Faculty Syllabus

Instructional Methodology:

These Fall 2026 classes will be taught as pure lecture sections. Lecture/discussions will occur and actual physical attendance by students is required and expected. Students will be expected to learn the lecture material! They will also be expected to read and study the textbook for this class. The Learning Objectives are shown on this web page below. These objectives inform the student as to what textbook material is likely to be covered on the exams.

Grades will be determined by four hour exams, which will be provided in class as scheduled. The exams will be multiple choice exams and will be taken within one class meeting, i.e. 80 minutes. Thus, the exams are timed. Each exam will provide a score based on the percentage of correct answers. At the end of the semester, when all four exams will have been taken the average percentage score will be calculated.

 

If the average score on the hour exams is 90.0 to 100% correct, the course grade will be A.

If the average score on the hour exams is 80.0 - 89.9 %, the course grade will be a B.

If the average score on the hour exams is 70.0 - 79.9%, the course grade will be a C.

If the average score on the hour exams is 60.0 - 69.9 %, the course grade will be a D.

If the average score on the hour exams is below 60.0, the course grade will be F.

Note: There is no Extra Credit in this class.

Make-Up Exams will be provided in the Testing Center at the Round Rock Campus and are only for students who did not take the regularly scheduled in-class exam. (They are not re-tests.) The Make-Up Exams will be multiple choice exams which will produce a score as percentage correct. The Make-Up Exam score will replace the score of zero for the missed exam. Make-Up Exams must be taken before the next regularly scheduled hour exam is given in class. If not taken by the deadline, a score of ZERO will be permanently recorded for the missed exam. Note: There is no Make-Up Exam for the Fourth Exam because the semester ends the day of the Fourth Exam in class.

Incomplete Grades

An incomplete (grade of "I") will only be given in Fall  of 2026 due to extenuating circumstances. What constitutes “extenuating circumstances” is left to the instructor’s discretion. If a grade of I is given, the remaining course work must be completed by a date set by the student and professor. This date may not be later than two weeks prior to the end of the Spring, 2027 semester. A grade of I also requires completion and submission of the Incomplete Grade form, to be signed by the faculty member (and student if possible) and submitted to the department chair.

If an Incomplete is not resolved by the deadline, the grade automatically converts to an “F.” Approval to carry an Incomplete for longer than the following semester or session deadline is not frequently granted.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI)

Introduction: Since this is a face-to-face lecture class and all of the course grade is based solely on in-class exams (or Make-Up Exams taken in the Testing Center), there will be no outside written assignments of any kind.  Therefore, the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) by students poses no plausible threat to academic integrity.  Feel free to use GAI as much as you wish outside of class to supplement your learning in this Biological Psychology course, but it will not be available during the exams.  Your exam grades, and ultimate course grade, will be based solely on your own cognitive/intellectual mastery of the course Learning Objectives as evidenced by your exam scores.

Rationale:  This course has been designed to make the illicit usage of AI a non-issue.  That is, cheating by submitting the work produced by Generative Artificial Intelligence cannot be done in this class.  It is impossible.

Definition of GAI:  See this website from the National  Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine for a definition of Generative Artificial Intelligence.

There are innumerable web-based examples of how a student can use GAI to facilitate their own learning of college material.  However, there is absolutely no usage of GAI required to do this class.

There is no prohibition of the usage of GAI and there will be no penalties for the usage of GAI in this class.  Keep in mind that the four exams will be administered in a face-to-face setting in which the professor will proctor the exams to maintain a climate of intellectual integrity, i.e. free of cheating.

The textbook for this course is: Introduction to Psychology by Charles Stangor; FlatWorld Knowledge Publishers. (ISBN (Digital): 978-1-4533-4167-4) . An All Access Pass to a digital version of the book is available for purchase in the ACC Bookstore and paperback versions can be ordered directly from the publisher by the student at the option of the student. The All Access Pass contains the Online Web Book (Read it through your browser), eBook (Pub and mobi files compatible with your iPad, Kindle, or other device), PDF Book (Print-it-Yourself or read offline), & Study Aids (Interactive tools help reinforce key terms and concepts.). Flat World offers students a variety of low-cost digital and print choices, starting at just $35.95. All of the formats can be purchased at students.flatworldknowledge.com, where you can also find more detailed explanations of each format. For those who prefer it, there is an OER (no cost) version of the textbook, which is the first version of Stangor's book, which was published in 2010. It will suffice for this class. It is an html version of this zero cost textbook at this link. 

Note: The no-cost textbook option described here do not provide access to the optional practice quizzes that are provided in the commercially available e-book option cited above. It is the student's responsibility to read the assigned chapters of this book in a timely manner.

Course Learning Outcomes:

According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Lower Division Academic Course Guide Manual:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

Identify various research methods and their characteristics used in the scientific study of psychology. 

Describe the historical influences and early schools of thought that shaped the field of psychology. 

Describe some of the prominent perspectives and approaches used in the study of psychology.

Use terminology unique to the study of psychology.

Describe accepted approaches and standards in psychological assessment and evaluation.

Identify factors in physiological and psychological processes involved in human behavior.

Program Level Student Learning Outcomes:

Understand psychological concepts and be able to recognize them in real-world contexts.

Acquire a basic understanding of major perspectives in the field.

Gain an awareness of the breadth of the academic discipline of psychology.

Understand the various research methods psychologists use and critically evaluate evidence.

General Education Student Learning Outcomes for PSYC 2301:

Critical Thinking Skills
• Gather, analyze, synthesize, evaluate and apply information for the purposes of innovation, inquiry, and creative thinking.

Communication Skills
• Develop, interpret, and express ideas and information through written, oral and visual communication that is adapted to purpose, structure, audience, and medium.

Empirical and Quantitative Skills
• Apply mathematical, logical and scientific principles and methods through the manipulation and analysis of numerical data or observable facts resulting in informed conclusions.

Personal Responsibility
• Identify and apply ethical principles and practices to decision-making by connecting choices, actions and consequences.

Social Responsibility (Civic and Cultural Awareness)
• Analyze differences and commonalities among peoples, ideas, aesthetic traditions, and cultural practices to include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities.

Teamwork
• Consider different points of view to work collaboratively and effectively in pursuit of a shared purpose or goal.

Chapter Learning Objectives

Chapter One:  Psychology as a Science

1. Explain why using our intuition about everyday behavior is insufficient for a complete understanding of the causes of behavior.
2. Describe the difference between values and facts and explain how the scientific method is used to differentiate between the two.
3. Explain how psychology changed from a philosophical to a scientific discipline.
4. List some of the most important questions that concern psychologists.
5. Outline the basic schools of psychology and how each school has contributed to psychology.

Chapter Two:  Psychological Science

1. Describe the principles of the scientific method and explain its importance in conducting and interpreting research.
2. Differentiate laws from theories and explain how research hypotheses are developed and tested.
3. Discuss the procedures that researchers use to ensure that their research with humans and with animals is ethical.
4. Differentiate the goals of descriptive, correlational, and experimental research designs and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.
5. Explain the goals of descriptive research and the statistical techniques used to interpret it.
6. Summarize the uses of correlational research and describe why correlational research cannot be used to infer causality.
7. Review the procedures of experimental research and explain how it can be used to draw causal inferences.
8. Outline the four potential threats to the validity of research and discuss how they may make it difficult to accurately interpret research findings.
9. Describe how confounding may reduce the internal validity of an experiment.
10. Explain how generalization, replication, and meta-analyses are used to assess the external validity of research findings.

Chapter Three:  Brains, Bodies and Behavior

1. Describe the structure and functions of the neuron.
2. Draw a diagram of the pathways of communication within and between neurons.
3. List three of the major neurotransmitters and describe their functions.
4. Describe the structures and function of the “old brain” and its influence on behavior.
5. Explain the structure of the cerebral cortex (its hemispheres and lobes) and the function of each area of the cortex.
6. Define the concepts of brain plasticity, neurogenesis, and brain lateralization.
7. Compare and contrast the techniques that scientists use to view and understand brain structures and functions.
8. Summarize the primary functions of the CNS and of the subsystems of the PNS.
9. Explain how the electrical components of the nervous system and the chemical components of the endocrine system work together to influence behavior.

Chapter Four:  Sensing and Perceiving

1. Review and summarize the capacities and limitations of human sensation.
2. Explain the difference between sensation and perception and describe how psychologists measure sensory and difference thresholds.
3. Identify the key structures of the eye and the role they play in vision.
4. Summarize how the eye and the visual cortex work together to sense and perceive the visual stimuli in the environment, including processing colors, shape, depth, and motion.
5. Draw a picture of the ear and label its key structures and functions, and describe the role they play in hearing.
6. Describe the process of transduction in hearing.
7. Summarize how the senses of taste and olfaction transduce stimuli into perceptions.
8. Describe the process of transduction in the senses of touch and proprioception.
9. Outline the gate control theory of pain. Explain why pain matters and how it may be controlled.
10. Describe how sensation and perception work together through sensory interaction, selective attention, sensory adaptation, and perceptual constancy.
11. Give examples of how our expectations may influence our perception, resulting in illusions and potentially inaccurate judgments.

Chapter Five:  States of Consciousness

1. Draw a graphic showing the usual phases of sleep during a normal night and notate the characteristics of each phase.
2. Review the disorders that affect sleep and the costs of sleep deprivation.
3. Outline and explain the similarities and differences among the different theories of dreaming.
4. Summarize the major psychoactive drugs and their influences on consciousness and behavior.
5. Review the evidence regarding the dangers of recreational drugs.
6. Review the ways that people may alter consciousness without using drugs.

Chapter Six:  Growing and Developing

1. Review the stages of prenatal development.
2. Explain how the developing embryo and fetus may be harmed by the presence of teratogens and describe what a mother can do to reduce her risk.
3. Describe the abilities that newborn infants possess and how they actively interact with their environments.
4. List the stages in Piaget’s model of cognitive development and explain the concepts that are mastered in each stage
5. Critique Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and describe other theories that complement and expand on it.
6. Summarize the important processes of social development that occur in infancy and childhood.
7. Summarize the physical and cognitive changes that occur for boys and girls during adolescence.
8. Explain how adolescents develop a sense of morality and of self-identity.
9. Review the physical and cognitive changes that accompany early and middle adulthood.
10. Review the physical, cognitive, and social changes that accompany late adulthood.
11. Describe the psychological and physical outcomes of bereavement.

Chapter Seven:  Learning

1. Describe how Pavlov’s early work in classical conditioning influenced the understanding of learning.
2. Review the concepts of classical conditioning, including unconditioned stimulus (US), conditioned stimulus (CS), unconditioned response (UR), and conditioned response (CR).
3. Explain the roles that extinction, generalization, and discrimination play in conditioned learning.
4. Outline the principles of operant conditioning.
5. Explain how learning can be shaped through the use of reinforcement schedules and secondary reinforcers.
6. Understand the principles of learning by insight and observation.
7. Review the ways that learning theories can be applied to understanding and modifying everyday behavior.
8. Describe the situations under which reinforcement may make people less likely to enjoy engaging in a behavior.
9. Explain how principles of reinforcement are used to understand social dilemmas such as the prisoner’s dilemma and why people are likely to make competitive choices in them.

Chapter Eight:  Remembering and Judging

1. Compare and contrast explicit and implicit memory, identifying the features that define each.
2. Explain the function and duration of eidetic and echoic memories.
3. Summarize the capacities of short-term memory and explain how working memory is used to process information in it.
4. Label and review the principles of encoding, storage, and retrieval.
5. Summarize the types of amnesia and their effects on memory.
6. Describe how the context in which we learn information can influence our memory of that information.
7. Outline the variables that can influence the accuracy of our memory for events.
8. Explain how schemas can distort our memories.
9. Describe the representativeness heuristic and the availability heuristic and explain how they may lead to errors in judgment.

Chapter Nine:  Intelligence and Language

1. Define intelligence and list the different types of intelligences psychologists study.
2. Summarize the characteristics of a scientifically valid intelligence test.
3. Outline the biological and environmental determinants of intelligence.
4. Explain how very high and very low intelligence is defined and what it means to have them.
5. Consider and comment on the meaning of biological and environmental explanations for gender and racial differences in IQ.
6. Define stereotype threat and explain how it might influence scores on intelligence tests.
7. Review the components and structure of language.
8. Explain the biological underpinnings of language.
9. Outline the theories of language development.

Chapter Ten:  Emotions and Motivations

1. Explain the biological experience of emotion.
2. Summarize the psychological theories of emotion.
3. Give examples of the ways that emotion is communicated.
4. Define stress and review the body’s physiological responses to it.
5. Summarize the negative health consequences of prolonged stress.
6. Explain the differences in how people respond to stress.
7. Review the methods that are successful in coping with stress.
8. Understand the important role of positive emotions and happiness in responding to stress.
9. Understand the factors that increase, and do not increase, happiness.
10. Understand the biological and social responses that underlie eating behavior.
11. Understand the psychological and physiological responses that underlie sexual behavior.

Chapter Eleven:  Personality

1. Outline and critique the early approaches to assessing personality.
2. Define and review the strengths and limitations of the trait approach to personality.
3. Summarize the measures that have been used to assess psychological disorders.
4. Describe the strengths and limitations of the psychodynamic approach to explaining personality.
5. Summarize the accomplishments of the neo-Freudians.
6. Identify the major contributions of the humanistic approach to understanding personality.
7. Explain how genes transmit personality from one generation to the next.
8. Outline the methods of behavioral genetics studies and the conclusions that we can draw from them about the determinants of personality.
9. Explain how molecular genetics research helps us understand the role of genetics in personality.

Chapter Twelve:  Defining Psychological Disorders

1. Define “psychological disorder” and summarize the general causes of disorder.
2. Explain why it is so difficult to define disorder, and how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is used to make diagnoses.
3. Describe the stigma of psychological disorders and their impact on those who suffer from them.
4. Outline and describe the different types of anxiety disorders.
5. Outline and describe the different types of dissociative disorders.
6. Explain the biological and environmental causes of anxiety and dissociative disorders.
7. Summarize and differentiate the various forms of mood disorders, in particular dysthymia, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder.
8. Explain the genetic and environmental factors that increase the likelihood that a person will develop a mood disorder.
9. Categorize and describe the three major symptoms of schizophrenia.
10. Differentiate the five types of schizophrenia and their characteristics.
11. Identify the biological and social factors that increase the likelihood that a person will develop schizophrenia.
12. Categorize the different types of personality disorders and differentiate antisocial personality disorder from borderline personality disorder.
13. Outline the biological and environmental factors that may contribute to a person developing a personality disorder.
14. Differentiate the symptoms of somatoform and factitious disorders.
15. Summarize the sexual disorders and paraphilias.

Chapter Thirteen:  Treating Psychological Disorders

1. Outline and differentiate the psychodynamic, humanistic, behavioral, and cognitive approaches to psychotherapy.
2. Explain the behavioral and cognitive aspects of cognitive-behavioral therapy and how CBT is used to reduce psychological disorders.
3. Classify the different types of drugs used in the treatment of mental disorders and explain how they each work to reduce disorder.
4. Critically evaluate direct brain intervention methods that may be used by doctors to treat patients who do not respond to drug or other therapy.
5. Explain the advantages of group therapy and self-help groups for treating disorder.
6. Evaluate the procedures and goals of community mental health services.
7. Summarize the ways that scientists evaluate the effectiveness of psychological, behavioral, and community service approaches to preventing and reducing disorders.
8. Summarize which types of therapy are most effective for which disorders.

Chapter Fourteen:  Psychology in Our Social Lives

1.      Review the principles of social cognition, including the fundamentals of how we form judgments about other people.

2.      Define the concept of attitude and review the ways that attitudes are developed and changed, and how attitudes relate to behavior.

3.      Summarize the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to human altruism.

4.      Provide an overview of the causes of human aggression.

5.      Explain the situations under which people conform to others and their motivations for doing so.

6.      Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of working together in groups to perform tasks and make decisions.

7.      Review the factors that can increase group productivity.