Course: Psychology 2000 -- Humanistic Psychology

Class: Section 01 -- MW 4:30 - 5:45

Texts: On Becoming a Person, C. Rogers

The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, A. Maslow

Psychology and the Human Dilemma, R. May

Handouts to be distributed in class

Professor: Dr. Eric Dodson

Office: 221 Melson Hall., ph. 836-4575, edodson@westga.edu

Office Hours: MW 12:00-4:30, F 12:00-1:00

Mailbox: Psychology Department Office, First Floor -- Melson Hall

Course Objective: The aim of this course is to provide the student with a basic overview of humanistic psychology, especially with respect to its principal theories, findings and thinkers.

Course Content: Here are the principal questions we’ll be exploring in this course:

What is humanistic psychology’s basic definition?

What is humanistic psychology’s approach?

What are humanistic psychology’s central concepts and vocabulary?

What are humanistic psychology’s fundamental philosophical suppositions and underpinnings?

How did humanistic psychology originate, and what is its history?

How is humanistic psychology related to other schools of psychological thought (such as behavioral, biological, psychoanalytic, social-cultural and cognitive psychologies)?

How is humanistic psychology connected to its related areas of psychological inquiry (such as transpersonal, gestalt, logotherapeutic, existential psychologies)?

What is humanistic psychology’s clinical theory & praxis?

How does humanistic psychology view human suffering?

How does humanistic psychology take up medical-model concepts like assessment, diagnosis and cure?

What does humanistic psychotherapy look like?

How does humanistic psychology go about conducting psychological research?

What is humanistic psychology’s present state and its future course?

Grading: There will be three non-cumulative multiple-choice tests, each worth a third of your final grade. The dates of the tests will be announced in class. The last of the tests will occur during finals-week, as scheduled by the university. If for some reason you are unable to take a test at the assigned time, you must notify me ahead of time to arrange a make-up test, which will likely be a combination of essay, short answer and multiple choice. Be aware that the make-up tests are usually considerably longer and more challenging than are the regular tests, in order to compensate for the advantage you would have in taking the test at your convenience.

Attendance and absences: In this class there is no formal attendance policy, however I have found over the years that students who miss class frequently rarely do well on the tests, and hence rarely receive a good grade for the course. If you do need to miss class, you do not need to notify me (except for test days, as described above). Bear in mind that specific test dates are determined in class (except for the date of the last test), so you do need to keep apprised of any in-class announcements; this is YOUR responsibility. Also, since tests in this class tend to draw heavily from the class-notes, I highly recommend keeping your notes updated. Also, I don’t give out my own class-notes to people who are absent, so please don’t ask. It’s YOUR responsibility to obtain class-notes if you’re absent.

Extra-credit paper: You may opt to write an extra-credit paper worth 2 to 8 percentage points added to your final average. This paper should focus on the following two-part question: What is humanistic psychology, and how does it matter to you personally? The basic format of this paper is as follows: 6 to 8 typed, double-spaced pages of text (not including title, table of contents, space for your name, lengthy quotes, pictures, references (if any), blank filler pages, etc.). Please use 12-point print, with 1-inch margins all around (this should yield 27 lines per page). If your word-processor doesn't easily conform to this format, that's okay -- just make sure that you write extra pages to compensate. The exact due-date will be toward the end of the term, and will be announced in class. All papers that are late, or that are judged by me to be short will be heavily penalized (and yes, I do know all of the tricks for expanding text to fill pages).

Special Arrangements: Any student who due to disability requires special arrangements to take this course should see me now.