Session II: July 23 - August 4 - Education

Morning Option (9AM - 12:30PM)
EDI 10: Contemporary Issues in Education (Personality and Motivation)

This course explores contemporary issues in education, specifically exploring interactions between individual learners and the educational system. One focus of this course will be on examining controversial issues in American schools and among various stakeholders. This class will use ideas, theories, and findings from social science disciplines or philosophy in order to ground the study of the course topics.

Morning Option (9AM - 12:30PM)
PSY100A: Psychology in Everyday Life: Personality and Motivation

What IS personality, anyway? And what is motivation? How do environments shape personality and motivation? How does personality predict behavior and the situations one seeks? How does motivation explain how we behave? This course explores these questions, as well as other questions within personality and motivation. We explore major concepts and theories in these areas and apply these concepts and ideas to the everyday settings, particularly focusing on how a variety of personality traits might play a role in interactions between the people involved – and how different ways people are motivated might explain different behavior.

Afternoon Option (2PM - 5:30PM)
PSY100B: Psychology in Everyday Life: Irrationality

People think that they are more likely to win the lottery if they pick the numbers on their ticket; people think that a mug or other item is worth more money once it’s in their possession; when faced with a deadly illness in the population, people find a solution that will save 60% of people to be more acceptable than a solution that will not save 40% of people. In other words, people do not think or behave in rational ways. This course will address these and other instances of irrational behavior, focusing on when and why people are likely to think and behave in these irrational ways.