General Psychology Class Research Articles

Project-Based Learning in General Psychology Class for Undergraduate Students

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of project-based learning on the learning achievement and satisfaction of undergraduate learners in General Psychology. The study included 30 undergraduate students enrolled in a general psychology class. The research utilized a project-based learning management plan, a learning achievement test, and a satisfaction questionnaire as the instruments. The results of the study revealed significant positive impacts of project-based learning on both the learning achievement and satisfaction of students in the context of general psychology. These findings highlight the effectiveness of project-based learning in enhancing students’ learning outcomes and overall satisfaction in the field of general psychology. The study contributes to the existing body of literature supporting the benefits of project-based learning as an instructional method for undergraduate education.

An Online Course in Contemplative Neuroscience Increases Dispositional Mindfulness and Reduces Meditation Barriers.

Teaching contemplative neuroscience is emerging as a way to increase the reach and relevance of our field to a wider undergraduate population while also encouraging the beneficial practice of contemplation. In-person classes on the topic have been shown to improve both academic learning and attitudes towards science and meditation. Here we show that a short-term, asynchronous online course in contemplative neuroscience had comparable benefits. Students completed the Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory (DMPI; Williams et al., 2011) and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown and Ryan, 2003) at the start and end of the course. Their scores showed reduced barriers to meditation and improved mindfulness after the course, changes predictive of a range of positive behavioral and well-being outcomes. Students also rated the course as highly effective in advancing neuroscience understanding and competency. A comparison group (from an online general psychology class) showed no increase in mindfulness and a significantly weaker reduction in meditation barriers. This success of an online class in both academic and social-emotional learning is promising given the rapid growth of online instruction and the improved access it can provide to non-traditional students. The class format together with its health-relevant topic could thus be a valuable tool for reaching a more diverse student body while at the same time promoting practices linked to both personal and societal benefits.

Can Playing Games Help Students Master Concepts from General Psychology Classes?

As part of a final project for a general psychology course, students were required to play a game, either digital/video or on a board. Students selected their own games, and were asked to identify psychological principles in their game play. Topics included the brain, sensation and perception, human development, learning, motivation, intelligence, personality, and mental disorders. Students successfully applied all topics to game play, but to varying degrees. Student discussions on the brain and intelligence were well covered. Discussions on personality and psychological disorders issues were relatively poor. Students were able to make connections between concepts and their game-play experiences.

University Students’ Perceptions of Child Sexual Offenders: Impact of Classroom Instruction

ABSTRACTResearch with the public suggests that knowledge about sexual offenders, especially child sexual offenders, is limited and often inaccurate. In general, the public tends to believe that adults who commit sex crimes against children are pedophiles or monstrous strangers who cannot be rehabilitated. However, there is some evidence to suggest that these perceptions can be changed through curricular intervention. The current study was designed to determine whether a course on sex crimes against children could influence college students’ knowledge and attitudes toward child sexual offenders. In a pretest–post-test design, students enrolled in the sex crimes course endorsed fewer stereotypes had more positive attitudes toward treatment and offender rehabilitation, along with reduced support for punitive sentencing compared with students enrolled in a general psychology class. Implications for improving public attitudes and suggestions for informing public policies are offered.

ANALYZING THE EFFICACY OF THE TESTING EFFECT USING KAHOOTTM ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Lower than expected high-stakes examination scores were being observed in a first-year general psychology class. This research sought an alternate approach that would assist students in preparing for high-stakes examinations. The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of an alternate teaching approach based on the testing effect to address low high-stakes examination scores. This was accomplished through the introduction of an online quizzing application that utilized a game show-like user interface called Kahoot™. The results showed a significant difference in high-stakes examination scores for students who utilized Kahoot™ versus students who did not. It can be suggested that pedagogical tools like Kahoot™ have the potential to enhance and improve high-stakes examination scores at the college and university level. Students that used Kahoot™ felt positive about their experience. The results of this study also suggest that creating a fun and engaging environment also supports improved academic performance.

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El objetivo fue determinar si un programa motivacional influye en el rendimiento academico de los estudiantes de la Universidad Continental. La investigacion fue de tipo experimental, con un diseno de un solo grupo y mediciones antes y despues del tratamiento. El tipo de muestra fue no probabilistico, determinado por conveniencia; el tamano de la muestra fue de 33 estudiantes universitarios varones y mujeres de diversas carreras profesionales los mismos que participaron de un salon de clases de la asignatura de Psicologia General. Los valores que se tomaron en consideracion en las mediciones fueron los promedios de la nota de medio ciclo o semestre de estudios y la nota final. El tratamiento fue un programa motivacional consistente en cuatro sesiones que contienen diversas estrategias de motivacion. En la primera se trabajo el sentido de vida; en la segunda, el uso del tiempo y su vida en el escenario; en la tercera, consejos o sugerencias (tips) para evitar y vencer la procrastinidad; y en la cuarta, cierre de duelos y deudas con el pasado. Algunos resultados son: se utilizo la prueba estadistica de muestras relacionadas que permitio interpretar con “t” = 3,995, 32 grados de libertad y una significacion asintotica de 0,000, menor que 0,05, un promedio pre test de 13,61 y un promedio post test de 14,70. Una conclusion del presente trabajo, afirma que la aplicacion del programa de motivacion, favorecio el incremento del rendimiento academico de los estudiantes evaluados; aun cuando este incremento ha sido minimo.

The Challenges of Institutional Research in Building a Culture of Evidence: A Case Study

The process of building a culture of evidence involves using data to understand where students are experiencing problems, designing strategies for remedying those problems, implementing them, and then evaluating the effectiveness of those implemented strategies. This case study is about two programs that were implemented within the last two years at El Centro College of the Dallas County Community College District—in-class instructor-guided service learning and supplemental instruction—and the challenges in institutional research in building a culture of evidence. Both programs showed significant improvement in their respective measurements for general and developmental psychology classes. However, without an easy-to-use data collection, central repository, and analysis system, conducting the kind of institutional research that could inform improvements to program and institutional performance can be quite difficult. Across the institution, data entered at different times by multiple departments and the difficulties in extracting data from multiple systems were the major impediments to collecting standardized data.

Integrating Real-Time Antecedent Rubrics via Blackboard™ Into a Community College General Psychology Class

Numerous studies have reported on the innovative and effective delivery of online course content by community colleges, but not much has been done on how learning management systems (LMS) can deliver real-time (immediate data delivery) antecedents that inform students of performance requirements. This pilot study used Blackboard’s™ interactive real-time rubric (9.1 release) to provide college students immediate data delivery of the assessment requirements and evaluation, established by the instructor, for a writing assignment. In one general psychology on-campus class, the rubric was placed on the psychology studies program website. In two other general psychology classes—one an on-campus and another, a distance learning class—the same rubric was deployed via the Blackboard™ interactive rubric tool. The interactive rubric was presented to students, as programmed by the instructor, as a real-time interactive antecedent. Although the rubric was the same for all classes, using the real-time interactive rubric resulted in less rework and fewer omissions of a writing assignment.

The Effects of College Students’ In-Class and After-Class Lecture Note-Taking on Academic Performance

This study used a lesson unit of an academic subject to understand the quantity and quality of college students’ in-class and after-class lecture notes, and to explore the effects of note quantity and quality on academic performance. Thirty-eight freshmen students of a general psychology class in a university in southern Taiwan were recruited as participants. Their lecture notes and test scores on the lesson “Memory” were collected. The findings indicated that the quality of students’ lecture notes was poor. The quality level of in-class plus after-class notes was less than half the desired overall quality. In addition, both the in-class predictive model and in-class plus after-class predictive model could explain the variances of academic performance. In both models, the quality of in-class notes was the only significant predictor of academic performance.

In-Course Instructor-Guided Service Learning in a Community College General Psychology Class

Students enrolled in two general psychology classes at El Centro College (ECC) of the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) were offered the opportunity to earn extra credit by performing up to 20 hours of service learning. Benefits of service learning were observed in student development, including exploration of career possibilities, increased awareness of community needs, and improved ability to relate to others. The researchers specifically focused on students who did not participate in the optional service learning component. These students also reported benefits by being integrated into to three in-course instructor-guided service learning sessions.

The Effect and Implications of a “Self-Correcting” Assessment Procedure

We investigated Montepare’s (2005, 2007) self-correcting procedure for multiple-choice exams. Findings related to memory suggest this procedure should lead to improved retention by encouraging students to distribute the time spent reviewing the material. Results from a general psychology class ( n = 98) indicate that the benefits are not as definitive as expected. Students’ initial performance moderated the benefits of the procedure such that comprehensive final exam scores were significantly higher for the self-correcting condition when controlling for initial quiz performance, with a marginally significant interaction ( p = .06) between initial quiz scores and condition. The findings underscore the importance of using the scientist-educator model to evaluate pedagogical decisions while considering practical implications and return on investment.

A Comparison of an Introductory Course to SAT/ACT Scores in Predicting Student Performance

We assessed students in General Psychology classes and examined their SAT/ACT scores, gpas, and attempted and earned hours. Exams in General Psychology were superior to the SAT/ACT in predicting GPA , supporting the use of an introductory course as a gateway for identifying at-risk students and engaging them in academic services.

A Comparison of an Introductory Course to SAT/ACT Scores in Predicting Student Performance

Abstract We assessed students in General Psychology classes and examined their SAT/ACT scores, GPAS, and attempted and earned hours. Exams in General Psychology were superior to the SAT/ACT in predicting GPA, supporting the use of an introductory course as a "gateway" for identifying at-risk students and engaging them in academic services.

Service Learning in a General Psychology Class: Description, Preliminary Evaluation, and Recommendations

In this article, I describe a service-learning project for an introductory psychology course. Thirty-two of 36 general psychology students chose service learning over an optional research project, and most students (over 80%) evaluated the experience favorably in terms of its impact on their learning and commitment to service. The discussion focuses on recommendations about issues ranging from the logistics of developing and managing a service-learning course to concerns inherent in placing students in community agencies.

Change Blindness Blindness: The Metacognitive Error of Overestimating Change-detection Ability

Recent research has demonstrated that subjects fail to detect large between-view changes to natural and artificial scenes. Yet, most people (including psychologists) believe that they would detect the changes. We report two experiments documenting this metacognitive error. In Experiment 1, students in a large General Psychology class were asked if they thought they would notice the change in four different situations previously tested by Levin and Simons (1997) and Simons and Levin (1998). Most claimed that they would have noticed even relatively small changes that real observers rarely detected. In Experiment 2, subjects were tested individually and half were asked to predict whether someone else would detect the changes. Subjects again overestimated the degree to which changes would be detected, both by themselves and by others. We discuss possible reasons for these metacognitive errors including distorted beliefs about visual experience, change, and stability.

Fear of intimacy and attachment among rape survivors.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate attachment and fear of intimacy among rape survivors. As previous research has documented that several domains of functioning are affected by the experience of rape, it was hypothesized that the survivors may have difficulties with attachment and intimacy. Subjects were selected from an undergraduate general psychology class on the basis of responses to a questionnaire on sexual experiences. All of the subjects were female and included 44 rape survivors and 57 controls. As predicted, rape survivors reported greater fear surrounding intimacy. Survivors also differed from the controls on all of the attachment dimensions. They reported less confidence in others' dependability, less comfort with closeness, and more fear of abandonment. Trait anxiety was also controlled in the analyses, and except for fear of abandonment, it attenuated the differences between the groups such that they were no longer significantly different.

Feminist identity development: Psychometric analyses of two feminist identity scales

N. E. Downing and K. L. Roush [(1985) “From Passive Acceptance to Active Commitment: A Model of Feminist Identity Development,”The Counseling Psychologist, Vol. 13, pp. 695–709] proposed a five-level developmental model of feminist identity that charts development from passive acceptance of traditional gender roles toward active commitment to feminist ideals and an egalitarian society. A Bargad and J. S. Hyde [(1991) “Women’s Studies: A Study of Feminist Identity Development in Women,”Psychology of Women Quarterly, Vol. 15, pp. 181–201] and K. M. Rickard [(1989) “The Relationship of Self-Monitored Dating Behaviors to Level of Feminist Identity on the Feminist Identity Scale,Sex Roles, Vol. 20, pp. 213–226] developed questionnaires to measure the Downing and Roush levels. The goal of the present study was to further explore the reliability and validity of the two feminist identity development scales. Participants included 198 female students who were taking either a women’s studies class or a general psychology class. They were administered Rickard’s and Bargad and Hyde’s scales of feminist identity development and a measure of cognitive development both at the beginning and end of the semester. Sixty-six percent of the participants classified themselves as Caucasian, 13% as Asian, 7% as African American, 4% as Hispanic, 3% as Indian, 5% as Other, and 2% left the item blank. Within this framework, we demonstrated support for (1) the psychometric/statistical properties of each scale, including (a) internal consistency and reliability, (b) component structure, (c) the relationship among the two scales, and (d) discrimination from social desirability; and (2) construct validity, as determined by (a) distinction between general psychology students who were interested in taking a women’s studies class in the future and those who were not, (b) the impact of a women’s studies class on feminist identity development, and (c) relationship of the scales to a measure of cognitive development.

Schematic maps: cognitive tools for enhancing the early stages of counseling.

The purpose of the present studies was to explore the utility of schematic maps as tools for the early stages of both peer and self-counseling. In experiment 1 (self-counseling), 42 students from undergraduate general psychology classes participated to fulfill course requirements. Participants were assigned to either a schematic map or essay group. They first extracted information about their alcohol-related behavior patterns and then analyzed the patterns from the perspective of a counselor. In experiment 2 (peer counseling), 38 students from upper-division psychology courses participated for extra credit. Participants were asked to evaluate behavior patterns, in the form of maps or essays, which were presented either in the same form as they were extracted or were transposed to the other format. In both studies, assessment consisted of questionnaires that addressed the usefulness of the tools in the counseling process. Schematic maps are potentially powerful tools for both self- and peer counseling. For self-counseling, maps were preferred over traditional essay writing. In addition, the subjective reaction to maps as tools for peer counseling was positive.

Identifying the best scenario for using schematic organizers as integration tools for alcohol-related information.

The goal of the present study was to examine scenarios for using two schematic organizers--schematic knowledge maps and conceptual matrices--in integrating episodic and semantic knowledge about alcohol. Seventy students from undergraduate general psychology classes participated for course credit. Participants were assigned to either a schematic organizer group or an essay writing group. These groups were subdivided further into two treatment sequences: episodic/semantic and semantic/episodic. The episodic activity required participants to complete materials using their own alcohol-related experiences, whereas the semantic activity required participants to annotate expert materials. Assessment measures used were consumer-satisfaction questionnaires and free-recall tests. While no preferences were established for any one scenario, the episodic activities were rated higher than the semantic activities regardless of integration sequence. The semantic/episodic integration scenario did produce higher recall scores for the expert information.

College Classroom Ecology

Observations were made for 12 general psychology classes taught over a 6-year period. Results showed that women sat in the front of the classroom more often than men, and also obtained higher grades and cut class fewer times than men. Furthermore, for men and women, grade point average decreased and number of absences increased as students sat farther from the front of the room.