<p>did anyone happen to take this course. How is it and what is it about..no one i asked seemed to really know... are there lots of reading and text books to buy</p>
<p>what about psych 1</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>I'm a TA for Psych 1. I personally think it's a great course that everyone should take sometime while they're at Stanford. It gives a broad introduction to various branches of psychology such as developmental, neuroscience, and personality psychology. What I love about it is that the information is relevant to each and every one of us - psychology can help us understand how we're all different, what we have in common, why we do the things we do, and how much our interactions matter. The course has really opened my eyes and led me to think of my own motivations and my relationships in a new light.</p>
<p>Reading the textbook is required in addition to attending lectures; half the test questions come from the book and the other half come from the lectures. While this might sound intimidating, it's not hard to do well in the course. Lectures are very entertaining :) Come to the first lecture and see!</p>
<p>There is also a required discussion section. It's not your typical boring math section where you sit around and listen to a rehash of lecture and then ask a couple questions. The TAs come up with activities that reinforce concepts taught in lectures, lead discussions, and review important ideas. Thus, section participation is part of the grade, but it's easy and fun :) In addition, you will write your own research article as if you had done an experiment and are now publishing your work. You can do any topic you want, whether it's the effects of sleep deprivation on memory retrieval or the relationship between sex steroid levels and prosocial behavior. You and the TA will work together to develop an experimental question and an experimental design. Then, you'll create "results" for your experiment. Finally, you will write a discussion of the relevance of your findings and put the whole paper together. The goal of this is to explore a topic of interest as well as develop scientific writing skills. It's a great project that I hope you'll enjoy.</p>
<p>Any other questions? Let me know! FYI, I was a TA in Fall and will TA again this Winter. I will not be TAing in Spring.</p>
<p>So, Sleep & Dreams isn't gonna be quite as easy breezy a course as it is rumored to be. It is, however, legendary for the ridiculous number of ways to get extra credit, including but not limited to: sleeping in class, writing a short log of your dreams throughout the quarter, etc. There isn't a large workload either. In fact, I hear it's about as minimal as it can be and still count as a 3-unit course.</p>
<p>Anyone know if Sleep & Dreams is a good class? I've heard it's not too hard, but is the work that is required interesting? Is the material interesting? Is the prof good? I'm deciding between it and an intro sem that sounds really interesting. Thanks!</p>
<p>Hmm, just a personal opinion, feel free to ignore if you want, but...Sleep & Dreams is gonna be offered again next year, right? I mean, the prof came out of retirement last year specifically to bring the class back. I feel like maybe you oughta shoot for the intro sem, since it's a smaller class and a great way to get to know a faculty member. :-/ Either way, you're taking a class you're interested in, right?</p>
<p>This may be a little too late to help you with class selection, but I took Sleep and Dreams over 30 years ago with Bill Dement, and assuming he's still in form, I'd heartily recommend taking the class. In my day, it was known as a "mick" (as in Mickey Mouse in terms of degree of demandingness), but it was also the fun (yet informative) class that everyone wanted to take. Dement pioneered the field of sleep research and sleep medicine, and he has a great sense of humor and off-beat style. I'm glad to hear that he came out of retirement to resurrect the class. His classes tend to have hundreds of students in them, so it definitely will not be a small seminar experience, but its worth taking before he goes back into retirement!</p>