DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
UNDERGRADUATE
COURSES
FALL, 2005
| COURSES |
TITLE |
INSTRUCTOR |
TIME |
ROOM |
| Psyc
001-001 |
Intro. Exp. Psyc. |
Shatte' |
MF 2-3:30 |
MeyH B1 |
| Psyc
001-002 |
Intro. Exp. Psyc. |
Shatte' |
MF 3:30-5 |
MeyH B1 |
| Psyc
009-301 |
Psychology and
Neurobiology of Emotion |
Schaefer |
TR 4:30-6 |
T-A30 R-B50 |
| Psyc
020-301 |
Probability &
Statistics |
White |
TR 9-10:30 |
McNB 103 |
| Psyc 054-301 Fr.Sem. | The Psychological Impact
of Trauma |
Cahill |
W 2-5 |
PsyL B50 |
| Psyc 055-301 Fr.Sem. | Moral Judgment and Public
Policy |
Baron |
T 1:30-4:30 |
PsyL C21 |
| Psyc
107-401 |
Intro. to Cognitive
Science |
Ungar/Richards |
TR 1:30-3 |
LevH 101 |
| Psyc
109-401 |
Intro. to Brain &
Behavior |
Fluharty |
MWF 10-11 |
LLab 10 |
| Psyc
111-001 |
Perception |
Backus |
TR 10:30-12 |
Coll 200 |
| Psyc
121-001 |
Learning |
Rescorla |
MWF 10-11 |
Stit B21 |
| Psyc
131-401 |
Animal Behavior |
White |
TR 12-1:30 |
LLab 10 |
| Psyc
149-401 |
Cognitive Neuroscience |
Thompson-Schill |
TR 1:30-3 |
Logn 402 |
| Psyc
151-001 |
Cognitive Psychology |
Trueswell |
TR 10:30-12 |
Logn 17 |
| Psyc
155-001 |
Attention & Memory |
Jha |
TR 10:30-12 |
Stit B21 |
| Psyc
160-001 |
Personality |
Williams |
MWF 11-12 |
Stit B6 |
| Psyc
162-001 |
Abnormal Psychology |
Holloway |
TR 10:30-12 |
Stit B6 |
| Psyc
170-001 |
Social Psychology |
Timko |
MWF 10-11 |
Stit B6 |
| Psyc
172-001 |
Biocultural Psychology |
Gil-White |
MW 2-3:30 |
Stit B21 |
| Psyc
180-001 |
Social & Emotional
Development |
Jaffee |
TR 9-10:30 |
Stit B26 |
| Psyc
400-301 |
Senior Honors Seminar in
Psychology |
Thompson-Schill/DeRubeis |
M 4-7 |
PsyL B50 |
| Psyc
249-301 |
S/T Cognitive Neuroscience |
Farah |
T 2-5 |
Conf.Rm./3810 Walnut |
| Psyc
253-401 |
S/T Behavioral Law &
Economics |
Baron |
MW 2-3:30 |
PsyL A30 |
| Psyc
262-301 |
S/T Abnormal Psychology |
Wenzel |
W 12-3 |
PsyL C21 |
| Psyc
262-302 |
S/T Abnormal Psychology |
Barber |
W 3-6 |
Rm.4123/3535 Market |
| Psyc 278-301 (BFS) |
Constraints on Family Size |
Norman |
T 1:30-4:30 |
PsyL B50 |
| Psyc
286-301 |
Understand. & Apply.
Prob. Solving Learn. Across the Univ. |
Massey |
W 2-5 |
PsyL C41 |
| Psyc
335-301* |
Res. Exp. in Language |
Dahan |
R 1:30-4:30 |
Rm.314C/3401Walnut |
| Psyc
349-301* |
Res. Exp. in Cognitive
Neuroscience |
Kahana |
R 3-6 |
PsyL A30 |
| Psyc
362-301* |
Res. Exp. in Abnormal
Psychology |
Seligman |
T 1:30-4:30 |
Conf. Rm./3701 Market |
| Psyc
362-302* (1) |
Res. Exp. in Abnormal
Psychology |
Hunt |
R 1:30-4:30 |
PsyL B7 |
| Psyc
370-301* |
Res. Exp. in Social
Psychology |
Ostovich |
TR 1:30-3 |
PsyL A30 |
| Psyc
370-302* |
Res. Exp. in Social
Psychology |
Rozin/Faith |
T 2-5 |
PsyL C41 |
| Psyc
386-301* |
Res. Exp. in
Developmental Psychology |
Swingley |
R 3-6 |
Rm.326C/3401 Walnut |
Fall 2005
|
Introduction to Experimental Psychology |
Andrew Shatte' |
Exploration of the
major topics in psychology, including how we receive
and interpret
information from the world, learning and motivation, the relationship
between
brain and behavior, development, personality (both normal and
abnormal), and
the social aspects of our behavior. The major controversies in
psychology
provide the binding themes in the course, such as nature versus nurture
and
theories about the relationship between mind and body. We will
examine
some of the ‘grand’ questions that psychologists have posed and
investigated – what forces shape our behavior, who do we love and why,
what is prejudice and who conforms, and do we think and behave
rationally. These issues are examined at several levels of
explanation,
from neurotransmitter functioning, through conditioning, and the
influence of
the group. We will delve into the history of psychology, from the
Greeks
through to the neuropsychological and pharmaceutical revolutions of
today.
|
Introduction to Experimental Psychology |
Andrew Shatte' |
PSYCHOLOGY 001 IS A PREREQUISITE FOR ALL OTHER PSYCHOLOGY COURSES
|
Psychology and Neurobiology of Emotion |
Stacey Schaefer |
|
Probability and Statistics |
David White |
An introduction to statistics, statistical methods,
and
probability theory. The course will cover: the nature of
statistical data; estimation and hypothesis testing; concepts of
statistical
inference; measures of central tendency and variability; elementary
probability; ANOVA; regression and correlation; non-parametric
methods.
Emphasis will be placed on application to research in the behavioral
sciences. In addition, there will be an introduction to some of
the most
popular computer-based statistical programs.
| Shawn Cahill |
This is a Freshman Seminar.
Exploring the Nature of Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder. Although the negative psychological
impact of traumatic events has been long recognized, several recent
events have increasingly brought this issue into public concern,
including the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and U.S.
Pentagon of 9/11, mental health problems among veterans returning from
war in Iraq, and the Asian tsunami in December of 2004. In this
semester, we will explore scientific research on the nature and
psychological impact
of trauma to understand the psychological effects of explsure to
traumatic events, the factors that may serve as a risk factor or
protective factor for the development of serious psychological
difficulties following exposure to a traumatic event, and the
effectiveness of psychological and psychiatric treatments for
ameliorating chronic posttrauma reactions. The goal of this
seminar is to help students not only understand the nature and impact
of traumatic events, but to understand how knowledge about these topics
is acquired and to improve critical thinking skills.
|
Moral Judgment and Public Policy |
Jon Baron |
This is a Freshman Seminar.
This seminar will discuss how
moral judgment affects public policy. "Moral" is not just about
sex and religion, but also about such matters as the distribution of
income, the powers of government, and the regulation of risk. We
will read literature on the psychology of moral judgment, some social
philosophy (with an emphasis on utilitarian approaches), and behavioral
law and economics. Permission of instructor required.
|
Introduction to Cognitive Science |
Lyle Ungar/Virginia
Richards |
Cross-listed with COGS 001, CSE 140, LING 105 & PHIL 044
|
Introduction to Brain and Behavior |
Steve Fluharty |
Cross-listed
with BIBB109 and BIOL219
Introduction to the
structure and
function of the vertebrate nervous system, including the physiological
bases of
sensory activity, perception, drive,
motor
control and higher mental processes. This course is intended for
students
interested in the neurobiology of behavior. Additional
information about
background needed can be obtained from BBB, Biology or Psychology
advisors. Prerequisites: Psychology 001, Biology 101 or
permission
of the instructor
|
Perception |
Ben Backus |
How the individual acquires and is
guided by knowledge
about objects and events in their environment. Prerequisite: Psychology 001, COGS
001, BIBB 109, or Visual Studies 101.
|
Learning |
Robert Rescorla |
Elementary learning processes. Topics include how organisms learn
about events
per se (e.g. habituation), how they learn relations among events (e.g. Pavlovian Conditioning),
and how
they learn relations between their own behavior and events (e.g.
instrumental
learning).
|
Animal Behavior |
David White |
Cross-listed
with BIBB 231 & BIOL 231
The evolution of social
behavior in animals, with special emphasis
on group formation, cooperation among kin, mating systems,
territoriality and
communication.
|
Cognitive Neuroscience |
Sharon Thompson-Schill |
Cross-listed
with BIBB
249
|
Cognitive Psychology |
John Trueswell |
Analysis of mental processes in adult humans: Attention, Pattern
recognition,
Imagery, Memory, Action, and Language. Mental
architecture.
Decomposition of reaction-time and accuracy data.
Computer demos of classic experiments.
|
Attention and Memory |
Amishi Jha |
A study of topics in human memory and attention including an overview
of
current experiments investigating: multiple memory systems, attentional
selection, the interrelationship between memory and attention,
dysfunction due
to disease states and aging, exceptional functioning, and strategies to
improve
memory and attentional processes.
Particular emphasis
is given to the neural basis of cognitive processes. Prerequisite:
Psychology 001 or BIBB 109.
|
Personality |
David Williams |
|
Abnormal Psychology |
Marjan Holloway |
The
concepts of normality, abnormality, and psychopathology; symptom
syndromes;
theory and research in psychopathology and psychotherapy.
|
Social Psychology |
Alix Timko |
An overview of theory and
research in
social
psychology. Topics will include social influence (e.g.
conformity),
effects of persuasive messages, aggression, altruism, prejudice, and
interpersonal
attraction.
|
Biocultural Psychology |
Francisco Gil-White |
This course will
present human
psychology and behavior as viewed by cultural psychologists on the one
hand,
and by evolutionary psychologists on the other. The presuppositions of
each
approach will be deeply examined in order to separate tendentious
disciplinary
controversy from useful contributions that each side makes to an
understanding
of human behavior. Students will be challenged to construct a synthetic
view of
human behavior that causally articulates---rather than merely
meshes---these
two approaches in order to achieve a better understanding of the causes
of
human behavior, the distribution of ideas in social systems, and their
historical trajectories.
|
Social and Emotional Development |
Sara Jaffee |
SENIOR HONORS SEMINAR
|
Senior Honors Seminar in Psychology |
Sharon Thompson-Schill/Rob
DeRubeis |
Open to senior honors candidates in psychology. A
two-semester sequence supporting the preparation of an honors thesis in
psychology. Students will present their work in progress and
develop
skills in written and oral communication of scientific ideas.
SEMINARS
**** Permit Required for ALL
200-Level Courses ****
|
Special Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience |
Martha Farah |
Ethical issues in the behavioral and neural sciences. The more we understand about how the mind and brain work, the more we are able to monitor and control them.
This in turn, raises profound ethical questions about whether and when we SHOULD monitor or control them. Our class has two goals: To educate you about some of
the more ethically loaded scientific developments (you will learn about behavior genetics, brain imaging, and psychopharmacology) and to help you formulate a view of
whether and when such work should proceed (through reading and discussion of relevant literature in bioethics and history/sociology of science). Prerequisites: Any
course that satisfies the Psychology Department's "Neural Basis of Behavior" requirement.
|
Special Topics in Behavioral Law and Economics |
Cross-listed with PPE
253
Economic theory has invaded legal scholarship and law schools, in the form of "Law and economics." But the psychology of judgments and decisions has invaded economic theory, showing that people do not follow the classic model of economic rationality. Many legal scholars, such as Cass Sunstein, claim to have started a new field called "Behavioral law and economics," which explores the implications of psychology for legal theory. This seminar will review basic readings in law and economics and then the recent literature on the relevance of psychology. Topics include risk regulation, liability, and regulation of political behavior. Prerequisite: Microeconomics, or Psychology 153. Permission of Instructor.
|
Special Topics in Abnormal Psychology |
Amy Wenzel |
Cognitive-Behavioral
Approaches in Psychotherapy.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy approaches have been successfully utilized
to treat a variety of psychological disorders. This seminar will
be an introduction to the theory, methods, and outcomes associated with
cognitive and behavioral treatments. We will begin by discussing
cognitive-behavioral theories of abnormality and how they differ from
alternative perspectives, and the general principles and techniques
used in cognitive behavioral therapy. We will then delve into
specific disorders and the empirically supported cognitive behavioral
interventions utilized to treat those disorders (e.g., mood disorders,
anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, eating disorders,
etc). The seminar will attempt to strike a balance between
encouraging and facilitating critical review of the outcome literature,
and introduction to the clinical practices used by cognitive behavioral
therapists today. Students will be expected to be active
participants in all aspects of class discussion and will also be
required to write several papers during the course. This
seminar is open only to advanced psychology majors. Prerequisite: Psychology 162
or permission of the instructor
|
Special Topics in Abnormal Psychology |
Jacques Barber |
Systems of Psychotherapy. In this seminar, we will
explore many of
the important models of psychotherapy from psychoanalysis to behavior
therapy, from
Gestalt to couples therapy. Although, our main emphasis is the study of
treatments, we will also need to pay attention to what is
"normative," "acceptable" or "desirable"
according to these models in order to learn what is in "need of
treatment." Similarly, we will also need to understand how the
different
theorists view the development of psychopathology. Finally, we will
attempt to
understand how different psychotherapies work by studying what
theorists claim
to be doing in therapy and by examining the empirical literature. We
will also
develop our own hypotheses by observing video tapes of different
systems of
therapy. Each week students will write a brief paper related to the
readings,
the tapes or session transcripts and to the class discussion. Students
will
also submit a final paper summarizing a major therapeutic approach or
theorist
not covered in the course. Prerequisites: Psychology 162,
basic
statistics course.
|
Constraints on Family Size |
M.Frank Norman |
Decisions to have children are influenced by cultural norms and economic constraints. Cultural and economic conditions have changed drastically, and, as a result, recent years have seen a sharp, nearly worldwide decline in birth rate, and exceedingly low birth rates in contemporary Europe and Japan. The history, causes, and consequences of this "fertility transition" are the central topics of this seminar. Historical topics include the emergence of the concept of deliberate family size restriction, which fostered birth rate declines in some countries long before the introduction of efficient contraceptives. Causes include the escalating cost of rearing children. Consequences include population aging and resultant difficulty funding pensions for retirees. (The “social security crisis” is much worse in Europe and Japan than in the USA.) The seminar also considers contemporary women's career-family conflicts, which illustrate some of the psychological, sociological, and economic factors with which the seminar is concerned.
Additional information is available at http://psych.upenn.edu/~norman/syl278p05.htm. Non-BFS students do not need special
permission to enroll.
|
Understanding & Applying Problem Solving
Learning Across the University |
Research on problem solving learning indicates that it may be a particularly powerful form of pedagogy that promotes reflective judgment, intellectual development, and critical thinking and problem solving skills that can be transferred to new situations. With a large and growing number of courses that situate problem solving learning in real-world community settings, the University of Pennsylvania is well-positioned to explore and extend the role that this kind of learning experience can play in undergraduates' intellectual, moral, and civic development. This seminar will examine research and theory on problem solving learning and conduct investigations of local real-world problem solving settings as environments for learning and development. Seminar participants will prepare a report summarizing findings, recommendations, and research questions related to the integration of real-world problem solving into Penn's undergraduate curriculum as a means of enriching students' opportunities for learning and development. Permission of Instructor required.
RESEARCH
EXPERIENCE COURSES
***A permit is required for all
300-level courses***
|
Research Experience in Language |
This course will focus on how to conduct research in psycholinguistics,and more precisely, on the comprehension of spoken language, using behavioral
methods such as the monitoring of eye movements during listening. Students will be involved in designing an experiment, constructing materials, testing,
as well as analyzing the data. Prerequisites: Psychology 151 or 135. Permission of the instructor only.
|
Research Experience in Cognitive Neuroscience |
Mike Kahana |
In this course you will design and carry out physiological studies of human memory using a state of the art, 128 channel, EEG recording system. Over the course of the semester you will program the experiment in Python, run the experiment on human participants, and analyze the data using Excel and/or Matlab. You will learn everything from artifact and bad-channel detection, to the analysis of evoked potentials and brain oscillations and their relation to memory function. Students will work in teams and write a scientific article based on their group's research project. Prerequisites: Psycyhology 159, Psychology 155, or Psychology 129, plus a course in statistics, such as Stat 101, Stat 111. The instructor will consider waiving prerequisites on a case-by-case basis.
|
Research Experience in Abnormal Psychology |
Martin Seligman |
Positive Psychology will discuss the converse of the disease
model: what
is known about positive human traits such as optimism, courage, flow,
interpersonal skill, and future mindedness. Each student
will will design
and
carry out an empirical research project. Prerequisites:
Psychology
162 or permission of the instructor.
|
Research Experience in Abnormal Psychology |
Melissa Hunt |
This is a two
(2) semester course
open to Junior and Senior psychology majors only: Are you interested in
expanding our understanding of anxiety and
affective disorders? If you'd like to work hard for nine months,
qualify for
honors and have a publishable paper at the end of the year, this may be
the
course for you. Offering more support and structure than an
independent
study, this course will still allow you to make an original
contribution to one
of several research areas, including phobias, depression, panic
disorder and
PTSD. By Instructor permission only.
E-mail application essay to mhunt@psych.upenn.edu
including your experiences in psychology, why you are interested in the
course,
and how the course fits in to your overall career planning.
|
Research Experience in Social Psychology |
Jennifer Ostovich |
In this course, students alone, or in small groups, will,
in consultation with the instructor, design, carry out, and write up
original research in social psychology. Some topics of that research
are likely to be: human sexual and romantic behavior, attitudes about
good and evil (e.g., the genocide in Darfur) and about civic
participation related to such, and self-regulatory attitudes and
behaviors. But other topics might be considered as well. Prerequisites: Psychology 170,
Statistics 111 (or its equivalent), or permission of the instructor.
|
Research Experience in Social Psychology |
Paul Rozin/Myles Faith |
Readings and empirical work covering a range of areas, including
eating
and food choice, magical thinking, and identification. An
effort
will be made to encourage use of a variety of research techniques,
including
use of the internet, observations, interviews, analysis of periodicals,
and experiments. Prerequisite: Psychology
170
and Statistics 111 (or it's equivalent) or permission of the
instructor.
|
Research Experience in Developmental
Psychology |
Dan Swingley |
Perceptual Learning in Infancy and Early Childhood. In this course, we will create original experiments on perceptual development. Topics may include categorization, phonological rule learning, word learning, or sentence understanding. Skills to be taught and practiced may include experimental design, audiovisual display editing, and coding of infant and child behavior, among others. Prerequisites: Previous experience with children encouraged but not mandatory; previous coursework in perception, cognition, cognitive development, or language required.