Intoduction to Psychology

What is an A+CE course?

A+CE stands for “Academic Achievement through Community Engagement” which will be implemented through UHD’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).  All PSY Group, Introduction to Psychology courses will function as part of the QEP, which aims to improve students’ critical thinking through community engagement.

How will the Quality Enhancement Plan be applied to PSY Group?

Given the nature of the course and social issues faced by the community, students enrolled in PSY Group will examine and analyze current events related to mental health issues.

How does the Quality Enhancement Plan benefit UH-D students?

 The Quality Enhancement Plan strategically targets first-time-in-college (FTIC) students in order to improve academic success and student retention. FTIC students who earn a C or better in A+CE designated courses will receive milestone recognition awards throughout their first two years. Additionally, FTIC students who completed four A+CE designated courses while maintaining an overall 2.5 GPA during their first two years of college will be recognized as “Engaged Scholars” at an award celebration.

What student learning objectives will be related to the Quality Enhancement Plan, and must be added to PSY Group?

“Students will be able to analyze community issues with respect to different perspectives, theories, or solutions.”

What teaching and learning activities will be included in my PSY Group course to address the Quality Enhancement Plan?

 Raise AWARENESS:

Students will examine and analyze a recent current event concerning mental health. Students will present in-depth information from relevant sources representing different points of view or approaches with regard to the selected mental health issue.

What assignment will evaluate the Quality Enhancement Plan learning outcome?

Mental health awareness is an important issue in our society. This assignment gives students the opportunity to apply psychological theories or concepts to a real-life, mental health current event.  Depending on what theory/concept and current event is chosen, the student might have to read ahead in the textbook if the concept has not yet been covered in class. Please see the following pages for complete instructions regarding this assignment.

Critical Thinking Assignment Instructions

In general, this assignment requires students to (1) identify, examine, and analyze a current event that can be associated with mental health using psychological perspectives that have been discussed in class; and (2) outline at least one way to increase the public’s knowledge of mental health issues.

This assignment is worth 15% of your overall grade. See below for specific paper requirements.

For Part 1 of the paper, each student should:

1. Select a current issue or event that is related to a mental health issue. This event has to have occurred (or been in the media) within the last year.  Students can focus on a particular mental health issue or approach it more generally.  In other words, this current event may stand on its own or stem from social, political, religious, environmental, or other concerns.

Choose two perspectives that have been discussed over the course of the semester (e.g., biological, cognitive, social, developmental, behavioral, psychodynamic, etc). Using these two perspectives, compare and contrast them regarding the selected current event. In other words, students must analyze and pros and cons of each perspective as they apply to the issues.  This portion of the paper should

• Discuss how these perspectives explain what is occurring with regard to this mental health issue. (How can the concepts/theories selected be used to explain the current event/issue?  How well do they explain the event?)
• Organize arguments to reveal differences and similarities in the views; include insights and information from relevant sources.
• Use sources to support ideas and back up factual claims. Your psychology textbook is an appropriate source.
• Be mainly analytical. Although a portion of the paper will be devoted to describing the current event/issue, as well as to a general discussion of the psychological perspectives, the vast majority of the paper should consist of the student’s analysis.
• Discuss which perspective best explains the current mental health issue, based on the student’s analysis.
  • Each student must critically analyze and explain why the chosen perspective is a better choice than the other.

 

 

For Part 2 of the paper, each student should:

 

• Describe a way to increase the public’s knowledge of mental health issues. This strategy must be based on the perspective that was argued in Part 1 as the best explanation of the current event.
  • Refer to relevant psychological research that supports this proposed strategy. Your psychology textbook is an acceptable source of research.
  • Discuss possible limitations of the proposed strategy.