THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIECNES

Department of Psychology

COURSE OUTLINE (2020/2021, SEMESTER TWO)

1. Basic Course Information

Course Code PSYC1001

Course Title Introduction to Psychology
Course Credits 6
Lecture Time Friday 9:30-11:20am

Tutorials
Tutorial registration starts from Jan 25 (Mon) 10am to Jan 27 (Wed) 4pm, please sign up
tutorials via the “HKU Tutorial Sign-up” App, instruction can be found here:
http://moodle-support.hku.hk/tutorial-sign-application-student

OR via your “HKU Portal”, instruction can be found here:

http://moodle-support.hku.hk/tutorial-sign-application-student#part_b

Please refer the Tutorial Dates here and ignore the dates in the system

Group Tutor Tutorial Day & Dates of Tutorials

Name Time
001 Albe Ng Mon 12:30-13:20 Feb 1, Mar 1, Mar 22, Apr 12

002 Albe Ng Mon 13:30-14:20 Feb 1, Mar 1, Mar 22, Apr 12

003 Calvin Lam Mon 14:30-15:20 Feb 1, Mar 1, Mar 22, Apr 12

004 Calvin Lam Mon 15:30-16:20 Feb 1, Mar 1, Mar 22, Apr 12

005 Calvin Lam Mon 16:30-17:20 Feb 1, Mar 1, Mar 22, Apr 12

006 Branda Yu Tue 10:30-11:20 Feb 2, Mar 2, Mar 23, Apr 13

007 Branda Yu Tue 11:30-12:20 Feb 2, Mar 2, Mar 23, Apr 13

008 Branda Yu Tue 12:30-13:20 Feb 2, Mar 2, Mar 23, Apr 13

009 Michelle Zhao Tue 14:30-15:20 Feb 2, Mar 2, Mar 23, Apr 13

010 Michelle Zhao Tue 15:30-16:20 Feb 2, Mar 2, Mar 23, Apr 13

011 Michelle Zhao Tue 16:30-17:20 Feb 2, Mar 2, Mar 23, Apr 13

012 Albe Ng Wed 10:30-11:20 Feb 3, Mar 3, Mar 24, Apr 14

013 Cedar Chan Wed 14:30-15:20 Feb 3, Mar 3, Mar 24, Apr 14

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 Group Tutor Tutorial Day & Dates of Tutorials
Name Time
014 Cedar Chan Wed 15:30-16:20 Feb 3, Mar 3, Mar 24, Apr 14

015 Cedar Chan Wed 16:30-17:20 Feb 3, Mar 3, Mar 24, Apr 14

016 Beverly Wong Thu 09:30-10:20 Feb 4, Mar 4, Mar 25, Apr 15

017 Beverly Wong Thu 10:30-11:20 Feb 4, Mar 4, Mar 25, Apr 15

018 Beverly Wong Thu 11:30-12:20 Feb 4, Mar 4, Mar 25, Apr 15

019 Rachel Wang Fri 11:30-12:20 Feb 5, Mar 5, Mar 26, Apr 16

020 Rachel Wang Fri 12:30-13:20 Feb 5, Mar 5, Mar 26, Apr 16

021 Rachel Wang Fri 13:30-14:20 Feb 5, Mar 5, Mar 26, Apr 16

There are 21 tutorial groups in total for your selection. You will attend 4 tutorials in this
course.

Please refer to the Group Names and the corresponding dates of tutorials in the
course outline.

Please contact Ms. Beverly Wong (beverlyw@hku.hk) if you have further questions.

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2. Course Lecturer, Coordinator, and Tutors

Name Office Phone E-mail Consultation Hour

Dr Henry NG 6.16, JCT 39178205 nghks@hku.hk Mondays
(Lecturer) 3:30 –4:30pm
Beverly Wong 6.19 JCT 39178231 beverlyw@hku.hk Mondays
(Coordinator) 10:00- 1:00am
Albe Ng 7.12, JCT 3917 7374 albesyn@connect.hku.hk Mondays
1130-1230
Calvin Lam 6.77 JCT Contact by u3007239@hku.hk By appointment
email
Branda Yu 6.77 JCT Contact by brandayu@connect.hku.hk By appointment
email
Michelle Zhao TBA Contact by haoyun@connect.hku.hk By appointment
email
Cedar Chan 6.13 JCT 3917 8226 cedarhku@gmail.com Tuesdays
12:30-1:30
Rachel Wang TBA Contact by rachelrw@connect.hku.hk Thursdays
email 3:00-4:00pm

3. Course Description
This course is NOT going to teach you how to read mind and control other people in a psychic
way. You will NOT learn easy tricks to make people like you, believe you or to tell whether or
not someone is lying. What do psychologists do then? Psychologists work on the how and why
of the human mind and behavior. These questions have been studied by the humankind for a
long time, including Socrates, Laozi, Mahler, and you! What makes psychology unique is that it
takes a scientific approach in tackling these questions, as opposed to the philosophical approach.
Put otherwise, psychologists rely on systematic and empirical evidence in describing,
explaining, predicting, and changing people. In this course, you will get a glimpse of some
questions that have been studied by psychologists.

Online resources
All course materials including lecture slides, practice quizzes, important announcements and
messages etc. will be posted on Moodle. Please check it regularly for updated information,
failure to do so will not be accepted as an excuse for missing important dates, deadlines or other
information.

Students with a "pending" status or waiting a university account may access Moodle
(http://hkuportal.hku.hk/moodle/guest) via the guest account:
Username: psyc1001_2b_2020_guest
Password: Guest_1001B (Case sensitive)

4. Course Learning Outcomes

On completing the course, students will be able to:
1. To understand psychology as a science and the reasons why some people think it is not.
2. To ask questions that psychologists are concerned with.
3. To apply this science to your everyday life.
4. To engage in critical thinking about psychological issues.

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5. Assessment Methods and Weighting

Assessment methods Weighting in final course grade

(%)
In class test
Midterm test 30%
Final test (non-cumulative) 30%
Tutorial
Online Forum Posts (~200 words × 2) 10%
2 mini-project reports (~200 words × 2) 10%
Individual project & essay
Develop a good habit (1200 words) 16%
Research participation 4%
Total 100%

i. Mid-term test (30%): 9:30am – 11:20am, Mar 19, 2021 (Online on Moodle)
ii. Final test (30%): 9:30am – 11:20am, Apr 30, 2021 (Online on Moodle)

The midterm and final tests will consist of 50 multiple-choice questions and 2 out of 3 short
questions. The word limit is 400 words for each short question. They will cover the material
presented in lectures, class discussion, videos, and the textbook.

Make-up policy for mid-term and final test

Students who cannot attend the mid-term or final can request for a make-up test by emailing
the tutorial coordinator, Ms. Beverly Wong (beverlyw@hku.hk). Make-up tests are basically
granted for medical reasons only (with valid medical documentation), but exceptions have
been made on compassionate grounds. Each request will be considered individually and the
teaching team holds the right to make the final decision. You will have to send the request to
Beverly by 11:59pm on the date of the test. Requests made afterwards will usually be
rejected. There will only be one make-up for each test, and it will be in essay format.

iii. Tutorial Attendance

You will attend 4 tutorials, beginning in the third week. You will learn about various research
in psychology and discuss some core issues with the tutor and your peers.

iv. Online Forum Posts (10%)

a) You are required to write 2 forum posts on Moodle. Each post is worth 5% and should not
exceed a maximum word limit of 200 words.

b) Your forum posts are based on the discussion question set by the course instructor for each
lecture topic. You can pick any of the two weeks’ topics to write your posts. You can only
post once for each lecture topic. These discussion questions will be made available to you on
Moodle in March.

c) Deadline of Lecture 1 and Lecture 2 forum topics is Feb 5, 17:00 since the first two
lectures are still within the add/drop period.
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 For the rest of the forum posts, you need to submit your forum responses within 1 week after
the corresponding lecture. For instance, Lecture 3 is scheduled on Feb 5 and the deadline of
this forum post is Feb 12, 17:00.

v. Mini-project reports (10%)

You will conduct 2 mini-projects and present your findings in the third and fourth tutorial
meetings. Before each meeting, you will finish a mini-project report (~200 words) and submit it
to Moodle. You will discuss with your classmates your findings in the project.

You will receive the schedule and requirements of the mini-projects in the first tutorial. Don’t
miss it. Deadline for Mini-project 1 is Mar 15, 5pm and Mini-project 2 is Apr 5, 5pm.

vi. Individual project & essay (16%)

Develop a good habit - One objective of psychology is to change behavior. In this project, you
will use your knowledge in psychology to develop a new good habit in 2 weeks. Please work
on one of the following themes:
1. Healthy diet
2. Exercise plan
3. Reduce plastic use
4. Learn a skill (e.g. language)

You will
1. Identify the objective scientifically
2. Work out a plan to increase the success rate
3. Carry out the plan for 2 weeks and record your responses
4. Write an essay evaluating your experience over the 2 weeks

You can work alone, but you can also compare your progress with other classmates if you are
working toward the same goal.

Though optional, you are strongly advised to consult your tutor before executing the plan. The
consultation period is printed on the class schedule below. The tutor will give comments
regarding the goal and feasibility of the plan. In normal circumstances, consultation will not be
given after the said period. After receiving the feedback, you will carry out the plan and submit
a report to Moodle by 14 May, 5pm. The word limit is 1200 words (excluding the reference
list, appendixes and tables). You will learn specific requirements of the assignment in the first
tutorial.

vii. Research participation (4%)

To gain first-hand experience in psychology research, you can participate in the research
designed by our teachers and students. We believe it offers a unique learning experience. You
will receive 1 credit for each hour unit. This experiment participation can contribute up to 4%
of your final grade. Those who choose not to participate in any research can choose to write a
400-word critique on an article from an assigned reading list for each one-hour credit missed.
Details will be available in the first tutorial meeting. Deadline of research participation is Apr
30 (Fri), 5pm.

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viii. Practice quizzes (0%)
Each lecture is accompanied by a practice quiz consisting of 5 multiple-choice questions.
They are posted on Moodle and you can attempt them any time during the semester.

ix. Marking scale – Grading will be based on the following table:

Marks Grade Marks Grade Marks Grade Marks Grade

>=90 A+ 77-79 B+ 67-69 C+ 56-59 D+
85-89 A 73-76 B 63-66 C 50-55 D
80-84 A- 70-72 B- 60-62 C- <= 49 F

6. Textbook
Cacioppo, J. T. & Freberg, L. A. (2018). Discovering Psychology: The Science of Mind (3rded.).
Cengage.

A textbook order form is available on Moodle for students to purchase the e-textbook
through Swindon.

Notes
1. Feel free to use the second edition.
2. The lectures will not cover the whole textbook. Still, you should read the whole chapter
assigned for each lecture, unless it is specified as “selection”.
3. 10% of the mid-term and final tests will be from textbook-only content.
4. To read the textbook or not is entirely your choice.

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7. Course Schedule

#Class Date Contents Readings Important dates

1 22 Jan What is psychology? Ch.1,2 Forum Post deadline
for Lecture 1 and 2:
2 29 Jan The evolving mind Ch.3 Feb 5, 17:00
3 5 Feb The biological basis for Psychology Ch.4
- 12 Feb General Holiday -
4 19 Feb Sensation and perception Ch.5
5 26 Feb Learning processes Ch.8
6 5 Mar Memory Ch.9
- 12 Mar Reading Week -
Mid-term test (Online)
- 19 Mar -
Coverage: Classes 1 – 5
7 26 Mar Concept formation and intelligence Ch.10
- 2 Apr General Holiday -
8 9 Apr Lifespan development Ch.11 Consultation period
9 16 Apr Personality and social psychology Ch.12, 13 for individual project

10 23 Apr The troubled mind Ch.14

- 30 Apr Final Test (Online) -

Coverage: Class 6 – 10
- 14 May Individual project due (5 pm) -

8. Important notes
i. Feedback policy
In normal circumstances, students can expect to receive feedback within 3 weeks after submitting
written assignments. Test papers will not be returned to students; however, students can receive
individual feedback about each test through meeting with the course tutor. Tutors will provide
instant feedback to students’ tutorial performance, but the assessment result will not be released and
is subject to inter-class calibration. All official assessment records will be released ONLY by the
course coordinator through Moodle.

ii. Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Any student who engages in any form of academic
dishonesty (e.g., cheating on exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, interfering with grading,
falsification and fabrication of data in any academic exercise etc.) will receive a grade of F in this
course and will be reported to the Department/Faculty Office/University Disciplinary Committee
for further disciplinary action. There will be no exceptions. If you are not sure what constitutes the
academic offense of plagiarism, checkout the webpage at https://tl.hku.hk/plagiarism/. Department
of Psychology has formulated departmental policies/guidelines on student misconduct. Visit the
website at https://psychology.hku.hk/useful-information-to-current-students/ for more
information.

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iii. Plagiarism
All assignments will be checked for plagiarism against a database of articles, books, web pages, and
essays submitted by students at HKU and other universities. Once you have successfully uploaded
your work, you can check the similarity index and the system allows you to overwrite the work
before the deadline. However, please be reminded that it takes at least 24 hours for the system to
generate the similarity index every time you upload your work (including re-upload).

No credit will be given for an assignment that contains plagiarized materials and a permanent
record will be kept in our department. Further penalties will also be applied. These penalties include
a zero mark for participation in course tutorials and a zero mark for the course. Plagiarism will also
be reported to the Department/Faculty Office/University Disciplinary Committee for consideration
of possible disciplinary action. For serious cases, the student will be referred to the University
Disciplinary Committee for disciplinary actions, including a published reprimand, suspension of
study for a period of time, and even expulsion from the University.

iv. Penalty for late submission

All late submissions of written assignments will be subject to mark deduction. Please refer to the
assignment guidelines.

v. House rules
"Behave and respect yourself (and your classmates). Do excessive talking outside the classroom."