Course Intro

Unit 1
Psychology A

Introduction to the Perspectives

Calendar
Week 3: Introduction to the course, lectures on history of Psychology, Freud and preliminary research
Week 4: Psychodynamic Perspective
Week 5: Psychodynamic, Neo Freudian
Week 6: Behaviorism/Cognitive
Week 7: Social and Humanistic
Week 8: Neuropsychology and Brain Science
Week 10: Neuropsychology and Brain Science
Week 11: Neuropsychology and Brain Science/Evolutionary
Week 12: Evolutionary Psychology and Presentations
Week 13: Topic x
Week 14 Topic x
Week 15: Break
Week 16: Topic x
Week 17: Psychological Disorders
Week 18: Psychological Disorders
Week 19: Case studies
Week 20: Case studies
Week 21: Round-up

For each perspective

• Origins, history and founders of the area
• Substantive basis for the perspective: key theories, breakthroughs, hypotheses experiments and most importantly— evidence for this area’s claims.
• Two or three case studies demonstrating this area’s importance.
• Applications, especially in therapy and desired outcomes of the theory (i.e. what is the optimal existence of humans according to this perspective; “the good life”)
• Criticism and weaknesses (each group should be assigned an opponent group, the idea is to weaken and challenge the opposing point of view in favor of your own perspective)

Presentations
The group then needs to present their findings in a performance of at least 5 minutes (not including questions). For the purposes of fairness and grading, the work should be distributed evenly, providing each individual with a discreet area of responsibility. The packet and power point should be ready at the time of the presentations, but some leniency will be shown for the first presenters. The presentations should be made “in the spirit” of the area and driven to convince the listener that your perspective is the best explanation of human psychology available.