Course Description:

This course is designed to provide students with knowledge about all kinds of chemicals that have psychological and/or behavioral impact on the user. This information will be learned through study of the primary text by Levinthal and through material presented in class. I strongly believe in making class attendance a worthwhile experience. Therefore, the content of material presented in class will overlap somewhat with material presented in the texts, but there will also be a substantial amount of additional information presented in class. Class time will be spent alternating rapidly between lecture, questions asked of the class, cartoons illustrating key points, brief films illustrating course content, and class discussions. Course objectives are for students to understand basic pharmacology (such as how drugs are taken and how they act in the body), to gain factual knowledge about the effects of all types of drugs (licit and illicit), to develop critical thinking skills regarding psychopharmacology, and to explore philosophies that drive drug use and drug policy. Overall, I believe there are at least three key goals to be accomplished by the instructor of an in-person, upper-level university course like this one, and these goals guide my efforts in teaching this course. One goal is to explain conceptually difficult material through in-class presentations. This is somewhat obvious and part of most university classes, including this course. The second goal is to provide students with up-to-date scientific information. As a scientist and clinical psychologist who has worked in the area of substance use and addiction for over 20 years, I have access to a great deal of information that is not widely known and may not be shared publicly for years to come. I make a concerted effort to take advantage of my experiences to bring the most current knowledge to the teaching of this class each year. The third, and most important goal in my opinion, is to encourage development of students' ability to objectively evaluate multiple perspectives on conceptually complex material. This latter goal is often described as "critical thinking" or understanding "diverse philosophical approaches" to various subjects related to a particular course. In this class, I interpret these phrases as understanding the basic reality that information about drugs is heavily influenced by the opinions and motives of the source providing the information. I'm sure this is no surprise to most of you, but the real-world consequences of this phenomenon in relation to drugs continues to surprise me, even after spending over 20 years working as a drug scientist. These never-ending "surprises" are one of the reasons this subject has continued to fascinate me throughout my life, and I make a concerted effort to bring this fascination and excitement for the subject to the teaching of this class. This is typically the only undergraduate course I teach, and I usually only teach it once a year, but I look forward to it every spring semester and each new group of students bring new questions and new insights that contribute greatly to my motivation to teach and to continue to work on the cutting edge of scientific research. The last thing I'll say here about the class is that my background in this field as a scientist and a clinician, coupled with my fascination for the topics may cause me to wander off on tangents during class, mostly in response to interesting questions posed by students. I know this happens and I'll do my best to keep things focused and keep the tangents to a minimum.

Grades and Announcements

Exam scores and class announcements will be posted on the class web page. If you are reading this, you have already found the web page! But you need to login to see your grades. Click the "Class Log-In" button on the button bar. Enter your username, & password. There will be directions for those. Please make sure you are registered for this class and follow the log-in directions carefully before deciding the site doesn't work! E-mail the instructor if you have any problems. In addition to finding exam scores and announcements here, you can also post messages to your classmates. Please don't post messages for me here. E-mail me directly at the address on the homepage above.

Attendance

Attendance is not required, but it will be impossible for you to pass this course without attending class regularly. If you know you will have to miss classes due to other obligations, I strongly advise you to take this course at another time or during a semester in which you can regularly attend class.

Exams

Exams will consist of multiple-choice questions and will be 100% of your course grade. There will be a total of 3 exams. Each exam will contain questions from the textbook (about 50% of the questions) and from material presented in class (the other 50% of exam questions) including lecture, questions, discussions, and films. Although the material presented in class overlaps with material presented in the text, I focus many exam questions on material that is only presented in one source or the other (only in the book or only in class). There will always be exam questions on material presented in class and the book, but do not make the mistake of thinking that material covered in class is the only material covered on exams. As noted above, the exams are 50/50, class questions and book questions, with just a little overlap. Exam scores will be posted on the class web page (and only on the class webpage) as fast as humanly posssible after each exam (usually within 3 hours or so) but no later than midnight of the exam day unless we have some unexpected barrier we can't overcome by midnight. Students who miss exams due to a documented illness, emergency, religious holiday, or UCF event will have the opportunity to make-up exams by taking an essay exam that MUST be completed before the date of the following exam (Exam 1 must be made up before Exam 2, Exam 2 must be made up before Exam 3, etc). Although different in format, we go to extraordinary lengths to make the make-up exams comparable in difficulty to the multiple choice exams. Please notify me of illnesses and emergencies that may cause you to miss an exam as soon as possible and no later than the day of the exam (send me an e-mail at mdunn@mail.ucf.edu or leave a voicemail on my office phone at 407-823-3083). Holidays and UCF events that conflict with the exam schedule must be approved by me during the first week of classes.
Important: Please bring a brown scan-tron for each exam!

Grading

Letter grades will be assigned based on percentage of points earned.

Percentage Points	Letter Grade
90% and greater	A
80-89%	B
70-79%	C
60-69%	D
Less than 60%	F

Extra Credit

You can earn extra credit by volunteering to be a participant in research projects approved by the Psychology Department, or by writing a term paper. Information on how to sign-up for experiments will be provided elsewhere, and can also be found through the UCF Psychology Department webpage. The information is not presented here because the online system for managing participation of udergraduate students in research projects has changed and I do not want to give you any misinformation. When I have all of the updated information, I will make it available through the class website, but the same information is currently available through other web resources of the Psychology Department if you would like to seek out the facts before I get the information posted on the webpages for this particular class. In any case, don't wait until the end of the semester to sign-up for studies; opportunities become more scarce near the end of the semester and the opportunity to sign-up for studies expires several weeks before the end of the semester. If you choose the term paper option, you may write an 8-10 page double-spaced paper reviewing the psychological research published in the last year on the drug-related topic of your choice. I must approve all paper topics before you start on the paper. Papers must be written in APA format. You must turn in both a hard copy and a disk copy of the paper. All papers will be electronically evaluated to detect plagiarism. Turning in a plagiarized paper will result in failing the course and being referred to the administration for disciplinary action. Extra credit papers are due on the date that signing up for participation in studies ends several weeks before the end of the semester. This date changes each semester so you need to be aware of the end date posted on the website for signing up for studies.

How to Succeed in this Course

Information presented in class will overlap with the books somewhat, but there will be a lot of additional information presented in class. In addition, class questions, discussions, and films will be used to make test questions. Therefore, there are four important things you need to do to succeed in this course.

• First, you will need to attend class regularly, think about information that is presented, ask questions about things that seem unclear, and take complete and accurate notes on lectures, films, and class discussions.
• Second, get to know at least two other people in the class. Not only will this improve your social life, but if you have to miss class, you will have at least two people to get notes from. Don't consider me to be one of these people! Translation: don't ask me for copies of my notes or overheads! They are not an adequate substitute for class attendance.
• Third, LEARN THE INFORMATION! Unless you have a photographic memory, casually reading the book chapters once or twice will not enable you to pass this class. You will need to memorize to succeed. At the very least, memorizing definitions of all the key terms, summary statements from sections in the readings, and points made in class will be necessary to pass this course. If you want to get a better than passing grade (like a B or A) you will need to memorize the information. You should be able to look at section headings within each chapter and be able to remember all the facts from each section.
• Fourth, take all the exams. There will be no make-ups for any reason other than a well-documented life-threatening emergency (advise me by e-mail or voicemail no later than the day of the exam), religious holiday, or an official university function that requires your attendance. In the case of holidays and UCF functions, you must make arrangements with me during the first week of classes.

If You Have Problems in the Course

If you feel you are having difficulty, contact me as soon as possible. Do not wait until the end of the semester to tell me you are failing and need help! I can't help you at the end. Many failing students have approached me early in the semester enabling me to help them dramatically improve their grades. Unfortunately, many failing students have waited until the end of the semester to contact me to ask for make-ups or incompletes which I do not grant. The university provides a mechanism for hardship withdrawal that requires withdrawal from all courses and must be pursued with the university, not the instructor. If you find yourself considering a hardship withdrawal, you are strongly encouraged to discuss your situation with me and I will make every effort to advise and assist you in any way I can. The regular withdrawal deadline is February 27th. If you need help for emotional problems, alcohol or drug problems, or academic problems, you can contact the Counseling and Testing Center at 823-2811. If you become a victim and need help or support, you can contact Victim Services at 823-2525.

Academic Honesty

Dishonesty of any kind (e.g., cheating, plagiarism, fabricated excuses, etc.) will not be tolerated. The very least that will happen is that you will receive an F for the course and you will be referred to the administration for disciplinary action. In addition, if you become aware of another student's dishonesty, you are strongly encouraged to report the information for your own protection.

HAVE A GREAT TIME!

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