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Abnormal Psychology I
Psychology 215

General Course Information:

Instructor:

Jillene Grover Seiver, Ph.D. (please call me Jill)

E-mail:

jseiver@bcc.ctc.edu

Text:

Abnormal Psychology:  The Problem of Maladaptive Behavior, 11th edition by Irwin G. Sarason and Barbara R. Sarason

Course Description:

Overview of biological, psychological and social causes of abnormal behavior. Specific topics include models, classification and assessment of abnormal behavior, as well as anxiety, somatoform, dissociative, personality, impulse, alcohol and substance abuse disorders.

Prerequisite: PSYCH 203.

Course Requirements:

Tests:

There will be six weekly tests. Each will include material covered since the last test; none of the tests is cumulative.
Test format: Tests will consist of multiple choice questions selected from the text since the prior test.  Each test will be worth 50 points.

Test procedure: I will submit each week's test to the test list. You will log on, print out the test, and use it to prepare your answers. You’ll answer each item, and submit your answers in the body of an email for my grading.  Your answers should be listed in the following format:

Name
1.  a
2.  b
3.  c
etc.

Making up missed tests: This quarter is rather compact: Only eight weeks. If you fall behind, it could destroy your grade. In my effort to make sure that you stay on track, you may not make up tests unless there are arrangements made in advance, or dire circumstances require that you must miss a week (e.g. funeral, illness of self or close family). Dire circumstances must be documented. If a make-up is appropriate, your score will be docked 10%.

Discussion Questions:

You will find a list of discussion questions in the "Weekly Assignments" list. You will answer two of the questions, and submit your answers to me inside the body of an email. Each week's DQs will be worth 25 points. See my message entitled "Discussion Guidelines" for the requirements for these assignments.

Projects:

You will need to complete six projects, and submit them to me inside the body of an email. Each project will be worth 25 points.

You will select one project from the list of several. It is NOT permitted to do more than one project from one list, as a substitute for doing another project later. I have designed the projects to supplement the topics that we will be discussing as you concurrently work on the project. Therefore, you must complete them in order.

The projects are graded pass/fail. If you submit your project on time and it is completed fully, you will receive full credit for the project. If your project is late, isn't handed in at all, or is incomplete, you won't receive any credit for that project.

Incidental Other Assignments:

Occasionally, I will include a personality scale or other sort of psychological measure for you to complete and score. Consider these to be like in-class activities, meant to edify you and to illuminate what we're discussing. Generally, your responses on such scales are meant to be kept anonymous, so you will not be required to submit your responses or scores to either the Discussion Area or to me.

Academic integrity:

It is assumed that all students will maintain the highest academic integrity. Cheating of any sort, including copying on tests, falsifying records, plagiarism, etc.will not be tolerated, and suspected cheaters will be reported to the Dean of Academic Education. Last summer, I had two students who ran out of time to complete their DQs, so they copied and pasted their classmates' work into a message and tried to pass them off as their own work. Please be on the lookout for signs that another student has copied your work! Because I couldn't be sure what happened last quarter, I assumed that the people whose work was copied were as guilty of cheating as those who had done the copying. You don't want to lose points or be expelled from class because you didn't alert me when someone copied your work. And you don't want to go down the avenue of the two who copied -- I failed them in my class and reported them to their college, encouraging the school to expel them for academic dishonesty.

Similarly, it is plagiarism (cheating) to copy and paste information directly from a website into your answers. If you want to cite a website, you need to reword the information, then give the website credit for the ideas you got from it. Make sure to include the URL when you reference websites.

Finally, it is incorrect to use ideas from the Sarason & Sarason text and fail to mention that you got the idea from the text. I require that you cite the text in every answer, so make sure to not only mention terms and concepts that you got from the text, but to mention that the term or idea came from the text.

Having said all that, I have had pairs of students who attend the same community college and who studied together for this class. It is perfectly alright for you to study for the tests together, but it is important that you take the test on your own. By discussing the questions and working out the answers together, you can really gain great insight into the topics. In fact, I encourage you guys to start up a conversation in the student lounge (found in the Discussion Board button), where you can pose questions to each other about specific test items, and give each other page references and such to help figure out the answers.

You may also ask me for clarifying questions about the tests. Generally I will direct you to the appropriate section of the text; I never just give you the answer! :-) But I can help you to focus your attention if you're really struggling.

Grading Criteria:

Assignment

Points

Percentage

Tests

6 @ 50

50%

Projects

6 @ 25

25%

Discussion

6 @25

25%

Total

600

100%


Grading palette:

 

A

90-100%

4.0

 

B

80-89%

3.0

 

C

70-79%

2.0

 

D

60-69%

1.0

 

F

<= 59%

0.0

Weekly Schedule:

All assignments are due by midnight on Sundays.  You are welcome to submit work early, but I will hold early submissions and respond to them after their deadline.  I will respond to work on Mondays.

Incompletes and Hardship Withdrawals:

These options are reserved for students who, through unforeseeable circumstances, cannot complete a course that they were passing. If you wish to request one of these grading options, the following criteria must be met:

In the case of an Incomplete, the circumstances must be acute. That is, they must be something that prevents completion of the course within the current quarter, but that would be resolved in time for the student to complete the course work within the next quarter.  In addition, you must have completed at least 5/6 of the coursework in order to qualify for an Incomplete.

In the case of a Hardship Withdrawal, the circumstances must be ongoing, such that the student would not be able to complete the course work within the following quarter. In other words, a student could not request a hardship withdrawal and then retake the course the following quarter.

Qualifying circumstances for Incompletes and Hardship Withdrawals are limited to: