Course Description

PSYC 2340 Selected Topics in Psychology

PSYC 2340:  Psychology of Death and Dying is a special topics course. This course is an exploration into the issues and problems related to death and dying. The intellectual, emotional, psychosocial, physical and experiential aspects of this topic are covered with an emphasis on self-discovery in addition to scholarly knowledge. Death and dying are discussed relative to their historical, cross-cultural and developmental perspectives. Specific topics include: surviving the death of a loved one, living with a terminal illness, death in the health care system, medical ethics, death and the law, suicide, near-death experiences and beliefs about the after life. This course transfers as 3 hours of credit to most other colleges and universities.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites

Course Goals (includes core competencies, incorporation of SCANS, etc.)

Upon completion of this course, you should:

1. Recognize why education about death, dying and bereavement is important.
2. Identify historical antecedents of current attitudes about death.
3. Be acquainted with the diversity of death-related rituals and beliefs found in various cultures and subcultures.
4. Recognize how agents of socialization influence our attitudes and experiences of death,  dying and bereavement.
5. Identify how health care systems influence our attitudes and experiences about illness,  death, dying and bereavement.
6. Be able to describe and assess patterns of coping with life-threatening illness.
7. Identify the ethical and legal issues involved in providing care for the dying and in euthanasia.
8. Recognize the somatic, perceptual and emotional symptoms of grief and its impact on morbidity and mortality.
9. Recognize the psychological and social function of funeral rituals.
10. Identify how beliefs about what follows death influence our understanding and attitudes about death and how to care for the dying and the dead.
11. Have gained insight into your own attitudes and beliefs about death.

Instructor Information

This course is taught by Dr. Iliana Castillo.

Textbook Information

DeSpelder, L.A. & Strickland, A.L.  The Last Dance: Encountering Death & Dying, 4th Edition. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1996.

Lab Requirements (if any)

No lab requirements

Students with Disabilities

Students who are in need of special accommodations related to a condition or disability should contact ADA Counselor at each college to obtain the proper documentation. Special accommodations will be provided to those students who show proper documentation.

Academic Honesty

Plagiarism, cheating and other forms of academic dishonesty are prohibited by the HCCS policy and the rules of this class. A student found guilty of the first offense will receive a grade of ?F? for that particular assignment. For the second offense, the student will receive a grade of ?F? for the course.

Attendance and Withdrawal Policies

It is important that you come to class. An instructor may, according to the rules of the college, drop a student after s/he has missed six (6) hours of class time, provided that those 6 hours are missed prior to the official drop date. MY POLICY IS: I will take class attendance, as the state requires this information for funding purposes. HOWEVER, I WILL NOT DROP YOU FROM MY CLASS FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER,  EXCEPT FOR VIOLATIONS OF CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR & CONFIDENTIALITY REQUIREMENTS. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO OFFICIALLY DROP THIS COURSE IF NEED BE. I encourage you to speak to me if you are considering withdrawing.

Please inform me before class if you anticipate needing to leave class early. MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO ARRIVE TO CLASS ON TIME. I know emergencies happen, but I do not expect you to come to class if you are going to be more than ten (10) minutes late, and I will not tolerate frequent tardiness. If you arrive 11 or more minutes late to class you will be counted absent for the purposes of the attendance grade.

If you are on the installment plan, please remember to make payments according to schedule. Otherwise, you will be dropped from the class roll.

Grading Policy

Your final course grade will be calculated according to the following formula:

A=90-100% B=80-89% C=70-79% D=60-69% F=Below 60%

Final grade averages will be rounded up only when the decimal of the percentage is .5 or higher. For example, an 89.4 is a B, while an 89.5 or higher is an A.

Course Requirements for example: Testing, Projects, Assignments, Portfolios, Service Learning, Internships, etc.

ASSIGNMENTS

You will be given frequent assignments, most of which you are to complete outside of class. The assignments will vary greatly. Approximately half will be directly from the textbook; these tend to be fact oriented. Other assignments will require use of your creativity, drawing on your past experiences, etc.

One assignment will require you to take a field trip on your own time. If this is not possible for you, I will give you an alternative assignment.

There will be approximately 35 assignments, probably more. I will drop the five lowest assignment grades when figuring your course grade. No makeups will be given, so the dropped grades may include any assignments you did not receive or complete due to your absence or any other reason; but only five grades will be dropped.

FINAL

The final will be comprehensive and consist of short answer questions and essays. Students who are making an A in the class at the end of the semester (their average assignment grade, excluding their five lowest grades) will not be required to take the final.

Make-up policy

NO MAKEUPS WILL BE GIVEN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. You will receive a "0" for any and all assignments missed. Of course, since your lowest five assignment grades will be dropped, an assignment you missed can be dropped as your lowest grade. No exceptions will be made to the "NO MAKEUPS" policy.

Course Content

Classwork will include discussions, films, learning exercises, lectures, demonstrations and guest speakers. This is an experiential class where the students and the instructor often share sensitive and personal information. You are encouraged to share opinions, examples, comments and feeling, but please do so in a courteous and appropriate manner. Most importantly:

* THE DISCUSSIONS IN THIS CLASS ARE CONFIDENTIAL! 

Course Calendar with Due Dates for Assignments and Testing

Other Student Information (clubs, tutoring, web resources, student services, etc.)

Psi Beta is a systemwide honors organization for psychology majors in community colleges. Psi Beta - HCC chapter's website can be found at http://nwc.hccs.edu/psyc/psibeta.html. In addition, some colleges (for example, Southwest College) have Psychology Clubs.

Some useful links to web resources in psychology can be found at http://nwc.hccs.edu/psyc/LINKS.HTML.