Title of Program: Evolution and the Human Condition at Chongqing University of Education
Sponsoring Dept
or school: Evolutionary Studies
Program Dates: 5/19-6/1 (two weeks)
Program Location: Chongqing, China – Affiliation: Chongqing University of Education (CQUE)
This program is designed to connect with our current dual-diploma program with CQUE. In this program, students at CQUE are taught some classes by New Paltz faculty each summer. Glenn Geher has taught a course in the basics of evolution there last summer and he plans to do so again this upcoming summer. He teaches two sections of approximately 45 students each. The idea here is for New Paltz students to join Glenn and to take the class alongside the CQUE students. The New Paltz students would be signed up for a 3-credit New Paltz class, EVO 493 (or equivalent): Evolution and the human condition. As part of their responsibilities in this class, the students would take the class that Glenn offers in China. However, note that Glenn only teaches a subset of that course (about 17 hours) and, as such, the New Paltz students would need more content and experience to round out the 45 required hours to justify a 3-credit class. This would be done via the following:
- The students would join Glenn to visit Chonqing a few days prior to the first class period (to take place on 5/22). Along with personnel from CQUE, Glenn would bring the New Paltz students to such Congqing landmarks as (a) the “Ancient city,” which is, in many ways, virtually unchanged since about the year 800 and (b) the Museum of the Three Gorges Dam, which houses a world-class exhibit on human evolution. On the tail end of the trip, the group will head to another city, Chengdu, and spend a few days, including a visit to the world-famous panda sanctuary. The group will leave from Chengdu to New York. Full calendar is below in the “calendar section” of this syllabus.
- As part of the course, the CQUE students conduct a group project and they present that, via teleconference technology, to Glenn when he is back in the US. These include two two-hour sessions. The New Paltz students in the program would each be included on at least one of the teams (alongside the Chinese students) and they would attend and participate in the presentations on campus with Glenn after they return home to New York.
- Finally, the New Paltz students would have an additional assignment which would focus on cross-cultural experiences as they relate to human evolution. A trip to Chongqing provides rich lessons in both human diversity and human universality. These are themes that sit at the core of the course. Thus, this assignment would bring together the content of the course with the nature of the study-abroad experience itself.
Admission Requirements:
Course Level of Program:
Relationship to a Foreign Institution (if any):
As described above, this program would dovetail with our campus’ existing program affiliated with Congqing University of Education.
Program Objectives and Content
Specific educational objectives, including how it relates to sponsoring department’s academic program:
This course would primarily serve to teach students the basics of evolution and get them to see applications of evolutionary principles to various facets of the human experience, including parenting, education, politics, and religion. These goals connect strongly with the mission of EvoS.
Describe any field experiences, practical training, internship or community service offered by the program:
This program would include field experiences in Chongqing, including visits to several key tourist sites in Chongqing, which is one of the world’s largest cities and which has a rich and deep history. A primary field experience would be a visit to the Three Gorges Dam Museum which holds a world-class exhibit on human evolution. This exhibit largely focuses on evolution from the perspective of Asian ancestry and it truly is a gem of an intellectual experience. The story of the Dam project, which is explicated in detail at the museum, is also highly provocative and informative.
How will these experiences be assessed?
The students’ academic performance will be assessed via performance on the exam and the two projects. The impact, value, and utility of the field experiences will be assessed via a survey that will be administered to students at the end of the experience.
Describe non-classroom activities to be sponsored by the program (field trips, site visits, extra-curricular excursions):
Excursions would include trips to such destinations as the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Dam Museum, the Ancient City, and the Stillwell Museum, which depicts the role of Chongqing during World War II. Personnel from CQUE will accompany and help lead these activities.
Program Logistics
Describe housing and meal arrangements:
Proposed here is the idea that students would split rooms at the La Fie Hotel which is where faculty from New Paltz stay. The rooms are approximately $60US per night. Thus, students would be paying ~$30/night for lodging.
Food is also relatively inexpensive in Chongqing (relative to the US Dollar). Students in the program would be provided with passes for the Student Canteen on the campus of CQUE. That would cover lunch and dinner when they are on campus. Also, the La Fie Hotel has an extensive breakfast that is included in the price.
List health and safety risks inherent to the program site and how the program will mitigate them:
Generally speaking, Chongqing is an extremely safe city with little in the way of natural disaster or crime. Westerners are discouraged from drinking the water, so students will be advised to drink bottled water only.
Does the country to be visited require a visa?
YES
Describe the arrangement and support abroad:
The faculty and staff at CQUE have earned a reputation as being extremely supportive of their guests from New Paltz. Via this program, we would expect this warm and supportive approach to extend to our students. Also, the students would be able to access Glenn who will be accessible to help students with logistics and any unforeseen details.
Describe the types of supports you are expecting of the host institution (if any):
The host institution, CQUE, is expected to be supportive of this program and, thus, of the students who would partake in it. Help with excursions within Chongqing will be provided by the university.
Pre-Departure Logistics
Describe evidence of student interest in the program including how the program courses fit into degree or major requirements:
The course would officially be EVO 493/593 (Special Topics in Evolutionary Studies or “Study Abroad equivalent”).
Provide a brief outline of program specific pre-departure orientations including topics to be covered, length and number of sessions:
Three basic classes of meetings will take place. First, a meeting of the students who sign up will meet with the current cohort of students from CQUE who will be studying at New Paltz this spring. Glenn would join this meeting as would Kathleen Geher, who is director of the dual-diploma program.
Second, a meeting with Kathleen and the students, along with relevant CIP staff would take place to help prepare them for issues related to the study abroad and international travel experience.
Third, Glenn would meet with the students to orient them to the academic side of things as well as to the overall nature of the planned experience.
Who will conduct the orientations?
A combination of Glenn and Kathleen Geher (along with students from CQUE who are studying here as well as other relevant members of the CIP staff).
Post Program Logistics
Describe how participants’ international experiences will be integrated upon return to campus (e.g. re-entry activities, student publications, exhibits, etc.):
As described earlier, a final project for the course, which would be due in the weeks after they return, would focus on the nature of their cross-cultural experience—particularly as connected with concepts related to the course on human evolution. In particular, students will be asked to elaborate on points of human diversity and points of human universality that they learned about and they will be asked to connect these concepts with concepts from the course.
SYLLABUS
Evolution and the Human Condition
EVO 493 – (or possibly SAB equivalent)
State University of New York at New Paltz
(in collaboration with Chongqing University of Education)
Office Hours: (TBD)
E-mail: geherg@newpaltz.edu and 3445531517@qq.com
Web address: http://www.glenngeher.com
Schedule for In-Person Component of Class:
May 22 (W), 23 (Th), 24 (F) and May 27 (M) and 28 (T)
May 29 (W) will include a reception and certificate ceremony.
Additional activities that are being organized by the folks at CQUE are being planned and students are expected to participate fully.
Schedule for Online Component of Class:
5/15, 7:30-8:30pm EST* (introduction of NP students and CQUE students)
6/5, 730-940pm EST*
6/12, 730-940pm EST*
*These dates/times may change – and other orientation and similar meetings may be scheduled
Reading:
Geher, G. (2014). Evolutionary Psychology 101. New York: Springer (CHAPTER 1). Free and available here.
Geher, G. (2018). Darwin’s Definitions. Blog post for Psychology Today.
Geher, G. (2015). What is evolutionary psychology? Blog post for Psychology Today.
Geher, G. (2018). Evolutionary Psychology Permeates Everyday Life. Blog post for Psychology Today.
Geher, G. (2015). There is grandeur in this view of life. Blog post for Psychology Today.
Geher, G. (2018). How Spicy Do You Like It? Psychology Today.
Geher, G. (2018). Beyond diversity. Psychology Today.
Qiu, J. (2016). How China is rewriting the book on human origins. Nature.
Geher, G. (2018). Darwin’s Tips for Kindergarten Teachers. Psychology Today.
The dates for each of these readings are demarcated in the Calendar section of this syllabus.
FINAL EXAM REVIEW SLIDES:
Welcome: Welcome to Evolution and the Human Condition – a special study-abroad experience that brings New Paltz students to study evolution alongside students at Chongqing University of Education. I am Glenn Geher, professor of psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz), and am thrilled have you join me in China!
As part of this class, all students enrolled in EVO 493 (or Study Abroad equivalent) will take attend class alongside the CQUE students and will share the component of the class that these students share with me (spelled out below). Also, you will engage in some additional activities that will serve to round out your experiences and the full three credits for this course.
This course will focus on the following:
- What is evolution?
- What are the main processes of evolution?
- How does evolution relate to human behavior?
- Evolution and human relationships.
- Evolution and altruism.
- Evolution and social behaviors.
- Evolution and religion.
- Controversies regarding evolution.
The readings are designed to give a strong and clear introduction to this field of science.
Students should walk away with a strong understanding of the basic ideas of evolution as well as how these ideas relate to all aspects of human behavior. A focus on human evolution in China along with information on how cross-cultural experiences teach us about human universals will also be included.
Note that all required readings are to be read, in full, prior to the class periods for which they are assigned.
Assignments/Exam:
Exam (25% of grade). There will be one exam given during the final hour of the final class period on Tuesday, May 28. This exam will be comprised of multiple-choice items that relate to the readings and the lectures. This article, Darwin’s Definitions, is the study guide for the exam.
The multiple-choice items will be created based largely on the concepts included in this article. So if you understand the concepts in this article well, you should do well on the exam.
GROUP Creative Assignment (25% of grade). GROUP ASSIGNMENT! DUE PRIOR TO CLASS ON JUNE 7 (730am – China Time (June 6, 1930, Eastern Standard (New York) Time). This assignment is designed to allow you to be creative. The basic assignment is for you to create some product related to the course content. The one rule is this: You must use at least 10 of the concepts included in the Darwin’s Definitions article (included in the required reading for this class). The ten you use are up to you.
Note that this assignment is a group assignment. Students are to form groups of between 6-7 students from the class. As part of the process, they need to determine a “team leader” who will be the person who represents the group to the professor (Glenn). Also, each group will have a New Paltz student. Each member of the group is required to participate fully in the process. The grade given for the project will be assigned to each individual student. Importantly, if there are concerns about the group process (e.g., if one student is not contributing as much as he or she should), please notify Glenn for help.
The product that you come up with needs to show a strong and deep understanding of the 10 concepts that you choose to incorporate. With this said, the kind of product that you create is really up to you. Examples might include:
- A short story
- A poem
- A song
- A video
- A play
- A research proposal
- A summary of research in the field of evolutionary psychology
Feel free to meet with me ahead of time about this project. And make sure to clearly demarcate each of the technical terms that you use so I can see that you have used at least 10 of them. You can underline, boldface, etc.
HERE is an example – A short story I wrote called Chaska’s Story
NOTE: To get your work to me ahead of the deadline, please send the relevant file via qq.
NOTE: Whatever your project is, make sure to hand it in prior to the deadline (which is demarcated on the syllabus. If you are not sure what to hand in, contact me on WeChat, let me know what your project is, and I will help you.
Sharing large files between the US and China (e.g., video files).
Due to the Great Firewall associated with internet connections between the USA and China, sharing information with folks in China from the US can be a bit difficult. Sharing relatively large files can be particularly difficult. In my experience, the email system, qq, has emerged as the best way to share large files in this context.
qq – send a file (either a “very large attachment” or a link to a cloud file) to my qq account: 3445531517@qq.com (youku.com is a useful alternative for videos – it is like YouTube)
What to Hand in Prior to Presentation
In terms of what to hand in prior to your presentation and what to do during your presentation, that depends on the nature of your product. If you are making a video, then you should send me the video ahead of time (via the instructions above) and show 10 minutes of the video during the class period. Then take questions/comments for about 5 minutes. If you wrote a paper, then you should prepare a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation to give during the class (with 5 minutes of questions/comments). If you wrote songs or stories, you should read or sing these during the 10 minutes (and leave five minutes for questions.
GROUP Oral presentation (25% of grade). This part of the required assignments will be pass/fail. You will get full credit for doing it! During the final two class periods, we will meet remotely using online software (New Paltz students will be in the online conference room with Glenn in New Paltz during these presentations). During these periods, students will give presentations on their creative products. Each group will have about 15 minutes to present. Every student in the group must be included in the presentation. The presentation should take whatever form the group thinks is best. That could be giving a PowerPoint presentation, acting out a play, showing a video, etc. Note that every member of the group will get 100% for this component of the grade simply for participating.
I cannot wait to hear these presentations!
Grading for NEW PALTZ students:
Exam (.25)
Cross-cultural paper (.25)
Creative Product / presentation (.40)
Participation in the scheduled activities (.10)
Schedule:
In addition to pre-meetings and events/excursions/activities in China, we will have the following meetings. The below schedule relates to the content and structure of these meetings:
GROUP 1:
| Date/Time | Content and Reading | Assignment/Exam |
| MEETING 1Wednesday, 5/22 Time is to be determined (TBD) | Geher, G. (2014). Evolutionary Psychology 101. New York: Springer (CHAPTER 1). Free and available here. Qiu (2016) | |
| MEETING 2 Thursday, 5/23) | Geher, G. (2018). Darwin’s Definitions. Blog post for Psychology Today. Geher, G. (2015). What is evolutionary psychology? Blog post for Psychology Today. Geher, Rhodes, Di Santo, Goldstein, and Newhook. (under review) | |
| MEETING 3 Friday, 5/24) | Geher, G. (2018). Evolutionary Psychology Permeates Everyday Life. Blog post for Psychology Today.Geher, G. (2017). 10 Evolutionary Psychological Concepts that People Don’t Get. Blog post for Psychology Today. | |
| MEETING 4Monday, 5/27 | Geher, G. (2015). There is grandeur in this view of life. Blog post for Psychology Today. | |
| MEETING 5 Tuesday, 5/28 | Review and exam | EXAM |
| MEETING 6 Wednesday, 5/29 (certificate ceremony!) | ||
| MEETINGS 7-8 – See schedule for “online meetings); New Paltz students will be back in New Paltz during presentations (dates TBD) | The assignment is due via email PRIOR TO the first of these two class period) In-Class Presentations (fifteen minutes each) |
Excursions related to the human experience. This course largely focuses on the human experience writ large. You will see that Chongqing is a fabulous place to discuss human evolution. In the days before and after our in-class experience, we’ll be doing some sightseeing in Chongqing and Chengdu, targeted at enhancing your educational experience. Barring illness and/or other extenuating circumstances, all students will be required to take part.
- The students would join Glenn to visit Chonqing a few days prior to the first class period (to take place on 5/22). Along with personnel from CQUE, I will bring you all to such Chongqing landmarks as (a) the “Ancient city,” which is, in many ways, virtually unchanged since about the year 800, (b) the Museum of the Three Gorges Dam, (c) the panda sanctuary of Chengdu.
- CQUE will provide New Paltz students with various activities, including Chinese cultural classes, an on-campus orientation, a certificate ceremony, and various excursions. Students in the program are expected to fully participate.
- As part of the course, the CQUE students conduct a group project and they present that, via teleconference technology, to me when I’m back in the US. These include two two-hour sessions. Each NP student will each be included on at least one of the teams (alongside the Chinese students) and you will attend and participate in the presentations on campus with Glenn after they return home.
- Finally, the New Paltz students will have an additional assignment which would focus on cross-cultural experiences as they relate to human evolution. A trip to Chongqing provides rich lessons in both human diversity and human universality. These are themes that sit at the core of the course. Thus, this assignment would bring together the content of the course with the nature of the study-abroad experience itself. (25% of grade, graded on 0-100 scale; due by email (geherg@newpaltz.edu) prior to midnight of 6/15).
This assignment, in detail, is as follows:
Evolution, Culture, and the Chongqing Experience
This course focuses on evolution and the human condition. Two broad themes that emerge in this class address (a) human diversity (who we vary from one another) along with (b) human universality (how we are all the same).
For this assignment, citing at least five academic sources derived from the course readings, you are to describe the basic idea of cross-cultural psychology, describing these points of diversity and universality in detail. Next, you need to describe the basic premises of evolutionary psychology and connect these ideas with the field of cross-cultural psychology.
Next, you need to describe your experiences in Chongqing and think about how these experiences connect with the themes described in the first section of the paper. In doing so, you need to describe four specific experiences that you had – two that speak to human diversity as a function of culture and two that speak to human universality.
In a concluding section, discuss the value of cross-cultural experiences in allowing us to better understand and appreciate the human condition.
This paper should be about 4-8 pages. I would be more than happy to look at a draft of your work ahead of time.
Course policies:
- Cheating. DO NOT CHEAT. Any student caught cheating on an exam will automatically fail that exam and, perhaps, the course. Possible penalties include failing said examination and/or having an academic dishonesty complaint filed against the student in question. Failure of the entire class is also possible.
2A. Plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs when material is taken from a source without proper citation. If you quote something directly (i.e., if you use another author’s EXACT WORDS), you must use quotation marks. If you borrow an idea and reword it, you must report your source. Possible penalties include failing said assignment and/or having an academic dishonesty complaint filed against the student in question. Failure of the entire class is also possible. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE.
Elaborated plagiarism policy is here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/201512/how-not-plagiarize
2B. AVOID turn-of-phrase plagiarism! Paraphrasing ideas of others is not the same as rewriting all of their sentences with substituted words or structural changes. For instance, suppose that you find an article that says the following: “The stimulus in this study was very large and the environment was highly controlled.” It would be totally plagiarizing if you changed this to either:
- “The stimulus in this research was enormous and the context was highly stabilized.” or
- “In this study, the environment was highly controlled and the stimulus in this study was very large.”
In paraphrasing, you need to look AWAY from what you have read when you write your summary – and describe the ideas as you would as if you were describing them to a lay person. That’s best writing – and will help you avoid getting called out on plagiarism.
3. Missing exams. A Make-up exam may be given if there are extenuating circumstances AND it (the make-up exam) is (ideally) officially scheduled before the scheduled examination. If such circumstances are shown to exist, you may be able to take a make-up exam. Special arrangements will be made as to the time and place of any make-up exams. If a student requests a make-up exam after the scheduled examination, and especially extenuating circumstances (e.g., a serious illness) are demonstrated to exist, scheduling of a make-up exam might be considered.
Feedback on paper/creative product.
You are encouraged to meet with me (GG) feedback on ideas or an outline of your paper before it is due.
- LATE PAPERS. ABSOLUTELY NO PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THE DUE DATE.
- Course conflicts. If you have a regular scheduling conflict with this course (e.g., you will have to leave every class before the end of class because of work, you have another course scheduled that overlaps with this course, or you will be going to Rome for 2 weeks during the term) you should not take this course.
- Your paper for this class may NOT be based on a paper you have written for another class.
- NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES (including, but not limited to: cell phones, text-messaging devices, Sony Playstations, etc.) may be turned on during class or during examinations. Possible penalties include failing an examination and/or having an academic dishonesty complaint filed against the student in question. Further, such items are NOT to be USED during class (notetaking with a laptop is only acceptable with my expressed written permission – and note that surfing the web during class is just all wrong!).
- Attendance policy. You are encouraged to attend this class. Doing so can only help your grade. Attendance is not mandatory. This said, note that attending classes is perhaps the single-best predictor of academic success in college.
As a teacher I feel that my role is to help you learn, not to grade you, so please feel free to come see me or call me throughout the term if you have any concerns or questions. I mean it. Have a great semester.
Glenn’s Writing Tips
No papers with an abundance of the following errors will receive a grade of an A.
- USUALLY affect is a verb and effect is a noun.
e.g., This variable affects several things.
e.g., That other variable produced a very large effect.
- If the subject of your sentence is singular, the verb and subsequent pronouns referring to the subject must be also.
e.g., The participant then provided his or her (not their) background information.
e.g., The point of these studies was (not were) to find if blah, blah, blah … (point is singular).
- Never use the word prove in a psychology paper. While psychologists do many things, proving is virtually never one of them.
INCORRECT: These results prove that Schmedley’s hypothesis was correct.
BETTER: These results support Schmedley’s hypothesis.
BETTER STILL: These results support the hypothesis that Schmedley should change his name … just kidding.
- Be succinct. Do not use a lot of words to make a point if you can make the same point with fewer words. If two papers make the same points, the one with fewer words is, to my mind, better.
BAD: Asch’s research on conformity is very interesting because it includes interesting research and has important ideas that are very meaningful.
BETTER: Asch’s research on conformity is interesting for several reasons.
- AVOID 1st person (when possible) and, especially, opinions (unless they are asked for).
BAD: I am writing a paper on conformity. In this paper, I will talk about how social psychologists have studied conformity and why I am so interested in this interesting topic.
BETTER: This paper will address conformity as it has been studied in social psychology.
- Do not use contractions.
BAD: Subjects were asked if they’d administer an electric shock.
BETTER: Subjects were asked if they would administer an electric shock.
- Its vs. It’s. It’s means it is (but you should not be using contractions anyway). Its is a possessive pronoun referring to a noun that possesses something.
e.g., The frog grabbed the fly with its tongue. (here its means the frog’s)
- Punctuation marks go inside quotation marks.
BAD: Then the experimenter said, “Oh Boy”.
BETTER: Then the experimenter said, “Oh Boy.”
BETTER STILL: Then the experimenter said, “Golly!”
- Always follow the word this with a specific noun. Otherwise, your writing will be unclear.
BAD: Changes will be made at all levels of management. The impact of this will be enormous.
BETTER: Changes will be made at all levels of management. The impact of this restructuring will be enormous.
- i.e., means “in other words.” e.g., means “for example.”
e.g., These people are thought to be cerebral in nature (i.e., they tend to think a lot).
e.g., Their diet includes several kinds of flowers (e.g., roses).
- Some helpful word substitutions:
Change
looked at to examined
got to obtained
did to conducted
- Only use the word “correlation” if you are referring to a specific relationship between two different continuous variables. Do not just throw this word around because it sounds good.
GOOD: A positive correlation was observed between number of hamburgers eaten and the size of one’s bellyache.
BAD: A correlation between these different ideas can be found. (This sentence simply does not mean anything).
- AVOID turn-of-phrase plagiarism! Paraphrasing ideas of others is not the same as rewriting all of their sentences with substituted words or structural changes. For instance, suppose that you find an article that says the following: “The stimulus in this study was very large and the environment was highly controlled.” It would be totally plagiarizing if you changed this to either:
“The stimulus in this research was enormous and the context was highly stabilized.” or: “In this study, the environment was highly controlled and the stimulus in this study was very large.”
In paraphrasing, you need to look AWAY from what you have read when you write your summary — and describe the ideas as you would as if you were describing them to a lay person. That’s best writing — and will help you avoid getting called out on plagiarism.
- Compound adjectives are clusters of words that, in combination, describe some noun. Unless the first word in the cluster is an adverb ending in “ly” (random rule), the words in the cluster need to be hyphenated to make it clear that they act as a unit. For instance:
Change: The student was well read to: The student was well-read. (here, well and read work together to make a single adjective)
Change: The tip of the tongue phenomenon is really cool to The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is really cool (here tip and of and the and tongue work together to make a single adjective).
- Technical terms should be demarcated by italics and defined on first use.
Change: Evolutionary mismatch may play a role in terms of why people now overeat unhealthy foods.
To: Evolutionary mismatch, which corresponds to situations in which modern environments do not match ancestral conditions that were common during evolution, may play a role in terms of why people now overeat unhealthy foods.
- “Data,” meaning pieces of information, is plural for “datum,” meaning a single piece of information. Thus, data is a plural word – and it needs to be used in writing as such!
Incorrect: This data has an interesting implication.
Correct: These data have an interesting implication.