PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

Class location: BHC 131

Times: Thursdays, 6pm-8:50pm
Course Credits: 3
Instructor: Dr. Corey Bohil
Office Hours: Mondays 1pm-3pm, or by appointment
E-mail: corey.bohil@ucf.edu
Office Address: 321 Psychology Building
Office Phone: 407-823-2755

Tentative Schedule

This schedule is subject to change!!

DATE
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8

Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16

27-Aug
3-Sep
10-Sep
17-Sep
24-Sep
1-Oct
8-Oct
15-Oct

Oct 15
22-Oct
29-Oct
5-Nov
12-Nov
19-Nov
26-Nov
3-Dec
10-Dec

Updated August 24, 2015

TOPIC
Course Intro; Scientific
Psychology
Football (no class)
Brain & Behavior
Human Development
Test 1 ; Sensation & Perception
States Of Consciousness
Conditioning & Learning
Test 2; Memory
Midway point for research
credit! Must earn 5 points by
now! See details below.
Intelligence & Cognition
Motivation & Emotion
Test 3; Personality
Psychological Disorders
Football (no class)
Thanksgiving (no class)
Therapies
Finals Week (non-cumulative
test 4) @ 7pm

READING
(finish by
lecture)

Ch. 1 & 2
Ch. 3
Ch. 4
Ch. 5
Ch. 6
Ch. 7

Ch. 8
Ch. 9
Ch. 10, 12
Ch. 13

ASSIGNMENT/
EVENT
Academic Activity
Quiz (webcourses)
Blog post 1 due
Test 1 (ch 1,2,3)
Blog post 2 due
Test 2 (ch 4,5,6)

Blog post 3 due

Test 3 (ch 7,8,9)

Blog post 4 due

Test 4 (ch 10,12,13 )

PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

Communication IMPORTANT!

Check your course mail every day

Grading Policy
Grades will be based on points earned for tests, writing assignments, research participation,
and attendance/participation.
50% : Tests
o Based on best 3 of 4 test scores (drop lowest test score)
30%: Writing assignments (4 blog posts)
10%: Attendance & participation
10%: Research participation (see below!)
Writing assignments are due by the START of class on the due date. Late assignments will be
accepted 1 week after the due date for up to 50% of original points. Assignments will not be
accepted more than 1 week past deadline.
Academic Activity Assignment
As of Fall 2014, all faculty members are required to document students' academic activity at the
beginning of each course. In order to document that you began this course, please complete the
following academic activity by the end of the first week of classes, or as soon as possible after adding
the course. Failure to do so will result in a delay in the disbursement of your financial aid.

Complete the Academic Activity Quiz on Webcourses

Required Text
Psychology: A Journey (4th or 5th edition), by Coon & Mitterer

or

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PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

Course Prerequisites
Permission of Honors

Course Description
This course provides an introductory overview of the diverse range of topics in scientific
psychology. Students will learn to think about psychology in a scientific way, and will learn
about brain and body anatomy/physiology involved in psychological experience (memory,
learning, perception, attention). We will also cover topics like normal and abnormal
development, the psychology of social relationships, and therapeutic approaches to treating
psychological problems. We will also spend some time looking at applications of psychological
research to engineering better tools, workplaces and living environments. The course should
dispel some common misconceptions about psychology, and should help students form the
beginnings of a better understanding of their own thoughts and behavior as well as those
around them. They should leave this class with a clearer picture of psychology as a scientific
field, and how to follow their interests to the different areas of psychology if they choose to do
so.

Course Objectives

Learn how the science of psychology progresses; how to think like a scientist. This is an
important theme that connects all the areas of psychology and is an important skill
students should take from this class
Students should learn more about our current understanding of how our brains work to
create daily experience, how we learn, etc.
Students should leave this class with a good understanding of the variety of application
areas for psychology, including treatment of psychological problems, creation of more
effective learning systems, and safer and better working environments.
Students should leave this class with enough knowledge to decide if psychology is a field
they might like to pursue as a career, what options exist, and some information
regarding how to proceed in these goals.

Attendance Policy

Attendance is mandatory and will be taken during each class meeting. Attendance and
participation will be factored into your final grade. Medical absences require a doctors note.

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PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

Exam Policy
There will be 4 tests, but only your best 3 test scores will be counted (i.e., the lowest score of 4
test scores will be dropped). This is designed to reduce some of the pressure of taking tests,
and also allows for unexpected events that interfere with your ability to prepare for or take a
test. As a result of this flexibility in the test schedule, no makeup tests will be given. The only
exception will be in the event of a documented medical or family emergency.

Academic Integrity
Dont cheat. Its just not worth it.
Plagiarism and Cheating of any kind on an examination, quiz, or assignment will result at least in an "F"
for that assignment (and may, depending on the severity of the case, lead to an "F" for the entire
course) and may be subject to appropriate referral to the Office of Student Conduct for further action.
See the UCF Golden Rule for further information. I will assume for this course that you will adhere to the
academic creed of this University and will maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. In other
words, don't cheat by giving answers to others or taking them from anyone else. I will also adhere to the
highest standards of academic integrity, so please do not ask me to change (or expect me to change)
your grade illegitimately or to bend or break rules for one person that will not apply to everyone.
Many incidents of plagiarism result from students lack of understanding about what constitutes
plagiarism. However, you are expected to familiarize yourself with UCFs policy on plagiarism. All work
you submit must be your own scholarly and creative efforts. UCFs Golden Rule defines plagiarism as
follows: whereby anothers work is used or appropriated without any indication of the source,
thereby attempting to convey the impression that such work is the students own.

Disability Policy

The University of Central Florida is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all persons
with disabilities. This syllabus is available in alternate formats upon request. Students with disabilities
who need accommodations in this course must contact the professor at the beginning of the semester
to discuss needed accommodations. No accommodations will be provided until the student has met
with the professor to request accommodations. Students who need accommodations must be
registered with Student Disability Services, Ferrell Commons Room 132, phone (407) 823-2371, TTY/TDD
only phone (407) 823-2116, before requesting accommodations from the professor.
The instructional media and materials for this class are accessible to students with disabilities. Students
who are having difficulty accessing them should contact the faculty member.

Keep reading more below

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PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

How to Get Immersive Research Experience Points for General Psychology
Courses
Fall 2015 (Updated 8/17/2015)
Ten percent of your final PSY2012 grade will be derived from immersive research experiences.
You can earn these 10 percentage points by (1) serving as a research participant in studies
conducted by the Psychology Departments faculty and students, or (2) writing summaries of
relevant journal articles. The details regarding these options are described below are below.

You must complete at least 5 of these 10 points by the mid-point of the semester 10/15/15
before midnight). Otherwise, you will lose potential points from your final 10-point
requirement (i.e., you can only earn up to 5 points after 10/15/15).

If you do not complete at least 5 credits by this deadline, you will lose potential points from
your final 10-point requirement. YOU CAN ONLY EARN A MAXIMUM OF 5 POINTS AFTER THE
MID-POINT DEADLINE.

There are two different end-of-the-semester deadlines for the two options. The final deadline
to submit the paper reviews is by the end of the day (11:59 pm) on 11/30/15 (to allow us
sufficient time to grade them). The deadline to participate in research studies is by the end of
the day (11:59 pm) on 12/7/15.

Being a Research Participant (SONA Systems)

You can earn some or all of the 10 required points by serving as a participant in either face-toface or online studies being conducted by faculty and students in the UCF Department of
Psychology. Note: To receive credit for participating in research, you must set up an account
with our online experiment management system SONA Systems at http://ucf.sonasystems.com/. For documentation on how to use SONA Systems as a participant, please see
the link on our main department page:
http://psychology.cos.ucf.edu/SONA_Participant_Instructions.pdf

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PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

Face-to-face studies. Participation in face-to-face studies earns 0.50 points for each half hour.
For example, if a study takes 30 minutes to complete, you earn 0.50 points towards your total
of 10 points. If a study takes 1 hours, you earn 1.50 points. Points are rounded up to the
closest 0.50. For example, if the study takes 20 minutes you get 0.50 points; if the study takes
40 minutes, you get 1.00 point.
Online studies. Participation in online studies earns 0.25 points for each half hour. If a study
takes 30 minutes to complete, you earn 0.25 points towards your total of 10 points. If a study
takes 1 hours, you earn 0.75 points. Points are rounded up to the closest 0.25. For example, if
the study takes 20 minutes, you get 0.25 points; if the study takes 40 minutes, you get 0.50
points.
Ratio of online to face-to-face studies. Please note that the system will not allow you to apply
more than 35% of your total SONA credits to any particular class using online studies (rounded
to the nearest 0.25 point). The other 65% must come from face-to-face studies. This rule only
applies to classes on the main campus. It does not apply to online or regional campus classes.
No-show/being late for appointment consequence. Nonparticipation or withdrawal from a
study at any time will not incur any penalty points in SONA Systems. However, if you do not
appear for a face-to-face experiment appointment (or are more than 5 minutes late) more
than one time in a given semester, you will be locked out of participating in studies in the
system (including online studies) for the remainder of that semester and must complete any
remaining credits through the research article reviews. It is acceptable to cancel an
appointment in SONA Systems if you do it more than 24 hours in advance. If you try to cancel
less than 24 hours in advance of the appointment time or do not appear without notifying the
researcher, the above rule will take effect. You are allowed to break this rule once during a
given semester without consequence. If you do get locked out during a given semester, you will
be allowed to use SONA for participating in studies again the following semester.
Also, keep in mind that researchers have 48 hours (including weekends) to assign your
points after your participation, so please do not e-mail the researchers or SONA staff
about why your points are not appearing until the 48 hours have passed. This includes if
you participant on the day of the deadline (or the day before). We will wait at least 48
hours after the deadline before polling the points for your instructor to allow for this.

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PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

Writing Summaries of Scientific Journal Articles (Article Summary Papers)
To earn the points for this experience, you may write up to ten Article Summary Papers. Each
paper will be worth up to one of your ten points, depending on how carefully you follow the
instructions below. Each paper needs to be no more and no less than two single-spaced pages.
You must also use 12-point Times New Roman font and one inch margins on all four sides.
Please make sure that your word processor does not add extra spacing between paragraphs.
You will need to save your file as either Microsoft Word format or rich text format (.rtf). Most
word processors will allow you to save as .rtf format if you do not have access to Microsoft
Word. Do not include any header information or a title on the two summary pages. You need
to preface these two pages with a separate title page that must include your name, your SONA
Systems Identity Code (see SONA Systems section below), date, class name (including section
#), instructor name, and the full APA-style reference for the journal article that you chose.
Note: You must include your SONA Systems Identity Code on the title page or we will not be
able to award you credit toward the class. In addition, you will not receive any credit if it is not
immediately clear from citation on the title page that you picked a journal from the approved
list below. For directions on how to format this citation in APA style, see:
http://library.ucf.edu/rosen/guide_apa.php#journal

You can create an account in SONA Systems in order to obtain the required SONA Systems
Identity Code even if you do not intend to participate in any research studies. The title page
does not count toward the two single-spaced page limit for the summary. The summary should
not include your opinion (just objectively summarize it) and should not include any quotations.
Please put everything in your own words and do not summarize the abstract section of the
article. It needs to summarize a recent research journal article (published in last five years) from
one of the American Psychological Association (APA) journals listed in the table below. Please
note that you will receive a zero of your summary is on a paper that is not from one of the
journals listed below and/or it is not clear from your title page whether you used one of these
journals. **Your Microsoft Word (or rich text format -.rtf) file MUST be submitted online to
http://turnitin.com. If you upload your file in any format that is not Microsoft Word (.doc or
.docx) or rich text format (.rtf) your paper will receive a zero. Also, you will receive deductions if
you do not follow all of the instructions carefully (see below grading rubric). Youll need to
create a user account in Turnitin.com, and then join the appropriate section, using the following
sign-up information:

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PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

Professor

Vehec

McConnell

Negy

Sherod

Cassisi

Class ID:

10464292

10464363

10464399

10464435

10464486

Fall@2015

Fall@2015

Fall@2015

Password:

Fall@2016

Fall@2015

You may see Eckrich listed as the instructor. This is the correct location to submit your
papers. Please note that turnititn.com will show us whether your paper substantially overlaps
any other source, including sources from the internet and papers from other students so be
very careful not to plagiarize your writing so that you do not lose credit for the paper and/or
receive other more serious potential consequences from your instructor.

The papers may not be graded until finals week, depending on when you submitted the
paper(s). As soon as a paper is graded, you will receive an automated e-mail from SONA
Systems (described below) that will contain the credit that you received for the paper (up to 1
point possible) along with a comment field that notes the reason(s) for any deduction(s). This email will also contain other automated language about the ability to cancel the study and need
to bring your SONA Identity Code to the study you can ignore those parts of the message.
After receiving this e-mail, you will also then continue to see your paper credits within SONA
Systems under the heading of General Psychology Research Papers on the list of studies in
which you have participated.

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PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

List of Approved Journals for Article Summaries (you must select an article from one of
these):

Behavioral Neuroscience
Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science
Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority
Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Dreaming
Emotion
Experimental & Clinical Psychopharmacology
Families, Systems, & Health
Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and
Practice
Health Psychology
International Journal of Play Therapy
International Journal of Stress Management
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Journal of Applied Psychology
Journal of Comparative Psychology
Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology
Journal of Counseling Psychology
Journal of Educational Psychology
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal
Behavior Processes
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception and Performance
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory, and Cognition
Journal of Family Psychology
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Neuropsychology
Prevention & Treatment
Psychoanalytic Psychology
Psychological Assessment
Psychological Bulletin
Psychological Methods
Psychological Review
Psychology and Aging
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
Psychology of Violence
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law
Psychotherapy Theory, Research, Practice, Training
Rehabilitation Psychology

Grading Rubric for the Research Paper Summaries

Please be very careful to follow all of these instructions because you will receive deductions of
0.25 or more points (out of the 1.0 possible point) for each mistake (graded independently for
each paper). Here is the grading rubric we will use on your summary:

Zero points will be awarded if the TurnItIn.com website indicates excessive plagiarism
(>20% not written using your own words to summarize the paper).

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PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

Zero points will be awarded if the journal name is not from the above list or is not clearly
identified on your title page in the APA citation.
Zero points will be awarded if you did not upload your summary as a Microsoft Word
(.doc or .docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf) file.
.25 points will be deducted for not having 1 margins on all four sides of the document.
.25 points will be deducted for not using Times New Roman 12 point font throughout
document.
.25 points will be deducted if you do not have a separate title page with your name, the
instructors name, the class name and section #, your five digit SONA Systems Identity
Code, date, and full APA-formatted citation for the article that you are summarizing.
.25 points will be deducted if you have ANY headers on the two pages of summary.
.25 points will be deducted if the paper is not single-spaced.
.25 will be deducted if there is any extra spacing between paragraphs.
After we correct any formatting problems listed above in your document (and deducting
points for them), you will then be graded on length as follows (remember that the title
page does not count toward length):
o Less than one page you will not receive any credit for paper.
o If about one page (give or take a few lines) - .50 deduction
o If about 1.5 pages (give or take a few lines) - .25 deduction
o If you go over 2 pages by more than half of a page you will not receive any
credit for paper.
.25 points will be deducted if you include a summary of the abstract of the paper.
.25 to all points will be deducted if you use quotations in your paper (depending on
amount).
.25 to all points will be deducted if you include your opinion (rather than objective
summary; depending on amount).
.25 points will be deducted if your article citation on the title page either does not include
the year it was published, or if the year was more than five years prior to the current year.

NOTE: You may earn all your points from writing paper summaries, research participation, or
any combination of these two options. Regardless, 5 of the overall points must be completed by
the mid-semester deadline for your fall session. Please note that you will also need to make
sure that all of your credits in SONA are properly assigned (within SONA) to this class
(with the correct section #) by end of the day at both the midpoint deadline and the end-ofsemester deadline. If you dont do this, you may not receive all of the credits that you
participated in toward this class. ***A common mistake that students make is failing to select the
correct section # and instructor for the class within SONA please be very careful to do this
correctly each time you assign SONA points to your class***.

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PSY 2012H (section 0203): Honors General Psychology

Who to contact if your have problems or questions regarding Immersive Research Experience:

If your problem or question is about issues with the SONA Systems website, first check
the SONA participant documentation to see if you can find the answer, at:
http://psychology.cos.ucf.edu/SONA_Participant_Instructions.pdf

If your problem or question is about participation in a research study or issues with the
SONA Systems website, and you could not find your answer on the above website, please
contact the graduate student, Mr. Samuel Eckrich, at psych-research@ucf.edu. If the
problem is that you did not get credits for a study that you have already participated in,
first contact that individual researcher to resolve the problem before e-mailing Mr.
Eckrich. Remember that it may take up to 48 hours after participation has ended before
you see the credits in the system. You can also contact Mr. Eckrich if you have issues
with papers you submit for this requirement.

If your problem concerns to the grade you received on research paper summaries, please
check the syllabus criteria for specific descriptions of possible point deductions. If your
problem is still unresolved, please contact the Graduate Teaching Assistant in charge of
grading, Keri Dotson, at keri.dotson@knights.ucf.edu. Please keep in mind that given the
large volume of papers, it generally takes 5-7 days after each deadline to grade and post
your scores on SONA.

If you do feel that your problem has not been adequately handled by one of the above
options, please contact the faculty member who administers SONA Systems for the
department Dr. Jeffrey Cassisi at jeffrey.cassisi@ucf.edu. Please use e-mail as the
primary form of communication with Dr. Cassisi.

Please note that there is seldom any need to contact the instructor of your course with
issues regarding the Immersive Research Experience as it is all organized and
administered independent of the course.

Updated August 24, 2015