PSYK1320 General Psychology Course description

The course provides an introduction to key topics emphasised in psychology, such as heredity and environment, individual differences, different states of consciousness, life-long development, motivation and emotions. The course will also look at various studies on these topics.

Admission to the programme.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student has

• broad knowledge of key topics in the field of psychology

Skills

The student is capable of

• describing and discussing key topics in the psychology discipline

Competence

The student is capable of

• presenting subject matter to and sharing opinions with fellow students

Work and teaching methods used in the course are lectures, self-study and student-initiated group work. Seminars will also be held that focus on the presentation of psychology literature. Participation in these seminars is compulsory. Four one-hour tests will be held during the course.

• Participation at the seminars (80%)
• Three written texts (max. 900 words)

The required coursework must be approved before the students can take the supervised written exam.

Portfolio exam comprising four tests and a supervised written exam lasting four hours. All four tests must be passed before the student can take the supervised written exam. All the components must be awarded a pass grade before the exam as a whole can be passed. If the student fails one test, the student can retake this test. Resits/rescheduled attempts of the four tests can be taken once before the ordinary supervised written exam. Before the resit/rescheduled supervised written exam, students will be given a third and final attempt at one or more of the tests.

None

Coursework requirements from MALK 4000-401 or equivalent must be approved to participate and submit coursework requirements in MALKA211.

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes

classified as knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student

• can describe and discuss characteristics of behavior analysis as a science
• can identify core concepts and relations concerning respondent conditioning
• can identify core concepts and relations concerning operant conditioning
• can discuss the differences between respondent and operant conditioning
• can give an account for different measures of reliability
• can discuss the difference between procedure and process
• can identify the difference between sensation and perception
• can describe the terms absolute and difference threshold, and how these are derived
• can describe main structures and processes in different sensory modalities
• can describe different methods of observation and recording of behavior, and assess the appropriate methods in different applied setting

Skills

The student

• can observe and measure behavior

Competence

The student

• can explain core concepts in behavior analysis to the public
• can understand important aspects of behavior analysis as a science

The course will include lectures, exercises, discussion of read materials. The lectures will partly be based on interteaching sequences using literature from the curriculum. Students complete a self-management experiment involving registration and change of one's own behavior. Exercises using software simulating animal experiments ( Sniffy the Virtual Rat) are included in this course.