Core Syllabus for Dr. Tomie’s
Motivation and Emotion (830:364) course
To My Students:
This Core Syllabus contains information relevant to all of my Motivation and Emotion (830:364) courses. Detailed information pertaining to specific Motivation and Emotion courses, including textbooks, office hours, reading assignments, and exam schedules, are described in the course syllabus for Motivation and Emotion provided each semester. The purpose of this Core Syllabus is to inform students of the general goals of my Motivation and Emotion course and the means by which I will attempt to achieve them.
Dr. Tomie
Learning Goals: The learning goals of this course contribute to the more general goals of the Department of Psychology and of the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences. Students who successfully complete this course will:
Overview of the Course: The title of this course is Motivation and Emotion. This course will introduce you to the scientific study of feelings, or subjective emotional states, and how they contribute to the expression of motivated goal-directed behavior. In this context, two recurring themes will be emphasized during the semester. The first is the idea that your feelings are derived from brain states: an amalgamation of neurobiological events determines your moment-to-moment state of awareness of your feelings. The second theme is that many psychoactive drugs influence the activity of neurobiological substrates: drug-induced changes in neurobiological events produce profound changes in our subjective emotional experiences, resulting in dramatic changes in the expression of our goal-directed activities.
My lectures are not intended to go hand-in-hand with material that is presented in the textbook. Sometimes my lectures will cover materials that overlap with the assigned readings from the textbook, but more typically, my lectures will cover materials that are not covered by the textbook. The textbook covers, from an historical perspective, the evolution of scientific inquiry into how the brain works to create the conscious experience of emotion. My lectures, on the other hand, attempt to provide vertical integration of a couple of motivational disorders, notably depression, anxiety, and addiction. Vertical integration means that the topic is covered top down, from the clinic, where the psychopathology in humans is described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, to the behavioral neuroscience lab, where animal models of psychopathology are developed, to the wet lab bench, where models of brain function and drug action are developed by cell biologists and molecular pharmacologists.
Attendance: You should attend all classes in this course and all of your other courses. The class is too large to monitor attendance, but I will reward those who attend lecture by including on each exam questions based on material that was covered only in class. Neurobiology is much easier to grasp when you attend the class and receive a prepared lecture describing the model system and how to use it. Students who miss class must work much harder to piece together their understanding by sifting through someone else’s lecture notes. It is not OK to miss class, and I do not re-give lectures to those that do, regardless of cause.
Study Groups: After the first hourly exam, several outstanding students will be selected to lead Study Groups. Each Study Group Leader will run an 80-minute Study Group session prior to each of the remaining exams (2 hourly exams and one final exam). The purpose of the Study Group is to provide students with an opportunity to review the exam materials in the context of a smaller classroom setting, attended by 30-50 students, where the discussion of the materials is being managed by a student, rather than by the professor. The student managing the classroom is the Study Group Leader, who prior to the meeting of the Study Group, has received instructions from me on how to present the exam review materials to the Study Group. The exam review materials presented by the Study Group Leader will consist of lecture-related questions and answers that I have created to help the students prepare for the exam. It is not uncommon for these materials to appear verbatim on the exam itself.
Grading: Course grades will be based entirely on exam performance. All exams consist of 30 multiple choice questions. There are 3 hourly exams and the final exam. The lowest score on the 3 hourly exams is disregarded, then the 2 highest hourly scores are added to the final exam score and the sum is divided by 3, producing your average score for the semester.
If the average score is 27 or above, then your course grade is an “A”. A score of 26.67 is not rounded up to an “A”.
If the average score is between 26.67 and 25.5, then your course grade is a “B+”. A score of 25.33 is not rounded up to a “B+”.
If the average score is between 25.33 and 24.00, then your course grade is a “B”, and so forth.
Absence from a scheduled hourly exam: There will be no make-up exams for missing an hourly exam, regardless of cause. Instead, your single worst score on the three hourly exams will be disregarded altogether. If you miss 2 or more of the 3 hourly exams, the first absence will be disregarded, but each additional absence will result in the recording of 0% grade that will account for 33% of your course grade.
In accordance with University policy, exceptions may be granted to student-athletes traveling to scheduled events or to students in observance of religious events that prevent their attending the exam. Exceptions will be granted only to students who provide, during the first two weeks of the semester, written documentation substantiating their circumstance.
Absence from the final exam: The final exam will be given on the last class meeting of the semester and during the final exam period, in accordance with the University’s final exam schedule. Students who take the final exam on the last class meeting of the semester will not be allowed to take the final exam during the University’s designated final exam period. Students who miss both opportunities to take the final exam will be given a TF grade for the semester.
Academic Integrity: You are expected to abide by the code of conduct pertaining to academic integrity. I will not allow cheating on examinations, and I take special precautions to reduce the opportunity for cheating, while increasing the likelihood of successful prosecution of offenders. I will vigorously enforce the University’s regulations on academic integrity. The University’s regulations are appropriately strict, and if you plan to cheat, you should first read the regulations and potential consequences:
http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml
Situational Courtesy: The classroom should be viewed as a formal environment with students and faculty dedicating the 80-minute period to focused attention on the task at hand. Texting, twittering, surfing the internet, playing computer games, and other extraneous activities are inappropriate in the classroom environment because they distract the serious students who are sitting near you. Out of respect for those who are seriously participating in the course, I will ask students who engage in disruptive behaviors to leave my classroom.