Syllabus, page 1 of 6

Psychology 100: Introduction to Psychology

Spring 2013
Section F1 1:00-1:50am; Henry 138
Section G12:00-2:50am; Henry 138
This syllabus contains important information regarding the course. You are
responsible for reading and understanding the entire contents of this Syllabus.

Instructor
Mu, Wenting
E-mail: mwttwm@gmail.com
Mailbox: 3
rd
Floor, Psychology Building
Office: Psych 714
Office Hours: TBD

Course description
This course provides a broad overview of psychology, with the goal of introducing the student to the
types of topics and questions that fall within the domain of the field. Research methods in
psychology will be introduced, with the goal of giving students tools to think more critically about
research findings in psychology and beyond. The course will emphasize the relevance of concepts,
theories and findings in psychology to real-life situations.
As your instructor, my goal is to help you:

learn to learn
learn to think critically
develop an appreciation for how awesome psychology is

Note that my job is to help you learn, not to force you to learn. Learning requires time and effort.
I am here to help you, but you need to also take responsibility for your own learning.
Required Materials:
1. Textbook: Lilienfeld, S.O., Lynn, S. J., Namy, L. L., & Woolf, N.J. (2011).
Psychology: From inquiry to understanding, (2
nd
Edition), Pearson
Education Inc.: Boston, MA.
You can choose either a hardback text or an e-text. You can purchase
an access code for the e-text at the U. of I. bookstore or at:
http://wps.pearsoncustom.com/pls_1256696277
**Several copies of the textbook are on reserve at the Undergraduate
Library.
2. I-Clicker: (Either i-Clicker1 or i-Clicker2)
Once you purchase your I-Clicker you must register it at:
http://www.iclicker.illinois.edu/

3. COMPASS 2g access quizzes, your grades, announcements etc. at
https://compass2g.illinois.edu/

Optional Materials for students who want extra review and practice:

Syllabus, page 2 of 6
1. MyPsychLab

OR
MyPsychLab provides a variety of on-line resources to accompany
your textbook. It costs about $45. To purchase and register for
MyPsychLab, go to: http://www.mypsychlab.com/.



2. Study Guide Kujawski Taylor, A. (2011). Study Guide for Psychology: From Inquiry
to Understanding. Pearson Education, Inc. This paperback study guide
provides review questions and activities. Available at U. of I. bookstore.



Syllabus, page 3 of 6
Grading
Midterm (75 items) 75 pts
Final (110 items) 110 pts
Writing Assignments (15 pts each) 45 pts
Online Quizzes (10 pts each) 50 pts
Participation 50 pts
Subject Pool 20 pts
_____
TOTAL POINTS 350

Grade cut-offs are based on the average (mean) total points of the top 10% of students taught by
your instructor this semester. This number will determine grade cut-offs for your section. We
multiply this number by the following numbers to obtain grade cut-offs: A+: 1.0, A: .97, A-: .95, B+:
.92, B: .88, B-: .85, C+: .82, C: .78, C-: .75, D+: .72, D: .68, D-: .65. Please see pp 17-19 of the Course
Guide on our Compass website for more details. NOTE: There are no extra credit or bonus points.

Exams
There will be two exams, a midterm and a final. Exams will consist of multiple-choice questions, each
worth 1 point. The midterm exam will cover chapters 1, 2, 10, 3, 6, and 7. It will be held Monday,
Feb. 25
th
, 7:00 9:00 p.m., Mumford Hall 103. The final exam will cover chapters 8, 9, 4, 5, 11,
13, 14, 15, and 16. The final exam will be held during final exam week, date and location TBA.

Quizzes
There will be 7 quizzes, worth 10 points each. Each will consist of 20 multiple-choice questions.
Quizzes will be completed on-line using the Compass website. The two lowest quiz scores will be
dropped. Since you are allowed to drop the two lowest scores, no make-up quizzes will be offered
and no late quizzes will be accepted. You have two attempts where your highest score will be your
quiz score (of course you can also choose to do it only once).


Writing Assignments
There will be four writing assignments, each worth 15 points. The lowest score will be dropped.
Assignments will be submitted via the Compass website. Assignments should be written in complete
sentences. Grading criteria include completeness, clarity, organization, logic, and thoughtfulness. No
late assignments will be accepted. We do check for plagiarism, and if we find it, you will receive 0 on
your assignment.

Participation
Students can earn up to 50 points by participating in class. Participation points can be earned in 2
ways: (1) i-clickers (38 points) We will use i-clickers during each class, so please register your i-
clicker during the first week and bring it to class every day. For each class after the first week, you
can earn one participation point by responding to at least 75% of the i-clicker polls given that day.
(2) Mini-assignments At least 10 mini-assignments will be offered throughout the semester. Each
one is worth 2 points. Mini-assignments will sometimes be assigned in class, and sometimes as
homework. No late mini-assignments will be accepted. As you may have noticed, there are 58 points
in total but only 50 would count in final grading. I understand you may sometimes forget to bring
your i-clicker, i-clicker is out of power or you may forget to submit a mini-assignment. With this set
up, you have 8 points to lose before your final grading is negatively affected.

Subject Pool
All Psych 100 students are required to complete six (6) hours as participants in Psychology
Department experiments during the semester. This educational opportunity gives you an inside view
of cutting edge psychological research, contributes to findings in the field, and earns you 3 points
toward your grade per hour experiment plus 2 bonus points for completing all 6 hours, for a total of
20 points toward your grade. You should be sure to read the complete policies and procedures on
Subject Pool at: http://www.psychology.illinois.edu/services/subjectpool/. It is important that if
Syllabus, page 4 of 6
you need to cancel an appointment, you notify the researcher and Subject Pool Coordinator. If
you cancel less than 24 hours in advance or miss a study without proper documentation, you will be
marked as a No Show. If you receive two unexcused No Shows, your account will be locked. While
your account is locked, you will be unable to sign up for studies, although you can still take part in
any studies that you have already signed up for and will receive credit for any studies completed thus
far. Your account can be unlocked after you have completed additional online ethics training at
https://www.citiprogram.org/.
If you will not be 18 years old by 2/3/13, you are unable to participate in regular subject pool
studies. You should register for the subject pool, and you will be contacted about an alternative
assignment. You can also find instructions on compass 2g under the folder subject pool.
If you have difficulties with subject pool, please contact the Subject Pool Coordinator, 328 Psychology
Building, 333-6350, e-mail: subjects@psych.illinois.edu.

Policies
1. Make-up exams will only be offered to students who have an approved excuse for missing the
regularly scheduled exam, such as illness, family emergency, or conflicting exams in other courses.
Contact your instructor as soon as possible if you need to take a make-up exam. You will be required
to provide documentation of your excuse. Penalties will be imposed if requests are made later than
one week prior to the regular exam, without good reason.
2. Grade Disputes. If you believe that any material on an exam, assignment or quiz was incorrect,
you can submit the Request to Review an Item form, available on the Compass website (Course Guide
Folder). Your concern will be reviewed by the course director, and if it is judged valid, steps will be
taken to remediate the problem.
3. Academic Integrity. Violations of academic integrity will not be tolerated. Penalties as severe
as expulsion from the University are possible. Please be aware that using another persons i-Clicker
in addition to or instead of your own is a violation of academic integrity.
4. Late Assignments. No late assignment will be accepted. In fact, since 90% of your
assignments/quizzes will be submitted through Compass, you will not be able to submit them after
the deadline.


If you have questions about course policies, or if you are unable to contact your instructor, please
contact the Course Coordinator, Dr. Lisa Travis, lltravis@illinois.edu, 333-8086.

Special needs students -- Please contact me as soon as possible so that I can make appropriate
arrangements.
Honors Learning Agreements Please contact Genevieve Henricks at henrick2@illinois.edu within
2 weeks of the start of the semester. Information about Honors projects is available on Compass.
Syllabus, page 5 of 6
DATE TOPIC READINGS DUE

PSYCHOLOGY AND SCIENTIFIC THINKING, CH. 1

M 1/14 What is psychology? 2-10
W 1/16 Psychology as a
science/Psychologys history
20-37
F 1/18 Research Methods 44-55

RESEARCH METHODS, CH. 2

M 1/21 MLK Day No Class
W 1/23 Research Methods 56-60
F 1/25 Research Methods 60-77

DEVELOPMENT, CH. 10

M 1/28 Intro, prenatal, physical
development
360-371
W 1/30 Cognitive development 371-382 QUIZ 1 (Ch. 1 & 2)
F 2/1 Social development 383-399 ASSIGNMENT 1

BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY, CH. 3

M 2/4 Neurons, neural communication 84 -93
W 2/6 Brain and nervous system 93 -105
F 2/8 Methods of studying the brain;
Behavior Genetics
103 - 117

LEARNING, CH. 6

M 2/11 Classical conditioning 202-210 QUIZ 2 (Ch. 10 & 3)
W 2/13 Operant conditioning 211-222
F 2/15 Cognitive models of learning;
biological influences on learning
223-235

MEMORY, CH. 7

M 2/18 Memory systems 242-254
W 2/20 Processes of Memory 254-263
F 2/22 Amnesia, False Memories 263-279 QUIZ 3 (Ch. 6 & 7)
M 2/25 NO CLASS, MIDTERM EXAM, 7:00 9:00 p.m.
Mumford Hall 103.

LANGUAGE, THINKING AND REASONING, CH. 8

W 2/27 Language 286 - 299 ASSIGNMENT 2
F 3/1 Thinking and Reasoning 305- 311


Syllabus, page 6 of 6


INTELLIGENCE AND IQ TESTING, Chapter 9

M 3/4 What is intelligence? 318 - 326
W 3/6 Intelligence testing 327-336
F 3/8 Genetic and environmental
influences on IQ
337-353

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION, CH 4

M 3/11 Intro, psychophysics, attention 124-135 QUIZ 4 (Ch. 8 & 9)
W 3/13 The Visual System 135-143
F 3/15 Vision contd; audition, other senses 144-159
3/18 3/22 Spring Break

CONSCIOUSNESS, CH. 5

M 3/25 Sleep and Dreams 166-177
W 3/27 Other alterations of consciousness 177-189

EMOTION AND MOTIVATION, CH. 11

F 3/29 Emotion 406 -422
M 4/1 Motivation 422-449

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, CH. 13

W 4/3 Intro, Social Influence, Helping &
Harming
494-500;
513-520
QUIZ 5 (Ch. 4, 5 & 11)
F 4/5 Conformity, Obedience 500-512
M 4/8 Attitudes, Prejudice &
Discrimination
520-533

PERSONALITY, CH. 14

W 4/10 Intro, psychoanalytic theory 540-555 ASSIGNMENT 3
F 4/12 Behavioral, social learning,
humanistic theories
555-560
M 4/15 Trait theories, assessment 561-577

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS , CH. 15

W 4/17 What is mental illness? 584-597 QUIZ 6 (Ch. 13 & 14)
F 4/19 Anxiety disorders 597-602
M 4/22 Mood Disorders 603-610
W 4/24 Schizophrenia and other disorders 610-625

Syllabus, page 7 of 6

TREATMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS, Chapter 16

F 4/26 Psychotherapy 632-642
M 4/29 Behavioral and Biological
Treatments
643-665
W 5/1 REVIEW QUIZ 7 (Ch. 15 & 16)
W 5/3 ASSIGNMENT 4
NOTE: Due dates of quizzes and writing assignments listed above are only rough estimates.
Actual deadlines will be adjusted based on course progress. Please attend to in-class
announcements for actual due dates.
Some important days and deadlines
1/16 REGISTER I-CLICKER
2/11 REGISTER FOR SUBJECT POOL
2/25 MIDTERM!
3/8 LAST DAY TO DROP CLASS
3/18 SPRING BREAK
5/2 LAST DAY FOR SUBJECT POOL