PSYC 110: Introduction to Psychology

Summer Session A, 2025

Last updated May 14, 2025

Class Meetings: Tuesday & Thursday, 10:00am – 11:30am ET

**Please note that all class meeting times and deadlines are in EASTERN TIME**

Instructor:
Dr. Stephanie Lazzaro (please call me Stephanie or Steph)
Email: [Link]@[Link]

Teaching Fellow:
Sifana Sohail
Email: [Link]@[Link]

PSYC 110 Course Description and Structure:

Who are you? Why are people superstitious? Is your eye like a camera? Is your memory like a
video camera? How can we influence other people's behavior?
This course will try to answer these questions and many others while giving students a general,
broad overview and introduction to the scientific discipline of psychology.
Lectures are structured around a simple, real-world question derived from curiosity about how
people think and behave. In thinking about potential answers, students will be introduced to key
concepts, methodological approaches, and significant findings in the field of psychology, as well
as the kinds of empirical evidence on which these findings are based. Students will be
encouraged to think critically and evaluate their own behavior through experiments/polls. We
will use psychology as a mirror: illuminating the inner workings of our minds and helping us to
understand ourselves and others. A scientific approach will be developed through an appreciation
of how empirical data can be used to test hypotheses.
This is an introductory survey course and there are no prerequisites.

Help?
Please note, this is a tentative, syllabus and may be updated again before the course begins.
Important announcements, course updates, readings, and assignments will be posted on Canvas.

Course Website
Log in to Canvas with your NetID, and if you are enrolled you should be able to access the
course website directly. On the site you will find a current copy of the syllabus lecture videos,
assigned readings, and PDFs of slides corresponding to the course lectures.

Format and requirements

The course lasts five weeks. For each week, students will watch a series of lectures that were
recorded in 2022 as part of a standard lecture-based version of this course. There may be other
supplementary on-line lectures, activities, and readings. Each week, there are two synchronous
meetings for online discussing, during the periods of Tuesday and Thursday, 10am-11:30am ET.
One meeting per week is usually with the Instructor, the other is usually with the TF, but
attendance is mandatory at both. Attendance means KEEPING YOUR CAMERA ON and
engaging/participating.
Although this is an online summer course, the expected workload is equivalent to a typical
semester-long university class. You will watch a semester’s worth of lectures, do a similar
amount of reading, writing, and coursework, and have roughly the same amount of contact with
the instructor and teaching fellow (actually much more one-on-one contact with the instructor
than you would in a large lecture!). Thus, given that an entire semester is compressed into five
weeks, you should expect to devote the same amount or more time to this class than you would
to a class during the semester (in 5 weeks instead of 14).

Readings and assignments:

Readings will be freely available online through the NOBA project, and occasionally some
posted PDFs. The only thing you need to purchase is an online package of ZAPS psychology
labs (~10USD) to participate in experiments, see your own results, and answer discussion
questions.
Readings, assignments, ZAPS, and lecture slides will be posted to Canvas. Please see the
‘Modules’ section on Canvas for Instructions for each week, Lecture Videos, Readings, Slides
and ZAPs. Written assignments can be found in the ‘Assignments’ section. Written assignments
will focus on developing skills for finding literature, supporting arguments with evidence,
critically evaluating claims, and will emphasize scientific inquiry and critical thinking.

Course Expectations:
Due to the condensed nature of summer courses, students fall behind quickly if they do not
attend every class. Attendance is mandatory and part of your final grade through participation. In
addition to regular class attendance, students will complete several additional assignments
including written assignments, a midterm exam and a comprehensive final exam. Watching the
videos is essential. You cannot only rely on looking at lecture slides, as they will not all make
sense without the accompanying lecture. It will also be difficult to follow and participate in class
discussions without having watched the assigned lecture recordings before class.

IMPORTANT: Class participation is an essential part of this course and attendance is mandatory
and part of your grade. Joining the zoom and leaving your camera off will count as an absence.

Assessments (Tentative):
Your course grade will be based on your performance on each of the areas described below.
Approximate and tentative weighting of different course components:
Class Attendance (with your camera on!) and Participation (20%)
Written Brief Research Papers:
Scientific Date Night Lit Search and Application (8%)
ZAPS psychology labs and responses (15%)
In-class, closed-book mid-term exam (22%)
In-class, closed-book final exam (35%)

The exams will be held during normal class times and will be “closed-book” – i.e. you will not
be allowed to draw on any materials. It will consist of short answers and multiple-choice
questions. Please ensure you will be able to take the final exam during the final class period.
 Tentative schedule of classes
Lecture Videos, Slides, and Readings will be posted in the ‘Modules’ section on Canvas

Week 1: Introduction, Overview, The Scientific Method, and The Brain

Class 1) Tuesday, May 27 – prepare by watching lecture video ‘Where is my mind?’

In class plan - What is PSYC 110? Introduction to course, expectations, getting to know each
other, facts vs. myths, biases, WEIRD participants, potential debate on ‘is psych a science?’

Class 2) Thursday, May 29 – prepare by watching lecture videos, ‘Why do cowboys fight?’ and
‘Why are we superstitious? and completing the ZAPs
In class plan - review, discussion, research design and methodology, hypotheses, etc.

Week 2: Emotions, Love & Attraction, Learning, and Memory

Class 3) Tuesday, June 3 – prepare for this class by watching lecture videos, ‘You’ve got me
feeling emotions… why?’ and ‘What is love?’ and completing the ZAPs
In class plan - skill building – brainstorming, literature searches, finding, reading, summarizing,
and evaluating scientific articles, using evidence to support arguments. Scientific Date Night
written paper due at the end of this week

Class 4) Thursday, June 5 – prepare by watching ‘Is my memory like a video camera?’ and ‘How
should I study?’ and completing the ZAPs
In class plan – Interactive ‘Who Are You?’ lecture, review concepts for Exam 1

Week 3: Midterm Exam, Automaticity and Free Will

Class 5) Tuesday, June 10 – EXAM 1. Prepare by reviewing concepts from all lectures in
weeks 1 and 2
In class - Exam 1

Class 6) Thursday, June 12 – prepare by watching ‘Are humans helpers?’ and ‘Are we just
robots?’ and completing ZAPs
In class plan – interactive ‘Can you sue a casino lecture?’ and discussion/debate on free will.
Review of concepts

Week 4: Adolescents, Personality, and Vision

Class 7) Tuesday, June 17 – prepare by watching ‘How are we different?’ and ‘Are adolescents
atypical?’ lecture videos and completing ZAPS
In class plan – review concepts, discuss personality and intelligence tests, reliability and validity,
hear about Sifana’s developmental research
Class 8) Thursday, June 19 – prepare by watching ‘Is my eye like a camera?’, ‘Is my brain a
little like a camera?’ and ‘Do we see the same blue?’ completing ZAPs, and finding your own
visual illusion that you’d like to share with the class
In class plan – show and discuss visual illusions, review concepts

Week 5: Language and Thought (Linguistic Relativity), Cognitive Dissonance, Persuasion,

Theory of Mind, and Exam 2

Class 9) Tuesday, June 24 – prepare by watching ‘Why do people drink redbull?’ and ‘How do I
get people to do the things I want them to do?’ and ‘Is this magic?’
In class plan – review concepts for final exam

Class 10) Thursday, June 26 – Exam 2 (Final exam). Prepare by studying all
concepts/lectures/readings after Exam 1.
In class – Exam 2

Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion1

Your success in this class is important to me. I am committed to creating a course that is
inclusive in its design. If you encounter barriers to learning or your inclusion, please let me know
as soon as possible. I also encourage you to visit Student Accessibility Services to determine
how we can improve your learning and/or establish reasonable and appropriate accommodations.
There are a range of resources on campus, including the Writing Center, Residential College
Tutors, and Academic Strategies.
It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well served by this
course, that students’ learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity
that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength, and benefit. Your suggestions
and ideas are encouraged and appreciated. We may discuss psychology experiments or results
that bring up different emotions – please remember to be respectful and sensitive of others
during class discussions and keep in mind that presenting and discussing hypotheses, data,
interpretations, etc. does not necessarily constitute a person’s opinions or beliefs. We are
committed to an environment that facilitates inquiry and self-expression, while also
demonstrating diligence in understanding how others’ viewpoints and experiences may differ.
We reject all forms of prejudice and discrimination and strive to create an inclusive and
respectful community.

Academic Honesty2
Academic honesty is a core institutional value at Yale. It means, among other things, truth in
presentation, diligence and precision in citing works and ideas we have used, and acknowledging
our collaborations with others. While students are encouraged to discuss psychological research,
theories, course content, and material with other students, all work submitted for this course
should not be collaborative and must be the work of each individual student. You may not
submit the work of another student and any AI writing assistance is prohibited. Academic
honesty is a very serious issue which includes prohibiting e.g. cheating on coursework,
plagiarism, AI writing assistance, and multiple submissions of the same work without obtaining
explicit written permission from both instructors before the material is submitted (to name a
few). Students are responsible for knowing and abiding by Yale’s policy:
[Link]

The exams are closed-book. Any evidence of cheating will result in an automatic zero on the
exam and will be referred to the Executive Committee of Yale College. Consequences can be
severe. Do not jeopardize your standing at Yale by cheating. If you find yourself in a difficult
situation and are feeling overwhelmed, there are always better options than cheating. If you are
having problems in the course, please speak to the instructor or TF. We want you to succeed in
this course and are here to help.

Plagiarism3
Learning requires that you do your own work. We are interested in your original thoughts.
Plagiarism is a serious form of academic dishonesty and violates the ethical codes governing
writing, communicating, and journalistic practices. Evidence of plagiarism will result in an
automatic zero on the assignment or exam and will be referred to the Executive Committee of
Yale College. Any zero due to academic dishonesty will be factored into the final grade. It is
important to accurately credit sources of material. When you prepare any material for the
course:
• See: [Link] and [Link]
grammar-guidelines/citations

• Cite all sources used for papers each time you use the source in your written work.

• Paraphrase. Do not quote unless absolutely necessary – see: [Link]

grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations If you paraphrase, you still need to mark your
source each time you use borrowed material. Otherwise, you have plagiarized.

• At the end of the paper, include a Reference section in which all sources used for the
paper are included. For this course, please use APA format (American Psychological
Association Publication Manual 7th edition). This format is available here:
[Link] This format
is also illustrated at the end of articles published in journals of the APA.

• Your work should be your own. You may not submit the work or words of another
student. You may not use any AI writing assistance or text generated by AI chatbots.
You may not submit the same paper, or substantially the same paper, in more than one
course. If topics for two courses coincide, you need written permission from both
Professors before either combining work on two papers or revising an earlier paper for
submission to a new course.

• You may not post course materials to external websites (e.g. shared folder on Google
Drive; Course Hero, etc.). You may not share course materials with individuals not
currently in the course. You may not store course materials for use by a future student.
 • Cell phones, tablets, laptops, and related devices are not to be used for recording any
lecture or part of the class. Penalties for recording material will be implemented,
including but not limited to, course grade reduction and consultation with your Dean.

• Oversights of any of these points are not usually considered as casual omissions or mere
carelessness. Plagiarism is an ethical violation with severe consequences. The instructor,
TFs, and likely others (your Advisor, academic Dean) are available to assist on these
matters. If you have any doubts about whether a source ought to be cited, err on the side
of presenting the source.

To help support you and avoid issues with plagiarism, all course writing assignments will be
submitted to Turnitin via ‘Assignments’ in Canvas. Turnitin generates a report on the originality
of your writing by comparing it with a database of periodicals, books, online content, student
papers, and other published work. This report can help you discern when you are using sources
fairly, citing properly, and paraphrasing effectively—skills essential to all academic work. It is
recommended that you submit your paper early enough to review your Turnitin report before the
deadline. Then, if necessary, you will have time to ask for help from your TF or from someone at
the Writing Center. See: [Link]

_____________________

1 – adapted from the University of Iowa College of Education, and sample statements posted by the Poorvu Center
2 – adapted from Jennifer Hirsch, Paul Bloom, and a sample statement posted by the Poorvu Center
3 – adapted from Arielle Baskin-Sommers