Syllabus

Psychology by Gleitman, Fridlund, and Reisberg, 5th ed, Norton.

About this Course

"Psychology is the study of human behavior and human mental life."That is the first line (or a close approximation of the first line) of most Introductory Psychology texts. That line describes an immense territory that includes single cells in the brain, your memories of childhood, the bad habitsof your roommate, and the nature of dreams...for starters. There are lots of ways to move through this material and I have tried many of them over the years. This year, I decided to try to cover the material in the order suggested by the text. As you will see on the schedule, that worked for the first half of the course.

About the Text

I picked the Gleitman et al. Psychology text because it has been the best written, most intelligent of the texts on the market for many years. The book has many pages. Students who discover this fact the day before the exam are usually unhappy. The text is most useful when read in small quantities over the course of the term. Failure to read the book is likely to have adverse consequences of a fairly obvious kind.

The Lectures

Lectures are scheduled two days a week, each of one and a half hour duration. The lectures and the text are intended to complement one another. In some cases, I will present material that is in the text because I think that it is best understood if heard in two different ways. In other cases, I will present material that is not found in the book. Lectures also serve to connect facts from one part of the course with material in other parts. We don't take attendance in lecture, but lectures by a live person are one of the reasons for attending college. You could read the book at home and spend a lot less time. Reading the book is a oneway street. Lectures, if you are engaged and attentive, are a two way street. I can ask you questions and I will be happy if you raise your hand to add something or ask a question or whatever.
There will be a handout for most lectures. The lecture handouts are not even close to being lecture notes. They generally consist of a rough outline and a few words that I don't want to write on the board. They are not a good substitute for attending lecture. You should also talk to a friend in the class so that you will be able to decipher the handout. WARNING (and this applies beyond my course): Students who miss lectures love to drop by later and ask "Did I miss anything important?" This question, phrased in this manner, tends to provoke sarcastic answers from faculty. ("No, we saw you were not there and realized that we could not discuss anything of substance today.")

The Recitations Sections

Recitations sections will be scheduled after the first meeting of the course. They are NOT optional. You are expected to be there. Your recitation instructor has primary responsibility for grading your work. Moreover, there are things that we can do in small groups that we cannot do in the 200-300 person lecture. Be there.

The Highly Sophisticated Grading Algorithm

Grading will be based on four written assignments, a midterm, a final and some quizzes. Here is the formula that will form the basis for your grade:
50% (Papers) + 15% (Midterm) + 25% (Final) +10% (Other stuff including section participation & quizzes).

The Writing Assignments

There are four writing assignments this year. You have some freedom in scheduling when you do various parts of them but you would be well-advised to spread the work over the term in a fairly even manner. The assignments are described in a separate handout.
Some Notes About Writing

• Length: The desired length of these papers will be given in pages. Yes, a laser printer can do wonderful things putting VERY BIG and very small letters on a page. We define a page to mean about 250-300 words. That's double-spacing of a standard font like 12pt Times.
  
• Citations: Remember, if you use someone's ideas, give them credit by means of a citation (Franklin, 1776). The basic rules are a) You are not likely to get in trouble for having too many citations and b) it should be possible to track down the source of any assertion in your paper. If the source isn't you, let us know who it is. If you use someone's exact words, "put them in quotes" (Lincoln, 1864).
  Use your own words: This is important. The largest class of Bad Papers is the class of cut-and -paste collages. These are papers that are made up of direct quotes or close paraphrases of your sources. Even if the citations and bibliography are flawless, this is not a good way to write. We want your own words. Use direct quotation sparingly. Read, think, and then write.
  
• MIT's academic honesty policy can be found at the following link: http://web.mit.edu/policies/10.0.html
  
• Writing Help: 9.00 has two writing tutors assigned to it to help with your papers. To request an appointment with one of the tutors, send an email at least 48 hours in advance of your desired meeting-time. Tutors can help at any stage of the writing process, but can be most helpful if you provide them with a complete rough draft. Send your draft to the tutor (as an email attachment) at least 48 hours before your scheduled meeting.
  
• Deadlines: Deadlines are real. The value of papers declines monotonically after the deadline. That said, I have been teaching for quite a while and I know that people will miss deadlines. A late paper is almost always worth significantly more than no paper. Moreover, if you know you are going to be late, it is always better to tell me about it in advance. We hate surprises. Your looks betray a sudden alarm at my coming. You need not be afraid, nor treat me with violent abuse. Mine is no violent purpose. I am too old. Speaking of surprises, that last bit was a quotation (without quotation marks...oops). It was inserted to see who actually reads the syllabus. If you found this line, tell me. First person to identify the source "wins".
  

An Oral Presentation

You will be making at least one oral presentation to the class. At the start of recitation, we will pull one or two names from a hat. Those people will be expected to get up at the end of recitation and give a 2 minute presentation on some aspect of the week's reading. It would be a Very Good Idea to come to class having read enough to say something coherent.

The Exams

The course will have a midterm (1 hour) and a final (3 hours) during finals week. Exams are closed-book (and slightly strange). Note: Please don't schedule your flight home until you know the dates of your exams.

Quizzes

There might be a quiz in your recitation section on any given week. It will be based on the reading from the previous week. One of their functions is benignly coercive. We wish to persuade you to do some of the reading more than 24 hrs before the exam.