Psych 100: Introduction to Psychology
Course Outline—Spring 2012

Professor: James Carroll
Office: 102 Sloan Hall Phone 774-6470
Email: carro1jl@mail.cmich.edu
Office Hours: T and TR 12:30 -3 pm
Web address for class: Blackboard @cmich.edu

Welcome to Psych 100 – Introduction to Psychology:

Why take this course? Yes, I know that it is one of the courses that meet some requirement or other for your degree – so you might feel that you have to take it! However, is there anything worthwhile that you can take away from this class besides 3 credits and hopefully a decent grade? I think so.
Here are some thoughts about our course. Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes; and just who engages in behavior and mental processes? You do – so this course is really all about you. We will look at the brain and see how it helps you to make sense of your world. We will look at lifespan development – your past, present and future. We will look at motivation and problem-solving – we all have motivational issues from time to time, and as for problems, most of us have lots of those to deal with. Although our focus is on normal behavior, we will look at what happens when our psychological self becomes overloaded, and we will examine ways to cope. We will see how individuals act and react within a group context. Throughout the course we will see real life applications for the material that we are learning.

Course Description:

The purpose of this course is to introduce the beginning student to the history, theories and methods of the science of psychology. The course is designed to provide a conceptual and practical approach to the understanding of human behavior in various social systems. We will explore both normal and abnormal behavior. Students will use multi-media instructional technologies and conduct library and internet