PSYC 100 Fall 2022

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Monday/Wednesday | 8:30-9:50 AM | Zoom University

what can
why are why do 
 how can I use
psychological
people the they do the that knowledge to
science tell me
way that 
 things that make the world 

about the world
they are? they do? a better place?
around me?

If these questions (especially the last two) keep you up at night, this is the perfect section of Intro Psych
for you. Over the course of the semester, you’ll grapple with these questions and learn how to think like
budding scientists—a skill that will benefit you through college and beyond, regardless of your major or
ultimate career path.

As an introduction to the scientific study of the human mind, we’ll cover everything from the organization
of our brain cells to the psychology of internet trolling, as well as the scientific methods that help
researchers make psychological discoveries. As part of the Provost’s “Sustainability Across the
Curriculum” Initiative, we’ll also discuss the psychology of science denialism and how climate change can
impact our health and well-being. Throughout the semester, you will be highly encouraged to apply your
knowledge of the material to your own lives, as well as the world around you.

INSTRUCTIONAL TEAM
Professor: Leslie Berntsen, Ph.D.
Please call me: Leslie or Dr./Prof. Berntsen (she/her)
How do you pronounce that? Like the English words “burnt” and “sin”
Ask me about: Real-world applications of psychology, becoming a psych major, getting
involved in research, graduate school and other psych-based careers, being a first-
generation college student, being a student with a disability

E-mail: [email protected] (expect a response within 24-48 hours, except weekends)

Virtual office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays: 5:00-6:00 PM
Make an appointment at: leslie-bern.youcanbook.me
Office: My living room (Zoom. I mean Zoom.)

TA: Alex Raport (she/her) TA: Jean Luo (she/her)

Sections: M, 12:00 PM; R, 8:00 AM Sections: F, 8:00 AM (48); F, 10:00 AM
E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]
Office hours: Available on Blackboard Office hours: Available on Blackboard

TA: Kevin Choi (he/him) TA: Yael Waizman (she/her)

Sections: T, 8:00 AM; F, 8:00 AM (45) Sections: W, 12:00 PM; R, 2:00 PM
E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]
Office hours: Available on Blackboard Office hours: Available on Blackboard

Ask your TA about: Course logistics, grades on your assignments, they’re a great first stop
for pretty much anything you need

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

COURSE FORMAT AND ORGANIZATION

For lectures, we’ll be using a flipped class format. This means that I’ll give you pre-recorded lecture
videos for you to watch on your own time. (Think of it like psychology podcast time.) In other words, you
do not have to show up to a packed auditorium twice a week just to hear me talk at you and you’ll never
have to worry about missing material since it will always be available for you. (Just make sure you watch
the appropriate videos before the respective quiz is due (see the calendar on the last page.)

During our regularly scheduled lecture periods, I’ll be available on Zoom and you’re more than welcome
to pop in if you have questions or would just like to talk to me (!), rather than having me talk at you. (There
will be a Google form on Blackboard where you can submit any questions as they come to you.) In other
words, “lecture” attendance is not required; just consider it an extra opportunity that you can take
advantage of whenever you like.

It’s going to be quite an adventure to fit the entire education you deserve into our (good lord) sixth
~unprecedented~ semester, but hopefully this flipped class format will help you demonstrate all your
newfound knowledge with as much support, flexibility, and one-on-one interaction as possible.

COURSE MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

OPTIONAL: Spielman, Rosie M. (2020). Psychology, 2e. OpenStax.

Freely available at openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e

In the spirit of reducing everyone’s burden, the textbook is not a

required component of the course this semester. If you would like
certain concepts explained in more detail or using different words,
you’re more than welcome to use the textbook as an additional
reference, but you will not be held accountable for anything that is
not included in the lectures.

FYI, there is always more information in introductory psychology

textbooks than could ever make it into a semester’s worth of
lectures. Mine will consist of the information that I think is the most
important/useful/fun, but this textbook will be a great resource for
those of you who need to study for the MCAT or Psych GRE at any
point in the future

Blackboard (accessible through myUSC) is where you’ll be able to find all the materials for this
class: lecture slides and videos, a Google doc with all of the optional extra links from lectures,
online quizzes, assignment descriptions and rubrics, lab materials, etc.

Piazza (linked on Blackboard under “Course Logistics”) is a searchable Wiki-style website that
your TAs and I will use to send announcements and reminders (via email blast). As a bonus, you
can also use Piazza to crowdsource answers to any questions you may have about the class.
Highly recommend using it to ask (and answer!) questions as we move through the semester.

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENT

1 2 3
WHAT WILL YOU Exhibit mastery 
 Consume and Apply course
ACCOMPLISH IN of the principles 
 communicate material to your 

THIS CLASS? of psychological empirical research life and the world
science in psychology around you

How will your success be measured?

55% 15% 10% 10% 5% 5%

Exams Writing Assignments Moment of Geek

In-Lab Activities Online Quizzes Research Participation

LATE/MISSED WORK POLICY

Needless to say, there’s (still) a lot going on. In addition to all of the free drops and the overall choose-
your-own-adventure style of the class, we've got different, progressively larger safety nets that will
hopefully catch you if it ever becomes necessary.

1. Automatic 24-hour blanket extension: For maximum flexibility, you can continue to submit
assignments for full credit up to 24 hours after each due date/time listed on the course calendar on the
last page, no questions asked and no permission necessary. For this to be as helpful as possible, I
recommend doing everything in your power to stick to the "official" listed due dates and then use the
blanket extension only when you really need it. Otherwise, if you just treat the extension as the new due
date for every assignment, you lose the whole “safety net” aspect of the arrangement.

2. Emergency button: If the 24-hour blanket extension doesn't take care of you, this is the next option.
Everyone starts off the semester with one (1) emergency button that you can use to submit late work for
credit after the 24-hour extension period has passed. Whether your emergency button actually gets used
up depends on whether the nature/timing of your request creates extra work for us as a teaching team. If
you think you'd like to use your emergency button, just fill out the Google form posted to Blackboard in
the lefthand sidebar and also under "Course Logistics" and it will walk you through all the details.

3. "Life happened and I need help:" If you experience any kind of life-altering emergency that impacts
your ability to stay afloat in all your classes, this is for you. All you need to do is email me or your TA with
those words (that's it!) and we will put you in touch with Campus Support & Intervention so they can help
you however you need. Once the dust has settled, we'll work with you to get you caught up and through
the finish line in one piece. Please note: You do not need to perform trauma to get our attention; you just
need to let us know (very broadly) that you need help and we will make sure you get it.

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

One non-cumulative online quiz will accompany each unit to help you check your
understanding as we progress through the course. Quiz questions will be multiple-choice
and your two lowest quiz grades will be dropped before computing your final grade at the
end of the term. Quizzes will be made available on Blackboard 48 hours before the (first)
lecture session devoted to Q&A/discussion on that topic, and should be completed within
QUIZZES

the next several days. (See the course calendar on the last page for a full list of due dates.)

For these quizzes, you are free to use your notes and/or work together with a classmate.
However, I highly recommend taking each quiz for the first time without any outside
assistance to see how much (and what kinds of) information you retained from that unit.
Then, when taking the quiz again, use your resources to help you answer the questions
you got incorrect (and take note of the topics these questions addressed to help yourself
identify areas of improvement). You may re-take each quiz as many times as you’d like. I
will only count your highest score for each quiz and there are no penalties for additional
attempts.

This course will have four, online, fill-in-the-blank exams:

three non-cumulative midterms and one cumulative
final exam. You’re welcome to use your notes, but you
SAVE THE DATES:
will have 90 seconds to respond to each question. For all
EXAMS

the logistical details you’d ever want, check the Exam

September 28th
Instructions doc on Blackboard.
November 2nd
November 30th
Out of the 55% of your overall grade allotted for exams,
December 7th
your best exam will be weighted at 25%, your second
best at 20%, and your third best at 10%. Your lowest
exam grade will be dropped at the end of the semester.

Writing assignments are your chance to independently reflect on the course material and
relate what we are learning to your own life and the world around you. There will be one
prompt for every major topic area we cover and you should choose three writing
assignments to complete over the course of the semester. The only requirement is that
you must complete (at least) one of the first four prompts and (at least) two of the first
nine prompts (to help you spread out your work). All prompts will be posted to
Blackboard at the beginning of the term so you can plan ahead and select accordingly.
WRITING

These 1.5-2 page (double-spaced) assignments will be due several days to a week after
the corresponding topic area has been covered in lecture. (Specific due dates can be
found on the course calendar on the last page and the full list of prompts.) They do not
need to follow any specific format; just thoughtfully respond to your chosen prompts in a
clear and organized manner. (See the rubric posted to Blackboard for more details.)

If you would like to complete more than three writing assignments (e.g., to make up for a
lower-than-expected grade), only your three highest scores will be counted. (Note: If you
don’t meet the distribution requirements specified above, you’ll get a zero (that cannot
be substituted) for the missing assignment(s).

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Starting the second week of labs (September 12th), the beginning of each lab section
MOMENT OF GEEK

will be reserved for Moment of Geek: an opportunity to polish your presentation skills in
an informal, supportive environment, learn how to accessibly communicate scientific
research, and most importantly, just geek out about something that fascinates you.

For this assignment, your job is to find an article in the popular press that summarizes
the findings of a recent study in psychology or neuroscience, and then, in two minutes or
less, share it with your classmates. Explain what the researchers studied, how they
studied it, what they found, and why you think it’s awesome. (Full assignment description
available on Blackboard.)

Everyone will be responsible for completing two Moment of Geek “presentations” (to
be scheduled in advance) over the course of the semester.

Each week, your lab sections will consist of Moment of

Geek presentations, one or more interactive activities based
on recent lecture material, and some time to ask your TA
any questions you might have. To accompany the activities, LABS BEGIN
THE WEEK OF:
LAB ACTIVITIES

you’ll complete a short, self-contained assignment that will

be due by the end of the class period. Each week’s lab
August 29th
assignment and participation will be graded full/half/no
credit for thoughtful completion.
NO LABS
In other words, unless you’re scheduled for Moment of THE WEEKS OF:
Geek that week, you don’t need to do anything special to
prepare for your lab section, nor will you have any lab- September 5th
specific homework. You won’t be able to make up missed October 10th
labs by attending a different section, but your three lowest November 21st
lab activity grades will be dropped at the end of the
semester. Note: Please, please do not show up to lab if
you are not feeling well. I promise we will work with you.

For PSYC 100, the Department of Psychology (i.e., not me personally) requires that each
student complete five SONA research credits over the course of the semester. More
RESEARCH HOURS

information on registering for the SONA system and signing up for studies will be
provided in the first weeks of class and posted to Blackboard.

To receive your SONA points at the end of the semester, you must tell SONA to allocate
your credits to this specific lecture section of PSYC 100 (not my other section and not
one of Prof. George’s sections). If you don’t do this (and we have to fix it for you by hand
at the end of the semester), you’ll only receive credit for 50% of the SONA studies that
you completed.

If you would like to participate in a semester-long service-learning experience through

USC’s Joint Educational Project or complete an alternative assignment (two additional
writing assignments) instead of participating in research, you must make this choice (and
email me/CC your TA to let us know) by Friday, September 9th.

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

EXTRA CREDIT
This syllabus is your friend! If you have a logistical question about this class (or even
about all the campus resources available to you), the answer is very likely somewhere in
this document. (I know it’s a lot, but I wrote it all to help you, I promise.)

So, to preemptively reward all of you for your excellent syllabus-checking habits, each of
SYLLABUS QUIZ

you have the opportunity to earn one percentage point of extra credit (which will be
added to your overall grade for the course at the end of the semester) by taking a quick
little syllabus quiz on Blackboard (due the first week of class). But here’s the catch: Every
time you email with one of the specific questions that you have already answered for
yourself by taking that quiz (e.g., “How many quiz grades get dropped?”), you will lose a
quarter of that point, just like you might on any other quiz.

Of course, we are more than happy to answer other (non-syllabus) questions via email
and any/all questions in real time during class time or office hours, so you can absolutely
ask us things! Just please try to meet us halfway and make sure the question hasn’t
already been answered for you before sending an email. (Pro-tip: You can always return
to this syllabus quiz on Blackboard, and this document and Piazza are both fully
searchable ! )

GRADING POLICIES
Final percentage scores will be rounded up/down to the nearest whole number from .50 and letter grades
will be assigned according to the table below

A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D D- F
93-100 90-92 87-89 83-86 80-82 77-79 73-76 70-72 67-69 63-66 60-62 <60

We will not entertain individual appeals for “personalized rounding schemes” nor will we create “extra
assignments” for anyone to attempt to raise their grade in the final weeks of the course. (Because it is a
question on the syllabus quiz, each such request will be subject to a deduction from the extra credit
syllabus quiz point described above.)

THE MORE YOU KNOW: Because of the “choose your own adventure” style of this class
(featuring staggered writing/MoG due dates and individualized exam weights), it is functionally
impossible for me to provide everyone with an up-to-date overall grade in Blackboard while
the class is still in progress. You’ll always have access to your grades on individual
assignments if you’d like to do some math and work out hypotheticals for yourself, but the
TAs and I will only be able to provide you with an overall grade at the very end of the semester.

PRO-TIP: There is absolutely no shame in needing or seeking help. If you become

concerned about (or would simply like to improve) your performance in the class at
any point, please reach out (to me or your TA) as soon as you can.

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

TURNING IN ASSIGNMENTS
Blackboard (or a Google form that you’ll find linked on Blackboard) is where you’ll go to complete/submit
your assignments for this class. To keep things as consistent as possible, everything with a class-wide
due date listed on the course calendar on the last page is due by the start of lecture on the day listed.
(Moment of Geek articles are due 72 hours before the lab session when you’re personally scheduled to
present.) Remember that you can continue to submit assignments for full credit up to 24 hours after each
listed due date/time whenever you realize you need that extra cushion. (And there’s no need to let us
know; the 24-hour window is an automatic blanket extension.)

PRO-TIP: Double-checking whether your assignments have been properly submitted is a

great habit to develop for all of your classes. For this class, all of our Google forms will
automatically send you a response receipt. If you get that confirmation email, then we’ve
got your submission. For anything submitted directly through Blackboard (like our
quizzes or writing assignments), you can check your Grades page to see whether that
assignment has been received on our end.

ACADEMIC RESOURCES

CAMPUS OFFICE SERVICES PHONE EMAIL

General help with college coursework,
Kortschak Center 
 kortschakcenter

including study skill tips, test-taking (213) 740-7884
for Learning and Creativity @usc.edu
strategies, and stress management
Specific help with writing, including free
The Writing Center (213) 740-3691 [email protected]
one-on-one consultations
Credit-granting courses, one-on-one
American Language
tutoring, and free informal conversation (213) 740-0079 [email protected]
Institute
groups for English language learners
Lifestyle Redesign program to help
Occupational Therapy foster time management, decrease
(323) 442-3340 [email protected]
Faculty Practice procrastination, manage stress and
anxiety, etc.

ON TAKING CARE OF EACH OTHER

Here’s the thing. Wearing some material over your face is (truly) one of the lowest
effort/highest impact things you can do out of care for other people. It is quite
literally one of the easiest things I have done in my life. If you choose to attend your
lab sessions in-person, I believe in your ability to do this very easy/impactful thing to
keep your classmates and TA safe and healthy.

Research shows that contracting COVID-19 puts people at an increased risk for a
wide variety of neurological complications, even years after they have seemingly Me looking out for
recovered from their initial infection. (On very good authority, I can assure you that the well-being of my
students and TAs
you do not want to develop a neurological problem.) If you can’t be persuaded to
choose kindness for the sake of keeping other people healthy, do it for yourself.

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

A NOTE ON COMMUNITY AND WELLNESS

It is our goal to foster an environment of mutual respect in Student Counseling Services
which everyone can feel comfortable voicing their opinions,
sharing their stories, and learning about potentially heavy or Consultations: (213) 740-7711

personally relevant material. During your first lab session, you’ll 24/7 support: (213) 740-9355

work together as a group to create community guidelines for Location: ESHC 304

your time together. If, at any point, you feel like information
covered in this class triggers thoughts, feelings, or concerns National Suicide Prevention
that you would like to discuss further, please do not hesitate Hotline
to reach out to me, your TA, Student Counseling Services, or
the (free and anonymous) National Suicide Prevention Hotline. 988

ACCESSIBILITY AND ACCOMMODATIONS

As a teaching team, we strive to create an environment in
which every student is given an equal opportunity to excel. If Office of Student
you are in need of certain accommodations (e.g., extra time Accessibility Services
on assessments, adaptive technology, class note-taker, etc.)
due to any (physical or mental) health condition, please let us Hours: M-F, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

know (and contact the Office of Student Accessibility Location: GFS 120

Services) as soon as possible. Remember that any information Phone: (213) 740-0776

you share regarding accommodations is confidential and will

not be shared with other students.

This class is designed in such a way that many common
accommodations are already built in, but an official letter from THE MORE YOU KNOW
OSAS can help ensure that your needs will be met in all of Mental illnesses "count" for
your classes. According to university policy, professors are not disability accommodations
obligated to grant individual accommodations without an under the Americans with
approved accommodations letter. Disabilities Act.

For purposes of this class, if there is anything that your TAs or If you feel you could benefit 

I can do to make our teaching more accessible and inclusive, from accommodations, please
please don’t hesitate to let us know at any time. reach out to us or OSAS.

TECHNOLOGY POLICY: THE GOLDEN RULE

You are more than welcome to bring laptops, tablets, or any other assistive technology to class if it will
help you succeed to the best of your ability. (Laptops will be necessary for certain lab activities and can
be borrowed from the Information Commons on the bottom floor of Leavey Library for up to four hours
at a time.)

During structured discussions or certain in-class activities, your TA may ask that non-essential
technology be set aside to allow for full engagement. Please also note that we reserve the right to
revoke your individual technology privileges at any time if you appear excessively/inappropriately
distracted or if your technology use appears to be distracting those around you. If you were speaking to
a group of people about something you genuinely care about, you’d probably want them to pay full
attention to you. Please just be kind.

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE, IDENTITY-BASED

HARM, AND OTHER PERSONAL CRISES
If you ask me, this is the single most important Relationship & Sexual Violence Prevention
part of the syllabus and I need to know that & Services
people are aware of this information, so let’s try
something. If you have read this far, please email Student Counseling Services
me (Dr. Leslie Berntsen) your favorite GIF of
Olivia Benson (the fictional sex crimes detective Campus Support & Intervention
from Law & Order: SVU). This is not a joke, and I
am 100% serious. (You will lose half of your Title IX Office
aforementioned syllabus quiz extra credit point if
you do not brighten my inbox with an Olivia Office of Equity & Diversity
Benson GIF.) Now, the important information:
Department of Public Safety
If you experience sexual violence, identity-based
harm, or any other personal crisis at any point Asian Pacific American Student Services
during the semester, please don’t hesitate to
reach out to me and/or your TA so we can (1) Center for Black Cultural & Student Affairs
help you get caught up in class, (2) put you in
contact with the appropriate resources and La CASA
services, and (3) answer questions to the extent
that we are qualified to do so. (Remember the LGBT Resource Center
magic words are “Life happened and I need
help.”) But, if you’d rather not talk to your Office of Religious Life
professor or TA about these issues, we
completely understand. Check the box to the And finally, for information about your legal
right for some of those (hyperlinked) resources rights under Title IX: Know Your IX
that we would have ended up telling you about:

THE MORE YOU KNOW: Your TAs and I are required by university policy to report all
disclosures of sexual violence to the appropriate campus authorities. But, please know that I
am qualified and more than willing to support survivors throughout the process. If you have
general, procedural questions (that do not reference a specific event), please ask any time.

ON BASIC NEEDS
If you ever find yourself struggling to afford food and/or secure a safe and stable place to live and feel like
such circumstances are impacting your performance in this class, please speak to me and/or your TA (if
you feel comfortable) so that we can provide whatever resources and support we can. For additional
information and support, you can also contact Campus Support & Intervention at (213) 821-4710.

THE MORE YOU KNOW: There is an emergency food and toiletry pantry located in
Parkside Apartments #135.

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

ON EXTRACURRICULAR FAVORS AND REQUESTS

THE MORE YOU KNOW: Research shows that faculty members who are perceived as
approachable and dedicated to teaching receive significantly more extra requests from students
and colleagues than those who might give off “other” impressions. When you’re one of these
faculty members (with thousands of current/former students and a disability to boot), it becomes
critical to set some boundaries up front. (This is not because any individual request is too much to
ask or because there’s anything “undeserving” about the person asking. Rather, it’s simply
because I—one person—cannot possibly do or be everything for everyone.)

So, for the sake of my health, and to ensure that I can effectively do the greatest good for the
greatest number of people, here are the boundaries pertaining to my most common requests:

To give advice about graduate school, possible career paths, and the like: Yes, of course, I would
love to. Just click here to make an appointment for office hours and feel free to bring a friend or two.

To connect you with campus resources, including Student Counseling: If you need help getting
help, I can absolutely facilitate that process. Remember you can always email me with the words “Life
happened and I need help,” and I’ll put you in touch with Campus Support and Intervention, a one-stop
shop for support for complex situations. I can also help you get a same-day appointment with Student
Counseling if that becomes necessary. However, please know it is not okay to force me to LARP as your
therapist, even for two minutes, and even though my classes touch on mental health. As your professor, I
can serve as a first responder, get you connected with someone who is qualified to help, and help you
make a plan to get through the class in one piece. But, I cannot (for so many reasons!) be the person any
student chooses to lean on for non-academic, emotional, or therapeutic support.

To write a letter of recommendation or serve as a professional reference: I am no longer able to

write letters or serve as a professional reference for undergraduate students who just take one (or more)
of my classes, and I will explain why. Having served on many selection/review committees, I can promise
these evaluations land much differently when they come from someone who can effectively advocate for
you because they genuinely know you as a person (vs. someone who has just taught you in a large
lecture class). Because there are simply so many of you (1000 per year!) and I want to ensure that
anyone I recommend receives a reference that meaningfully strengthens their application, please know
that I am only able to serve as a referee for graduate students directly under my teaching mentorship.

To give an interview for a podcast, newspaper article, news segment, etc: Just email me or chat
with me first to see if I’m (1) the best person to provide the kinds of comments you’re looking for and (2)
able to field the request within your desired timeframe.

To speak on a panel or at another live event: My schedule and accessibility needs are going to be the
limiting factors for these kinds of requests, which is all the more reason to ask as early as you can.

To supervise a research project: There’s no way you would know this without someone telling you, but
there are actually two kinds of professors at a school like USC: those of us who focus primarily on
teaching (hi!) and then those who focus primarily on research, run their own labs, and maybe teach a
class every now and then. Because I’m in that first group, I don’t have the resources to be able to
effectively supervise undergraduate research. But, I am always more than happy to help you think
through your research interests and figure out which labs in the department might be a good fit and/or
serve as a secondary reader for honors theses.

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PSYC 100 Fall 2022

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICIES

USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment that fosters general principles of academic
honesty. These include respecting the intellectual property of others, submitting your own individual work
unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and protecting your own academic work from misuse by
others. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles and be aware of the
possible sanctions, which are summarized in Part B of SCampus.

For this class, specific examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to: Falsifying lab
attendance or completing an activity for someone who wasn’t present during the lab section and
submitting any graded material that has been written by another person (including yourself for a previous
class) or lifted from the internet, either in part or in full. If you have any questions about these policies or
academic dishonesty in general, your TAs and I would be more than happy to answer them, so please
do ask.

PRO-TIP: If any part of you feels even slightly tempted to engage in academic dishonesty
for the sake of a better grade, come talk to me or your TA and we’ll give you all sorts of
tips and tricks to earn that grade you’re hoping for. If you need more time to complete an
assignment, we will work with you, so just let your TA know.

If you cheat, you could be putting your entire degree in jeopardy. You are also guaranteed
to lose all of my trust and make me very, very aggravated that I have to deal with it/you.

Do not cheat. That’s really all there is to it.

COURSE SCHEDULE
The course calendar on the next page details the topic scheduled for each drop-in Q&A/discussion
session, as well as the due dates for all of your quizzes, writing assignments, and exams.

The flow chart below summarizes your tasks (and the order in which you should complete them) for each
topic area. Ideally, you’ll watch each week’s lecture videos (linked in the Live Class Calendar on
Blackboard) prior to the listed Q&A/discussion session (so that you’ll be able to pop in if you have any
questions or would like to chat).

If you have questions about an earlier topic on a later day, you’re more than welcome to pop in, but
anyone who has questions about that day’s scheduled topic will get priority. You are also more than
welcome to pop in to my other section (TR, 9:30-10:50 AM; you can find Zoom links for both sections on
Blackboard) if you find that those times work better for you. (Their daily schedule is the same as yours,
just one day ahead.) Even if you do that, you’re still responsible for submitting your assignments
according to this calendar on the next page since this is the lecture section you’re officially enrolled in.

1 2 3 4
Watch the 
 Drop-in for 
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BEFORE DURING AFTER “LECTURE”

Updated: 08/19/22 Page 11 of 12
 WHAT’S DUE? TEXTBOOK
COME TO “LECTURE” IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS
DAY DATE CHAPTERS
OR WOULD JUST LIKE TO CHAT ABOUT:
Quizzes Writing (optional)
(two dropped) (choose three)
M August 22nd 1A: History (and Current State) of Psychological Science 1
W August 24th Syllabus XC 1B: Research Methods and Critical Thinking 2
M August 29th #1 2: Theories of Personality 11
W August 31st #1A, #1B 2: Theories of Personality
M September 5th NO CLASS: LABOR DAY
W September 7th #2 #2 3: Introduction to Neuroscience 3
M September 12th 3: Introduction to Neuroscience
W September 14th #3 4: Nature and Nurture 3
M September 19th #3 4: Nature and Nurture
W September 21st #4 5: Developmental Psychology 9
M September 26th #4 5: Developmental Psychology
W September 28th #5 EXAM #1: Units 1-5 (due at 8:30 AM on the 29th)
M October 3rd #5 6: Social Psychology 12
W October 5th 6: Social Psychology
M October 10th #6 6: Social Psychology
W October 12th NO CLASS: FALL BREAK (for MW/TR consistency)
M October 17th #6 7: Emotions, Health, and Happiness 10, 14
W October 19th #7 8: Motivation, Stress, and Illness 10, 14
M October 24th #7, #8 9: Understanding Mental Illness 15
W October 26th #8 9: Understanding Mental Illness
M October 31st #9 10: Treating Mental Illness 16
W November 2nd #9, #10 EXAM #2: Units 6-10 (due at 8:30 AM on the 3rd)
M November 7th #10 11: States of Consciousness 4
W November 9th #11 12: Sensation and Perception 5
M November 14th #11, #12 13: Learning 6
W November 16th #12, #13 14: Memory 8
M November 21st #13, #14 15: Language and Cognition 7
W November 23rd NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING BREAK
M November 28th #15 16: Intelligence 7
W November 30th #14, #15, #16 #16 EXAM #3: Units 11-16 (due at 8:30 AM on the 1st)
W December 7th FINAL EXAM (8:00-10:00 AM)

Reminder: Everything is due (to Blackboard) by the start of lecture (8:30 AM LA local time), with an automatic 24-hour blanket extension
added to the due dates listed above.