WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2007-2008       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Issues in Contemporary Psychology: What Makes Us Human?
PSYC 110
Fall 2007
Section: 01   02  

This seminar-style course serves as an intensive introduction to psychology as an empirical science. As a group, we will read and discuss primary journal articles, focusing on the question: What makes us human? What is it about us that make us who we are? We will explore psychological research on three possible answers to this question: symbols, culture, and morality. In our journey through possible answers to this question, we will study multiple areas of psychology, looking at brains, individuals, and groups. Individually, students will select a research question of their own choosing and work steadily on a review of the relevant psychological literature.

Essential Capabilities:
Please note the additiional course description for this section:

The purpose of this seminar is for you to learn the mindset and the methods of a psychologist. What kinds of questions do we ask as psychologists? How do we go about answering them?

The theme of the seminar is a very broad question: What makes us human? What is it about us that makes us who we are? Our task will be to explore the concepts underlying three answers one might give to this question, symbols, or the meaning systems that we represent internally and share among ourselves; culture, or the glue that makes social groups internally cohesive and distinct from each other; and morality, or the rules we follow in our moral decision-making and behavior. In our journey through possible answers to this question, we will study multiple areas of psychology, and consider what makes psychology distinct from other social sciences pursuing answers to the same question.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS PSYC
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (PSYC)
Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available

Last Updated on APR-18-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459