Welcome to Harnessing Emotion and Reason to Achieve Goals
Emotion and reason can help or harm our ability to achieve goals in daily life. This course will introduce you to research on the best ways to identify and achieve goals (in other words, what to want and how to get it). The goal is to provide you with a foundation to continue your college career and to think critically about psychological research and its relationship to your daily life. This class will teach you to: neither fear nor revere emotion or reason and to think critically about how to set goals and strategies that will enhance your ability to achieve them. Given that happiness, health, and relationships are often listed as life goals, the course will also focus on factors that impact success in these areas of life. You will also develop the ability to engage with other learners during discussion and synthesize diverse perspectives.
***Office hours are Thurs 10-11 in Psychology 233, or by appointment (email to set one up)
***Because of the nature of this course, I will not regularly release grades (you will know if you did or did not turn in an assignment or took part in a debate), but if you have questions about your grade at any point, please contact me to find out your scores or check.
Week 1
Class: Introduction
Reading: None (can read foreword of text)
Homework: None
Week 2
Class: Deciding what to want
Reading: Main text, chapter 1 & Wilson & Gilbert paper
Homework: Develop list of goals
Additional Links:
Week 3
Class: The impact of different goals
Reading: Main text, chapter 2 & Kahneman & Deaton
Homework: Revise list of goals
Week 4
Class: Developing cognitive strategies
Reading: Main text chapter 4 (optional chapter 3) & Seligman et al. paper
Homework: Pick one activity and implement it once a day for the week
Week 5
Class: Developing relationships
Reading: Main text chapter 5 & Klimecki et al.
Homework: Pick one activity and implement it once a day for the week
Week 6
Class: Developing coping efficacy
Reading: Main text chapter 6, & Wortman & Silver
Homework: Pick one activity and implement it once a day for the week
Week 7
Class: Managing emotional responses
Reading: Main text, chapter 7 & Stolarski et al.
Homework: Pick one activity and implement it once a day for the week
Week 8
Class: Committing to Goal Pursuits
Reading: Main text, chapter 8, & Duckworth et al.
Homework: Pick one activity and implement it once a day for the week
Week 9
Class: Taking time out
Reading: Main text, chapter 9 & Kozhevnikov et al.
Homework:Pick one activity and implement it once a day for the week
Week 10
Class: Maintaining goal pursuits
Reading: Main text, chapter 10 & Polivy et al.
Homework: None
Week 11
Class: The paradox of choice
Reading: Schwartz et al. & Dar-Nimrod et al.
Homework: None
Week 12
Class: Self-study presentations
Reading: None
Homework: None
Week 13
***Thanksgiving, no class
Week 14
Class: Self-study presentations
Reading: None
Homework: None
***ALL PAPERS ARE DUE BY THE END OF CLASS
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Useful class links and information
If you need writing help or consulting, it is available at the University Writing Center