COURSE DESCRIPTION
This Introduction to Psychology course is designed to provide students with a broad overview of psychology, covering foundational theories, research methodologies, and practical applications. It serves as a stepping stone for further study in psychology or as a primary source of knowledge for those seeking a general understanding of the discipline.
By the end of the course, students will be familiar with major psychological concepts, theoretical frameworks, empirical research findings, and key historical developments in the field. Students will enhance their critical thinking skills, enabling them to analyze issues related to human behavior and mental processes. Furthermore, students will learn how psychological principles apply to real-world social issues and explore how sociocultural differences influence individual behavior.
Key Topics Include
- Prove Understanding of the General History of Psychology: Demonstrate a knowledge of the historical development of psychology, including key milestones and the evolution of psychological thought.
- Exhibit Familiarity with Social Science Research Methods: Gain a solid understanding of research methodologies used in psychology, such as experiments, surveys, and observational studies.
- Grasp the Steps of the Scientific Method and Its Application to Psychology: Understand the scientific method and how it is applied to psychological research, from hypothesis formation to data collection and analysis.
- Illuminate the Nature vs. Nurture Debate: Explore and critically assess the ongoing debate between biological inheritance (nature) and environmental influence (nurture) in shaping behavior and mental processes.
- Isolate the Chief Elements of Biological Systems Studied in Psychology: Identify and understand the key biological systems, such as the brain, nervous system, and endocrine system, and their relevance to psychology.
- Express Knowledge of Subfields in Psychology: Become familiar with various subfields of psychology, including clinical, cognitive, developmental, and social psychology.
- Acquaintance with Major Psychologists and Their Theories: Study the contributions of significant psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Carl Rogers, and Jean Piaget, and their theories.
REFERENCE MATERIALS
for
Full-CLC Students
“A CLC award signifies that the student has attained the knowledge, (through either prior education or experience), equal to or greater than the student would have learned in a traditional college course.”
“Based upon your CLC award, physical classroom attendance is not required; however, you will be required to successfully pass a final exam for each course.”
Based upon your HESEAP Application, you have received full-CLC for this course; therefore, this is a test-out course which does not include traditional education on the subject.
USILACS wants to help you succeed. If you feel you need a little knowledge refresher or want to expand your knowledge on this subject, we recommend that you consider reviewing some of the vast online education resources and search topics below.
Thousands of FREE Online College Courses:
Search Topics: Publications/Videos/Papers
(The majority of the exam questions for this course are based upon information contained in the below search topics)
- (2014) Psychology: OpenStax College. Rice University. Chapter 1 Introduction to Psychology, Chapter 2 Psychological Research Chapter 12 Social Psychology https://d3bxy9euw4e147.cloudfront.net/oscms-prodcms/media/documents/Psychology-OP.pdf
- Macat Introduction to Psychology
- Ivan Pavlov: Classical Conditioning
- Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs
- Leon Festinger: A Theory of Cognitive Dissidence
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y17YaZRRvY (6min, 56 sec)
- William James: Streams of Consciousness
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxSO06klv8U (4min, 01 sec)
- Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytics
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdawTFsCNtc(7min, 42 sec)
- Ivan Pavlov
- Abraham Maslow
- Leon Festinger
- William James
Please note: USILACS is not the source of these links. Therefore we do not have control over the accessibility of the links. You may find that some links are no longer active. We therefore encourage you to copy and paste the title into Google or YouTube to find an alternative source. You are also welcome to email our academic team at academics@usilacs.org for assistance or to inform them of an inactive link so we can replace it with a new one.
Sometimes the links may invite you to download reference material into a PDF. Although we have been diligent in finding safe sources of information, we encourage you to be diligent in ensuring a download is safe on your device.
Although we are providing comprehensive study material, if you feel you require more, please copy and paste the topics and titles into Google and YouTube.
Tips for success
Remember, these exams are all open textbook. Meaning, you can keep your reference material open in other tabs to refer back to during your exam.
Some of the reference materials are large, extensive books with hundreds of pages. If you have a question on your exam that you want to find the answer to within the book, here’s a quick way of doing so:
Choose a keyword or phrase from the exam question. Go to the reference material. Press ‘Ctrl’ + ‘F’ on your keyboard. This will bring up a search bar. Type your keyword or phrase into the search bar and click search. This will show you all the locations that they appear in the reference material.