Psychology 403: Physiological Psychology

Spring 2004, Tuesday, Thursday 9:35 – 10:55 AM

 

Instructor: Rebecca Burch Telephone: 312-3463 Email:   rburch@oswego.edu
Office: 407 Mahar Office Hours: Tuesday, 4 to 5 pm, Wednesday 11 to 1
Text:  Wilson: Biological Foundations of Human Behavior

 

Date

Chapter

Title

Tues 1/27

1

Intro

Thurs 1/29, Tues 2/3

2

Nervous System- Components

Thurs 2/5, Tues 2/10

3

Synapses, Neurotransmitters And Drugs

Thurs 2/12, Tues 2/17

4

Nervous System- Organization

Thurs 2/19

 Exam 1

Tues 2/24

6

Movement

Thurs 2/26, Tues 3/2

7

Sensory Processes

Thurs 3/4, Tues 3/9

8

Perceptual Processes

Thurs 3/11

9

Cognitive Processes

Tues 3/16, Thurs 3/18

No classes

Tues 3/23

9

Cognitive Processes

Thurs 3/25

 Exam 2

Tues 3/30, Thurs 4/1

10

Consciousness And Sleep

Tues 4/6, Thurs 4/8

11

Regulation Of Motivated Behaviors

Tues 4/13, Thurs 4/15

12

Regulation Of Sexual Behavior

Tues 4/20

Exam 3  

Thurs 4/22

13

Emotion And Addiction

Monday, 4/26

Research draft presentations

Tues 4/27, Thurs 4/29

15

Disordered Behavior

Monday, 5/3

Research draft presentations

Tues 5/4, Thurs 5/6

16

Developmental Disorders And Brain Damage

Thurs 5/6

Research proposal due

Thurs, 5/13, 8:00 AM

Final Exam

Questions on the final section

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tests and grading: Your grade will be computed out of these exam points, your paper, and class participation: Exams 1- 4: 100 points each       Proposal: 50 points  Participation/attendance: 25 pts

The material will in large part be taken from the lectures, which will follow the text very closely (in other words, study the text, but there will be questions that you can only answer if you were in class).  Exams will be multiple choice unless stated by instructor.  You must be on time to take the exam.  If you arrive for an exam after someone has completed it and left the room, you will not be allowed to take the exam. Makeup exams will be given only for medical reasons with proper documentation.  Missed exams will have to be taken as soon as possible and within one week of the original date.  There can be no makeups for the final exam.

 

Please read the University Policy on Academic Dishonesty in the student handbook.  Any sort of plagiarism, including handing in another’s assignment as your own, sharing answers during exams or on papers, or downloading papers from the internet or other sources will result in a FAILING GRADE for the course. 

 

Any student behaving in ways that disrupt or disturb the class or in a manner that is disrespectful to the professor will be asked to leave the classroom.  This includes talking or laughing about unrelated matters during class time, listening to music (via headphones or otherwise), completing other coursework or reading during class, sleeping, arriving late to class, leaving cell phones on or answering cell phones during class, or other behavior deemed disrespectful by the professor.  Missed material will not be made available.

Extra Credit: Opportunities for participation in experiments will be made available during the semester.  Extra credit will be given for each experiment you participate in and added to your total points for the course.

 

Biopsychology Laboratory:  Mondays 1:00 to 3:00 in Mahar 302

 

Monday 1/26 Introduction Monday 3/15 No classes

Monday 2/2

 Neuroanatomy Monday 3/22 Gustation
Monday 2/9 Brain damage Monday 3/29 Conditioning and learning

Monday 2/16

 Reflexes and Perception Monday 4/5 Hormones presentation

Monday 2/23

 Vision Monday 4/12 Physiological arousal

Monday 3/1

 Olfaction, synthetic odors Monday 4/19, 26 Research proposals

Monday 3/8

 Olfaction- pheromones Monday 5/3 Research proposals

Course outline:  Each week we will explore a topic in physiological psychology more closely.  Attendance is mandatory and will be taken every class. Those with unexcused absences have points deducted from their grade.

 

The only assignment for the laboratory portion of the course is a short (10 pages, 12 font, not counting title page and references or figures), simple research proposal due the last day of classes (5/7).   On the last three laboratory sessions (4/19, 4/26 5/3), each student will discuss their proposal informally for approximately 10 minutes and take comments by classmates (5 minutes) into consideration before the final proposal deadline (5/7).  Of course, the proposal must be for a research design in Physiological Psychology.

 

How to Write a Research Proposal:

The main purpose of a research proposal is to tell others that you have a worthwhile project to conduct and pursue the necessary competence to carry it out. You need to convince your reader that you have an exciting research idea, and that you have a good grasp of the relevant literature, the major issues involved, and the appropriate methodologies. A good proposal need not be long.

 

Introduction and Literature Review:  The main purpose of the introduction is to define the context and boundaries of your proposed research. Therefore, it will begin with a general statement of the problem area and conclude with a specific research question. You also need to explain why you are interested in selecting a particular topic. The introduction should cover the following elements:

Methods:        Describe the design of the proposed study.

Describe your population and sampling procedure.

Describe the measuring instrument to be used.

Describe procedure and time frame of data collection.

Describe how you will analyze the data.


You need to demonstrate your knowledge of alternative methods and make the case that your approach is most appropriate for your research question. You also need to explain why you choose a particular samples.

 

Discussion:  States both the significance and limitations of the proposed research. You need to communicate a sense of enthusiasm without exaggerating the merits of your proposal.

Common Mistakes in Proposal Writing: Failure to provide the proper context to frame the research question. Failure to cite landmark studies. Failure to accurately present the theoretical and empirical contributions by other researchers. Failure to stay focused on the research question.  Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed research. Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on the essentials. The most common weakness is that the proposal goes "all over the map" without a clear sense of direction.  The writing is neither clear nor concise.

 

HOW TO DO A LITERATURE SEARCH:

Go to the library website:  www.oswego.edu/library              Click on “research subject guides”

Click on “psychology”                                                                Click on “PsycInfo”

Check off the databases you want to search (PsycInfo, for example)

Type in your search term (depression, sleep, cocaine, anything).  If “no records found” comes up after your search check your spelling, try another topic, broaden your topic.  Use as many different terms for your search as possible, including synonyms, brand names, generic names, slang terms, and broad general terms as well as specific terms. You can download full text versions, or find the actual article in Penfield, if it is available.

 

HOW TO WRITE CITATIONS:  Citations are extremely important to scientific study and the researchers’ careers.  Citations are cataloged for every publication- researchers get “credit”  each time they are cited.  This is a measure of their impact on the field and is used for promotion, tenure, and raises. If you attempt to publish an article and fail to cite the right people (give credit where it is due), you may be rejected or be judged as unethical or ignorant.  If you do this in a paper for a grade, you can be punished for plagiarism.

 

Citations are meant to show the reader where you got ALL your information.  Read the finished product as if you were the reader- continually ask where, when, and who. 

You must keep the author order of the citation the same.  Author order is extremely important- authors are put in order according to contribution to the publication; those who worked the hardest get first author.  Authorship order is used to determine level of scholarship for promotions, tenure, and raises.

In the references, be sure to cite just as the authors want you to- make sure you have all of their initials.  If you quote articles- you must include the page number.  Consult the APA Manual- fifth edition.  Citations in text are almost always written as (author, year) at the end of the statement, but can be written in other ways, like below…

 

In the text of your paper citing an article by one author:

Emotion can influence reproductive fitness and could have been shaped by natural selection (Nesse, 1999).

Nesse (1999) found that emotion can influence reproduction and could have been shaped by natural selection.

 

With two authors:

Depression in females has been shown to fluctuate with the menstrual cycle (Golub & Harrington, 1981).  Suarez and Gallup (1985) laid out evolutionary predictions regarding the incidence of female depression.

 

With more than five authors:

Indeed, pubertal status was a better predictor of the emergence of the expected female to male ratio in unipolar depressive disorders than was age (Angold et al., 1998). 

Angold et al. (1998) conducted a large-scale epidemiological study of the impact of puberty on depression.

 

When directly quoting an article, the page number must be included:

To quote Daly and Wilson (1998), “There are two classes of paternity cues available to doubtful fathers: those reflecting female infidelity around conception and those manifested by the offspring themselves.” (p. 44).

 

To cite an article that is cited in another article:

You are reading an article written by Jones (1997).  You want to cite a study by Smith that Jones discusses:

(Smith, 1994, as cited in Jones, 1997)      Or        Smith (1994, as cited in Jones, 1997) found that…

 

The References section should be alphabetized by first author’s last name and formatted like this:

 

For articles:

Izor, R., Walchuk, S., & Wilkins, L. (1981). Anatomy and systematic significance of the penis of the pygmy chimpanzee, Pan paniscus. Folia Primatologica, 35, 218- 224.

Nesse, R. (1999). The evolution of hope and despair. Social Research, 66, 429-469.

 

For books:

Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1998).  The Truth About Cinderella: A Darwinian View Of Parental Love. Yale University Press.

 

For Chapters:

Oatley, K. (1992). Best laid schemes. In P. Ekman & K. Seherer  (Eds.), Human Behavior (pp. 100-111). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.