PL1101E - Introduction to Psychology Review

Taken in: AY20/21 Semester 1

Lecturer: Nina Powell (Dr. P)

Grading:

• 50% Quiz - 6 quizzes, 5 best scores counted
• 50% Final Exam

This is a popular module. I took it as a UE, and I enjoyed it even though it was kind of stressful at times. Dr. P openly stated that she made everything open book, but at the same time, harder, and she wasn't kidding. Take note, this review is with regards to PL1101E as taught by Dr. P. She's a good lecturer, and if you're the type to take a module depending on the lecturer, I highly recommend you go for the one taught by her. I can't say much about other profs but I haven't heard good things from my friends. Dr. P's teaching style is less about grades and more about getting you to think, something I found enjoyable, but may be stressful to others, so your mileage may vary.

Lectures

As an introduction to Psychology, you'll touch on most of the various areas of study in the field, including cognitive, developmental, social, and biological Psychology. They say that you need to know a lot of Biology for this mod, for this semester, not exactly the case — You'll learn about the various brain parts and their functions in the context of Psychology, but it's only mostly while we're on the chapter of Biological Psychology, and even then, Dr. P's examination style focused more on application of concepts than regurgitation (Something she makes a point to emphasise), so you shouldn't worry too much about trying to memorize all the nitty gritty details. I know I didn't. I know a lot of FASS students come in wanting to study Psychology, so this module is always oversubscribed. If you manage to get it, give it a go! Some of the stuff you learn is really interesting. You won't learn to read minds of course.

Tutorials

Tutorial sessions weren't graded, but they were enjoyable. You mostly spend time answering some deep Psychological questions, some maybe verging on Philosophical, relating to the topics covered in lecture. Questions like "We know how to identify the "neural signature" or neural pattern of activation for happiness. So why can't we just make everyone happy?". Meant to make you think, apply concepts learned, and altogether build an interest in the study of Psychology.

Assessments

The CA was the bane of many PL1101E students' existence this semester, so much so that I think Dr. P got hate mail or something to that extent over them. 6 biweekly quizzes, 6-10 MCQ Questions each, and you had unlimited attempts, completely open book. I don't think it will be like this in future semesters, as this was probably a Covid exception, but Dr. P's teaching philosophy shines here. The questions were hard, and the PL1101E Telegram group was always filled with disagreements. I found it really fun to discuss, though not so fun was when I didn't score well despite the amount of effort put into it. What helped me was definitely reading the textbook. The chapters are long, but it was worthwhile as it helped me in the quizzes AND the final exam.

The final exam was open book and not proctored. For this semester, you had to come up with a scenario and make short points about how each Psychological school of thought would study the same scenario. Secondly, you had to explain the terms you learned in the course of the module by coming up with an example. I found the final quite easy as it was open-ended, open-book, none of the stressful deliberation that came with MCQ questions like the quizzes.

Remarks

All in all, the workload for this module is astonishingly low. No preparation needed for tutorials, all you have are quizzes and a final exam, in other words you just need to read the required readings and try and understand the concepts taught. That's it. It's a very thorough, substantial module for one that covers such a broad range of topics in Psychology.

Expected grade: B+

Actual grade: A

Verdict: Try and take this module if it's taught by Dr. P! (No offence to other profs) I'm sure many FASS students came into NUS wanting to do Psychology, I was one of them before I moved on to CNM. This module was enough to satisfy my curiosity in Psychology without needing to pursue it as a major. Dr. P is also one of the nicer, interesting profs out there.

Reviewed by: ZH

Unrelated: Dr. P has a pet cat named Dog. I mean come on, this is a PL1101E module review but it does sound more like a prof review doesn't it?