Ciara K. Kidder, Ph.D.
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History and Systems of Psychology

Why take History and Systems?

There are a variety of reasons why you are taking this class. Maybe you are a psychology major fulfilling a requirement, or a psychology minor fulfilling a needed elective and this one is conveniently held online. Either way, you probably aren’t all that interested in taking this class. I know I wasn’t when I was an undergraduate. In fact, I didn’t even take this class.  That being said, there are some reasons why this class is important and can be interesting. First, this class gives you a chance to take an in-depth look at the field of psychology. We’re essentially going to take the first chapter of any introduction to psychology course, and take a deeper look at it. We’re going to really study how psychology began and how the various ways of studying and understand psychology (e.g., behavioral, cognitive, gestalt) got their starts. This is important primarily because it will teach you to understand the context in which psychologists live and work, and how that context in turn influences their ideas and interpretations of experimental work. This becomes important as you move forward in your careers and encounter future psychological (and other scientific) findings. You will need to think critically about the context of the current era and future times to best understand them. As I am working on preparing this class for you, I am finding connections of my broader knowledge of psychology as a whole, to various ideas and the people who had them. I hope you will experience similar "Aha!" moments in this course.

Class Approach

I am currently teaching this as on online course only. As such, this class is primarily self-guided. Each week students will complete "lessons" that will help them understand the material from the text and relate it to historiographic context and their current psychological knowledge. 

Application Assignments

There are three projects over the course of the semester, a paper, infographic, and podcast/video. These assignments will be a way to show the extent to which you understand the topics covered and how well you can synthesize your learning with academic research on those topics. Students select which project type goes with each topic.

Discussion

After completing each lesson, students compose a paragraph long post on a given prompt that models the thinking required on exams. Students post these in small groups and have the opportunity to view other's ideas and discuss them.

Exams

Student demonstrate mastery of the course objectives through essay exams. The exams test how well students have mastered the basic concepts, how well they can apply those concepts to read world settings, and how well they can synthesize their learning with wider psychological knowledge. 


Spring 2020 Sections:
Online



Sample Syllabus
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  • Home
  • Teaching
    • General Psychology
    • Social Psychology
    • Applied Statistics
    • History and Systems
    • Cognitive Psychology
    • Neuroscience
    • Research Methods
    • Teaching Philosophy
  • Research
    • Research Statement
  • Student Corner
  • About Me
  • CV