENTS:
I encourage you to come see me during office hours or to schedule an appointment if you are having
difficulty with the course material, want clarifications on any points made in lecture or the textbook, or just
want to talk about the class or school in general. Of course, for brief questions that do not require seeing me
in person, you may contact me through email. I will do my best to answer emails promptly, but please
allow a 72-hour response time. Please put Psych 10 in the subject line of your email so that I can keep
track of class emails. If I do not reply in time, please send the email again.
GRADED MATERIALS
Grades will be based on your performance on all course requirements. Grades will be assigned according to
the following grading system:
A+ = 100 97%
A = 9693%
A- = 9290%
B+ = 8987%
B = 8683%
B- = 8280%
C+ = 7977%
C = 7673%
C- = 7270%
D+ = 6967%
D = 6663%
D- = 6260%
F = < 59%
Please note that grades on the border (e.g. 89.5%) will be rounded to the nearest whole number: .50 and
above rounds up, .49 and below rounds down.

Assignment
Exams
Online Weekly Responses
Online Weekly Quizzes
Total

Points
200
27
27
254

Exams (78%)There will be two non-cumulative exams. You also have the option of taking a cumulative
final exam that may replace the score of Exam 1 or 2. If you choose to take the cumulative final exam,
which will take place on Thursday, March 17. I will count your scores from the two exams on which you
scored the highest. Each exam is worth 100 points; thus the total possible points for both exams are 200. All
exams will consist of 50 multiple-choice questions, covering material from lecture and readings. No make
up exams will be given for any reason.
Online Weekly Responses (11%) Each week you will be required to answer a writing prompt
administered through CCLE. The responses are due by 11:59pm on Friday. The prompt will be available by
11:59pm the Friday before it is due. Each prompt is worth 3 points. If you do not turn in your response by
the deadline, you will receive a 0. No late responses will be accepted for any reason. All responses can be
no more than 250 words total. There is no exception to this limit; we will stop reading after 250 words.
Online Weekly Quizzes (11%) Each week you will be required to take an online quiz through CCLE. The
quiz is due by 11:59pm on Monday. The quiz will be available by 11:59pm the Thursday before it is due.

The quiz will cover the readings and lectures that were presented the week before. That is, the quiz on
Monday, January 11th will cover reading modules 1, 2& 3. Each quiz will include 6 questions, which are
each worth one half of a point to your overall grade. No late quizzes will be accepted for any reason.
Research Participation (Pass/No Pass): As a requirement for Psych 10, all students must either participate
in six hours of research experiments, or write three abstracts on articles from psychology journals. Please
see course website for details. Failure to complete one of these requirements will result in an automatic
failure of the course.
LECTURE SCHEDULE
Week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Date
Tuesday 1/5
Thursday 1/7
Tuesday 1/12
Thursday 1/14
Tuesday 1/19
Thursday 1/21
Tuesday 1/26
Thursday 1/28
Tuesday 2/2
Thursday 2/4
Tuesday 2/9
Thursday 2/11
Tuesday 2/16
Thursday 2/18
Tuesday 2/23
Thursday 2/25
Tuesday 3/1
Thursday 3/3
Tuesday 3/8
Thursday 3/10

Topic
Introduction
Research Methods & History
Neuroscience
Sensation & Perception
Learning: Classical & Operant Conditioning
Memory
Reasoning: Thinking & Problem Solving and
Intelligence
Language
Behavior Genetics and Evolutionary Psychology
Environmental Influences
Exam 1
Developmental Psychology: Infancy &
Childhood
Developmental Psychology: Adolescence &
Adulthood
Motivation
Emotion
Social Psychology
Clinical Psychology: Introduction and ADHD
Clinical Psychology: Schizophrenia & Therapy
Exam 2
Review for Final with TAs

Reading Modules
1, 2, 3
5,6,7
18,19,20
21,22
24, 25, 26
27, 29
28
11, 12
13
14,15
16,17
33,34,36
37,38,39
42, 43
49
52,54

Cumulative Final: Thursday, March 17, 2016, 3:00pm-6:00pm

Final Examination Code: 15
*Note: the lectures will be audio podcasted.

ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE
Week

Date

Assignment

Monday 1/4
Friday 1/8
Monday 1/11
Friday 1/15
Monday 1/18
Friday 1/22
Monday 1/25

No quiz
Response #1
Quiz # 1
Response #2
Quiz #2
Response #3
Quiz #3

2
3
4

Corresponding
Reading Modules
1, 2, 3
5,6,7,18,19,20
21,22,24, 25, 26

5
6
7
8
9
10

Friday 1/29
Monday 2/1
Friday 2/5
Monday 2/8
Friday 2/12
Monday 2/15
Friday 2/19
Monday 2/22
Friday 2/26
Monday 2/29
Friday 3/4
Monday 3/7
Friday 3/11

Response #4
Quiz #4
Response #5
Quiz #5
Response #6
Quiz #6
Response #7
Quiz #7
Response #8
Quiz #8
Response #9
Quiz #9
No Response

27, 29,28
11, 12,13
14,15
16,17,33,34,36
37,38,39, 42, 43
49, 50, 51,52,54

Please note: This syllabus is subject to change. If the syllabus is updated for any reason, the class will be
notified by email and the updated syllabus will be posted to the course website.

PSYCHOLOGY 10 RESEARCH REQUIREMENT INFORMATION

Students enrolled in Psych 10 are required to serve as psychological research subjects for a total
of six hours or write three abstracts on articles from psychology journals. The online experiment
scheduling system available at http://ucla.sona-systems.com/ provides an easy method for you to
sign up for research studies needed to fulfill your Psych 10 research requirement. Your interaction
with the Psychology Department Subject Pool system will be minimal and hopefully as painless
as possible. After you log in to the system, you can view a list of available studies and any
restrictions, sign up for studies that interest you, and track your progress throughout the term.
You must be registered with the Psychology Department Subject Pool system BEFORE you
participate in any experiments. Participating in an experiment before you are registered may
result in you NOT receiving credit.
REQUESTING AN ACCOUNT
You will see a link on the front page of the site at http://ucla.sona-systems.com/ to request an
account. Click the link, and you will be required to provide some very basic information. Please
use your nine digit university identification (UID) number as your username. It is imperative
that you follow this because the UID is used by experimenters to give you credit. Shortly after,
you will receive an email notification with your password. The email notification will include
login instructions for the system. You will be assigned a password, which you can change after
your first login.
LOGGING IN
Once you have your login information, go to the front page of the site and enter your user ID and
password to login. Your login (also known as a session) will expire after a certain period of
inactivity, usually 20 minutes. This is done for security purposes. If this happens, you can always
log in again.
PRETESTING
The purpose of pretesting is to determine whether you are eligible for studies conducted by
researchers in the psychology department, who request that their participants meet a certain set of
criteria. For example, researchers may be looking for participants who are currently involved in
romantic relationships. If you choose to complete the pretesting survey, researchers may use your
responses to determine eligibility for a study, and they may contact you via phone or e-mail if
eligible. Participating in the pretesting survey is entirely voluntary, and there are no penalties if
you choose not to participate. If you choose to participate in the pretesting survey, you will
receive one credit toward your six credit research requirement. This quarter, the pretesting survey
will be available online. After logging in to SONA, you will be asked if you want to participate in
a prescreening survey that is only available to Psych 10 students. The survey will take
approximately one hour to complete, and you must complete the survey in one sitting. You may
be asked to respond to questions that are personal in nature; therefore it is best if you can
complete the survey in privacy, and an environment that is not distracting. The pretesting survey
will only be available until 11:59pm on January 10 (Sunday of Week 1 of the quarter).
VIEWING AND SIGNING UP FOR STUDIES
To view a list of studies, click on Studies from top toolbar. You will see a list of studies. A brief
description of each study will be listed, as well as any special requirements that may restrict your
eligibility to participate in the study. Studies that have available participation times will have
TIMESLOTS AVAILABLE listed next to the name of the study. If no studies have available

timeslots, you may want to logon to the system a few days later to see if new timeslots have been
added.
To sign up to participate in a study, find the study you would like to participate in. Click on the
study name for more information. Once you have determined you meet all the requirements, click
on View Timeslots for This Study. You will need to select courses you belong to in order to see a
list of available timeslots. Choose a timeslot that is convenient for you, and click Sign Up. After
you click Sign Up, you will see information displayed confirming the time and location of the
study you plan to participate in.
Experimenters for whose experiments you qualify based on your survey answers may wish to
contact you directly. If you receive a call from an experimenter, and agree to participate in their
experiment, make sure that either 1) you are given an authorization number to sign up for the
experiment yourself, or 2) the experimenter signs you up for the experiment before it is run. Note
that you must be registered with the Online Experiment Scheduling System before you can serve
as a subject in any study!
ALLOCATING CREDITS TO PSYCH 10
Make sure you allocate your credits to the correct Psych 10 section when signing up for each
experiment, so that the Credit Balance Report at the end of the quarter will reflect all your credits.
If you are participating in experiments for more than one course and did not select all your
courses when first logging in, please go to http://ucla.sona-systems.com/ and select My Profile on
the top toolbar. Once in the profile section, select the 'change courses' link and hold the Ctrl or
Apple key to click for multiple courses.
PARTICIPATION DEADLINE
The last day to participate and receive credit for any experiment is March 10 (Thursday of
Week 10).
WRITING JOURNAL ABSTRACTS
Another way that you may fulfill the research requirement for Psych 10 is by summarizing
reports of psychological research. Completion of each abstract will give you two hours of
research credit. Thus, three abstracts will fulfill the six hour research requirement. You may
combine written abstracts with experiment participation. For example, you may choose to write
one abstract (for two hours credit) and take part in four hours worth of experiments. At the end of
the quarter, turn in your abstracts to your instructor in order to receive credit.
Procedure for writing abstracts:
1. Go to the College Library or the Biomedical Library to find Psychology Research (ask a
Research Librarian for assistance). You may also find research articles online in APA Psychology
journals: http://www.apa.org/journals/
2. Find and read an article that interests you.
3. Write a one-page summary of the article. In your abstract, be sure to mention the central issue
of the article, the research procedures used, and the results of the study you summarize. Be sure
to provide a complete reference for the article, including the author, title, name of journal,
publication date, and page number at the top of the abstract as in the following example: Smith,
B.J., & Jones, R.T. (1993). Mental illness and social support. Psychological Science, 207- 219.
Please direct all questions regarding the online scheduling system to
Giselle Abalos, System Administrator, or subjectpool@psych.ucla.edu.