PSYC200 – Fall 2008
Y PSYC 200 Introduction to Professional Practices Y
Fall 2008
Tuesday 5:30 - 8:00 PM
AC 214
Instructor: Michael J. Walk, M.S.Telephone:
Cell: 240-994-9724 (9 am – 9 pm) / Email:
·
Website:
· http://walkonline.selfip.net / Office Hours:
· Tuesdays 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
· Or by appointment
Required Texts
Code / Text
APA / American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Sz / Szuchman, L. T. (2008). Writing with style: APA style made easy (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Stan / Stanovich, K. E. (2007). How to think straight about psychology (8th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Stern / Sternberg, R. J. (2007). Career paths in psychology: Where your degree can take you (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Course Objectives
By the end of this course, you should be able to
1. conduct library and internet searches of the professional literature on topics in psychology;
2. write formal papers and other course assignments in a style and format consistent with APA requirements;
3. critically evaluate information of a psychological nature presented in the popular and professional media;
4. apply APA ethical principles in critical analyses of case studies in teaching, research, and psychotherapy;
5. name a variety of career opportunities in psychology, and describe the academic preparation for and professional expectations of those careers;
6. identify special needs and issues in the Baltimore community and region that may be addressed by professional psychologists; and,
7. write a personal resume of educational and professional experiences that would facilitate graduate school acceptance or employment
8. effectively collaborate and communicate with peers and collegues regarding scientific and psychological issues.
Tentative Sequencing of Topics/Activities/Assignments
Date / Class Topics / Readings Due / Assignments Due / In-Class Activities9/2/08 / Introductions and Syllabus / -- / -- / --
9/9/08 / Communicating Scientific Knowledge / Sz ch 1, 2
APA Introduction / Conference #1
Essay Assignment #1 / Literature Search Tutorial
9/16/08 / Communicating Scientific Knowledge (Part 2) / Sz ch 7, 8, 9
APA ch 2 / Literature Search Activity
9/26/08 / APA Writing Style / Sz ch 4, 5, 6 / Conference #2 / APA Style Practice Test #1
APA Scavenger Hunt
9/30/08 / APA Writing Style / Sz ch 10 / Essay Assignment #2 / APA Style Practice Test #2
10/7/08 / APA Writing Style / -- / Conference #3 / APA Style Mastery Test
10/14/08 / Science, Psychology, and the Pursuit of Understanding / Stan ch. 1 – 6 / Essay Assignment #3 / --
10/21/08 / Intuitions and Evidence / Stan ch 7 – 9 / Essay Assignment #4 / --
10/28/08 / Probability, Chance, and the Popular Image of Psychology / Stan ch 10 – 12 / Essay Assignment #5 / --
11/4/08 / Professional Ethics / APA section 8.05 / Ethics Small Group
11/11/08 / Career Paths in Psychology – Academia / Stern ch 1 – 5 / Term Paper Topic Due / Guest Speaker
11/18/08 / Career Paths in Psychology – Clinical and Counseling / Stern ch 6 – 10 / Conference #4 / Guest Speaker
11/25/08 / Career Paths in Psychology – Organizations / Stern ch 11 – 15 / Guest Speaker
12/2/08 / Career Paths in Psychology – Other Areas / Stern ch 16 – 19 / Guest Speaker
12/9/08 / Make-up time and writing a resume / CV / Term Paper
12/16/08 / FINAL EXAM
How Your Grade Will Be Determined
1. Term Paper: You will write a term paper discussing a career direction in psychology or psychological services that is of interest to you. Your paper must conform to APA style and structure standards, and must be submitted at the date indicated above unless otherwise instructed. You must submit an acceptable term paper to receive a grade for the course. This paper will be worth up to 50 points. You must have submitted the topic of the term paper to me by 11/11/08.
2. Essay Assignments: You will be given five writing assignments during the term, as scheduled above and on topics that will be provided in those class meetings. Absolutely no late or handwritten assignments will be accepted. Each assignment will be worth up to 10 points, for a total of 50 possible points.
3. APA Style Mastery: You will be given an APA Style Mastery Test. The test will be worth up to 50 points.
4. Literature Search: You will complete an on-line literature search assignment as indicated in the schedule above, details of which will be provided at that time. Completion of this assignment will be worth up to 10 points.
5. Conferences: You will participate in 4 online asynchronous conferences (discussions or forums) through WebTycho. A prompt will be provided one week before the conference is due. The prompt will not be visible until seven days prior to the conference due date. You must write a one- to two-paragraph response to the prompt by 11:59 pm on the Friday before the conference due date. Before the conference is due, you must post comments for at least 2 classmates, and you must respond to comments on your submission. Each conference will be worth 5 points, for a total of 20 possible points.
6. Attendance: Regular class attendance is expected of all students, and attendance will be taken at the beginning of every class meeting. If you arrive late or leave class early, you will not be credited with a full class attendance for that day. All students are solely responsible for turning any assigned work in on time, for completion of readings, and for obtaining on their own the information presented in lectures for all class meetings, attended or not. (Please note that I will not repeat lectures for students who have missed them.) You will earn up to 20 points based on the percentage of scheduled class meetings that you attend.
7. ALL SUBMITTED WRITTEN WORK (except for in-class assignments) MUST BE IN TYPED OR COMPUTER-PRINTED FORM, AND MUST CONFORM TO APA STYLE STANDARDS. NO HAND-WRITTEN WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR ANY REASON. All written work must be turned in at the beginning of class on the due date.
8. Make-ups: Make-ups for any graded in-class activities will be provided ONLY in the case of absence due to serious, compelling, unanticipated reasons beyond your reasonable control, and then ONLY ONCE during the term. If you know in advance that you will not be able to attend class on the day of an activity, you may arrange with me to complete that assignment AT AN EARLIER TIME. This option may be exercised ONLY ONCE during the term.
9. Extra Credit: You can earn up to 5 points of extra credit by participating in research conducted by UB faculty and posted on the Sona-Systems website: http://ubalt.sona-systems.com . One hour of research participation will earn 1 point of extra credit. These points will be added onto your final percentage grade.
10. Freebie: You have the option to by-pass ONE essay assignment at no penalty. If you choose not to use your freebie, you will be allowed to drop your lowest grade essay assignment.
11. Extension: You have the right to one (1) penalty-free 3-day extension on any written assignment (essays and term paper) if and only if you provide a written request (on paper or email) stating the reason for the extension. This request must be received no later than 24 hours prior to the start of the class on the assignment’s due date.
12.. Your final grade for this course will be determined by summing the points you will have earned from all sources according to this table.
Assignment / Possible PointsAttendance / 20
5 Essay Assignments (10 points each) / 50
4 Conferences (5 points each) / 20
Online literature search / 10
APA Mastery Test / 50
Term Paper
Final Exam / 50
50
TOTAL / 250
Percentage Grade / Letter Grade
> 95 / A
90 – 94 / A -
87 – 89 / B+
83 – 86 / B
80 – 82 / B-
77 – 79 / C+
73 – 76 / C
70 – 72 / C-
67 – 69 / D+
63 – 66 / D
60 – 62 / D-
< 60 / F
Classroom Conduct and Academic Honesty Policies
This is a college-level course, taught under the assumption that all members of the class are adults and with the expectation that all members of the class will behave appropriately. Among behaviors that are not appropriate in this class are habitual tardiness; sleeping; conversing with anyone while the instructor is speaking or while another student has been called on to ask a question or express her/his ideas; use of “smokeless” tobacco products; use of a cell phone or pager; note-passing; reading books, magazines, newspapers, etc., that are not related to the course while the class is in session; actions or words of disrespect toward any class member; use of obscene language; any behavior reasonably construed to constitute sexual harassment; and any other action that disrupts the opportunity for all students to learn. These and any other disruptive, rude, or disrespectful behaviors will not be tolerated. You may receive one warning if you engage in such behavior. If you engage in it again, you may be administratively dropped from the course. If you are in doubt as to whether some behavior might be inappropriate, ask me. The general rule, though, is, “If you have to ask, it probably is not appropriate.”
All students also are expected to be honest and to do their own work. This includes quizzes, exams, term papers, homework, extra credit work, presentations, and any other assignment to be completed in or out of this and any other class (unless otherwise directly indicated by the instructor). Academic honesty includes, at the very least, submitting work that is yours, giving appropriate credit whenever someone else’s work is used, and taking tests and completing assignments strictly according to the conditions specified by the instructor. Any evidence to the contrary will result in a failing grade for this course, as well the filing of a report of academic dishonesty with the Academic Integrity Review Board. Cheating will not be tolerated under any circumstance. If you are not sure what the expectations are for any assignment, it is up to you to ask your instructor for clarification. Do not guess!
For term papers, research reports, and other typed/word-processed assignments, you may have someone else proofread your work prior to submission to check spelling, grammar, writing style, punctuation, proper vocabulary, correct (i.e., APA) paper format, etc., and you are encouraged to make use of the services provided by the Langsdale Library and the Academic Resource Center for the preparation of student papers. However, the work of actually researching and writing a paper is YOUR responsibility.
The most frequently occurring problem behavior in this context is plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs when a person submits written work as her/his own, when in fact the work has been done entirely or in part by someone else to whom the person has not given appropriate credit. This includes any written work that copies the language, structure, ideas, or thoughts of another (UB Student Handbook, 2006), work that has been paraphrased, and even the reporting of facts derived from another source and not a part of common knowledge. This includes sources such as magazine or newspaper articles, encyclopedias, dictionaries, pamphlets, brochures, other students’ term papers and reports, articles in professional journals, transcribed interviews, live interviews, books, internet pages, CD-ROMs, etc. This list is not meant to be exhaustive. The fact is, if you do not give appropriate credit to any source of your written words besides your own ideas or common knowledge, you have committed plagiarism.
If you make a statement in a written assignment that is not original and is not general, public knowledge, then you MUST tell the reader the source of the statement. This is done in APA format through in-text, parenthetical citations of sources, and a reference page at the end of the paper. In general, you must give enough information so that the reader can easily look up and verify the source. See the current edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for specific citation formats.
CAUTION! If the nature of an assignment is for you to express your own ideas and interpretations about a topic, and if what you submit are largely or entirely the ideas and interpretations of someone else, even if you provide all the proper citations, you will not have satisfied the requirements of the assignment.
Notice:
If you think there is any reason why you may require reasonable accommodation to be able to meet the expectations of this course as indicated in this syllabus and as described by me, you must inform me immediately after the first class meeting.
Right to Alter: The instructor reservers the right to alter this syllubus (schedule, reading assignments, number and type of written assignments, tests, and conferences, extra credit, etc.) at any point during the semester by providing the class with notice of such change.
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