Psychology

Course Code:	GEN201
Course Title:	Psychology
Credit Hours:	3
Contact Hours/Week:	3
Prerequisites:	ENG100

General Education Department Other Courses

Course Description

This course is capstone course that attempts to addresses the major theories, principles, and methodologies of psychology with special emphasis on their relations to human behavior. The biological foundations of behavior, sensory processes, learning, perception, memory, emotion, motivation, personality, and the social basis of behavior are examined.

Learning Outcomes

CLO1. Define psychological terms, concepts and fields of study and compare and contrast the different theoretical perspectives used to orient psychological research.
CLO2. Identify and debate the biological foundations of behavior, and describe the different types of development a person experiences throughout their life.
CLO3. Evaluate the effect of sensation and perception on people’s behavior.
CLO4. Recognize the processes involved in learning and conditioning.
CLO5. Analyze the relationship between the brain and memory and its effect on learning.
CL06. Illustrate basic principles, principal theories and research related to learning and cognition.
CL07. Distinguish between emotion, motivation, and personality.
CL08. Explain the impact of stress and lifestyle on personal health and performance, and challenge symptomatology, potential pathology and proposed treatment.
CL09. Apply theories about human behavior in a social context to important issues in society and the world in general.

Weightage %

Weight of Various Assessment Elements & Alignment of Course Learning Outcomes to Program Learning Outcomes:

Task	Weight in %	CLO1	CLO2	CLO3	CLO4	CLO5	CLO6	CLO7	CLO8	CLO 9
Task	Weight in %	PLO4	PLO4	PLO4	PLO4	PLO4	PLO4/9	PLO4	PLO4	PLO4/9
Group work	20%	√	√
Midterm Exam	30%			√	√
Quiz	10%					√
Final Exam	40%						√	√	√	√
Total	100%

Weekly Schedule

(Lectures, Labs, Presentations, Exams, and Out-of-class Assignments):

Week#	Topics	CLO(s)	Activities
1	Unit 1: Introduction to Psychology – Historical foundations of psychology. – Key issues in psychology. – Differing perspectives on behavior. – Scientific approach to studying psychology. – Research and empirical evidence. – Thinking critically and creatively. – Psychological experiments. – Non-experimental research methods.	1	Case study, class debate
2	Unit 2: Brain and Behavior – Neurological basis of behavior. – Neurons, hormones, and the brain. – Mapping the brain. – Emotions, cognition, and behavior. – Issues in brain research.	2	Case study, class debate
3	Unit 3: Human Development – Theories of personality. – Nature vs. nurture. – Heredity, environment, and parental influence.	2	Case study, class debate
4	Unit 3(Cont.): Development from birth to adulthood. – Language development. – Cognitive development. – Moral development. – Gender development. – Social development.	1,2	Group Work
5	Unit 4: Consciousness and Perception – The five senses and the brain. – Subliminal stimulation. – Perception and attention. – Perceptual interpretation. – States of consciousness. – The conscious and unconscious mind.	3	Case study, class debate
6	Unit 5: Conditioning and Learning – Principles of classical conditioning. – Classical conditioning in humans. – Operant reinforcement vs. classical conditioning. – Cognitive learning – beyond conditioning. – Learning and the brain.	4	Case study, class debate
7	– Midterm Exam Revision	3,4	Midterm Exam
8	Unit 6: Memory – Biological memory – encoding, storage, retrieval. – Stages of memory. – Short-term vs. long-term memory.	5	Case study, class debate
8	– Measuring memory. – Improving memory. – Memory and the power of suggestion.	5	Quiz
9	Unit 7: Cognition, Creativity, Intelligence – What is thinking? – Rational reasoning. – Problem solving. – Creative thinking.	6	Case study, class debate
10	– Intuitive thought. – Barriers to thinking. – Variations in intelligence. – Questioning intelligence.	6	Case study, class debate
11	Unit 8: Motivation, Emotion & Personality – Biological roots of motivation. – Learned motives. – Complimentary and conflicting motives. – Theories of emotion. – Physiology and emotion. – Modern study of personality. – Genes and personality. – Environmental influences on personality. – Cultural influence on personality. – Personality development. – Psychoanalytic, humanist & behaviorist theories.	7	Case study, class debate
12	Unit 9: Stress and Coping – Emergence of health psychology studies. – Frustration, conflict and psychological defenses. – Psychology of stress. – Physiology of stress. – Effects of stress on health and immune system.	8	Case study, class debate
13	Unit 10: Psychological Disorders & Therapies – Defining and diagnosing disorder. o Psychotic disorders. o Delusional disorders. o Anxiety disorders. o Mood disorders. o Personality disorders. – Biological treatment for disorders. – Psychoanalytic, Behaviorist, humanist treatments. -Value of psychotherapy.	8	Case study, class debate
14	Unit 11: Social Influence & Social Behavior –Roles and rules in society. – Conformity, obedience and group behavior. – Group identity, group conflict and prejudice. -Influence of social factors on individual. -Question of human nature.	9	Case study, class debate
15	Final Exam Revision
16	Final Exam	6,7,8,9

Out-of-class Project

None

Teaching Methods

lecture, case study, class debate, self-paced learning using teaching material available through Moodle.

Educational Resources

Educational Resource	Description
General Psychology	S.K .Mangale : Sterling Publishers, 2020. ISBN : 9386245760.
Understanding Psychology	Robert Feldman (19 Nov. 2018)., 14th Edition, McGraw-Hill Education; ISBN-10: 1260288005 ISBN-13: 978-1260288001.
Other Resources

Educational Resource

Description

General Psychology

S.K .Mangale : Sterling Publishers, 2020.

ISBN : 9386245760.

Understanding Psychology

Robert Feldman (19 Nov. 2018)., 14th Edition, McGraw-Hill Education; ISBN-10: 1260288005 ISBN-13: 978-1260288001.

Other Resources

Course Policies

Class Attendance:
Students are expected to attend all classes of this course (without exception). Prior approval is required for the class absence except for emergencies. However, any student with 30% short attendance will be forced to withdraw from the course, and the student will receive EW in his/her transcript for this course.

Tardy:
Do not come late to class. Any student coming late will not be allowed to attend the class, and he/she will be marked absent.

Exams:
Failure to attend a course exam will result in zero marks unless the student provides an excuse acceptable to the Dean, who approves a re-sit exam. Failed courses will normally be reassessed in the scheduled semester. It is your responsibility to attend the exam at the correct time and place. Your results will be printed in a transcript, which includes all your assessments. You should check the accuracy of your transcript. If there is an error in your transcript, you have to notify the instructor.

Assignments & Projects:
Assignments and projects should be handed over to the instructor on the due date. A zero mark will follow the late submission of an assignment unless the student has an acceptable reason approved by the instructor.

Exam Attendance/Punctuality:

In the event that a student is up to ten minutes late, he/she will be permitted to attend/sit the exam. However, there will not be any extra time allowances made in favor of this student.
In the event that a student is more than 10 minutes late, he/she will not be permitted to attend/sit the exam.

Re-sit Exams:
The student will not be allowed to re-sit an exam unless he/she furnishes the institute with written evidence as follows:

Sickness by providing a medical report stamped by the Ministry of Health.
Death of a member of his/her family.
Accidents (e.g., car accidents).
Natural causes such as heavy storms.

Cheating:
Definition of cheating: Cheating is an attempt to gain marks dishonestly and includes:

Copying from another student’s work.
Using materials not authorized by the institute.
Collaborating with another student during a test without permission.
Knowingly using, buying, selling, or stealing the contents of a test.
Plagiarism means presenting another person’s work or ideas as one’s own without attribution.

Penalty of Cheating:
The minimum penalty for cheating is an automatic Zero for the test or assignment leading to a possible “F” for the subject. The student will be expelled from the examination room so that he/she doesn’t disturb other students. The exam invigilator will produce a report on the case. The report will be kept in the student file. A second offense will result in the immediate suspension of the student for the remainder of the current semester. A copy of the decision will be kept in the student file, while another one will be passed to the Dean.

Turnitin:
In addition to the hard copy, students may be required to submit written assignments/reports in soft copy through the Turnitin system available online at the Learning Management System (Moodle) to check the “Similarity Index.” The penalties for minor and major violations are indicated below.

Offence	Penalty
Minor offence (First time)	The student will receive a written academic warning, and the case will be recorded in the academic violations tracking system.
Minor offence (Repeated)	The student will receive zero and the case will be recorded in the academic violations tracking system.
Major offence (First time)	The student will receive an F grade in the course and a written academic warning, and the case will be recorded in the academic violations tracking system.
Major offence (Repeated)	The student will receive an F grade in the course and will be suspended for one semester, and the case will be recorded in the academic violations tracking system.

All types of electronic communication aids and devices are not allowed in classes.

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