PSY 292: Evolutionary Psychology/Sociobiology
Course Requirements/Grading
Reading Assignments, Participation, In-class Reactions
& Attendance: You will get much
more out of this class when you participate positively in class discussion to
go over the material you have read. Be prepared to read material more than
once. Study guides will be accessible on the web page for the class. Note
that text readings will complement material we cover in class. There is a
lot of material to overview and not all text material assigned for tests will
be covered in class. Not all material in the book will be covered on
tests. If you have questions, please ask. Read assignments before
coming to class, so that as we discuss text and related material in class, it
will make more sense to you. We will also have outside readings assigned
to complement the text material. This will be in the form of newspaper
articles and scholarly publications.
Short reactions in class will be part of your
participation score. These may be at the beginning or end of class and
typically consist of 1-2 short questions based on recent material. There
may also be reaction assignments related to class discussion that you will
bring to class. If you are assigned a reaction/project to bring to class,
it is due at the beginning of class (unless stated otherwise in class).
Please note: missed or late reactions are not scored and cannot be
made up; the score is 0. You will be able to drop your lowest two
scores on these (includes 0s if missed).
You are expected to attend all classes. If health or personal problems arise that
necessitate your missing several classes, contact me prior to the missed class
or as soon as possible afterwards. You are responsible for finding out
from me or a classmate any assignments, announcements, instructions, etc., that
were discussed in class.
Explore EP Yourself Projects- You will explore three empirical research articles
related to evolutionary psychology as part of the class. You will be able
to choose the topics, and I will give you a list of suggestions. The
purpose of this assignment is to let you evaluate for yourself the ways that
research is done in evolutionary psychology. We will use the last section
of the class to explore some of these topics in more depth. Papers must
be at least 2 pages TYPED. (more on guidelines to
come.)
Class Presentations: You will be responsible for
helping to lead class discussion on topics covered in the last section (topics
chosen by the class).
Extra credit reactions: There may be opportunities for extra credit
reactions to campus or community events related to the topics in the class.
Tests: There
will be two tests during the semester, and a test during exams. Material builds
on each other (thus is cumulative), but the focus of each test will be
on the "new" material since the last test. However, there will
be a short (25 pts) objective cumulative section on the final. Test items
will cover both classroom, text, and outside text
reading material. Tests will consist of true-false, multiple choice,
fill-in, matching, labeling, and short-answer/essay items. In the event
of an emergency, contact me before a scheduled test; make-up tests are
essay in format.
Grading:
|
Test
1 |
100
points |
|
Test
2 |
100
points |
|
Test
3 |
125
points |
|
In
class participation, reactions, & attendance |
40 points |
|
Explore
Projects: 3 @ 20 points each |
60 points |
|
Leading
Class Discussion |
10 points |
TOTAL 435 points possible. I use +/- with %
ending in 7 or 8 as + and % ending in 9 or 0 as -.