PSYC200 – Fall 2010

Y PSYC 200 Introduction to Professional Practices Y

Fall 2010

Thursdays 5:30 - 8:00 PM

Instructor: Michael J. Walk, M.S.
Telephone:
Cell: 240-994-9724 (9 am – 9 pm) / Email:
· 
Website:
·  http://www.jwalkonline.org / Office Hours:
·  Thursday 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
·  Online Wednesday 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm
http://www.learncentral.org/vroom/enter/34749
Required Texts
Code / Text
APA / American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Gram / Gramlich, C. A., Irvin, Y. D. B., & Hammer, E. D. (2009). Writing in Psychology : A Guidebook. Breinigsville, PA: Borgo Press.
Stan / Stanovich, K. E. (2010). How to think straight about psychology (9th 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;

7. write a personal resume of educational and professional experiences that would facilitate graduate school acceptance or employment; and,

8. effectively collaborate and communicate with peers and colleagues regarding scientific and psychological issues.

Tentative Sequencing of Topics/Activities/Assignments

Date / Class Topics / Readings Due / Assignments Due / In-Class Activities
9/2/10 / Introductions, Syllabus,
Word 2007 basics, Writing for the sciences. / Gram intro, ch 1; APA Preface, Intro, ch 1 (p 9-11), ch 8 (p 225-231, 241-243) / -- / Word 2007 tutorial, Web-Tycho tutorial
9/9/10 / Communicating Scientific Knowledge / Gram ch 2 (no p 29); APA ch 2, 6 / Essay Assignment #1
Conference #1 / Literature Search Tutorial (Langsdale 401)
9/16/10 / Communicating Scientific Knowledge (Part 2) / Gram ch 3-6; APA ch 7 / Single-Article Review
9/23/10 / APA Writing Style / Gram ch 7-8; APA ch 3
9/30/10 / APA Writing Style / APA ch 4; Gram ch 9 / Gram in-text Assignment 1-3.
APA Practice Test #1 / APA Scavenger Hunt
10/7/10 / APA Writing Style / 2-Article Summary / APA Practice Test #2
10/14/10 / Science, Psychology, and the Pursuit of Understanding / Stan ch. 1 – 6 / APA Style Mastery Test / --
10/21/10 / Intuitions and Evidence / Stan ch 7 – 9 / Essay Assignment #2 / --
10/28/10 / Probability, Chance, and the Popular Image of Psychology / Stan ch 10 – 12 / --
11/4/10 / Professional Ethics and Professional Associations / TBA; APA ch 1 (pp 11+) / Conference #2 / Ethics Small Group
11/11/10 / Career Paths – Clinical and Counseling / Stern ch 4 – 10 / Conference #3 / Guest Speaker
11/18/10 / Career Paths – Organizations / Stern ch 11 – 15 / Term Paper Topic / Guest Speaker
12/2/10 / Career Paths – Academia & Other Areas / Stern ch 1 – 3; 16-19 / Guest Speaker
12/9/10 / Make-up time and writing a resume / CV / Term Paper
12/16/10 / 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 11/11/10.

2. Writing Assignments: You will be given several writing assignments during the term. These assignments will be based on a pre-determined topic or will be small pieces of your final term paper. Absolutely no late or handwritten assignments will be accepted. Each assignment will be worth up to 10 points.

3. Tests: You will be given an APA Style Mastery Test and a Final Exam. Each test will be worth up to 50 points.

4. Conferences: You will participate in 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 12:00 pm (noon) on the Sunday 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.

5. 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.

6. Pop Quizzes: From time to time, you may receive a pop-quiz based on last week’s class materials or the assigned reading. These quizzes will be worth no more than 5 points each. Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped.

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. All written work must be turned in at the BEGINNING OF CLASS ON THE DUE DATE. 10 PERCENTAGE POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED FOR EACH DAY LATE (unless an extension was requested—see #10, below).

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 circumstances 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. Extension: You have the right to one (1) penalty-free 3-day extension on any written assignment (no conference extensions) 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.

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 reserves the right to alter this syllabus (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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