Department of Economics and Social Sciences

Summer 2016
Course Outline PSY 101

Faculty Member: Safina Binte Enayet

Lecture Time: Sunday and Tuesday (09:30am - 10:50am)
Classroom: Sunday and Tuesday - UB 10104
Section: 01
Office Time: Monday 11:00am- 12:00pm (UB 20908 and UB 21105)

PSY 101: Introduction to Psychology

Course Description:

This is an introductory course on Psychology. It aims at familiarizing the students with the
central concepts and theories of the discipline and the empirical methods and tools that
psychologists use in assessing human behavior and mental processes. This course is intended
to make students aware of the application of the knowledge of human behavior in the field of
their interest.

Lesson Fit:

This course is suitable for any level of students who have interest to build an understanding
of Psychology. Anyone can join the course since it requires no prior knowledge of
Psychology.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this course a successful students will be able to:

1. Define Psychology as a science and an independent discipline in terms of its history,
theories, methods, applied areas, and ethical issues as well as explain the necessity of
understanding Psychology.
2. Describe the structure and function of the nervous system as the biological basis of
behavior and cognition.
3. Explain the major perspectives of Psychology (e.g., behavioral, biological, cognitive,
evolutionary, humanistic, psychodynamic, and socio-cultural).
4. Apply the major theoretical perspective to understand personality, lifespan development,
abnormal behavior, and psychotherapy.
5. Compare a variety of careers in psychology and analyze its application to many areas of
comtemporary life and work.
Grading/Performance evaluation:

Final grade will be based on:

1. Attendance - 05
2. Test (Quiz) - 20 (Best 2 of 3)
3. Midterm - 20
4. Assignment/Term Paper/Project - 10
5. Final - 45

Total 100

During the semester, students will complete several short writing assignments. In addition,
there will be few workshops during class time that will enhance students understanding of
various topics and develop the understanding of the practical applications of the concepts,
and students will have an assignment to complete for each workshop. These assignments will
be discussed during class. All of the writing assignments are worth 10% of the final
grade.Moreover, they have to give a group presentation.
This course will include four quizzes and a final exam. Quiz questions will be taken from
both lecture and text material. The quizzes will be taken during class. 2 best scores out of the
3 quizzes will be considered to add with the final score. Quizzes are worth 15% and the final
exam is worth 45% of the final grade.

Class participation is an important part of this course; participation in class discussions is an

important part of the learning experience and students are expected to be an active participant
during the class. It is expected that students will read the reading material prior to the class
meeting so that they can actively participate in discussions. Class participation and
attendance is worth 5% of the final grade.

Plagiarism Warning
BRAC University requires students to act in an honest manner. Copying from another student or
copying from published or unpublished or electronic sources without appropriate citations or
quotations is plagiarism. Such dishonest practices will automatically result in students getting zero
marks. Additionally they will be reported to the university authorities for further disciplinary actions.
You should also note that extensive quotation from the same source, even if properly acknowledged,
does not demonstrate your understanding. Such work cannot receive a high grade.

Attendance:
Attendance in all classes is mandatory. Students are also expected to actively participate in class
discussions. Students are advised to study the reading materials before they attend a particular class.
Students will not be allowed to take the Midterm and Final Examinations unless they attend at least
70% of all classes. Students are also expected to be punctual. They will be marked absent if they are
more than ten minutes late.
Schedule of Topics

Week 1

Lecture 1: a) Setting the Context of Learning Environment: Introduction, Social Capital,

Review of the course and assignments, Formation of Learning Teams and Learning Partners.
b) The lecture will cover topics like What Is Psychology?, Why Do Psychology? and some
other basic introductory concept of Psychology.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 1

Lecture 2: The lecture will discuss on Emotion in terms of Understanding Emotional

Experiences, The Function of Emotions, Nonverbal Behavior and the expression of emotions.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 11

2. Understanding Psychology, Chap. 10

Week 2

Lecture 3: Workshop: Stress Management. The workshop will be conducted in a participatory

method discussing different aspects of stress management with practical tools and tips of
preventing and coping with stress.

Lecture 4: The lecture will cover the Biological Foundations of Behavior discussing Neural
Communication, The Nervous System and The Brain with its Structure and Function.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 2

Week 3

Lecture 5: The lecture will cover topics like Sensation & Perception with details on Sensing the
World and its Basic Principles. It will also discuss on Vision and Other Important Senses

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 6

Lecture 6: Quiz 1
Quiz will be followed by discussion on Perceptual Organization and Perceptual Interpretation, a
continuation of the discussion from the previous class.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 6

Week 4

Lecture 7: The lecture will focus on topics like The Brain and Consciousness, Sleep and Dreams and
the relationship between Drugs and Consciousness.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 3

Lecture 8: Workshop on Mindfulness. Different mindfulness exercises will be performed here.

Week 5

Lecture 9: The lecture will be on Human Development discussing on Nature Vs Nurture debate,
Developmental stages, characteristics of Adolescents and Young Adults and Positive Parenting.
Required Readings: 1. Understanding Psychology, Chap. 12

Lecture 10: This lecture will talk about Eriksons theory on Psychosocial Development.

Required Readings: 1. Understanding Psychology, Chap. 12

Other texts and references will be provided by the instructor.

Week 6

Lecture 11: The lecture will provide basic idea on Learning and theories like Classical
Conditioning, Operant Conditioning and Learning by Observation.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 7

Lecture 12: This lecture will give idea on The Phenomenon of Memory, its Information-
Processing Models, Storage, Retrieval, Forgetting and Improving Memory.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap.8

Week 7

Lecture 13: Quiz 2

Review

Lecture 14: Midterm

Week 8

Lecture 15: This lecture will put light on basic concepts of Cognition & Intelligence like Thinking,
Multiple Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 9

Lecture 16: This lecture will cover different topics of Social Psychology such as Social Thinking
Social Influence, Prejudice, Positive and Negative Social Behavior.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 15

2. Understanding Psychology, Chap. 17

Week 9

Lecture 17: This lecture will cover Personality theory from the Psychoanalytic Approaches. The
discussion will be on Sigmund Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory and Ego Defense Mechanism.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 12

Lecture 18: This lecture will cover Personality theory from the Humanistic Approaches and it
is Eric Bernes Transactional Analysis.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 12

Other texts and references will be provided by the instructor.

Week 10

Lecture 19: The lecture will focus on Sexual Behavior especially The Psychology of Sex, Normal
Sexual Behavior and The Need to belong.

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 10

2. Understanding Psychology, Chap. 11
Other texts and references will be provided by the instructor.

Lecture 20: Quiz 3

Quiz will be followed by discussion on basic concepts of Motivation and Abraham Maslows
theory of Hierarchy of Need.

Week 11

Lecture 21: The Lecture first focus on Psychology of Abnormality discussing Normal Vs Abnormal:
Making the Distinction and then it will discuss on What is counseling, Necessity and benefits of
Psychotherapies and Preventing Psychological Disorders

Required Readings: 1. Exploring Psychology, Chap. 13

2. Understanding Psychology, Chap. 15, 16
Other texts and references will be provided by the instructor.

Lecture 22: Workshop on Meditation. The workshop will be covering successive meditating
exercises focusing on mental health wellbeing.
Week 12

Lecture 23: Assignment Submission & Presentation

Review

Required Texts:

1. David G. Meyers. Exploring Psychology (8th Ed.) Worth Publishers.

2. Feldman, R. S. Understanding Psychology (10th Ed.) McGraw Hill.

Other texts and references will be provided by the instructor.