Surveys the major concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical trends in personality theory, psychological disorders, therapy, emotion, motivation, intelligence, health psychology, and social psychology. Provides an overview of popular trends, examines the overarching themes of heredity vs. environment, stability vs. change, and free will vs. determinism, and emphasizes the sociocultural approach which assumes that gender, culture, and ethnicity are essential to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion. Psychology 202A is the second term of a two-term sequence in introductory psychology.
Upon successful completion students should be able to:
- Analyze personal lifestyle and apply problem-solving techniques to situations while understanding the limitations of one’s psychological knowledge and skills, recognizing that ethically complex situations can develop in the application of psychological principles.
- Recognize and respect human diversity while anticipating that psychological explanations may vary across populations and contexts, and
- exhibit sensitivity to feelings, emotions, motives, and attitudes regarding specific behavioral concerns.
- Discern the difference between personal views and scientific evidence and identify claims arising from myths, stereotypes, common
- fallacies, and poorly supported assertions regarding behavior.
- Articulate the ways that psychological theories can facilitate personal, social, and organizational change, describe issues pertaining to psychological aspects of human dignity, and anticipate that psychological explanations may vary among populations and contexts.
- Evaluate public and private assumptions concerning individual and group differences using a global and multifaceted sociocultural approach.
Equivalent placement test scores also accepted.
This course fulfills the following GE requirements: Cultural Literacy, Social Sciences/AS, Social Sciences/ASOT-B, Social Sciences/AAOT, Social Sciences/AAS, Social Sciences/AGS.