Psychology 1003 001 002 003 FW25

 Psychology as a Social Science

Psychology 1003B 001-003 FW25

Psychology as a Social Science

Western University

London                   Canada

Department of Psychology

Fall/Winter 2025  (rev Nov 3/25)

 

  1. Calendar Description

 

An introductory survey of the methods and findings within modern scientific psychology. This course focuses on the social aspects of human behaviour. The following topics will be covered: verbal and cognitive processes, intelligence, developmental psychology, social psychology, individual differences (intelligence and personality), and clinical psychology.

Antirequisites: Psychology 1000, Psychology 1000W/X, Psychology 1015A/B, Psychology 1100E.

Prerequisites: Psychology 1002A/B or Psychology 1010A/B

2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial/lab hour, 0.5 course

Unless you have either the prerequisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enrol in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record.  This decision may not be appealed.  You will receive no adjustment t to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.

 

  1. Course Information

 

Instructors : 

 Dr. Mike Atkinson: psyc1003@uwo.ca  Office hours: TBA

 Dr. Jennifer Sutton: psyc1003@uwo.ca Office hours: TBA

 Lectures and Learning Labs: In Person.  See Student Centre for Timetable                           

Teaching Assistants:  TBA.   see OWL site

There are a number of Graduate Teaching Assistants assigned to Psych 1003B. The graduate students have been part of the Department of Psychology from 1 to 6 years. Teaching assistants will run the Learning Labs.

Please feel free to address any questions about the lectures, the program, or psychology in general to them as well as to Dr. Atkinson & Dr. Sutton

 

Psych 1003B Course Site

The course website is located on OWL Brightspace   https://westernu.brightspace.com/

Where you will find class information, study suggestions, links to other resources, etc. Please check it often.

 

Questions

Asking questions during lab or in lecture is an extremely important part of learning. I strongly encourage you to ask a question whenever you require clarification on an issue or have an observation to make yourself. If you wish to ask a question directly to either Dr. Mike or Dr. Sutton, please post your question to the “Questions and Office Hours” discussion in the Forums on the Psych 1003B Brightspace site. You can also talk with us during Office Hours in our physical offices.  Note: Routine questions such as ―When is the exam? What chapters are covered for the exam? etc., may already be addressed on the FAQ portion of the course website. 

 

  1. Course Materials

 

Required Text:        Passer, M.W., Smith, R.E., Atkinson, M.L., & Mitchell, J.B., (2023).

                                     Psychology: Frontiers and Applications. 8th Canadian Edition.

                                    Toronto: McGraw Hill Ryerson.

Note: this text comes shrink-wrapped with a passkey for the CONNECT website.  Do not throw away the plastic wrapping. ($163.15)

This text is also available as an e-book ($99) … also comes with CONNECT

Also, it is important to purchase the 8th edition—it has content that is not available in earlier editions, and you will need the CONNECT code.

Recommended Text:  Ellis, Toft & Dawson (2012). 

Becoming a Master Student . Nelson. 

This material will not be covered on exams, but may be useful to you for time management, note taking, etc.

 

  1. Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes

 

This course is an introductory level survey of the methods and findings related to the biological, social and methodological elements of modern scientific psychology. The goal is to provide students with an overview of various topic domains within this realm of psychology. As such, students will be exposed to diverse theoretical viewpoints and various methods and procedures for the scientific investigation of psychological issues.

Note: Modern psychology is scientific in nature. Consequently, we will spend a lot of time discussing science-related topics such as research design, some neural and biological aspects of social behaviour, etc.

Each chapter in the text covers a major interest area in psychology. By the end of this course, the successful student will be able to:

 

Learning Outcome

Learning Activity

Assessment

Knowledge Acquisition

Identify major concepts, theories, and topics in Psychology

Reading &watching lectures, + CONNECT & Learning Labs

Multiple choice exam & participation

Critical Thinking

Distinguish between and identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of various theories in Psychology

Reading & watching lectures, + CONNECT & Learning Labs

Multiple choice exam & participation, quality of lab participation & reflection

Problem Solving; Inquiry and Analysis)

Apply concepts and theories from Psychology to everyday problems

Reading & watching lectures, + CONNECT & Learning Labs

Multiple choice exam, participation, quality of lab participation & reflection

 

Communication

Ask questions about topics in Psychology

 

 Learning Labs

 

Lab participation

Critical Thinking; Problem Solving

Interpret statistical information presented in tables or graphs

Reading & watching lectures, + CONNECT & Learning Labs

Multiple choice exam, participation

Knowledge Acquisition; Inquiry and Analysis

Identify common research designs used in Psychology

Reading & watching lectures, + CONNECT & Learning Labs

Multiple choice exam, participation

 

 

5.0  Evaluation

There will be TWO exams during the course, plus CONNECT work (the Quizzes), learning lab participation and research credit participation. The midterm exam (worth 40%) is scheduled for Saturday Feb. 28, 2026 at 2pm.  The final exam (worth 40%) will be scheduled during the final exam period (April 12 – 30, 2026).

The midterm exam covers chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12 and will consist of 60 - 75 multiple choice questions from both the text and lectures.  The final exam covers chapters 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17 and consist of 75 - 100 multiple choice questions from the text and lectures

ALL EXAMS ARE IN PERSON.  Room assignments will be available at least one week before the scheduled exam time.

In addition to the exams, you must complete a series of quizzes on the CONNECT site (one quiz per chapter). The total value for the quizzes is 2%.



Learning Labs count for 12% of your grade. Note: there is not a lab every week. Labs starting the week of January 12th. At the end of each learning lab, there will be a short, graded reflection.

Finally, there is a research participation requirement (see details on the Owl site).  You will be asked to participate in 3 research hours during the term. Minimum of 1 hour must be an in-person study.  Each half-hour is worth 1% of your grade.

The evaluation and testing formats for this course were created to assess the learning objectives as listed in section 4.0 and are considered necessary for meeting these learning objectives.  

 

5.1 Policy on Missing Coursework

If you miss the final exam for a legitimate reason (legitimate reasons are those approved by academic counselling in your home faculty), you will be allowed to write a makeup. NOTE:  in order to receive credit for this course, you must write the final exam.

Make-Up Exams:  Tests must be written on the scheduled dates unless you have a legitimate excuse recognized by the university administration in your home faculty. Valid reasons include medical or compassionate reasons, documented internet access issues, and religious observances.

Academic Consideration for the midterm and final exam must be substantiated by submitting the proper documentation and self-attestation to your home faculty's academic counselling office, via the Student Absence Portal.

The makeup exam for the midterm will be Thursday, March 12th @ 5:30 pm.

Students who miss the midterm without documentation and an approved academic consideration will receive a grade of zero. Learning Labs:  You must participate in 6 out of 8 labs.  You will receive your lab grade for the best 6 of 8 lab marks.

For CONNECT there is ample time to complete the quizzes. There will be a flexible deadline of an additional 72 hours, i.e., we keep the CONNECT site open for an additional 3 days.

Research credits MUST be completed by noon on April 7, 2026.  The participation pool will be closed on that date, and NO late submissions will be accepted.  As with CONNECT, there is ample time to complete the credit requirement.

 

  5.1a. Policy on Appealing Learning Lab Grades

Learning Labs are graded in real time each week.  Your grade is determined by the Learning Lab Facilitator, based on the assessments in that lab session.  If you believe that a grade assigned for any given lab is not justified, you must address this with the facilitator within one week of the grade posting.  It is not feasible for us to assess your lab performance after the course has ended.

 

The expectation for course grades within the Psychology Department is that they will be distributed around the following averages:

 

70%     1000-level to 2099-level courses

72%     2100-2999-level courses

75%     3000-level courses

80%     4000-level courses

 

The Psychology Department follows Western’s grading guidelines, which are as follows (see: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf

In the event that course grades are significantly higher or lower than these averages, instructors may be required to make adjustments to course grades. Such adjustment might include the normalization of one or more course components and/or the re-weighting of various course components.

Policy on Grade Rounding: Please note that although course grades within the Psychology Department are rounded to the nearest whole number, no further grade rounding will be done. No additional assignments will be offered to enhance a final grade; nor will requests to change a grade because it is needed for a future program be considered.

 

  1. Assessment/Evaluation Schedule

 

Midterm exam                          40%        Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026 at 14:00 (2pm)

Final exam                                  40%         Final exam period (April 12-30, 2026)

Learning Labs                           12%         Graded weekly

CONNECT Quizzes 9-13           1%        due March 2, 2026

CONNECT Quizzes 14-17         1%       due April 7, 2026

Research Studies                         6%        due noon, April 7, 2026

NOTE:  in order to pass the course, you MUST write the final exam

  1. Class Schedule

Topics will be covered in the following order during the year. Approximate lecture dates are given so that you can keep up with the readings.  Learning Labs are synched to the Lecture topics.  We will post a link on OWL to the appropriate Learning Lab each week. Lectures are intended to highlight certain areas of each topic -- there is not enough time available to us to cover all the material. However, you are responsible for all the material in the text.

Please note that there is a fairly heavy reading load in this course -- we cover approximately one chapter every week and half. Thus, it is important for you to keep up with the readings

PSY 1003B W2026

Week

Date (Monday)

Topic

Chapter

Instructor

Notes

1

Jan 5

Language & Thinking

9

JS

 

2

Jan 12

Intelligence

10

JS

 

3

Jan 19

Motivation & Emotion

11

JS

 

4

Jan 26

Lifespan Dev’t - Child

12

JS

 

5

Feb 2

Lifespan Dev’t - Adult

12

JS

 

6

Feb 9

Social 1

13

JS

 

--

Feb 16

Reading Week

7

Feb 23

Social 2

13

JS

 

 

Feb 28

MIDTERM

 

 

Make-up Mar 12

8

Mar 2

Stress

15

MA

 

9

Mar 9

Personality

14

MA

 

10

Mar 16

Disorders

16

MA

 

11

Mar 23

Disorders & Treatment

16-17

MA

 

12

Mar 30

Treatment

17

MA

 

13

Apr 6

End of Term Wrap Up

--

MA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 12-30 FINAL EXAM TBD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Academic Integrity

 

Scholastic offences are taken seriously, and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf.

 

Possible penalties for a scholastic offence include failure of the assignment/exam, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.

 

Statement on Use of Electronic Devices

 

Students can use electronic devices in class (laptops, tablets, cell phones). Please do so respectfully and avoid distracting classmates, the professor, or teaching assistant.

 

Use of electronic devices is prohibited during tests/exams unless specific accommodations have been given.

 

Plagiarism Detection Software

 

All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection of plagiarism.  All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com.

 

Use of AI

 

The use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT to produce written work is not permitted unless permission is granted by the instructor for specific circumstances. Any work submitted must be the work of the student in its entirety unless otherwise disclosed. When used, AI tools should be used ethically and responsibly, and students must cite or credit the tools used in line with the expectation to use AI as a tool to learn, not to produce content.

AI Policy for Psychology:

Responsible use of AI is allowed in Psychology.  This includes using AI for brainstorming, improving grammar, or doing preliminary/background research on a topic.

 

AI is not to be used in place of critical thinking.

 

The misuse of AI undermines the academic values of this course.  Relying on AI to create full drafts or fabricate sources is prohibited.  You are ultimately responsible for any work submitted, so it is highly advised that you critically review your Generative AI output before incorporating this information into your assignments.

 

If you use AI, you must clearly explain its role in your work.  All written assignments will require an AI Usage Statement, in which you will indicate what tools you have used, what you have used them for, and (broadly) how you have modified this information.  Assignments without an AI Usage Statement will not be accepted.

 

Violations of this policy will be handled according to Western’s scholastic offense policies.

 

Multiple Choice Exams

 

Computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams will be subject to submission for similarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating.

 

9. Academic Accommodations and Accessible Education

 

View Western’s policy on academic accommodations for student with disabilities at this link.

 

Accessible Education provides supports and services to students with disabilities at Western.

If you think you may qualify for ongoing accommodation that will be recognized in all your courses, visit Accessible Education for more information.  Email: aew@uwo.ca  Phone: 519 661-2147

 

10. Absence & Academic Consideration

 

Academic Considerations: https://registrar.uwo.ca/academics/academic_considerations/index.html

 

11. Other Information

 

 

Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Health and Wellness@Western https://www.uwo.ca/health/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain help.

Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you.

 

If you wish to appeal a grade, please read the policy documentation at: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/appealsundergrad.pdf. Please first contact the course instructor. If your issue is not resolved, you may make your appeal in writing to the Undergraduate Chair in Psychology (psyugrd@uwo.ca).

 

Copyright Statement

 

Lectures and course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, videos and similar materials, are protected by copyright. You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own educational use. You may not record lectures, reproduce (or allow others to reproduce), post or distribute any course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes without the instructor’s written consent.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LEARNING INFORMATION EFFICIENTLY

You will be expected to know the assigned chapters VERY WELL!

Many of the multiple-choice questions in this course are based on material from the chapters that is not explicitly covered in lecture. To be able to answer these questions correctly you will need to know and understand each of the concepts and processes described in the assigned chapters.

This a major learning task and many students run into difficulties because they do not know how to handle this learning task efficiently.

Just reading the assigned chapters is NOT enough!

For most people the process of reading something, or even re-reading it, does not mean that they remember it. This is especially true for "heavy" course content such as that found in the psychology text. If you wish to learn the material from the text efficiently, you will need to approach it in a different manner.

Learn the text chapters using ACTIVE reading/ learning strategies.

Strategies recommended for efficient learning of text material can be divided into three types: pre- reading, reading for comprehension, and post-reading.

 

  1. Pre-reading. Learn the headings and subheadings.

Instead of diving immediately into reading the chapter, spend a few minutes learning the headings and subheadings. The headings and subheadings tell you the important ideas that will be covered in the chapter. In the text they are laid out for you on the first few pages of the book in the table of contents. Look at these headings and subheadings, think how they have been ordered, try reciting them from memory, and then write them out on a separate sheet of paper.

 

  1. Reading for comprehension. Read a few pages and THEN summarize.

Don't try to read most of the chapter in one sitting. It is much easier to learn the material in small chunks. Read a few pages carefully and THEN make a summary of the important points. Continue doing this until you have summarized about 10 pages - then take a break. You can summarize by highlighting sparingly AND making marginal notes, or by making separate written notes.

Note that much of the information in psychology comes in the form of arguments. Here are some the important kinds of information that are crucial to knowing and understanding an argument: i) definitions of new terms, ii) essential explanations of the specific argument, iii) examples, iv) results of studies.

If you make separate summary notes, try using point form and keywords. This has 2 advantages: the notes are made more quickly and they are easier to read. As you record key terms and definitions ALWAYS relate them to the arguments of which they are a part.

 

  1. Post- reading. Test yourself.

After actively reading 10 or more pages in the manner described above, try reciting (i.e., recalling from memory) all the important points under each heading and subheading that you have studied. This will reinforce the ideas you know and identify those that you need to review. Doing the study guide questions and relevant old exam questions after you have finished the entire chapter can also be very helpful.