This is a course that focuses on the roles of values, culture, and context on our life decisions and urges you to make conscious, choiceful decisions. As a result, this entry-level, non-majors course earns a V flag towards the General Education requirements. We will work towards the following goals:

• Knowledge of Psychological Theory. You will become aware of the major approaches to the study of adjustment, as well as the major controversies in and contributors to Psychology, and become able to use basic concepts and terminology.
  
  
• Application of Psychological Principles. You will be encouraged to apply our discussions to your own struggles with stress, relationships, loneliness, parenting and other areas of your life.
  
  
• Exploration of values. You will become aware of and explore your values and those of others in order to make active and intentional choices in your life about relationships, careers, parenting, stress, and differences. I don't want you to think the way I think, but to explore and question your values and gaols, making your own decisions.
  
  
• Exploration of Social Context. You will explore social context including issues of culture, race, gender, sexual orientation, social class and other factors affecting who we are.
  
  
• Personal Development. You will come to understand the forces which limit or direct human behavior. This will help you change your behavior, increase your understanding of and tolerance for different behavior, and develop a healthy skepticism about accepting claims made by the mass media, by friends and relatives, as well as those made by authorities.

Blackboard. This syllabus, study guides, grades and other useful information will be available from time to time on Blackboard. Check this site at least twice a week, as I may post new information from time to time. I do post grades (except for Comments) as soon as I've graded them. Critical thinking Comments will be posted at each exam.

Texts. To facilitate these goals we will use Santrock's Human adjustment and a series of readings. This text is available either as an e-book or in paper and has many resources that will help with your learning and growth. Readings are available through the e-Reserve feature on the university server. Go to http://library.clarion.edu and click on "Electronic Reserves and Course Materials." Then click on this course. The password can be found on your paper syllabus.

Exams. We will have three exams which will cover material from the texts, lectures and discussions, handouts, and other materials. These are an opportunity to assess your knowledge of the language of our field and begin to apply the ideas. Exams will include multiple choice and take home essay questions.

Make-ups can be taken at a mutually convenient time up until the exam. If you miss an exam without informing me beforehand, the timing, penalty, and format of the exam will be at my discretion.

Critical thinking about yourself and the course material. Each day you will need to turn in one typed thought-provoking question or comment. Your questions should show that you've read the material and that you've thought about what you've read -- a primary goal of this course. Because this assignment is designed to: (a) encourage critical thinking about the material, and (b) encourage you to be prepared before class, I will not accept this assignment when you are not attending class or following the beginning of a class meeting.

You will get one point for each "good" question or comment you turn in, with a maximum of one per day and 35 for the course. What are good questions? Good questions show that you've thought about the material, whereas poor questions slough this job off onto someone else. For example:

Poor Q (0 pts.)

What is the General Adaptation Syndrome?

Good Q (1 pt.)

My male friends seem different than my female friends. I'm wondering if that is because I try to fit them into "male" gender roles. More and more I'm noticing that there are a lot of ways that my male and female friends are alike. I've noticed that my resistance to stress has generally been poor. On the other hand, although I'm taking 17 credits this semester, I seem to be better able to remember to take care of myself, plan ahead of time, and use more positive self-talk. I'm feeling much better than I usually do this close to the end of the semester... How does whatever you've just read in the newspaper/heard about in another class/observed fit with, contradict, or cause you to modify whatever generalizationwe've talked about in class?

Note that your questions and comments can and will become the foundation for class discussions.

Autobiographical application of course material.This course is designed to help you understand yourself and others better. This optional assignment, required for an A, is a place to pull together the ideas of the course and think critically about yourself and others. If you are uncomfortable disclosing yourself in writing to me, focus on less private aspects of your life. Please talk to me if you have concerns about this process.

Halonen and Santrock (1997) describe nine critical thinking strategies that help us adjust and grow. These can be summarized as:

1. Learn to observe yourself and others carefully;
2. Think critically about claims about influences, seeking multiple explanations for these phenomena;
3. Recognize and appreciate the contributions of context and culture; and
4. Apply these in your interactions with yourself and others.

These critical thinking strategies should be the backbone of your paper, although you do not necessarily need to use this structure as a strict outline for your paper. Papers (50 pts., optional, but required for an A in this course) should be at least five pages long. Two possible approaches to this:

Choosing a major. (a) Pay attention to the things that you do well and that you don't. You might use some of the course handouts to help you with this. (b) What are several possible ways to think about future work/career options? What are the advantages/disadvantages of these? (c) How does your culture/gender/family affect your possible choices? (d) What are you doing to take action on your choices -- even if you haven't decided "what you want to be when you grow up"?

Stress. (a) How do you handle stress? When are you especially good at handling it? When do you find yourself overwhelmed? (b) What does this tell you about yourself? Are there other ways of looking at yourself? (c) How does your culture/gender/family influence how you handle stress? (d) What are you doing to improve how you handle stress? How are these working?

Obviously there are other possibilities for how you approach this paper and I will give you others throughout the semester. You can write on your communication patterns, relationships, gender role, the effects of some major event, etc. You'll notice that I'll look at your use of the critical thinking strategies, among other things, as I am grading your paper. I believe that if you use these ideas consistently, you will discover yourself becoming more comfortable with yourself and adjusting to life's bumps more successfully and rapidly.

I will not read papers that do not meet professional writing standards of spellchecking, grammar checking, and organization. I will return them to you with a 10% penalty and ask you to rewrite them. I will, however, read your paper if you bring it to my office several days before the due date. Late papers will receive a 10% penalty.

Extra Credit. From time to time I will give you assignments that can earn you extra credit. Each of these assignments will require that you gather some data (generally by observing or interviewing others) to contribute to and enrich class discussions. These must be turned in before the start of class or they will not be accepted. There may also be opportunities to earn extra credit by participating in departmental research.

Clarion University is mandated by federal and state laws to report crimes occurring on campus or in campus-related functions. In order to comply with these laws, I am required to report information about university-related crimes to Public Safety. If you tell me of a crime that meets university criteria (especially assaults, sexualassaults, robbery, or hate crimes), I will report it. I am not required to identify either victims or witnesses by name. I will, of course, inform you before making a report.

Grades will be determined as the percentage of the available points earned. These will come from four sources: (a) the sum of the percentages from your tests (300 possible); (b) points earned for questions and comments (25 possible); (c) the number of points earned from your autobiographical application of course material (50 pts, optional) and (d) extra credit earned. The total earned can be compared with the following scale:

Note that your paper is optional -- although you cannot earn an A without it. If you choose not to do the paper, compare your points earned with the following scale:

I do not expect that a certain number students fail and I would be happy if the class received only As and Bs. To meet this goal I will be happy to help you when you need it. If you want more help, make an appointment with the Academic Support Center (2249). If you have test anxiety or if this course raises issues which you want to work on, call the Counseling Center (2255).

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Fromm, E. (1993). Self-love. In A. Arkoff (Ed.), Psychology and personal growth (4th ed., pp. 360-362). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Goode, E, (2000, August 8). How culture molds habits of thought. New York Times, pp. D1, 4.

Gottman, J., & Carrere, S. (2000. October). Welcome to the love lab. Psychology Today, 42-47, 87.

Gould, L. (1993). X: A fabulous child's story. In A. Arkoff (Ed.), Psychology and personal growth (4th ed., pp. 88-93). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Michener, J. A. (1993). On wasting time. In A. Arkoff (Ed.), Psychology and personal growth (4th ed., pp. 448-449). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Myers, D. G. (2001). Research based suggestions for a happier life. Retrieved December 11, 2003, from http://www.davidmyers.org/happiness/research.html

Ohio Public Images. (nd). Public Images Network: Think "People first." Retrieved December 11, 2003, from http://www.publicimagesnetwork.org/first.html

Peck, M. S. (1978). The road less traveled: A new psychology of love, traditional values and spiritual growth (pp. 32-44). New York: Simon & Schuster.

Reiss, S. (2001, January/February). The secrets of happiness. Psychology Today. pp. 50-56.

Rogers, C. R. (1980). A way of being (pp. 5-26). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Seligman, M. E. P. (1998). Learned optimism: How to change your mind and your life (pp. 75-83, 207-234). New York: Pocket Books.

Sugarman, D. A., & Freeman, L. (1993). The positive face of anxiety. In A. Arkoff (Ed.), Psychology and personal growth (4th ed., pp. 195-202). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Last updated January 13, 2006

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