Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Welcome to Psychology and Human Relations! I am excited to get to know you all through this fascinating class, which combines academic research about psychology with practical information about how to understand yourself and relationships with others. The insights and skills you will learn in this class will come in handy as you develop healthy and positive relationships with family members, friends, romantic partners, and co-workers.

Please keep in mind that this is a very interactive class where much of the course work is done in class. If you enjoy class discussions and working in small groups, this is a good fit for you! If you're a little shy about class participation but are willing to work on your interpersonal skills in this class, this is also a good fit for you!

The Course Content:

In this course, we are going to learn all about the psychology of human relations. We'll be learning about:

• personality and the components of the self
• emotions and stress
• social influences, biases, and prejudice in human relations
• effective listening and both verbal and nonverbal communication
• conflict management
• intimate relationships
• human relations through a cultural lens

The class will include short written assignments and weekly readings. In class, you can expect to experience a combination of lecture and small group activities to discuss the concepts and practice the related skills, as well as time to reflect on and practice skills in writing.

What to expect in this course:

Our fully in-person course meets two times a week on PCC's Sylvania campus for a combination of lectures, videos, class discussions, and group activities. In addition to these meetings, you should expect to spend time outside of class completing assigned readings, studying, and submitting assignments.

Attendance, In-class Work, and your Grade:

Our in-person meetings will be important to your success on class assignments. Each class meeting will include activities that count toward your course grade. Though in-class work can be made up for absences for partial credit, if you know you will not be able to attend class regularly, you would be better served by a fully asynchronous online course.

Assessments:

Weekly in-class activities.

Short weekly homework assignments, which are due on the following Mondays before the beginning of class.

One term paper due week 9.

An open-note mid-term during week 6 and an open note final during week 11.

About me:

I was born in Boston, Massachusetts and I have lived in Portland since 2000. I have also lived in Oakland CA, Washington DC and Mexico City. My academic background is in educational psychology (MA from UC Berkeley) and political science (BA from Harvard University). I have taught college, high school and middle school, and I have also taught music for many years to adults and teens through PDX Vox, a community a cappella singing school I founded. I am an enthusiastic musician and reader, and I enjoy journaling, drawing and collaging as ways to express myself and de-stress. I love Portland, and I appreciate how teaching at PCC expands my experience of the city and the many communities within it.

Our class is a fully in-person course. meeting twice a week at the Cascade campus.

Even though it's an in-person class, you will need access to D2L to participate in the course. It will be the online hub where you will find all of the course details and assignments, and you will submit your homework assignments by uploading them to the D2L system. 

Recommended Textbook:

The textbook that we will use is an e-book:

Human Relations: The Art and Science of Building Effective Relationships, 2nd edition. Vivian McCann. Pearson. 

(Click here for a link!) Human Relations: The Art and Science of Building Effective Relationships (pearson.com) 

The cost is $8.49 per month to rent the book online. I will also share a link where you can sign up for a free one-month trial, in case renting it right away is not an option.