COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Senior seminar is a capstone course in psychology, meaning that it is designed to bring some closure to your undergraduate experience. This closure is limited to an integration of course work you have taken so far in psychology at CSUB. As such, the breadth of courses you have had in psychology should enable you to recognize important psychology "principals" (i.e.,, pioneers), principles, theories, and content areas' coverage, limitations, implications, and applications. Given CSUB's curriculum, as well as the short time to the baccalaureate degree, some gaps in students' breadth of psychology knowledge is to be expected. Nonetheless, in this course we will attempt to provide a broad overview of psychology by placing emphasis on reading some of the classics in the history of psychology. While this coverage will be narrow and limited in scope, it is the professor's hope that students will be able to reinforce their psychology knowledge to date, as well as fill some of the gaps in that knowledge, notwithstanding the limited coverage of psychology in this class. Consequently, the learning objectives for this course include:

• Demonstrate knowledge of major theories in different content areas of psychology along with their strengths, limitations, and competing theories, if any
• Recognize major figures in the history of psychology, discussing and analyzing premises and conclusions of their contributions
• Provide evidence in writing, debating, and formal writing where psychological knowledge is integrated, analyzed, summarized, and synthesized
• Show evidence of using psychological tools such as critiquing empirical articles, evaluating the relationship between data and theory, questions and evidence for answers, methodological knowledge and application, and APA writing style.
• Provide evidence of knowing and applying ethical principles that must be upheld by psychologists.
• Complete a major review paper in a narrow, focused psychological topic.

CLASS SCHEDULE--please note deadlines for assignments

PRESENTATIONS: Because this is a seminar class, class discussion is expected and mandated. Students will sign up to do two presentations, where they will guide class discussion on the basis of the assigned readings for that day. To encourage attendance and to increase the benefits you derive from this class, six tests will be given, listed above as "Capstone Tests." Items for these tests will come right out of class presentations and discussions. Each class presentation should include the following elements:

• A brief opening of the importance of the readings, placed in a historical and theoretical perspective.
• A summary of the readings, where major premises, conclusions, implications, and limitations are given. This can be a Powerpoint presentation and need not be longer than 15 minutes.
• A list of points to generate discussion, assigning an exercise, group activity, or anything that will get the class engage in the learning of material.
• A guided discussion of where the readings fit within psychology, its relevance to date, future research, implications, and current state of knowledge in that topic (given that we are reading classics).
• A summary of the readings--including questions that were answered (unanswered)--and a take home message, all in words Joe No clue would understand.
  
• Time and readiness for questions from classmates and the instructor.
  

SEMINAR PAPER:  A "30 + pages" literature review paper is required in this class. You must have a minimum of 40 relevant, recent sources, with all of these empirical in nature. This paper will be done in small steps, with students periodically turning in drafts of their paper. (See class schedule above for due dates). Steps to complete this paper successfully include

1. Selection of narrow, focused psychology topic for which there is empirical and theoretical support (read below on how to write this type of review). (first week of quarter).
   
2. Instructor approval of topic, outline, and topical subdivisions of review paper (first week of quarter).
   
3. Approval of references for review (second week of quarter), which involves locating and using the psychology research literature. (Turn in references in APA style).
   
4. Critiques and in-depth summaries of at least 20 articles (out of the 40 needed for this paper) need to be turned in to the instructor with the final draft of the paper. (to learn on how to do critique, see: Hyman, R. (1995). How to critique a published article. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 178-182).
   
5. Adherence to proper format in grammar, mechanics, syntax (or English composition), APA style, and observance of ethics (i.e., no plagiarism). Note: 6th edition APA writing is required for this paper.
   
6. Inclusion of summary Tables and Figures need to be done in APA format as well.
7. Adherence to deadlines and completion of assigned review subsections as well as acting on instructor's feedback.
   

 Note: Some handouts will be given in class or posted on the web to help you do specific assignments for this paper review (i.e., how to do a literature search, role of theories in psychology, etc.).

PAPER PRESENTATIONS: Your seminar paper will require a high commitment and high degree of skills in organization, analysis, and critical thinking. It is only fair that your peers benefit from your hard work, as well as learning from your topic. Therefore, points will be assigned a paper presentation. You can use Powerpoint or any other presentational format of your preference. I will grade this presentation on the following criteria: (a) Information quality, delivery style of (b) substance, (c) interpersonal impact, (d) audience response, and (e) presentation aids.

WRITING THE REVIEW ARTICLE IN PSYCHOLOGY  The purpose of writing a review paper in psychology is to summarize the field in a writer's chosen, narrowed psychology topic. The paper should include the most updated evidence. Most important of all, the writer should use the reviewed evidence to tell a story that shows and demonstrates the relationship between the DATA (i.e., evidence) and the THEORY (i.e., conclusions) for the topic of discussion. As such, the writer needs to provide historical background, coalesce and critique evidence, and equally important, analyze the validity of conclusions. Specifically, the validity of conclusions is dependent on the soundness of the evidence first, and second, on how well rival conclusions can be ruled out--given the evidence. In terms of story-telling, this means that you have a good beginning (a good rationale or a good theory and evidence for your topic of consideration) and a good conclusion (alternative explanations have been ruled out).  Most of your efforts will be in reviewing the literature for evidence in support of your topic. This literature review is seldom chronological; more often it is topical, often based on evidence for a theory or on inconsistencies, contradictions, possible confounds, and alternative explanations not previously examined. In reviewing your articles you should synthesize, integrate, and analyze previous literature, all with the end of justifying the focus and premises of your study. The references are highly relevant to the topic being presented and are current (unless included for historical reasons). The following readings should provide you more help in learning to do a literature review in psychology:

Bem, D. J. (2002). Writing the empirical journal article. in J. M. Darley,  M. P. Zanna, & H. L.
          Roediger III (Eds.)  The compleat academic: A career guide. Washington, DC:
          American Psychological Association. Retrieved  September 6, 2011,
          from  http://dbem.ws/WritingArticle.pdf.
American Psychological Association (2010). Preparing manuscripts for publication in psychology journals:
       A guide to new authors. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
             (http://www.apa.org/pubs/authors/new-author-guide.aspx   .pdf link)
Sternberg, R. J. (2003). The psychologist's companion: A guide to scientific writing for students and
        researchers (4th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 1: Eight Common
        Misconceptions About Psychology Papers, sample chapter: Retrieved September 6, 2011, from
        http://assets.cambridge.org/0521821231/sample/0521821231WS.pdf.)

EVALUATION Grading criteria for paper includes 

1. Defining an appropriate, limited topic.
2. Selection, description, and review of appropriate literature.
3. Reasonable application of psychological principles and research methodology of empirical papers.
4. Thoughtful discussion of implications and limitations of the research.
5. Writing, including proper use of APA style and APA paper subsections, grammar, syntax, style, etc.

Student Learning Objectives (SLO) in Psychology:

WRITING ASSISTANCE & RE-WRITES

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT:

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Per the CSUB University Catalog and pursuant to Title 5, California Code of Regulations, § 41301. Standards for Student Conduct, CSUB students must adhere to laws, rules, standards, responsibilities, and expectations inherent with being a CSUB student. Specifically, acts of student misconduct such as academic dishonesty, interference with instructional activities, activities endangering the well being of the university community, as well as criminal activity of any kind will result in disciplinary actions, including expulsion and/or referral/involvement of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies (see p. 90-91 of the 2011/13 catalog ---http://www.csub.edu/catalog/2011-2013_regularlyUpdated/pages/012.pdf). 
2. Make-up exams are given only in the event of medical emergencies.
3. Late papers or assignments will NOT be accepted.