CHECK FOR A NEW CLASS MESSAGE 4/2 regarding Wednesday 4/4

Course Objectives:  The purpose of the class is to examine the Biological, Psychological, and Social-Cultural factors underlying adolescents' risk-taking and to understand how these factors may work together resulting in such behavior. The overall goal of the course is to systematically explore why adolescents engage in behavior that is contrary to their self-interest and of questionable rationality and morality, without stigmatizing the adolescents or simplifying the causes and reasons for their behavior.  More specifically the goals are to:

1. Gain a deeper appreciation of why adolescents may do "stupid things" with an eye to helping them and preventing it (although, be aware that this is not a prevention course).

2. Integrate multiple perspectives to fully understand the biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors underlying adolescents' tendency to engage in  risky behavior.

3. Acquire in-depth knowledge about particular forms of risky behavior in adolescence, including problem gambling, excessive drinking, reckless driving, or risky sexual  activities.

4. Learn to competently read, critically evaluate, systematically integrate, and professionally present psychological research.

Textbook:  There is no textbook to buy for the course, only assigned readings, all of which will be available online or photocopied for you.

Grading: There are three forms of assessment:  One Exam will be assigned.  It will be a take-home essay exam which will require an analysis and integration of material from the first 7 weeks of class.  It will be distributed on the sixth week and due on the eighth. There will be two formal Presentations.  The first will be a Research Presentation in which students will present a set of readings on one risk-taking domain of their choosing.  For this presentation, the student will expected to be more of a discussion leader presenting targeted papers and moderating a 30 minute discussion of the quality and limits of the studies.  Students will be expected to find 3 relevant articles (in consultation with the professor) on a risk domain with an eye towards finding a complementary set of papers to allow for their integration.  At the end of the semester, students will also be expected for complete a Final Paper and Presentation, in which they build from their previous presentation and write up an analysis of the particular domain, integrating the feedback from the discussion.  The write-up will be the final product due after end of lectures.  On the last day of class, each student will orally present his or her  project on the topic in a 5-7 minute PowerPoint presentation. Finally, Informal Activities include Weekly Reviews of targeted papers for each of first 6 weeks of class. Also students' engagement in in-class and online (through WebCT) Discussions will be monitored and graded.

Distribution of Grades
Exam............................................20%
        Essay Exam....................20%

Formal Presentations and Papers.................40%
        Research Presentation.........15%
        Final Paper/Presentation......25%

Informal Activities.............................40%
        Weekly Reviews................20%
        Weekly Discussions
                    online............10%
                    in-class..........10%

Course Structure and Sequence:  The course begins with a discussion of the how to think about Lee Malvo, the adolescent DC sniper, whose behavior and subsequent and trial perplexed the nation over the past couple of years.  The following week we will discuss the meaning of the concept of risk taking and how it has been interpreted. The subsequent 6 weeks we will address the biological, psychological and social-cultural factors which emerge as important factors in us understanding risk taking.  Each of these factors will be treated as separate perspectives on adolescent risk taking and explored for its coherency and explanatory adequacy in accounting for various forms of risk taking behavior.  Then, for three weeks (9, 12 and 13)  we will seek to integrate these perspectives first by exploring theoretical accounts of their relations.  Theories and research attempting to integrate these factors go by the name of Bio-Psycho-Social (BPS) models and various versions of them will be explored (week 9). We will also adopt a BPS model and apply it in two particular domains of risk taking  -- Youth Gambling (week 12) and Risky Sexual Behavior (week 13).  Over 4 weeks of the last part of the class (weeks 10-11, 14, 15), students will present research studies addressing a particular form of adolescent risk taking.  The domains selected will be of students' own choosing and the research studies will be selected in consultation with the professor.  As each student presents the studies (weeks 10 or 11), the other students will be expected to help critique and integrate the material.  The last two weeks of the semester will involve preparing students for their presentations (e.g., learning how to give good presentations using PowerPoint) and to write up their papers (week 14) and having actually presenting their work (week 15).

Course Policies: For a review of class policies, click here.  For a late contract, click here.