2.5: Assignments

The assignments in this course are openly licensed, and are available as-is, or can be modified to suit your students’ needs. Selected answer keys are available to faculty who adopt Waymaker, OHM, or Candela courses with paid support from Lumen Learning. This approach helps us protect the academic integrity of these materials by ensuring they are shared only with authorized and institution-affiliated faculty and staff.

If you import this course into your learning management system (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.), the assignments will automatically be loaded into the assignment tool, where they may be adjusted, or edited there. Assignments also come with rubrics and pre-assigned point values that may easily be edited or removed.

The assignments for Introductory Psychology are ideas and suggestions to use as you see appropriate. Some are larger assignments spanning several weeks, while others are smaller, less-time consuming tasks. You can view them below or throughout the course.

You can view them below or throughout the course.

Discussions and Assignments by Module

Module	Discussion	Assignment
Psychological Foundations	Discussion: Foundations of Psychology—Perspectives in Psychology Explain behavior from 3 perspectives	Assignment: Foundations of Psychology Watch a TED talk
Psychological Research	Discussion: Research in Psychology—Analyzing Research Describe and discuss a PLOS research article	Assignment: Research in Psychology—Psychology in the News Compare a popular news article with research article
Biopsychology	Discussion: Biopsychology—Using Your Brain Describe parts of the brain involved in daily activities	Assignment: Biopsychology–Brain Part Infographic Create a visual/infographic about a part of the brain *larger assignment
State of Consciousness	Discussion: States of Consciousness—Sleep Stages Describe sleep stages and ways to improve sleep	Assignment: Sleep and Dream Journal Track and analyze sleep and dreams. Record sleep habits and dreams a minimum of 3 days. *larger assignment, needs introduction at least 1 week prior to due date
Sensation and Perception	Discussion: Sensation and Perception—Cultural Influences on Perception Demonstrate cultural differences in perception. *If used in conjnuction with the “Perception and Illusions” assignment, this post could ask students to bring in examples/evidence from the illusion task	Assignment: Perception and Food—Applications of the Delbouef Illusion Apply Food Lab research and the Delbouef Illusion to recommend plate size and dinner set-up.   Assignment: Perception and Illusions   Apply an understanding of Martin Doherty’s research on developmental and cross-cultural effects in the Ebbinghaus illusion. Find an illusion, describe it, and explain whether or not it may show cross-cultural effects.
Thinking and Intelligence	Discussion: Thinking and Intelligence—Thinking about Intelligence Choose to respond to two questions from a list	Assignment: Thinking and Intelligence—What Makes Smarts? Describe 3 smart people and analyze what contributes to their intelligence.   Assignment: Thinking and Intelligence—The Paradox of Choice   Examine an experiment about cognitive overload and decision-making when given many options.
Memory	Discussion: Memory—Explaining Memory Create a mnemonic and explain an early childhood memory	Assignment: Memory—Study Guide Apply knowledge from module on memory, thinking and intelligence, and states of consciousness to help a struggling student.
Learning	Discussion: Learning—What I Learned Write examples of something learned through classical, operant, and observational learning	Assignment: Learning—Conditioning Project Spend at least 10 days using conditioning principles to break or make a habit. *requires sufficient time (10 days) of working on changing behavior, and should be introduced with two weeks of advanced notice.
Lifespan Development	Discussion: Lifespan Development—Stages of Development Pick an age and describe the age along with developmental theories and if you agree or disagree with the theoretical designations	Assignment: Lifespan Development—Developmental Toys Assignment Find toys for a child of 6 months, 4 years, and 8 years, then explain theories for the age and why the toys are appropriate.
Social Psychology	Discussion: Social Psychology—Thinking about Social Psychology Pick one question to respond to out of 4 options	Assignment: Social Psychology—Designing a Study in Social Psychology Create a shortened research proposal for a study in social psychology (or one that tests common proverbs). *larger assignment, possibly the largest assignment. Could be broken into multiple parts and given advanced notice.
Personality	Discussion: Personality—Personality and the Grinch Use two of the theories presented in the text to analyze the Grinch’s personality	Assignment: Personality—Assessing Personality Take two personality tests then analyze their validity and reliability.   Assignment: Personality—Blirtatiousness—Personality—Blirtatiousness   Examine various types of validity and design a new way to test the validity of the Blirt test.
Emotion and Motivation	Discussion: Motivation and Emotion–What Motivates You? What motivates you to do your schoolwork?	Assignment: Motivation and Emotion—Theories of Emotion Demonstrate the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter-Singer, and cognitive-mediational theories of emotion.   Assignment: Growth Mindsets and the Control Condition–Growth Mindsets and the Control Condition   Take a deeper look at the Carol Dweck study on mindset and analyze how the results may appear different if the control benchmark varied.
Industrial-Organizational Psychology	Discussion: Industrial-Organizational Psychology- Thinking about Industrial/Organizational Psychology Pick a favorite I/O topic or give advice on conducting an interview	Assignment: Industrial-Organizational Psychology— KSAs Assignment Investigate and reflect on KSAs needed for future job.
Psychological Disorders	Discussion: Psychological Disorders—Diagnosing Disorders Diagnose a fictional character with a psychological disorder	Assignment: Psychological Disorders—Disorder At-a-Glance Research one disorder and create an “At-a-Glance” paper about the main points.
Therapy and Treatment	Discussion: Therapy and Treatment—Thinking about Treatment Choose to respond to one of four questions	Assignment: Therapy and Treatment—Treating Mental Illness Describe 3 different treatment methods for the fictional character diagnosed for the “Diagnosing Disorders” discussion. *This assignment builds off of the discussion assignment in the previous module, in which students “diagnosed” a fictional character with a psychological disorder.
Stress, Lifestyle, and Health	Discussion: Stress, Lifestyle, and Health—Thoughts on Stress and Happiness Give advice on managing stress or increasing happiness	Assignment: Stress, Lifestyle, and Health–Time and Stress Management Pick from three options to do things related to tracking stress and time management. *requires advanced noticed

Discussion Grading Rubric

The discussions in the course vary in their requirements and design, but this rubric below may be used and modified to facilitate grading.

Criteria	Poor	Good	Excellent	Points
Responds to prompt	Response is superficial, lacking in analysis or critique. Contributes few novel ideas, connections, or applications.	Provides an accurate response to the prompt, but the information delivered is limited or lacking in analysis.	Provides a  thoughtful and clear response to the content or question asked. The response includes original thoughts and novel ideas.	__/4
Supporting Details	Includes vague or incomplete supporting evidence or fails to back opinion with facts.	Supports opinions with details, though connections may be unclear, not firmly established, or explicit.	Supports response with evidence; makes connections to the course content and/or other experiences. Cites evidence when appropriate.	__/2
Comments and participation	Provides brief responses or shows little effort to participate in the learning community.	Responds kindly and builds upon the comments from others, but may lack depth, detail, and/or explanation.	Kindly and thoroughly extend discussions already taking place or poses new possibilities or opinions not previously voiced. Responses are substantive and constructive.	__/4
			Total	__/10

Licenses and Attributions

CC licensed content, Original

• Assignments with Solutions. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution

CC licensed content, Shared previously

• Pencil Cup. Authored by: IconfactoryTeam. Provided by: Noun Project. Located at: https://thenounproject.com/term/pencil-cup/628840/. License: CC BY: Attribution