The Pairing Game is a popular classroom demonstration that illustrates how people select romantic partners who approximate their own desirability. However, this game produces matching correlations that greatly exceed the correlations that characterize actual romantic pairings, perhaps because the game does not incorporate the social relations…

In its recent report outlining principles for teaching undergraduate students in psychology, the American Psychological Association Board of Educational Affairs recommended including experiential learning in the curriculum and identified study abroad opportunities as being particularly valuable. Unfortunately, although American universities offer…

Introductory psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate courses and often serves as the gateway to choosing psychology as an academic major. However, little research has examined the typical structure of introductory psychology courses. The current study examined student learning objectives (SLOs) and course content in introductory…

The goal of this study was to investigate which common instructional methods (active vs. direct) best promote higher level thinking in a psychology course. Over a 5-week period, 71 undergraduates were taught psychology using both active learning and direct instruction. Pre- and post-course assessments were coded as either higher or lower level…

Research methods and statistics courses constitute a core undergraduate psychology requirement. We analyzed course syllabi and faculty self-reported coverage of both research methods and statistics course learning objectives to assess the concordance with APA's learning objectives (American Psychological Association, 2007). We obtained a sample of…

Although American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Standards make it clear that instructors cannot require students to disclose personal information in class-related activities, an APA learning goal for undergraduate psychology students is that they reflect on their experiences to develop insight into their behavior and mental processes.…

Discusses objectives of teachers of a college level psychology course dealing with group dynamics. A major problem encountered in teaching a group dynamics course in an academic setting is creating a balance between cognitive/intellectual and affective/personal learning. (Author/DB)

Bloom (1956) pioneered the measurement of learning outcomes with a taxonomy of educational objectives, but educators often ignore affective learning objectives and focus on attaining cognitive objectives. This study examined student journals as a way to correct the overemphasis on cognitive objectives. Results suggested that course expectations…

The article describes a report stemming from the development and application of a Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ)--a 100 item attitudinal and factual instrument designed to cover a wide range of suicidal concerns. Subjects of the study were 17 college students drawn at random from 89 students enrolled in an abnormal psychology course. Results…

Realizing that students usually approach an introductory statistics course on the college level with a mixed set of fears, a course instructor devised a course introduction which emphasized that statistics were no more than tools to make sense out of research data and could be used by students much in the way that other tools were used. (DB)

Introduces an experimental educational psychology component developed at the University of California, Berkeley, to provide teaching credential candidates with a useful, practical, and ordered educational psychology course. The course was designed to emphasize acquisition of knowledge, application of this knowledge to the classroom, and synthesis…

Summarizes the results of a survey that revealed several dichotomies between what instructors felt introductory psychology courses delivered and what students wanted. Students desired a knowledge of people and relationships while the instructors felt the courses provided a broad overview of the discipline. Includes statistical data and analysis.…

The mirror drawing apparatus (MDA) is a valuable experiential learning tool with specific applications in general psychology, educational psychology, and recruiting. Specific applications are described. (Author/RM)

Describes rationale and framework for the psychology program at Loyola University, Chicago. The two major components of the curriculum are a core consisting of basic perspectives, phenomena and methods and a variety of special interest areas that students can pursue in depth. (Author/DB)

Extends research on the ethical paradox that a college-level teacher-researcher faces in conducting research on his or her own classes. Suggests that what starts out as an ethical problem may actually turn into a methodological conflict in which the classroom situation may be so distorted that accurate measures of many of the variables cannot be…