Rollins courses
Dog is Love: The Science of Human-Animal Interaction
Many of us consider dogs our best friends, yet we have a lot to learn about their abilities and preferences. In this course, we will study our canine companions, and other domesticated animals, in order to learn how to use the tools of science to reach objective, replicable conclusions that can improve the lives of humans and animals alike.
Learning with Lab
This course provides an introduction to the principles of learning associated with the behavior-analytic viewpoint. Students learn the basics of the scientific study of behavior, including methodology, philosophy, and research results. Topics include respondent and operant conditioning, selection by consequences, extinction, schedules of reinforcement, chaining, conditioned reinforcement, aversive control, and imitation.
The rat lab portion of the course provides hands-on experience in which students see basic learning principles in action.
Comparative Animal Behavior
What does it mean to be human? One way to answer this is to look for similarities and differences with other species. Do humans have unique abilities other species lack? Is it our consciousness, our cooperation, our sense of self, our language ability, or something else entirely? Or is it nothing at all? This course surveys a range of candidate answers to the question of which behavioral and cognitive traits are displayed only by humans in one approach to more-fully understanding ourselves. We will compare humans and nonhumans on a range of tests meant to assess the boundaries and overlap between species’ abilities. This human-centric perspective will be mixed with an ethological perspective which seeks to understand animal behavior in its own right – not necessarily as it is relevant to understanding only humans.
Behavioral Economics
Analyzes organisms’ responses to situations of risk, uncertainty, and tradeoff as a function of economic framework. Examines possibilities for helping individuals make better choices in accord with their own goals.
Courses I have taught in the past
Statistics
University of Wisconsin – Whitewater Fall 2013-Spring 2017
This first-level introduction to statistics covers descriptive and inferential statistics, probability, and hypothesis testing. A major goal of the course is to be able to select the appropriate analysis for a given research scenario and to understand how that analysis works (along with what it does and does not tell you). As daily generators and consumers of data, we must become quantitatively literate so we can evaluate numeric arguments we encounter.
Research Methods
University of Wisconsin – Whitewater Fall 2013-Spring 2017
In this project-based course, psychology majors learn the tools used to study psychology. We emphasize critical thinking, quantitative analysis, scholarly and professional ethics, research design integrity, scientific writing and presentation, and how to plan for the unexpected when working with live subjects. Students creatively design and execute their own research projects from start to finish, including running human participants ethically and efficaciously.
Comparative Psychology
Willamette University Spring 2013; University of Wisconsin – Whitewater Fall 2015, Fall 2016
By comparing across species, we more fully realize that humans are one iteration of the evolutionary process among many, with each iteration equally well-suited to its environmental niche. This course addresses the question: To what extent can human and nonhuman behavior be explained by uniform processes? Can we create hypotheses based on these uniform processes which may explain behavior that appears very different from our own? Topics may include spatial reasoning, tool use, judgments of fairness, social relationships, self concept, communication and language, and teaching.
Introduction to the Psychology Major
University of Wisconsin – Whitewater Fall 2015, Fall 2016
This 1-credit course helps students get the most out of their college experience and, specifically, their psychology major. Topics include exploring whether a psychology major matches students’ skills and aspirations; identifying possible career paths and graduate school options; planning future coursework sequences; and finding opportunities for high-impact experiences like undergraduate research, internships, service, and campus employment. Students form social supports with other psychology majors and, in closely interacting with their professor, gain a link to a psychology faculty member.
Judgment & Choice
Willamette University Fall 2011, Fall 2012
Judgment and Decision Making is the study of how people make decisions in situations of uncertainty. Economics has historically assumed that people make rational choices to maximize the value of the outcomes of their decisions; however, simple observations reveal that people’s choices often deviate from these predictions. By studying these systematic deviations from rationality, we learn about the decision-making rules people use. The course first seeks to understand how empirical and observational research reveal our decision-making rules; it then uses knowledge of these rules to consider how we can improve our world through our personal and policy decisions. Topics of discussion may include health care, drug abuse and treatment, financial decision-making and investing, social factors, and environmental stewardship. No knowledge of economics is expected.
Learning (The science of behavior analysis)
Portland State University Fall 2011, Winter 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Winter 2012, Spring 2013
University of Florida Spring 2008, Summer 2008
This course provides an introduction to the principles of learning associated with the behavior-analytic viewpoint. Students learn the basics of the scientific study of behavior, including methodology, philosophy, and research conducted in the field so far. Topics include respondent and operant conditioning, selection by consequences, extinction, schedules of reinforcement, chaining, conditioned reinforcement, aversive control, and imitation.
This course could also form the basis for expansion into a Research Methods in Experimental Psychology course with an animal lab component.
Principles of Behavior Analysis (The philosophy of behaviorism)
Willamette University Spring 2012
This course is an introduction to behaviorism as a philosophy of science. We consider the intersections between psychology and philosophy, evolutionary biology, and anthropology in understanding the behaviorist’s perspective on a science of behavior. This perspective views humans as one animal species among many and believes that basic principles of behavior can have far-reaching implications for understanding human behavior and improving our world. Section 1 describes the modern behavioral philosophy and epistemology. Section 2 describes how this epistemology is used to create a science of behavior. Section 3 explores how this science can be used to approach social issues such as freedom, responsibility, values, and the creation of culture.
Drugs & Behavior (Drug effects on individuals and society)
Willamette University Spring 2012, Spring 2013
This course covers the psychological, physiological, and pharmacological aspects of both legal and illegal drug use and abuse. Unit 1 focuses on how drugs work in the body, including routes of administration and mechanisms of action, and concepts such as tolerance and dependence. It also examines the current state of drug use in society, emphasizing value judgments inherent in our conceptualization of drug abuse and how to respond to it. Units 2 and 3 focus on understanding how experimental preparations answer questions about drugs’ effects on behavior. Unit 2 focuses on illegal drugs, and Unit 3 focuses on legal drugs. Unit 4 addresses prescription drugs, but most of this unit is based on student presentations of final paper topics.
Introduction to Psychology
Willamette University Fall 2011 (2 sections), Spring 2012, Fall 2012
University of Florida Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008
This course is a systematic exploration of traditional fields of psychology, including biopsychology, sensation and perception, cognitive, learning, developmental, social, personality, and clinical areas. Special attention is given to the nature of evidence and its interpretation in behavioral science, as well as to ethical considerations and controversies arising in connection with the conduct and application of psychological research.
At Willamette University, this course satisfies the Analyzing Arguments, Reasons, and Values (AARV) component of general education and also serves as the entry course into the Psychology Major and Minor. Therefore, students in the course consider some of the fundamental ethical or value-laden issues that arise when discussing the study of human behavior, such as:
- How do values shape the conduct and interpretation of research in psychology? In other words, what is the effect of humans studying humans?
- Is there a need for ethical guidelines to guide psychological research, and if so, what should the nature of these guidelines be?
- What are the trade-offs in making value-laden decisions with regard to human behavior?
- Should research results be used to prescribe moral behavior?
- How should we evaluate the tension that exists between behaviors that are good for an individual vs. behaviors that contribute to the common good?