HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM

 

The Houston Community College is an open admission, public institution of higher education offering associate degrees, certificates, academic preparation, workforce training, and lifelong learning opportunities that prepare individuals in our diverse communities for life and work in an increasingly international and technological society.

 

NEW POLICY: Students who repeat a course for a third or more times may soon face significant tuition/fee increases at HCC and other Texas public colleges and universities. Please ask your instructor / counselor about opportunities for tutoring / other assistance prior to considering course withdrawal or if you are not receiving passing grade

PSYCHOLOGY 2374 Spring, 2007

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN

Instructor: Madeleine E. Wright, Ph.D.

Email: course mail & madeleine.wright@hccs.edu (emergencies)

Telephone 713-718-6845

Room A 227 EDC Central College

 

MANDATORY CLASS MEETING

(ATTEND ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TIMES)

Thursday, February 22, 2007 7:00-8:30 PM

Or

Saturday, February 24, 2007 1:30-3:00 PM

West Loop Campus Room TBA

 

INSTRUCTOR HOURS

I am in the office Monday through Thursday during regular business hours, you have the opportunity to work on your class and assignments and projects 24/7, I want to assist you, however, I am available during business hours, if the system goes down, I will make the necessary adjustments the next business day. Do not panic I will make any necessary adjustment.

 

INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Madeleine Wright earned a B.S. degree from Wayne State University in Family Life Education and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Education majoring in Behavioral Science and Guidance & Counseling. She currently serves as Assistant Chair of the Department of Behavioral Science. Dr. Wright has been married to Booker T. Wright, Jr. M.D. for thirty-seven years and they have two children: Kijana, a graduate of Sam Houston State University, who works for the City of New York Housing Department and is married to Tracy Robinson-Wright, a graduate of Duke University in Law and Public Policy; and Nyala, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, who works for Fresh Arts in Houston. Dr. Wright is a dancer, quilter, community  activist, writer and speaker.

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This is an introductory level course on the psychology of women or gender. This course is designed to clarify the psychological issues in the lives of women.

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

To understand the significance of being female in todayÕs society.

To demonstrate knowledge of the affects of stereotyping and discrimination on women.

To study developmental issues in womenÕs lives.

To comprehend and write on topics of gender and the research on gender differences.

To demonstrate knowledge of the issues facing women of color by interacting with the HCCS diverse student body in class discussions, community service project and being tested on issues in the text and lectures.

To enhance communication skills by discussing issues relevant to gender, race and the socio-economic status of women.

To formulate strategies for enhancing life skills by mastering the material in the text internet search, and supplementary readings and apply these to their semester assignments.

 

TEXT

Etaugh, C. & Bridges, J. (2006) WomenÕs Lives: A topical approach. Boston: Allyn and Bacon..

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS for Individual Written Assignment

        (See the individual written project, students must reference at least two of the books listed.)

 

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

        A zero will be given on any paper on which there is cheating. Information used from the textbook or web sources should be put in your own words. Students must also include the reference and page number or web source. Verbatim (word for word from the book) copying is plagiarism.

 

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:
"Any student with a documented disability (e.g. physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, etc) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the appropriate HCC Disability Support Service (DSS) Counselor at the beginning of each semester.  Faculty are authorized to provide only the accommodations requested by the
Disability Support Services Office.

Students who are requesting special testing accommodations must first contact the appropriate DSS Counselor for assistance. Please contact the Distance Education Counselors at 713.718.5275, option #4 or at de.counseling@hccs.edu in order to be referred to the appropriate HCC DSS Counselor.

Students who require testing accommodations need to schedule an appointment for testing to ensure that staff will be available for proctoring and to arrange for any adaptive equipment that may be required. Students should contact the distance education instructor's "Instructional Support Specialist" (ISS) the week prior to each exam throughout the semester to confirm that the requested testing accommodations will be met. If you need assistance in determining your instructor's ISS, please contact your instructor or the Distance Education Counselors for assistance."

DISTANCE EDUCATION ADVISING AND COUNSELING SERVICES:
Advising can be accomplished by telephone at 713/718-5275 - option # 4, via email at de.counseling@hccs.edu, by visiting the Distance Education Office at the HCC Administration Building, 3100 Main Street, 3rd floor and/or by on-site advising at other HCC locations upon request. Confidential sessions with the distance education counselors will help students understand admissions, registration, entrance testing
requirements, degree planning, transfer issues, and career counseling. Houston Community College counselors also maintain a local referral base in order to provide appropriate referrals to students with personal or family issues that may require long-term solutions.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: Receiving a W in a course may affect the status
of your student Visa. Once a W is given for the course, it will not be
changed to an F because of the visa consideration.  Since January 1,
2003, International Students are restricted in the number of distance
education courses that they may take during each semester. ONLY ONE online/distance education class may be counted towards the enrollment requirement for International Students per semester.  Please contact the International Student Office at 713-718-8520 if you have any questions about your visa status and other transfer issues.

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM CONDUCT

 As with on-campus classes, all students in HCC Distance Education courses are required to follow all HCC Policies & Procedures, the Student Code of Conduct, the Student Handbook, and relevant sections of the Texas Education Code when interacting and communicating in a virtual classroom with faculty and fellow students. Students who violate these policies and guidelines will be subject to disciplinary action that could include denial of access to
course-related email, discussion groups, and chat rooms or being removed from the class.

INCOMPLETE POLICY

The grade "I" may be given at the discretion of the instructor if the student has missed one assignment. The student is responsible for contacting the instructor and arranging to complete the work the following semester. An assignment will be considered missed if it is turned late.

 

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

INFORMATION MASTERY  

Students will systematically cover the text material by mastering basic concepts for each chapter and unit.  These terms are blackened and italicized in the chapters. The study questions serve as a guide to examination preparation.

EXAMINATIONS

Students will have two hours to answer multiple choice, short answer or true-false questions based on chapter study questions.

DISCUSSION & PARTICIPATION

Students are required to demonstrate communication skills by participating in discussions for their group projects. Attendance is required and students may be dropped after missing four class periods. Every class member must participate in a group project.

INDIVIDUAL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

In order to make this assignment meaningful, I have created it in two parts.

PART 1

 Look at Your life (0-15 points) The purpose of part one is to think about your life, everything you write will be confidential. If you are not a good typist, write the answers in long hand first. Answer the first thing that comes to your mind there are no right answers, this is your life, just answer the questions as quickly as possible, then type them up. Your grade on part I is on completing the questions, not for content.    

1.     What is your happiest memory(ies) in your life and where did these memories take place?

2.     What is your saddest memory(ies) and where were these events?

3.     List as many things as you can think of that you really enjoy doing?

4.     What do you do really well (talents?)

5.     What impression do you give most people, is this true?

6.     What have you accomplished that made you proud ?

7.     Name two women who positively influenced your life and list the their actions.

8.     What is your favorite book, television show, film?

9.     If there was a film, book or television show that best described your life what would the title be? (This can be an existing film, book or television show or one you make up)

 

PART 2: Course Key Terms and Your Life

 (0-85 %)

Next read through what you have written in part I; then select five key terms. The key concepts are concepts from our textbook; there is also a list at the end of this syllabus. You are identifying themes or problems from your life that may have be hindrances or obstacle to your success. One or two of the concepts you select will be used in your Dream Project, the next assignment so, when selecting the five terms include an aspect of your life that you would like to expand.

 

The key terms must be clearly related to the issues discussed in part one. The definitions should be in your own words with textbook page numbers cited. The application of the psychological terms or concepts to your life should be explained thoroughly. Thus demonstrating your mastery of the field of the psychology of women.

You are to:

1) Define each key term in your own words. (0-3 points each)

2) Explain how it applies to your life, you may repeat information from part 1 of the paper. (0-5 points each)

3) Discuss meaningful resources from the supplementary readings

and web sites how you might use them to improve your life or reach a desired life goal. Write a paragraph about your findings from each of four sources, two sources must be from supplementary readings others may be from websites or additional sources. .  (0-25 points)

4) Actions:  Do something now Micro movements: (0-15 points)

                       

 

Micro movements are activities that move you toward your goals or life improvement. These actions are things that you can do in five minutes or less, you must specify the time and date that you took these actions, they must be completed before you write this paper.

 

	Action	Time	Date
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

 

5) Discuss your feelings and achievements from the micromovement activities (0-5 points).

 SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

 

(Students must reference two of the following)

Covey, S. R. (1989) The seven habits of highly effective people: restoring the character ethic. New York: Simon and Schuster. (Any books by this author)

Grandcolas, L. (2005) You can do it! : the merit badge handbook for grown up girls. San Francsico: Chronicle Books.

Hay, L. (1997) Empowering women: Every womenÕs guide to successful living. California: Hay House, Inc.

Jeffers, S. (1987) Feel the fear and do it anyway. New York: Fawcett Columbine. (Any books by this author)

 

Loehr, J.  & Schwartz, T. (2003) The Power of Full Engagement: managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance and personal renewal. New York: Free Press

McGraw, P. (1999) Life strategies. New York: Hyperion Press.

McGraw, P. (2001) Self matters. New York: Simon & Shuster Source. (Any books by this author)

National Council of WomenÕs Organizations. (2005) 50 ways to improve womenÕs lives. Inner Ocean Publishing, Inc.

Orman, S. (2003) The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life: Keep What You Have and Create What You Deserve. New York, Simon and Schuster.

Orman, S. (2005) The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke. New York, Simon and Schuster. (Any books by this author)

SARK. (2004) Make your creative dreams real. New York: Simon & Shuster.

Schlessinger, L. (1994) Ten stupid things women do to mess up their lives. New York: Harper Perennial.

Shriver, M. (2000) Ten things I wish I'd known--before I went into the real world. New York: Warner Books.

Richardson, C. (1999) Take time for your life. New York: Broadway Books

Wright, M. (1997) Sisters helping Sisters. Chicago: African American Images.

 

GROUP COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT & POSTER

Students are required to work with other students (one or two others) to complete a project. Groups may select their members based mutual interests. In order to earn credit for the group project there must be at least two students. (Students that are not in the Houston area my serve as secretaries for the group, graphic designers or research assistants) Group interaction can take place on the class site in private discussion groups that Professor Wright will create for each group.

 

          GROUP PROJECT & POSTER

                  

Students must form a group of at least two people and complete the following assignment.

 GROUP COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT

 

Groups of two to six students will agree upon a community service project That will benefit womenÕs lives. The project can offer service to a school or college women, convalescence home, hospital hospice or other community organization. Community Service Project Poster  must include some form of the following components (Each student in the group should collaborate and post the same poster on their student homepage so the entire class can share your experience:

 

1.     Project Title:   (0-5 points)

a.    Project Title

b.    Group memberÕs names

 

2.    , Statement of the Problem: Describe the community service project, the organization served and its mission  and womenÕs issue and womenÕs issue that it addresses (reference the textbook) (0-15 points)

3.    Review of the Literature Discuss 2-3 articles about this topic and the organizations that addresses this issue. You may include links to relevant web sites. (0-15 points)

4.    Method: The groupÕs community service plan. Explain exactly what the group did. (10 points)

5.    Results: Describe the benefits to the target group and reactions of the people served. (20 points)

6.     Discussion: the purpose of this assignment is to not only perform a community service, but to get to know your classmates better, so activities that provide time for group members to work together will be graded higher.

a.    Description of the contributions of each group member; explain exactly what each group member did. (15 points)

b.    Individual student reactions statements from each group member describing their experiences and feelings about the project and recommendations for improvement. (10 points)

7.    Creativity of the design and presentation of the poster.(0-10 points)

8.    Poster Competition Everyone in the class will vote on the posters they believe are the best, the top three will be award 10 bonus points.

EVALUATION & GRADING

 

Your final course grade will be calculated according to the following formula:

Examinations                                                      33%

Individual Written Assignment                              33%

Group Community Service Project & Poster              33%

       

The grading scale at HCC is 90-100 A, 80-89 B, 70-79 C, 60-69 D, 59 and below F.

WEEK	DATE	READINGS & ASSIGNMENTS	DUE DATES
1.	2/12	Ch. 1 Introduction to a Psychology of Women Ch. 2 Cultural Representation of Gender
2.	2/19	Ch. 3         Gender Self Concept/ Group Formation Chapter 4   Infancy, Childhood & Adolescence EXAM I (1-3)	2/23-27
3.	2/26	Chapter 5 Gender Comparisons Chapter 6   Sexuality
4.	3/5	Chapter 7           Reproduction EXAM II (4-6)	3/9-13
SPRING BREAK 3/12-18
5.	3/19	Chapter 8   Relationships Chapter 9   Education and Achievement Individual Written Project Due	3/26
6.	3/26	Chapter 10         Employment EXAM III (7-9)	3/30-4/3
7.	4/2	Chapter 11         Work and Achievement Chapter 12         Balancing Family & Work
8.	4/9	Chapter 12         Balancing Family & Work EXAM IV (10-12)	4/13-17
9.	4/16	Chapter 13         Mental Health Chapter 14                 Violence Against Girls & Women
10.	4/23	Chapter 15 Feminist Future for Women EXAM V (13-15)	4/27-5/1
11.	4/30	COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT DUE Voting for top 3 posters (5/4-5/8)	5/3
12.	5/9	Grading