In this course three key areas of psychology will be introduced: social psychology, personality psychology & biological psychology. 

The course will chart key developments, theories and foundational research that continues to have an impact on current approaches. The course will address the big questions in psychology, such as: How does the social environment influences the way people think, feel and behave?; Are there stable personality traits that determine people’s behaviours across time and different situations?; How flexible is the human brain in adapting to changing life circumstances and injuries?

No prerequisite knowledge is required for this course. Students can enrol in PSYC1004 before completion of PSYC1003. Completion of both PSYC1003 and PSYC1004 is required for most later-year psychology courses.

This course has an Honours Pathway Option

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Examine key topics in social psychology, including humans as social animals and their implications for their psychology, social norms, social influence, stereotyping and prejudice.
2. Explain structural components of the brain and how they relate to elements of human behaviour.
3. Describe and discuss the key models of personality, including trait, psychodynamic, and biological models.
4. Evaluate theoretical and empirical concepts in social, biological, and personality psychology and critically consider and review material with your peers.
5. Integrate information from multiple and potentially conflicting sources in the field of biological, social, or personality psychology, construct a logical argument and effectively communicate this in written format.
6. Individually or in groups, critically analyse classic studies in psychology and reflect on how colonisation, cultural biases, and personal experiences shape our understanding of psychological science.

Research-Led Teaching

NA

Field Trips

NA

Additional Course Costs

NA

Examination Material or equipment

No permitted materials

Required Resources

Please Note: The textbooks are recommended but not an essential requirement for this course.

Burton, L., Westen, D., & Kowalski, R. (2015). Psychology: 5th Australian and New Zealand Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

*** or ***

Burton, L., Westen, D., & Kowalski, R. (2022). Psychology: 6th Australian and New Zealand Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Recommended Resources

Recommended student system requirements 

Whether you are on campus or studying online, there are a variety of online resources and activities including:

• video material, similar to YouTube, for lectures and other instruction
• two-way video conferencing for interactive learning
• email and other messaging tools for communication
• interactive web apps for formative and collaborative activities
• print and photo/scan for handwritten work and drawings
• home-based assessment.

ANU outlines recommended student system requirements to ensure you are able to participate fully in your learning. Other information is also available about the various Learning Platforms you may use.

Staff Feedback

Students will be given feedback in the following forms in this course:

• written comments
• verbal comments
• feedback to whole class, groups, individuals, focus group etc

Student Feedback

ANU is committed to the demonstration of educational excellence and regularly seeks feedback from students. Students are encouraged to offer feedback directly to their Course Convener or through their College and Course representatives (if applicable). Feedback can also be provided to Course Conveners and teachers via the Student Experience of Learning & Teaching (SELT) feedback program. SELT surveys are confidential and also provide the Colleges and ANU Executive with opportunities to recognise excellent teaching, and opportunities for improvement.

Other Information

In order to help manage workload where full-time students are enrolled in 4 courses, a guide is that a 6 unit course should require on average 10 hours of work a week (including lectures and laboratory classes PLUS preparing for and revising lectures, readings). IT IS EXPECTED THAT ALL STUDENTS WILL ATTEND LECTURES EACH WEEK (3-hours each week), as well as 7 x 2 hours laboratory classes. Research shows students learn BEST and achieve higher marks when they attend lectures and revise and review the material afterwards. The laboratory program is not designed necessarily to follow the lecture program but to further develop certain knowledge, concepts and skills in a small-group teaching setting. 

Class Schedule

Week/Session	Summary of Activities	Assessment
1	Week 1Lecture: Introduction to PSYC1004 & Introduction to Social PsychologyLab: No laboratory class
2	Week 2Lecture: Social Psychology: Stereotyping & PrejudiceLab: No laboratory class
3	Week 3Lecture: Social Psychology: Attitudes, Norms & BehaviourLab: Social Laboratory 1
4	Week 4Lecture: Social Psychology: Social Change & Cross-cultural PsychologyLab: Social Laboratory 2	Students encouraged to complete Peerwise: Social Psychology
5	Week 5Lecture: Biological Psychology: Cells, impulses, and synapsesLab: No laboratory
6	Week 6Lecture: Biological Psychology: Neuroanatomy, development, and plasticityLab: Laboratory 3: Research Essay Writing	Mid-Semester Assessment: 28/08/2024 @ TBAUnessay Due: 21/08/2024 @ 4pmStudents encouraged to complete research participation
7	Week 7Lecture: Biological Psychology: Sensory systems, movement, and sleepLab: Bio Laboratory 1
8	Week 8Lecture: Biological Psychology: Mental illness and major issues in biological psychologyLab: Bio Laboratory 2	Students encouraged to complete Peerwise: Biological Psychology
9	Week 9Lecture: Personality Psychology: Introduction to Personality & Theories of PersonalityLab: No laboratory class	Research Essay Due: 25/09/2024 @ 4pm Students encouraged to complete research participation
10	Week 10Lecture: Personality Psychology: Interactions Between Traits and Context, Psychopathy, and AltruismLab: No laboratory class	Students encouraged to complete research participation
11	Week 11Lecture: Personality Psychology: Executive Functions, Cognitive Failures, and Individual Differences in Crash RiskLab: Personality Laboratory 1
12	Week 12Lecture: Personality Psychology: Attention, Trait Anxiety, Emotion Regulation, Empathy, and Intolerance of UncertaintyLab: Personality Laboratory 2	Students encouraged to complete Peerwise: Personality Psychology

Tutorial Registration

ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.

Assessment Summary

Assessment task	Value	Due Date	Return of assessment	Learning Outcomes
Research Essay	30 %	25/09/2024	*	1,2,3,5
Question Generation and Review	5 %	*	*	1,2,3,4
Research Participation	5 %	*	*	4
Mid Semester Assessment	15 %	28/08/2024	*	1
Reflective “UnEssay”	15 %	21/08/2024	*	4,6
End of Semester Exam	30 %	*	*	2,3
Honours Pathway Option	5 %	*	25/10/2024	1,2,3

* If the Due Date and Return of Assessment date are blank, see the Assessment Tab for specific Assessment Task details

Policies

ANU has educational policies, procedures and guidelines , which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and implement them. Students are expected to have read the Academic Integrity Rule before the commencement of their course. Other key policies and guidelines include:

• Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
• Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure
• Extenuating Circumstances Application
• Student Surveys and Evaluations
• Deferred Examinations
• Student Complaint Resolution Policy and Procedure
• Code of practice for teaching and learning

Assessment Requirements

The ANU is using Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the Academic Skills website. In rare cases where online submission using Turnitin software is not technically possible; or where not using Turnitin software has been justified by the Course Convener and approved by the Associate Dean (Education) on the basis of the teaching model being employed; students shall submit assessment online via ‘Wattle’ outside of Turnitin, or failing that in hard copy, or through a combination of submission methods as approved by the Associate Dean (Education). The submission method is detailed below.

Moderation of Assessment

Marks that are allocated during Semester are to be considered provisional until formalised by the College examiners meeting at the end of each Semester. If appropriate, some moderation of marks might be applied prior to final results being released.

Participation

The University has returned to on campus only delivery for in person courses.

Students are expected to attend lectures and contribute to discussions. In addition to lectures, attendance and participation in laboratories/practical's is crucial to successful completion of your course. The School of Medicine and Psychology considers the laboratory/practical components to be an integral part of each course. Laboratory/practical classes may supplement and consolidate material covered in lectures and/or they may introduce entirely new material pertinent to the objectives of the course.

Examination(s)

The final examination for this course will be administered in-person during the semester 2 final examination period. Students must be on campus to attend the exam. Information about the scheduling of the examination will be posted by the University at http://www.anu.edu.au/students/program-administration/assessments-exams/examination-timetable

The final examination is a hurdle requirement. A Pass mark (50% or greater) is required in the final examination before the course can be passed as a whole.

Those failing to achieve this, but who otherwise have an overall grade of 45% or better, will be offered the opportunity to sit, and pass, a further (supplementary) invigilated examination.

Students achieving a passing grade (50% or better) in that supplementary invigilated examination will be eligible to pass the course overall but their final recorded course mark will be 50%. 

Assessment Task 1

Research Essay

You will be asked to write a research essay answering a question from one of the three areas of the course. The essay will be 1500 words in length and needs to be formatted using the guidelines set out by the American Psychological Association (APA). The essay topics and starting references will be made available on the PSYC1004 Wattle site. Information about how to write a research essay, as well as the marking criteria, will be discussed and outlined in Laboratory Class 3; this information will also be placed on the PSYC1004 Wattle site.

Value: 30% of your final grade.

Due date: 2024-09-25 (Week 8).

Estimated assignment return date: 3 weeks from the submission date

Assessment Task 2

Question Generation and Review

People are better at remembering things when they generate the content themselves compared to when it is generated for them. Therefore, we want you to generate some revision questions and answers.

For each topic (social, biological, and personality psychology) you are to use Peerwise to:

-         Generate 2 revision questions based on material covered.

-         Comment on 3 questions created by your peers.

This can be used for your own revision leading up to the exams for this course.

More details regarding how to use Peerwise can be found on the PSYC1004 wattle site.

Value: 5% of your final grade

Assessment Task 3

Research Participation

There are two options that you can take to complete the research participation component. Students can exclusively take up Option 1 or Option 2, but can also choose to do a combination of both (i.e. complete three hours of research participation through Option 1 and two hours through Option 2). A total of 5 hours of research participation through either option must be completed.

Option 1. You can participate in five hours of ongoing psychological research here in the Research School of Psychology. In this manner, you can experience first-hand what real psychological research is like. And you can be part of new and ongoing research projects, designed to further our understanding of human thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. As with participation in your formal laboratory classes, we believe this is a good opportunity for you to broaden your education and, in doing so, contribute to research that may lead to publication and impact on the field.

If you choose Option 1 for this component, please use the SONA link on the PSYC1004 Wattle site to sign up for experiments.

Option 2. In lieu of the any one of the five hours of research participation, you can read one published psychology journal article, and complete a summary questionnaire about it. This exercise will allow you to learn about some important scientific discoveries in psychology. If you choose this option, please see wattle site for more information. For each article you read, you must then answer questions in an on-line format. As a rule of thumb, one article should take one hour to read and summarise, and should therefore equate to one hour of research participation. Word limit (where applicable): Approximately 400 words per hour for Option 2

Estimated return date:

Option 1: credit will be granted upon completion of each experiment.

Option 2: credit will be granted at the end of semester.

Value: 5% of your final grade

Assessment Task 4

Mid Semester Assessment

The mid-semester assessment will focus on social psychology content and will be held during Week 6 (2024-08-28; Time TBA).

The exam will be multiple choice questions.

Value: 15% of your final grade

Assessment Task 5

Reflective “UnEssay”

This assignment involves creatively and critically reflecting on and communicating a theory or concept from lecture. To do this, you can use whatever medium or format you want, except for a standard essay (hence, the assignment is called "unessay"!)

Due date: 2024-08-21 (Week 5).

Estimated assignment return date: 3 weeks from the submission date.

Value: 15% of your final grade.

Assessment Task 6

End of Semester Exam

The end-semester examination will focus on biological and personality psychology content, and will be held during the end-semester examination period

The exam will be multiple choice questions.

The exam will be in person on campus invigilated exam.

Information about the scheduling of the examination will be posted by the University at http://www.anu.edu.au/students/program-administration/assessments-exams/examination-timetable

The final examination is a hurdle requirement. A Pass mark (50% or greater) is required in the final examination before the course can be passed as a whole.

Estimated return date: Exams are not returned.

Value: 30% of your final grade

Assessment Task 7

Honours Pathway Option

The Honours Pathway Option is available to all undergraduate students in this course. It allows them to substitute some of their assessment in the course for academic work that is more research-orientated or of increased conceptual difficulty and/or involves discovery-based learning. Completing HPOs provides students with the skills and knowledge required in Honours and postgraduate research.

 

The HPO will replace the Peerwise participation mark worth 5% of your PSYC1004 mark.

Details on How to Enrol into the HPO and HPO Task Instructions and assignment information is available on the PSYC1004 Wattle site.

Value: 5% of the final mark

Due Date: 25/10/24

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a core part of the ANU culture as a community of scholars. The University’s students are an integral part of that community. The academic integrity principle commits all students to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support, academic integrity, and to uphold this commitment by behaving honestly, responsibly and ethically, and with respect and fairness, in scholarly practice.

The University expects all staff and students to be familiar with the academic integrity principle, the Academic Integrity Rule 2021, the Policy: Student Academic Integrity and Procedure: Student Academic Integrity, and to uphold high standards of academic integrity to ensure the quality and value of our qualifications.

The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 is a legal document that the University uses to promote academic integrity, and manage breaches of the academic integrity principle. The Policy and Procedure support the Rule by outlining overarching principles, responsibilities and processes. The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 commences on 1 December 2021 and applies to courses commencing on or after that date, as well as to research conduct occurring on or after that date. Prior to this, the Academic Misconduct Rule 2015 applies.

 

The University commits to assisting all students to understand how to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support academic integrity. All coursework students must complete the online Academic Integrity Module (Epigeum), and Higher Degree Research (HDR) students are required to complete research integrity training. The Academic Integrity website provides information about services available to assist students with their assignments, examinations and other learning activities, as well as understanding and upholding academic integrity.

Online Submission

You will be required to electronically sign a declaration as part of the submission of your assignment. Please keep a copy of the assignment for your records.

Unless an exemption has been approved by the Associate Dean (Education) a submission must be through Turnitin.

Hardcopy Submission

For some forms of assessment (hand written assignments, art works, laboratory notes, etc.) hard copy submission is appropriate when approved by the Associate Dean (Education). Hard copy submissions must utilise the Assignment Cover Sheet. Please keep a copy of tasks completed for your records.

Late Submission

Individual assessment tasks may or may not allow for late submission. Policy regarding late submission is detailed below:

Late submission of assessment tasks without an extension are penalised at the rate of 5% of the possible marks available per working day or part thereof.

Late submission of assessment tasks is not accepted after 10 working days after the due date, or on or after the date specified in the course outline for the return of the assessment item.

Referencing Requirements

The Academic Skills website has information to assist you with your writing and assessments. The website includes information about Academic Integrity including referencing requirements for different disciplines. There is also information on Plagiarism and different ways to use source material. Any use of artificial intelligence must be properly referenced. Failure to properly cite use of Generative AI will be considered a breach of academic integrity.

Returning Assignments

Research Essays that have been submitted on time will be marked and available to download from the Turnitin link on Wattle, approximately three weeks after the due date. The exact return date will be posted on Wattle.

Late assignments (even those with formal extensions) will not be marked within this timeframe; our priority will be to mark the assignments that were handed in on time. We will aim to get the late assignments back before the end of semester. Marking of the late reports will commence once all on-time Laboratory Reports have been marked and returned.

Extensions and Penalties

Extensions and late submission of assessment pieces are covered by the Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure. Extensions may be granted for assessment pieces that are not examinations or take-home examinations. If you need an extension, you must request an extension in writing on or before the due date. If you have documented and appropriate medical evidence that demonstrates you were not able to request an extension on or before the due date, you may be able to request it after the due date.

Resubmission of Assignments

Resubmission of assignments not permitted.

Re-marking Policy

From the time, your assignment is available on Wattle; you have 10 working days in which to request a formal re-mark.

1. If you have any questions about the assessment of a submitted piece of work, or wish to have some of the comments clarified, email your questions to the course functional email account, this is on Wattle.
2. If you think, your assignment deserves a higher mark:  It is your responsibility to outline in writing why, in your opinion, the original mark does not reflect the true worth of the work.  Submit your request by email to the functional email account.
3. If the Course Convener agrees to a remark of your work, and as a result, the mark is altered, and you accept this change, then the procedure ends, and you will not be eligible for any further re-marking of this work.
4. If you remain unhappy with the outcome, you can formally request a re-mark by an independent marker by sending your request to the functional email account for this course. 
5. The mark awarded by the independent marker for your assessment will become your final mark regardless, if it is higher, lower or the same as your original mark.

Privacy Notice

The ANU has made a number of third party, online, databases available for students to use. Use of each online database is conditional on student end users first agreeing to the database licensor’s terms of service and/or privacy policy. Students should read these carefully. In some cases student end users will be required to register an account with the database licensor and submit personal information, including their: first name; last name; ANU email address; and other information.
In cases where student end users are asked to submit ‘content’ to a database, such as an assignment or short answers, the database licensor may only use the student’s ‘content’ in accordance with the terms of service – including any (copyright) licence the student grants to the database licensor. Any personal information or content a student submits may be stored by the licensor, potentially offshore, and will be used to process the database service in accordance with the licensors terms of service and/or privacy policy.
If any student chooses not to agree to the database licensor’s terms of service or privacy policy, the student will not be able to access and use the database. In these circumstances students should contact their lecturer to enquire about alternative arrangements that are available.

Distribution of grades policy

Academic Quality Assurance Committee monitors the performance of students, including attrition, further study and employment rates and grade distribution, and College reports on quality assurance processes for assessment activities, including alignment with national and international disciplinary and interdisciplinary standards, as well as qualification type learning outcomes.

Since first semester 1994, ANU uses a grading scale for all courses. This grading scale is used by all academic areas of the University.

Support for students

The University offers students support through several different services. You may contact the services listed below directly or seek advice from your Course Convener, Student Administrators, or your College and Course representatives (if applicable).

• ANU Health, safety & wellbeing for medical services, counselling, mental health and spiritual support
• ANU Accessibility for students with a disability or ongoing or chronic illness
• ANU Dean of Students for confidential, impartial advice and help to resolve problems between students and the academic or administrative areas of the University
• ANU Academic Skills supports you make your own decisions about how you learn and manage your workload.
• ANU Counselling promotes, supports and enhances mental health and wellbeing within the University student community.
• ANUSA supports and represents all ANU students