PSY 100-GENERAL PSYHCOLOGY

METU 2018-2019 FALL (Section) - Course Syllabus

Instructor: Emine Tuna Ulaşan Özgüle, PhD. Contact: eozgule@metu.edu.tr

Class hours & Classroom: Tuesday – 8:40-11:30 & HZ-1

Course Assistant: Gizem Fındık Contact: fgizem@metu.edu.tr

Required reading materials:

Morris, C. G. & Maisto, A. A (2014). Understanding Psychology (10th edition). NJ: Pearson.

Course Description:
The goal of this course is to provide basic introduction to the field of psychology to undergraduate
students from various departments. A particular emphasis will be placed on understanding psychology as a
science, including evaluating the quality of research and the basis for theoretical claims. The course will
also will develop critical thinking skills.

The Format of the Course:

Class meets once a week for three hours. The course is basically composed of lecture, discussions, and
audio-visual material. Material presented in class is intended to complement, elaborate, and clarify the
information in the text. Students should be prepared to participate in discussions, thus should attend the
class by reading the related material. If you need any clarification, you are welcome to ask questions.

Attendance: Attendance will be taken on all participation days but it is not obligatory. I expect you to
attend more than 80% of the courses. Please do not complain that the class starts too early to attend. There
are no excuses not to attend. Even if you bring in medical reports or special permissions, these do not
exempt students from attendance requirements.
Asking other students to sign the attendance sheet on one’s behalf is a breach of academic honesty and will
be penalized accordingly.
At the end of each lecture (usually the last hour), there will be an in-class exercise/assignment, which groups of
two to three students will provide the answers after an in-class discussion. It means that there will be a small
group work at the end of the class. Thus, you should meet with your in-class mates and compose groups at the
beginning of the term (I will help you with that during the second week). You may use your text books or the
internet as your sources when providing answers. For each assignment you will get 0.5 points, with a total of 8
assignments out of 11 assignments. Thus, you may miss 3 assignments at most if you want to get full points.
The grading will not be rigid if you demonstrate that you tried to answer the questions passionately. I may give
you more than 11 in-class assignments depending on the hour of the exams. If you have after hour exams there
may be a possibility that we use these class hours to finish our subjects and to have extra assignments.

Course Evaluation:
30 (1st Midterm Exam) + 30 (2nd Midterm Exam) + 36 (final Exam) = 100 (Maximum possible points)
• Exams will include multiple-choice questions.
• The students who miss one of the midterms or the final exams should document officially that they
had an acceptable excuse.
• Only then they can take the make-up exam and make-up exams will be given once, at the end of the
term all at once.
• The make-up will include all the topics and it will be essay / short answer type questions (i.e., not
multiple choice).
• There is no opportunity for extra credit work.
• The participation for the SONA research for bonus points (6 bonus points) will be announced.
Grades:
The following grading scheme is used to assign the final grade for the course.

AA 90-100 CB 75-79 DD 60-64

BA 85-89 CC 70-74 FD 50-59
BB 80-84 DC 65-69 FF 0-49
Tentative Course Outline:
Please note that this schedule is only tentative, therefore subject to change.

Week 1 Oct 1-5 Overview of the syllabus + Chapter2

Week 2 Oct 8-12 Chapter 2: The Science of Psychology
Week 3 Oct 15-19 Chapter 3: The Biological Bases of Behavior

Week 4 Oct 22-26 Chapter 5: States of Consciousness

Week 5 Oct 29-Nov 2 Chapter 7: Memory

Week 6 Nov 5-9 MIDTERM EXAM – place and time to be announced

Week 7 Nov 12-16 Chapter 6: Learning
Week 8 Nov 19-23 Chapter 6: Learning,
Week 9 Nov 26-30 Chapter 10: Life-Span Development
Week 10 Dec 3-7 Chapter 9: Motivation and Emotion
Week 11 Dec 10-14 MIDTERM EXAM 2 - place and time to be announced
Week 12 Dec 17-21 Chapter 11: Personality
Week 13 Dec 24-28 Chapter 15: Social Psychology
Week 14 Dec 31-Jan 4 Chapter 13: Psychological Disorders