Syllabus - Psychology and Child Development

Psyc 4790 Hesse Analyzing and Changing Human Behavior Syllabus
INSTRUCTOR: Bruce E. Hesse, Ph.D. (Email: bhesse@csustan.edu)
OFFICE:
231D Bizzini Hall (Psychology Department Office)
OFFICE PHONE: 667-3255
OFFICE HOURS: Monday and Friday 10-11:30am (other hours by special arrangement)
CLASS MEETINGS: Wednesday 10:50am-1:30pm Bizzini Hall room 115
CATALOGUE COURSE DESCRIPTION: (3 Units) Consists of the basic principles and terminology
of behavior analysis applied to a variety of human settings. Behavior change, program design, and
evaluation will be discussed. Examples will be drawn from parent training, child management, selfmanagement,
clinical psychology, and everyday social interactions. (Formerly Behavioral Engineering)
Prerequisites: PSYC 2010 or consent of instructor.
GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION: Students will be introduced to strategies and tactics of selfchange
from the field of Applied Behavior Analysis. Behavioral concepts and terminology in the context
of a self-change project will be emphasized. As a result of taking this course students should know the
terms and concepts related to antecedent stimulus control, reinforcement, punishment, extinction, operant
and respondent conditioning and the effects of motivational operations. The student should also be able to
apply these concepts to the design of behavior-change plans for themselves and others.
PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
This course is designed to meet the following Psychology Department undergraduate learning objectives.
1. Demonstrate psychological literacy.
2. Apply psychology concepts to address real-world problems.
3. Describe and act in accordance with the scientist-practitioner model.
READING MATERIALS: Self-Directed Behavior by Watson & Tharp (9th Edition)
COURSE FORMAT: The class meets on Wednesdays from 10:50 to 1:30 in room 115 of Bizzini Hall.
The course content is organized around readings from the text, lecture content and class activities related
to the readings and lectures.
CLASS MEETING TIME SCHEDULE: Class starts at 10:50am and ends at 1:30pm in room 115 of
Bizzini Hall. The general times for class activities is as follows: (times may vary)
10:50 - 11:00 Daily class business meeting
o Review the day's schedule of activities and revise if needed.
o Pick up any graded materials
o Get any new materials
11:00- 11:25 Daily reading assessment (variable points)
o Pick up a question page and use your clicker to answer the multiple choice questions over
the text chapter assigned for the day's class.
o Return the question page and pick up the day's group assignment instructions.
11:25- 12:10 Student groups
o Students break into discussion groups to complete this class period’s group assignment
related to the readings and the self-change project step they are working on with their
group.
o Turn in the group assignment summary sheet and this week’s homework. (variable
points)
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Psyc 4790 Hesse Analyzing and Changing Human Behavior Syllabus
12:10 - 12:25 Short class break
o Students may leave for snack or restroom needs or stay in the classroom.
o The class instructor will be available for brief individual consultations.
12:25 - 1:25 Course content presentation and discussion
o Brief oral report of the group’s products from each group’s reporter.
o Lecture on new material with class participation (clicker) points. (variable points)
1:25 - 1:30 Daily wrap-up
o Reminders of what is required for the next class meeting.
o 1:30 -- Class dismissed
STUDENT ASSESSMENT: Student progress will be assessed each class period with questions over
assigned readings and with graded products from activities completed in and outside of class. The
questions related to the reading assessments will be multiple choice but other assessments will involve
short written products. Points will be summed to determine the course grade. Please refer to the course
calendar for the schedule of reading assignments and homework assignments. There usually will be 20
points available for each class period. Students must purchase a student response pad and register it online
(www.einstruction.com ) using the class key on the registration instructions (see last page of this
syllabus). Bring your response pad to each class to earn class related grade points. Your response pad
must be the Gen2 or Pulse from eInstruction and have a small LCD screen. Other types of “clickers”
will not work in this class.
COURSE POLICIES
GRADE: The course grade is derived from the percent of points earned during the semester as follows
(rounded to the nearest whole percentage point):
A =90%-100% B =80%-89% C =70%-79% D =60%-69%
A grade report will be available on the class web site. It will show the student's cumulative points
(accessed with the last 5 digits of the student's ID number), the total points after each class, the student's
average point earnings per class and the average needed from the remaining classes to get a grade of A , B
or C. Summary graphs of class grade distributions will also be provided once per week.
REGRADE POLICY: Students may ask for clarification and/or regrading of an assessment activity if
they feel an error was made or that the points received were not representative of the quality of the
product they submitted for evaluation. A regrade request involves the following:
1. the reasons why the assessment should be scored differently and
2. references to other materials to support these reasons.
3. the regrade request must be written (an oral elaboration is acceptable if the main points are noted
in writing) and turned in with the assessment to be regraded.
EXTRA CREDIT: Students can earn a total of 6 extra credit points in this class for the following
activities:
1) Participate in a research project being conducted by either a graduate or an undergraduate student
who has their project registered with the online (http://csustan.sona-systems.com) Psychology
Department research participant pool. Each credit earned in an experiment is worth 1 extra credit
points.
2) Individuals who choose not to participate in a research project can earn the extra credit points by
reading and summarizing an article from an APA style Psychology research journal (2 points per
summary). Before doing your summary, show the abstract of the article to the course instructor for
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Psyc 4790 Hesse Analyzing and Changing Human Behavior Syllabus
approval. Turn in your typed summary by the remedial exam date. Your summary should include the
following points: (two pages maximum)
a) Complete reference for the article in APA format.
b) The research question or issue that this article is addressing.
c) The type and number of subjects used in this research (pigeons, rats, college students, children,
developmentally disabled adults, etc.)
d) The general procedure & design used in the method section (e.g. surveys, direct observations,
independent groups, repeated measures, etc.)
e) The general results and conclusions (usually found in the first or last part of the Discussion
section).
ATTENDANCE and REMEDIAL EXAM: You are expected to attend and participate in each class. If
you miss a class you must contact the instructor or a fellow classmate to get what you missed. Most
materials (if possible) will be posted on the class website. Absence from a student assessment activity
will result in a loss of points for that activity. A comprehensive remedial exam will be given during the
regularly scheduled final exam time period for this class during finals week. The score earned on the
remedial exam will be used to replace two missed classes. If no classes were missed the remedial exam
score can be used to replace the lowest two class scores. The remedial exam is optional. If you do not
wish to replace any class points you are finished with the course after the last class.
Please do not ask for make-up activities, plan to take the remedial exam to replace missed class points.
CHEATING POLICY: If I have good evidence of any form of academic dishonesty (not doing your
own work, plagiarizing the work of others or using fraudulent means to acquire grade points) I will fail
you for the course, not allow you to attend further classes and send a memo to the Dean of the College of
Human and Health Sciences and the chair of your major department detailing the evidence of the cheating
episode.
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Psyc 4790 Hesse Analyzing and Changing Human Behavior Syllabus
Course Calendar
Class Date Topic
Chapter
#
Pages
Project
Timeline
Points
1 2/1 Course Introduction None None None None
2 2/8 Understanding Behavior 1 25 Goals #1 20
3 2/15 Planning for Behavior Change 2 30 Goals #2 20
4 2/22 Collecting the Critical Data 3 38 Measures #3 20
5 2/29 Basic Principles in Behavior Analysis 4 12
6 3/7 Basic Principles in Behavior Analysis 4 13
B -> C
#4a
A -> B -> C
#4b
20
20
7 3/14
Understanding the Antecedents to
Behavior
5 25
Modifying
Antecedents
#5
20
8 3/21 Self-Change Behavior 6 30
9 3/28 Consequences for Change 7 35
Self-change
Tactics #6
Self-Change
Tactics #7
20
20
10 4/4
Writing a Successful Behavior Change
Plan
8 25
Final plan
with data #8
20
11 4/18 Modifying Behavior Change Plans 9 24
12 4/25 Maintaining Behavior Change Plans 10 19
Adjustments
to plan #9
Planning for
the future #10
20
20
13 5/2
Self-Change Project Presentation & Paper
Instructions
None
Presentation
grade form
20
14 5/9
Finish Presentations Remedial Exam
Instructions
Final
paper
due
None
Paper grade
form
20
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Psyc 4790 Hesse Analyzing and Changing Human Behavior Syllabus
Class Name: Psyc 4790 Class Key: N71419M853
You will need:
Class Key (N71419M853)
Connection to the Internet
Method of Payment (Credit card or personal check)
Enrolling through CPSOnline
You will first need to setup a CPSOnline account.
Create a CPSOnline Account
1. Go to www.einstruction.com and click on the CPS Online Login link at the top right of
the webpage or click on the picture of the response pad on the class web page (left side
under response pad instructions).
2. Select California State University, Stanislaus from the drop-down menu.
3. Click Choose Site.
4. Enter your serial number in the space provided. You can find your serial number on your
LCD screen when you turn on your response pad: if your pad does not have an LCD
screen, you have the wrong response pad.
5. Click Create Your Account.
6. Create a CPSOnline Username and Password and fill in your contact information (use the
last 5 digits of your Student ID number only as your student ID). Click Submit to create
your account.
You’ve now created a CPSOnline account. You can use your CPSOnline username and password
to login anytime to CPSOnline. Now you can enroll your pad in your class.
Enroll in a Class
1. Click Yes to enroll immediately in your class.
2. Enter your Class Key N71419M853 in the space provided. You do not have a code so
leave the code box blank.
3. Click Submit and choose your payment options. Click Continue.
4. Fill in your billing information and click Continue.
5. To join an additional CPSOnline class, click the Enroll in a class button from the main
menu.
6. Once you have finished enrolling in all of your classes, click Log Out. So that
CPSOnline properly records your information, log out of CPSOnline.
NOTE: If you enroll in more than one class using CPS, your response pad may have a different
assigned number for each class. Note your assigned response pad number after you enroll for
each class, and use the reminder emails from eInstruction to keep track of your information.
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Psyc 4790 Hesse Analyzing and Changing Human Behavior Syllabus
Using your Response Pad in your class
The eInstruction response pad is easy to use with CPS. Use the information below to learn how
to use the buttons on the pad. If you have any questions, log onto www.einstruction.com and use
the Customer Support menu option. Type in your name and enter the live chat room for
immediate help. You can also reach Technical Support at 888.333.7532.
Power – turn the response pad on or off by pressing the PWR/JOIN button.
Join – the response pads automatically search for a class roster to join whenever you turn
on the pad.
• Initiate Join – to have the response pad begin searching for a class roster to join, turn
on the response pad and press the PWR/JOIN button.
• Manually Join – to manually join a class, turn on the response pad and press the
PWR/JOIN button twice. Join: appears on the LCD screen. Type in the channel
number for the class roster you would like to join, and press Send.
Use Negative Numbers – make a numeric response positive or negative by pressing the
+- button.
Enter Equations – create equations by entering symbols into your response with the
Sym button. You can include the following symbols: X, Y, =, ( ), . (decimal), + (plus
operator), - (minus operator), / (division operator), * (multiplication operator), (space)
View Response Pad Information – to view the response pad channel, roster number,
and firmware version, turn the pad on and press the < button.
View Serial Number – to view the serial number for your response pad, simply press the
PWR/Join button to turn on the response pad. The serial number displays in the LCD
screen as your response pad searches for a class roster to join. Your serial number will
begin with “r1…”.
Adjust LCD Screen Contrast – to adjust the LCD screen contrast, press the > button.
Use the A1 button to decrease the contrast and the C3 button to increase contrast.
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