Standard

R State Standard £ Institutionally Developed College: N/A

PSY 1010 – Basic Psychology

Course Description

This course presents the basic principles of human behavior and their application to everyday life and work. Topics include: introduction to psychology; social environments; communications and group processes; personality; emotions and motives; conflicts, stress, and anxiety; perception and learning; life span development; and abnormal psychology.

Competency Areas	Hours
Introduction to Psychology	Class	5
Social Environments	D. Lab	0
Communications and Group Processes	P. Lab/O.B.I.	0
Personality	Credit	5
Emotions and Motives
Conflicts, Stress, and Anxiety
Perception and Learning
Life Span Development
Abnormal Psychology

Prerequisite:	Provisional admission
Corequisite:

Course Guide

Competency	After completing this section, the student will be able to:	Hours
		Class	D.Lab	P.Lab/ O.B.I.

Introduction to Psychology		2	0	0
Definitions	Define psychology.
Careers in psychology	Identify career options in psychology.
Social Environments		4	0	0
Primary relationships	Identify influences of primary relationships.
Secondary relationships	Identify influences of secondary relationships.
Rules	Explain and demonstrate rules for human interaction.
Roles	Identify and explain societal roles and expectations.
Affiliation	Explain and demonstrate principles of group inclusion.
Communications and Group Processes		5	0	0
Communications process	Identify/demonstrate the communication process.
Communication components	Identify communication components.
Nonverbal agenda	Identify/demonstrate nonverbal cues.
Communication barriers	Develop strategies to overcome communication barriers.
Listening	Demonstrate active listening skills.
Member roles in groups	Determine and perform member roles in groups.
Leader roles in groups	Determine and perform leader roles in groups.
Personality		6	0	0
Personality theories	Describe and evaluate personality theories and disorders.
Types and temperaments	Identify personality types and temperaments.
	Assess own personality type and temperament.
Emotions and Motives		5	0	0
Theories of emotions	Identify and evaluate theories of emotions.
Classification for emotions	Illustrate and identify emotions by facial expression, vocal tone, nonverbal cues, etc.
Physiological motives	Explain physiological motives.
Psychological motives	Explain psychological motives.
Conflicts, Stress, and Anxiety		7	0	0
Conflict potential	Assess conflict potential in personal/professional relationships.
Conflict management	Demonstrate strategies to handle conflict effectively.
Stress causing factors	Cite stress causing factors.
Stress tolerance/coping	Diagnose personal tolerance.
	Plan stress coping techniques.
State/trait anxiety	Identify and explain different anxiety dimensions.
Perception and Learning		8	0	0
Role of the nervous system	Differentiate between sensation and perception.
	Describe the role of the nervous system in relaying and processing information.
Perception process	Identify and explain perception process.
Perception and reality	Demonstrate perception-reality principles.
Cognitive view of learning	Identify cognitive view of learning.
Information processing	Explain information processing.
Learning and reinforcement	Explain positive and negative reinforcement.
Life Span Development		8	0	0
Childhood development	Describe the effects of childhood development on personality development.
	Identify major influences in the early childhood span.
Adolescent development	Identify factors in the adolescent stage of development that affect behavior and influence choices.
Young and middle age development	Contrast the role of an independent young or middle age person with that of a dependent young or middle age person.
	Analyze the major decision of this age group.
Older adults	Relate the earlier stages of development to the success or failure of this age.
	Describe the life style of older adults.
	List characteristics of this group.
	Analyze the factors that influence older adults.
Abnormal Psychology		5	0	0
	Define psychology as well as identify the careers in psychology.
	Demonstrate understanding of social environments including primary and secondary relationships, rules, roles, and affiliation.
	Identify examples of the communication process.
	Demonstrate understanding of major categories of abnormality.
	Demonstrate understanding of personality traits, theories, and testing.
	Evaluate theories of emotions and motives.
	Apply theories of conflicts, stress, and anxiety.
	Discover life span development.
	Demonstrate understanding of introductory abnormal psychology principles.

Suggested Resources

Media Print Audio/Visual Web Other
Print	Baltus, Rita. K. (1994). Personal psychology for life and work. (4^th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
	Beck, Robert. C. (1996). Applying psychology: Understanding people. (2^nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
	Bernstein, D. A., et al. (1999). Psychology. (5^th ed.) Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
	Corey, Gerald C. and Marianne S. (1995). I never knew I had a choice. (3^rd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks-Cole.
	Dworetzky, John. P. (1997). Psychology. (6^th ed.). St. Paul: West.
	Houston, J. P., & Bee, H. (1995). Essentials of Psychology. (2^nd ed.). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
	Kagan, J. (Ed.). (1998). Psychology: An introduction. (6^th ed.). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
	Parham, A. C. (1998). Psychology: Studying the Behavior of People (2^nd ed.). Cincinnati: South-Western.

Posted: 10/08/08