View Descriptor

English, one level below transfer (i.e., eligibility for English composition (C-ID ENGL 100)) and reading (a course with an exiting skill of ability to read a college level text).

Understanding the self, identity, coping, and adjustment in becoming a social person
Adjusting to modern life
   Personality theories
   Stress and coping
   Improving performance
The Self and understanding interpersonal adjustment
Developmental adjustment throughout life
   Biopsychosocial influences on adjustment
Psychological perspectives:
   Biological perspective
   Psychoanalytic perspective
   Humanistic and Existential perspective
   Behavioral Learning perspective
   Cognitive perspective
Clinical Assessment procedures and research methodology: Scientist-Practitioner Model
The Nature of Self
Social pressure, power of persuasion, and conformity
Interpersonal communication and conflict resolution
Psychosocial development across the lifespan
   Adolescence to adulthood
   Career choice and development
Sexual and gender identity
Habits, lifestyles, and health
Outcomes and issues of psychological intervention

At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Define and use basic biological, physiological, and psychological terminology to describe adjustment and psychosocial development across the lifespan.
2. Generate and explicate concrete examples of psychological perspectives and applications underlying personal growth and psychosocial adjustment.
3. Describe specific research methods and the general principles of research ethics for the study of human beings, including the safeguards and the peer-review process in science.
4. Apply psychological principles and develop “new” interpersonal, occupational and social skills for life-long personal growth.
5. Differentiate between individual and sociocultural differences as applied to psychology of adjustment.

Tests, written assignments, , and class participation

Weiten, W., Lloyd, M.A., Dunn, D.S., & Hammer, E.Y. Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century (Thomson Wadsworth)

Duffy, K. G., & Atwater, E.  Psychology for Living: Adjustment, Growth, and Behavior Today (Pearson, Prentice-Hall)