Texts and Other Material
Grading

Text and Other Material. 

This class will involve weekly reading and discussion of materials from the textbook and supplemental materials.  The text for the course is:

 Thomas Hardy Leahey, A History of Modern Psychology, 3rd Ed. Prentice Hall (2001). (4^th Ed., 2003) McGraw-Hill, Inc.

  The web is a rich source of original writings, historical analyses, photographs, and other archives.  We will read a number of classic articles to try to “get in the heads” of prior generations of psychologists.

There will be no written assignments, but there will be short quizzes at the beginning of class every other week to ensure that you keep up with the readings.  I expect you to learn the material by carefully reading the assignments.  Questions regarding the readings can be raised prior to class through email.  I will either answer them through reply mail or discuss them at the beginning of class.  I will not otherwise lecture or summarize material that is in the readings. After the short quiz, class time will be spent discussing the material and certain fundamental questions and recurring themes:

• What differentiates psychology from other disciplines, esp. philosophy, neurology, sociology?

• Can psychology be a science? What methods will ensure its scientific validity?

• How does one thinker, school, or system of psychology differ from its peers and predecessors?

• What counts as progress in psychological science?

• What have been psychology’s greatest findings and insights?  Its biggest blunders?

• What do we want from psychological theories and psychological explanations?

• Will psychology ever develop a unified, generally accepted explanatory theory? Should it try?

Grades. 

The final grade will be based 80 percent on your cumulative points on the weekly quizzes and 20 percent on class participation.  There will be no mid-term or final exam.  We’ll keep a running tally of each person’s total correct answers on the quizzes.  At several points during the semester I’ll provide a frequency distribution of these points for the whole class, and show where I’d draw the lines for letter grades at that point in time.  I aim to distribute letter grades comparably to other advanced undergraduate classes at Hopkins.  I’ll add participation points at the end of the semester.  If you are shy about speaking up in class, participation points can also be won by finding and sending to me new web resources that are particularly relevant and informative.  If you must miss a class, make-up quizzes will be given by appointment before or shortly after the class during the missed week.