Introduction to psychology

Gleitman, Henry, Alan J. Fridlund, and Daniel Reisberg. Psychology. 6th ed. New York, NY: Norton, 2004. ISBN: 0393977676.

"Psychology is the study of human behavior and human mental life." That is the first line (or a close approximation of the first line) of most Introductory Psychology texts. That line describes an immense territory that includes single cells in the brain, your memories of childhood, the motivations of terrorists, and the nature of dreams...for starters. This course is an introduction. We can't hope to exhaust the topic but we can show you the lay of the land and invite you to continue exploring when the course is done.

I picked the Gleitman et al. Psychology text because it has been the best written, most intelligent of the texts on the market for many years. The book has many pages. Students who discover this fact the day before the exam are usually unhappy. The text is most useful when read in small quantities over the course of the term. This year, I have provided handouts with some questions and notes to help you to focus on the points that I consider most important.

Please Note: We expect you to have done the reading by the date listed on the syllabus. More precisely, we assume that you will show up in recitation having done the assigned reading. Thus, if Chapter 3 is assigned for session 2, you can be quizzed on it on next day. Timing is bit less stringent for a chapter that is assigned for a Thursday. Since all recitation fall between the Tuesday and Thursday lectures, you have the weekend to read the chapter.

FAQ: The book is out in its 6th edition. Can you use the 5th that you found cheap somewhere?

Answer: Yes but don't fuss if some factoid on the exam turns out to be in the 6th but not the 5th. It is your choice but there is a risk.

Lectures are scheduled two days a week, each of one and a half hour duration. I think that lectures and recitations are the reason for taking the course at a place like MIT. You can read the book anywhere. You can take video lectures out of the library. I am a live person as is your TA. Ask questions and get involved. I will be happy to try to respond to raised hands during lecture. Respond to our questions. Engage with the material.

There will be a handout for most lectures. If I finish my summer project, these will be a bit more substantial than in years past but they are not intended as a substitute for attending lecture. If you miss a lecture, you should talk to a friend in the class so that you will be able to decipher the handout.

FAQ: If I miss a lecture or recitation should I find the professor or TA and ask "Did I miss anything important?"

Answer: Be aware that this question, phrased in this manner, has been known to provoke sarcastic answers from faculty ("No, we saw you were not there and realized that we could not discuss anything of substance today.") However, it is just fine to ask if the material covered was similar to the material outlined in the handout.

The Registrar's clever computers will put you into a recitation. They will all fall between the Tuesday and Thursday lectures. They are NOT optional. You are expected to be there. Your recitation instructor has primary responsibility for grading your work. Moreover, there are things that we can do in small groups that we cannot do in the 200-300 person lecture. Be there.

You will be graded on four written assignments, a midterm, a final and some quizzes. Here is the formula that will form the basis for your grade:

There are four writing assignments this year. You have some freedom in scheduling when you do them but you would be well-advised to spread the work over the term in a fairly even manner. The assignments are described in a separate handout.

Because this is a CI course, you will be making at least one oral presentation to the class. This presentation is 2 minutes long and will be on some aspect of the current assigned reading that you found interesting. Names will be drawn randomly (with no replacement - you only have to do it once) during section to choose the speakers. That means you should be in section. If you are not there and your name comes out of the hat (or whatever), your grade could be affected.

The course will have a midterm (1 hour) two days after session 11 and a final (3 hours) during finals week. Exams are closed-book (and slightly strange). Note: Please don't schedule your flight home until you know the dates of your exams.

There might be a quiz in your recitation section on any given week. It will be based on the current assigned reading. One of their functions is benignly coercive. We wish to persuade you to do some of the reading more than 24 hrs before the exam.

It may strike you as somewhat unusual that Intro. Psych. is being taught by a Professor of Ophthalmology from the Harvard Medical School. Trust me, you are much better off having me as your Psychology Professor than as your ophthalmologist. All of my undergraduate (Princeton) and graduate (MIT) training is in Psychology. I have been teaching some version of this course at MIT since 1981. In my research life, I run the Visual Attention Lab. It is part of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

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