PSYC 462--ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
SECTION 01--SPRING 2008--MWF 9:00-9:50 CSCC 208
COASTAL CAROLINA UNIVERSITY--Dr. King

Required Textbook: Roland J. Siiter (1998). Introduction To Animal Behavior. Wadsworth. (See photo of cover at left.)

Prerequisites: Psyc 101 or Biol 121 or equivilant.

Attendance Policy: Grading is not based on attendance. I do show a lot of videos in this course, and the only opportunity you will have to see them is in class. However, attendance is absolutely required only on scheduled exam days. Anyone missing a scheduled exam for ANY REASON must take the comprehensive final. No other make-up exams will be given. If you do attend class, please do not bring your children or pets with you.

Tests and Grading: Grades will be based on three semester exams and a comprehensive final exam. The scheduled dates for these exams will be announced in class well in advance, and will also be posted at the website. No exams will be given at times other than these dates. If you need to take exams outside of the classroom setting due to a documented learning disability, it is up to you to make arrangements with the counseling center for this.

The semester exams will be 100-point exams comprised of 50 objective questions (mostly multiple choice). You will have to record your answers on a Scantron sheet, so please remember to bring a no. 2 pencil to the exams, as I may not be able to supply any. If you complete all three of the semester exams and are happy with your grade at that time, you do not have to take the final. If you complete all three of the semester exams but want to try to improve your grade, you can take the final, and it will count in place of any exam score lower than itself. In this case, if the final exam score is your lowest score, it will be discarded and will not count against you. If you have missed one or two semester exams, you must take the final, and it will count in place of the missed exams. You must take AT LEAST ONE of the semester exams.

The final exam will be a 100-point exam consisting of 100 objective questions (mostly multiple choice). Questions for the final will be taken from material covered during the entire course. Questions will cover the same facts as semester exam questions but will not be the same questions. PLEASE NOTE: you will be given an opportunity to look over the semester exams on the class date after the exam is given. That is the ONLY opportunity you will have to review these exams.

There are 300 points available in the course. No extra credit is available. Final grades will be determined according to the following scale: 270-300 A, 260-269 B+, 240-259 B, 230-239 C+, 210-229 C, 200-209 D+, 180-199 D, <180 F. This is a 90% A, 80% B, 70% C, 60% D grading scale. Grades will not be curved.

Office and Office Hours: My office is CSCC 160E, and my office hours are MWF 10-10:50 and 12-12:50, and T 12:00-2:15. No appointment is necessary to see me during my office hours, except during the preregistration period. Please do not hesitate to drop in and talk to me if you have questions about the readings, the lectures, the videos, or animal behavior in general. My office phone is 349-2270. My e-mail address is kingw (at) coastal (dot) edu. I'm much easier to reach by e-mail than by phone. DON'T leave voice mail messages!

Dates to Remember: Please note...
Monday, Jan 21st -- no classes; Martin Luther King Day holiday
Friday, Feb 1st -- last day to get graduation applications to Dr. Piroch
Thur, Feb 14 - Fri, Feb 15 -- Celebration of Inquiry; class redirected
Friday, Mar 14th -- no classes; student holiday
Mon, Mar 17 - Fri, Mar 21 -- no classes; Spring Break
Friday, Mar 28th -- last day to withdraw from classes with a W
Friday, May 9th -- final exam for this class, 11:00 AM

Things You Should Know About This Course: (1) The name of the course is ANIMAL BEHAVIOR. The discussion will be centered almost entirely on the behavior of nonhuman animals. Human behavior will be mentioned only occasionally and only by way of comparison. (2) Animal behavior only makes sense in an evolutionary context. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection will be discussed at length and will be used extensively as a framework for further discussions of behavior. (3) Although most of the discussion will center around wild animals in their natural habitats, we will also occasionally discuss laboratory experiments performed on animals.

Web Site: Click on the link to this course at http://ww2.coastal.edu/kingw/. DO NOT GO to WebCT/Blackboard. I am not there!!

Course Outline: The instructor reserves the right to make changes to the following dates and topics should this become necessary. Any such changes will be announced in class well in advance. Not all topics in this outline will be covered in lecture. Some I will leave you to read about in the book. For some of these topics I may cover material that is not in the book during lecture.

• History of the study of animal behavior (briefly) - Chapter 1
• Classification of animals (very briefly) - Chapter 1
• Nervous system and behavior - no reading (ask me if you want something)
• Research methods (briefly) - Chapter 2
• Evolution - Chapter 3
• Genes and heredity - Chapter 4
• Learning and adaptation - Chapter 5
• EXAM 1: TBA

• Foraging - Chapter 6
• Migration - Chapter 6
• Predators and prey - Chapter 7
• Competition and territoriality - Chapter 8
• Communication - Chapter 9
• Courtship, Mating, and Parenting (selected bits) - Chapters 10-12
• EXAM 2: TBA

• Cooperation and helping - Chapter 13
• Primate behavior - Chapter 14 and 16
• Apes - Chapter 15
• Evolutionary psychology (if time permits) - Chapter 17
• EXAM 3: TBA

FINAL EXAM (optional): Friday, May 9th, 11:00 AM, in the regular classroom.

Learning Objectives: By the end of this semester the student should be able to: (1) discuss the history of the study of animal behavior, (2) discuss how animal behavior is studied, (3) discuss the role of evolution, heredity, and environment in animal behavior, (4) understand the different ways animals adapt to their environments, (5) be able to discuss the nature of eusociality and the animals that display it.