Psychology 2020B-001
Drugs and Behaviour
If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.
Revised Jan 5, 2022
WESTERN UNIVERSITY
LONDON CANADA
Department of Psychology
2021 - 2022
Psychology 2020B Section 001
Drugs and Behavior
- CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
Survey of the major drugs of abuse, including alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, opiates, stimulants, inhalants, and sedative-hypnotics. Discussion will focus on historical and current patterns of use and abuse, behavioural and psychological effects of acute and chronic use, psychological processes involved in drug effects, neurochemical bases for action, and treatment issues.
Antirequisite: Not Applicable
Prerequisite: Not Applicable
3 lecture hours; Course Weight: 0.5
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor:Dr. Riley Hinson
Office and Phone Number: 6334 SSC 519-661-2111 x84649
Office Hours: By appointment
Email: hinson@uwo.ca
Time and Location of Classes: In accordance with Western’s decision to move second-term courses to on-line at the beginning of term, the course will start as on-line and will remain on-line unless we are directed to deliver it in-person. During the time that the course is delivered on-line there will be a Zoom class meeting during the scheduled Monday and Wednesday class times (2:30 London, Ontario time). These classes will be recorded and posted to Voice Thread on the OWL course site. Students are not required to attend these on-line lectures during the scheduled class time, as students will have access to the lectures via the recordings at any time. If the class goes to in-person, the class meetings are scheduled Monday (2:30-4:30) and Wednesday (2:30-3:30) in AHB-1R40. If there are in-person lectures they will NOT be recorded. You will be responsible for any material presented in either the on-line Zoom lectures or any in-person classes.
Website: There is an OWL site for this course. Access to this site is via your id name and password (this is typically your last name and the code involving a combination of numbers and upper and lower case letters). Important course information will be posted at the website, and this is the main method of communicating information to students. It is the student’s responsibility to check the web site regularly for important course information. If you miss a course component (test, make up test, etc) when the information for that course component has been posted on the web site, then you will receive a grade of zero (0) on that course component.
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. You may also wish to contact Student Accessibility Services (formerly known as Services for Students with Disabilities) at 519-661-2147.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
All material that will be tested will be presented in class lectures. If you would like to have a complete copy of all the material that might be presented in class, you may purchase the entire set of my lectures from the Bookstore (in either digital or printed form). You are not required to purchase this. If you are considering purchasing the lectures from the Bookstore, make sure you get the correct book (you may contact me about this is you wish).
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES & LEARNING OUTCOMES
The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the major drugs of use and abuse. These include alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, opiates, marijuana, sedatives, hallucinogens, stimulants, inhalants, steroids and other miscellaneous drugs. The history of use of the different drugs will be presented. The current use of drugs will be described. The behavioral effects will be presented. Behavioral and biopsychological research aimed at identifying factors involved in drug use will also be discussed.
By the end of this course, the successful student should be able to
- recognize and identify major drugs of abuse when they are discussed texts, news, public forums
- recognize and identify major concepts related to drug addiction
- recognize and identify major experimental procedures related to the study of drug addiction
- compare, classify, and interpret information about drugs and drug addiction as presented in texts, news, media or public forums
Student Learning Outcomes, Activities and Assessment
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5.0 EVALUATION
Quizzes: These will count 50 marks. There will be weekly quizzes as indicated in the schedule in 7.0. The quizzes will be “open book”, so you may have notes. You must complete the quiz by yourself. You cannot have any outside help. The quizzes will take place via OWL Tests and Quizzes. The weekly quiz will become available at 23:00 hours on Wednesdays and will be available for 24 hours until 23:00 hours on Thursdays. The quizzes will be time-limited meaning that while you have a 24-hour period in which to begin the quiz, once you begin there will be a limited amount of time to finish. Most quizzes will be 20 minutes. Once you start a quiz the time clock starts and will end in 20 minutes. You cannot exit the quiz and come back. Once you start you have 20 minutes to finish. The coverage for each weekly quiz will be posted to OWL. The quizzes will be MC. See 7.0 below for tentative quiz schedule.
There will be a total of 10 weekly quizzes (even though there are 12 weeks during the term, there will only be a quiz given on 10 of those weeks. There will not be a quiz on the first week of classes. The other week when there will not be a quiz will be determined later and posted to OWL, but the most likely week is the one just before Reading Week or the Last Week of classes.) Your grade for the quizzes will be the % of the total marks you earn on the quizzes. For example, if each quiz was worth 12 marks, and we had 10 quizzes, there would be 120 possible marks, and if you made 100 marks, you have 83.33% on the quizzes, so 83.33% of the 50=41.67 quiz marks. There will be no dropping of any quiz marks. All quizzes will count.
Per Western Technology guidelines—When taking quizzes, or the Final Exam, you must not have the course OWL site open in more than one window/browser at a time. If you have the course site open in more than one browser/window it may not accept answers to the test, it may shut down, it may do many undesirable things---and you will not be allowed any consideration in terms of the answers not being submitted, test timing out, etc. DO NOT HAVE THE COURSE SITE OPEN IN MORE THAN ONE WINDOW/BROWSER AT A TIME.
It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that they have appropriate and stable internet connections. If there are documentable system wide internet problems or problems with OWL itself (which Western Technology can check) then you would be excused from missing a quiz. However, issues with connectivity or settings originating at the student connection end are not considered adequate for missing or failing to complete a quiz.
You are not permitted to print screen or copy screen any of the questions on any of the quizzes or the Final Exam. All questions on quizzes and tests are protected intellectual material and may not be copied without permission. If you copy questions on quizzes or tests this is considered an academic offense, so you should not be doing this. If you copy questions and in any manner distribute those questions, that is both an academic offense that may result in academic penalties and it is also a violation of copyright law.
Final Exam: This will count as 50 marks. This test will be cumulative over the entire course. It will be MC. At this time it is undetermined whether the test will be in person or on line. If it is in person, the Registrar will set the exam day/time and place and you will take the test under those conditions. If the exam is given on line it will be administered via OWL tests/quizzes. The Registrar will set the day/time and you will have to take the exam during that specified day/time period. Take note—if the final exam is administered on line it will NOT be available during a 24 hour period for you to take. You will have to take it during the specified time period as set by the Registrar. If the exam is given on line, it will be proctored. Whether given in person or on line, the final exam will be open book with respect to having notes in either printed or written form. You will NOT be allowed to access notes on any electronic device of any type. Any notes must be in only printed or written form.
Completion of this course will require you to have a reliable internet connection and a device that meets the system and technical requirements for Zoom. OWL technology logs any problems with OWL or Zoom. If you have a problem with OWL or Zoom that is not logged as originating from Western’s resources, you will not be allowed any make up tests or consideration of grades. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have a reliable internet connection. Information about the system and technical requirements are available at the following links:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us
* Please note that Zoom servers are located outside Canada. If you would prefer to use only your first name or a nickname to login to Zoom, please provide this information to the instructor in advance of the test or examination.
There will be NO MAKE UPS OF MISSED QUIZZES. See 5.1 on policy for missed work.
5.1 POLICY ON MISSING COURSEWORK
If you do not take a quiz and are not excused (either via Academic Counselling or SRA) you will receive a zero (0) for the missed quiz, and that will become one of the quiz grades used to calculate you quiz average. There will not be any dropped quiz grades. All quizzes will count.
If you are excused from a quiz, the points assigned to that quiz will be added to the Final Exam. Since quizzes are worth 50 marks and there are 10 quizzes, each quiz is worth 5 marks. Any excused quiz will result in 5 marks being added to the value of the Final Exam.
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: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf)
A+ 90-100 One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A 80-89 Superior work that is clearly above average
B 70-79 Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C 60-69 Competent work, meeting requirements
D 50-59 Fair work, minimally acceptable
F below 50 Fail
Note that 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. To maximize your grade, do your best on each and every assessment within the course.
6.0 ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION SCHEDULE
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Weekly quizzes |
50% |
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Final Exam |
50% |
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE Tentative and subject to change. The class dates are based on second term running from January 10 to April 8, with reading week remaining as originally scheduled. If that is changed, then the class schedule will have to be adjusted.
Shown below are the topics scheduled for each class, but that may change. The actual coverage for each test will be posted to OWL.
Copyright Statement: All lectures, text material, test questions, and any other course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, 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 copy or print screen any of the text notes or test material (or allow others to reproduce)
- post or distribute (or allowed to be posted or distributed by anyone else) lecture notes, power point presentations, test questions, wiki material, or any other course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes
M January 10: Introduction
W January 12: Introduction
NO QUIZ ON THIS WEEK
M January 17: Introduction
W January 19: Alcohol
QUIZZES START THIS WEEK AND YOU SHOULD EXPECT A QUIZ EACH WEEK UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTIFIED VIA AN OWL POSTING (See information above for how quizzes are given and graded.)
M January 24: Alcohol
W January 26: Alcohol
M January 31: Alcohol
W February 2: Alcohol
M February 7 Cannabis
W February 9: Cannabis
M February 14: Tobacco
W February 16: Tobacco
Week of February 21-25 No class
M February 28: Caffeine and Stimulants
W March 2: Stimulants
M March 7: Stimulants
W March 9: Hallucinogens
M March 14: Hallucinogens
W March 16 Hallucinogens
M March 21: Sedative-Hypnotics
W March 23: Sedative-Hypnotics
M March 28: Opiates
W March 30: Opiates
M April 4: Gambling
W April 6: Treatment
8.0 Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that Western University is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Attawandaron peoples, on lands connected with the London Township and Sombra Treaties of 1796 and the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum.
With this, we respect the longstanding relationships that Indigenous Nations have to this land, as they are the original caretakers. We acknowledge historical and ongoing injustices that Indigenous Peoples (e.g. First Nations, Métis and Inuit) endure in Canada, and we accept responsibility as a public institution to contribute toward revealing and correcting miseducation, as well as renewing respectful relationships with Indigenous communities through our teaching, research and community service.
9.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES
Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offences. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offences because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offence are described at the following link: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf
As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offences. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. 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 (http://www.turnitin.com).
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.
In classes that involve the use of a personal response system (PRS), data collected using the PRS will only be used in a manner consistent to that described in this outline. It is the instructor’s responsibility to make every effort to ensure that data remain confidential. However, students should be aware that as with all forms of electronic communication, privacy is not guaranteed. Your PRS login credentials are for your sole use only. Students attempting to use another student’s credentials to submit data through the PRS may be subject to academic misconduct proceedings.
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.
10.0 POLICY ON THE USE OF EXAM PROCTORING SOFTWARE
When examinations and tests cannot be given in person (e.g., in courses coded as Distance Studies; in the event of a lockdown order), they may be conducted using either a monitoring platform such as Zoom or a remote proctoring service, such as Proctorio. If Zoom is used for exam invigilation, you will be required to keep your camera on for the entire session, hold up your student card for identification purposes, and share your screen with the invigilator if asked to do so at any time during the exam. The exam session using Zoom will not be recorded.*
If a remote proctoring service is used, the service will require you to provide personal information (including some biometric data). The session will be recorded. The instructor will alert you to the use of this software as close as possible to the start of the term, however, in the event that in-person exams are unexpectedly canceled, you may only be given notice of the use of a proctoring service a short time in advance. More information about remote proctoring is available in the Online Proctoring Guidelines. Please ensure you are familiar with any proctoring service’s technical requirements before the exam. Additional guidance is available at the following link: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/onlineproctorguidelines.pdf
* Please note that Zoom servers are located outside Canada. If you would prefer to use only your first name or a nickname to login to Zoom, please provide this information to the instructor in advance of the test or examination. See this link for technical requirements: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us
11.0 POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR ILLNESS OR OTHER ABSENCES
Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?PolicyCategoryID=1&Command=showCategory&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12
The full policy for consideration for absences can be accessed at: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/Academic_Consideration_for_absences.pdf
If you experience an extenuating circumstance (e.g., illness, injury) sufficiently significant to temporarily make you unable to meet academic requirements, you may request accommodation through the following routes:
- Submitting a Self-Reported Absence form (for circumstances that are expected to resolve within 48 hours);
- For medical absences, submitting a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) signed by a licensed medical or mental health practitioner in order to be eligible for Academic Consideration;
- For non-medical absences, submitting appropriate documentation (e.g., obituary, police report, accident report, court order, etc.) to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration in order to be eligible for academic consideration. Students are encouraged to contact their Academic Counselling unit to clarify what documentation is appropriate.
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation. The self-reported absence form must be submitted before the exam/coursework deadline in order to be valid. It may NOT be used for absences longer than 48 hours; coursework/tests/exams/etc., worth more than 30% of the final grade; or exams scheduled in the December or April final-exam periods: http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
Students seeking academic consideration:
- are advised to consider carefully the implications of postponing tests or midterm exams or delaying handing in work;
- are encouraged to make appropriate decisions based on their specific circumstances, recognizing that minor ailments (upset stomach) or upsets (argument with a friend) are not normally an appropriate basis for a self-reported absence;
- must communicate with their instructors no later than 24 hoursafter the end of the period covered by either the self-reported absence or SMC, or immediately upon their return following a documented absence
Students seeking accommodation for religious purposes are advised to contact Academic Counselling at least three weeks prior to the religious event and as soon as possible after the start of the term.
12.0 Contingency Plan for Return to Lockdown: IN-Person & Blended classes
In the event of a COVID-19 resurgence or any other event that necessitates the course delivery moving away from face-to-face interaction, all remaining course content will be delivered entirely online, either synchronously (i.e., at the times indicated in the timetable) or asynchronously (e.g., posted on OWL for students to view at their convenience). The grading scheme will not change. Any remaining assessments will also be conducted online, as determined by the course instructor.
13.0 STATEMENTS CONCERNING ONLINE ETIQUETTE
In courses involving online interactions, the Psychology Department expects students to honour the following rules of etiquette:
- please “arrive” to class on time
- please use your computer and/or laptop if possible (as opposed to a cell phone or tablet)
- please ensure that you are in a private location to protect the confidentiality of discussions in the event that a class discussion deals with sensitive or personal material
- to minimize background noise, kindly mute your microphone for the entire class until you are invited to speak, unless directed otherwise
- In classes larger than 30 participants please turn off your video camera for the entire class unless you are invited to speak
- In classes of 30 students or fewer, where video chat procedures are being used, please be prepared to turn your video camera off at the instructor’s request if the internet connection becomes unstable
- Unless invited by your instructor, do not share your screen in the meeting
The course instructor will act as moderator for the class and will deal with any questions from participants. To participate please consider the following:
- If you wish to speak, use the “raise hand” function and wait for the instructor to acknowledge you before beginning your comment or question.
- Please remember to unmute your microphone and turn on your video camera before speaking.
- Self-identify when speaking.
- Please remember to mute your mic and turn off your video camera after speaking (unless directed otherwise).
General considerations of “etiquette”:
- Keep in mind the different cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the students in the course.
- Be courteous toward the instructor, your colleagues, and authors whose work you are discussing.
- Be respectful of the diversity of viewpoints that you will encounter in the class and in your readings. The exchange of diverse ideas and opinions is part of the scholarly environment. “Flaming” is never appropriate.
- Be professional and scholarly in all online postings. Use proper grammar and spelling. Cite the ideas of others appropriately.
Note that disruptive behaviour of any type during online classes, including inappropriate use of the chat function, is unacceptable. Students found guilty of Zoom-bombing a class or of other serious online offenses may be subject to disciplinary measures under the Code of Student Conduct.
14.0 OTHER INFORMATION
Office of the Registrar: http://registrar.uwo.ca
Student Development Services: www.sdc.uwo.ca
Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:
http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html
- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2021-2022 Calendar References
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 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.
Policy on the Recording of Synchronous Sessions: Some or all of the remote learning sessions for this course (if scheduled) may be recorded. The data captured during these recordings may include your image, voice recordings, chat logs and personal identifiers (name displayed on the screen). The recordings will be used for educational purposes related to this course, including evaluations. The recordings may be disclosed to other individuals participating in the course for their private or group study purposes. Please contact the instructor if you have any concerns related to session recordings. Participants in this course are not permitted to privately record the sessions, except where recording is an approved accommodation, or the student has the prior written permission of the instructor.
