Social Sciences and Psychology

1. Define the study of psychology, its breadth of coverage and typical research methodologies.
2. Express an understanding of him- or herself in relation to their biological makeup, their developmental/life span experiences, their sensation and perception of the world, their social role, and their cognitive and emotional skills and deficits.
3. Apply this greater understanding of their selves in the context of appreciating individual differences and diversity of others in society.
4. Cite ways in which the study of psychology may have an impact on their career, their interactions with others, and their dedication to life-long learning and personal growth.

Special Assignments

Correlation Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to have you experience making a decision based upon statistical data that you calculate from a set of data.  This is precisely what psychologists do in their research.  Despite our preconceptions (and even despite our hypotheses) we must let the data determine the answer to our question. Sometimes these answers are hard to understand or even believe, but that is the wonder of the field of psychology.

While this assignment provides a data set for you to use, your instructor may elect to have you perform actual data collection instead.  You would then create an Excel file similar to the one provided and complete the assignment following the same instructions.

Personal Change Project

The purpose of this assignment is to utilize the knowledge gained in the study of operant conditioning to bring about a positive personal change in your life.  As a theory of psychology, behaviorism is one of the most respected and effective approaches to change.

Nearly every self-help system utilizes the essential factors associated with operant conditioning.  The video game and gambling worlds have capitalized on these principles to keep people playing.  Using the same techniques, educators “gamify” their content to encourage learning and to get their students “addicted” to the course!

Information Literacy Project

The purpose of this assignment is to discover, read, understand, and communicate a summary information related to recent research within the social sciences.

By exploring peer-reviewed resources of data, you will better appreciate the depth of knowledge and contribution of social sciences to our human knowledge.

Fundamentally, this assignment is also to provide an opportunity for you to develop appropriate research questions, access peer-reviewed literature, and to write in an expository, scientific way.

Service-Learning Project

There are many reasons why students are encouraged to engage in Service-Learning projects.  Here are a few of them.

1. Service-Learning allows students to witness the application or presentation of course content in the “real world”
2. Service-Learning provides students with the opportunity to “give back” to the community.
3. Service-Learning connects students with community-based organizations for both awareness and career development.
4. Service-Learning provides student with excellent components to add to their resume and portfolio.
5. Service-Learning engages students in their learning and contributes to the acquisition of learning outcomes, satisfaction, retention, and graduation.

Service-Learning is a combination of Volunteerism, Civic Education, and Internship-type activities.  These provide students with excellent opportunities for community involvement, practical experience, and academic study.