Freshman Seminar sample summer reading assignment:

To:       Incoming Psychology Majors
From:    Dr. James Buchanan
            Chair, Department of Psychology
Date:    July 19, 2011
Re:       Summer Reading Assignment

Welcome to the Psychology Department at The University of Scranton.  You will begin your studies here in late August with about 57 other freshman psychology majors.  Our faculty members look forward to working with all of you.

All freshmen at the University participate in the Freshman Seminar during the fall semester.  There are three sections of Freshman Seminar set aside for psychology majors.  You will be assigned to one of these sections.

Freshman psychology majors have a summer reading assignment.  The book is identified below.  You will take a quiz on the book during your first class in Psyc 110L (Fundamentals of Psychology Laboratory).  In addition, the Freshman Seminar will include discussion of  the book’s content.  Your grade on the quiz and your participation in the discussions about it will help determine your final grade in Freshman Seminar. 

The book for this summer’s reading assignment is Forty Studies That Changed Psychology, Sixth Edition, by Roger R. Hock, ISBN-10: 0-13-603599-X; ISBN-13: 978-0-13-603599-2 (paperback).  You do not have to read the entire book prior to the beginning of the semester.  The ten studies within the book required as reading for the summer are listed on the attached page.  These studies total approximately 75 pages of reading.

This book will also be used as a required text for your Psyc 110L (Fundamentals of Psychology Laboratory).  The cost of this book is approximately $45.00 new (less if you are able to obtain a used copy).  New and used copies are available at The University of Scranton Bookstore or through Amazon.com.

Note that this reading assignment for psychology majors is in addition to the reading assignment for all university freshmen (In Search of Civility by Kent M. Weeks) which you heard about during your recent summer orientation.

To acknowledge receipt of this notice, please "reply" to this email.

Again, we look forward to working with you in the Psychology Department.