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This course is required for psychology majors. My approach is to break down the topic into a large number of small parts, and to give lots of practice with these parts. Even students with little mathematical background find that each of the small parts is within their abilities. Differences among students reduce to the amount of practice necessary to master each element. This approach demands a lot of work from the student, but most students succeed in mastering the subject, and many report an increased confidence with math.
I teach this course as an introduction to modern behaviorism, which is my area of expertise. I present the principle of reinforcement as a selection process analogous to the principle of natural selection. The two principles combine to offer interpretations of complexity that pervade all areas of psychology. Students run operant conditioning experiments with pigeons; they do a self-management project in which they try to change some aspect of their own behavior; and they write and test a computer-assisted instructional program on the topic of their choice. The course is particularly appropriate for students who have a philosophical bent and love parsimony, or who wish to work in applied fields such as autism, education, organizational behavior management, or learning.
This course is aimed mainly at psychology majors who either have an immediate, practical interest in statistics—because they are engaged in research—or who are looking ahead to graduate school and want to give themselves extra preparation for graduate statistics.
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