Re: PSYC 4820; Psychology of Human Sexuality

Dear Student:

I am pleased that you are considering enrolling in Psychology 4820, Psychology of Human Sexuality and I want you to succeed in our course. There is no set meeting time for our course (with the exception of a once-a-week-half-hour �chat� time, discussed below), instead you will need to interact with the web site of the course at least once or more each weekday during the semester. The expectation for a three-hour course is that you will spend four hours each week for each hour of credit for a total expectation for this three hour course of at least twelve hours per week. This expectation, of course, does not take into time trying to get connected to the Internet, just as time driving to a class is not counted. This course will require as much time as a classroom taught course, but the students in the past in my other Internet courses have all indicated that this is well worth the effort and their comments indicate it is has become one of their favorite courses. I want this to be your best course and have tried to provide you with information so that you will have realistic expectations and do well in this Internet course.

I have taught a number of Internet courses for the University, including Forensic Psychology (offered in the Fall), Criminal Psychopathology (offered in the Spring), Psychology and Mental Health Law, and Adolescent Psychology (offered in the summer). While I have taught Psychology of Human Sexuality for over ten years in a classroom based class, this is the first semester I have taught it on the Internet. There is an amazing amount of information regarding the Psychology of Human Sexuality, but teaching the class on the Internet can be problematic. The Internet is a vast wasteland of useless information upon which is scattered a few nuggets of worthwhile information. The sexual information on the Internet is legion, and teaching a human sex class on the internet can be fraught with problems. For example, in one of the classes I teach, The Adolescent, I directed the students to a website for the National Association of Attorney�s Generals (NAAG) which discussed the relatively recent action to curtail cigarette smoking in adolescents by suing cigarette companies to remove, among other things, cartoon characters (like Joe camel) from the companies advertising. I mistakenly directed the students to NAAG.com when I should have directed them to NAAG.org. The former site is (was, I have not been back�please don�t go there), some sort of paid porn site while the latter is the site I wanted the students to visit. What I am cautioning you all on, is be very careful to distinguish the delivery method (Internet course) from the wide variety (content) of sexual material. I guess I am suggesting that you be mindful of yourself and of others and be very careful in the sites you visit on the Internet. This is an Understanding Human Sexuality class on the Internet not sex on the Internet.

There is no question that sex is fun�.otherwise�if you take an evolutionary perspective�we would have all died out long ago�.so let me dispense with some of the �fun� things first. My wife (of thirty years) asks��What makes you think you are qualified to teach this course?� �You get paid to teach this course?????� and finally, �Is there a lab with this course?� In the class room base course, one of the student�s comments was that I was a �very touching� person�.I can only hope that they meant that I was very sensitive to our subject matter.

In our course we will be discussing sexual behavior which, on the one hand, comprises some of the most important behavior to us all psychologically. For example, marriage is the most common relationship between two people, yet a good percentage of first marriages (and even more subsequent marriages) end in divorce, perhaps as high as fifty percent for first marriages (I have always used this number, but perhaps it is a bit high and is closer to forty percent. Even if I am wrong and it is closer to forty percent, my point stands). Paralleling the relatively high rate of divorce is that the most common presenting reason (presenting�what people are complaining about, but perhaps not the real or only reason) that people see counselors is for sexual problems in a relationship.

Despite it being very critical to our very existence (or at least the perpetuation of our existence through our offspring), we generally don�t talk about sex except, and even then only in a limited sense, with our sexual partners. Freud referred to sex as �something you don�t discuss.� Yet in this class we will want to discuss sex and our understanding of sex. Some considerations. We all try to be sensitive to others in our discussions. We need to be very careful with our opinions. I request this in all of my classes, but especially in this class. It is not that opinions are inherently wrong, it is that opinions are, generally, not well thought out and may be more reflective of our biases and may even foreclose further discussions. If I think that sex can only be for procreative purposes and you disagree, very little further discussion will occur. Hopefully this caution makes sense. To put this all in perspective, more than almost any subject, we are egocentric (that which we do is right�and that which someone else does is not as right, not as normal as what we do). We are temprocentric. Our time is the best and other times were more or less this or that�but not as good as our present time. And finally we all suffer from Ethnocentric, our culture is the best. That is one reason why the text I choose for this class is unique�it recognizes that for us (humans) sex takes place in a world of diversity and understanding diversity in sex helps us better understand ourselves and understand sex. I present more information on these concepts in the first lecture (slide show), but this should alert you to the fact that we have biases that make our observations and our opinions, if not suspect, at least to be accepted cautiously.

Instead of fixed class meetings, with the exception of meeting one time a week in a �chat room� (It is anticipated that there will be two available of which you will choose one: one available Tuesday evening at 9:30 p.m., one on Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. for an half hour or so), we will all interact on a bulletin board each day during the week at various times during each day that you determined for your convenience. The time is to be distributed over the 5 weekdays at your convenience, as long as you spend some time at least once each day interacting with the Forum. While there is no set class time (except for the agreed upon �chat room� time for half an hour or so each week), you are expected to read the Forum postings and contribute to them each day of the workweek. As you can see from the comments made by students in the past, this class not only requires that you learn new material, but also to think about the content in new ways. I am not so much concerned with what you have learned before or what you have learned in other classes as I am in what you think about the new material you have learned about in this class.

The text is Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity. Eight Edition, 2011. (ISBN-10: 0205786065 ISBN-13: 9780205786060) I have used it through all editions and it is an excellent text that you will enjoy. It will provide a basic orientation for the class and then we will use the Internet to supplement the material of the text by reading cases, articles, and even viewing videos that I have created for you. Please arrange to have your text a week before the first day of class, because the assignment due at the start of class is to read the first chapter. The text will be available from the University Bookstore. http://www.uwyobookstore.com (the text may be available under �Outreach Online 2011� and then put PSYC 4820 or call 307-766-3264 and tell them it for the Outreach School.

You can access our class from anywhere in the world that you can get on the Internet. Since it is an Internet course, you are required not only to have Internet access, but also sufficient familiarity with the Internet so that you can succeed in the course. Required is a computer in which you can access the Internet with a recent copy of a web browser such as Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer or AOL�s browser.

Besides a recent copy of a web browser the only other software you will need is a free extension to your web browser that enables you to play audio and video files named RealOne (also know as RealPlayer). You will need the latest version to play videos that I will show. If you already have RealOne open the program, click on Help, and then click on Upgrade. If you don�t have RealOne, you can download it for free by clicking on this link (Note, they will try and get you to buy RealOne Plus, but all you need is RealOne Basic which is free): http://www.real.com You may need to look around on the page to find the free RealPlayer Basic.

Some material we may look at is in Adobe Acrobat format (*.pdf) and requires another free helper program to be able to read the cases and is called Adobe Acrobat Reader that you can obtain by free by going here: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html Again, all you need is the free version.

The first assignments for the start of class, besides making sure I have your email address, is to read the first chapter of the text, write a paragraph or so biographical description of yourself, and secure a digital photo for your �home page� as is described further below.

We will have four ways of communicating.

Email: If, at any time, you have any questions, concerns, or comments, it is my expectation that you will immediately send me email so that I can become aware and hopefully resolve any issues. In the event you would like to speak with me, feel free to email me your phone number and times you are available and I will call you. My phone number is posted in the course material and you can feel free to call me at anytime.
Forum: We will participate as a class, asynchronously, (meaning not necessarily at the same time but within certain time parameters such as sometime during a day) on the Sakai Forum tool. I will provide you with topics based on readings and assignments that will be discussed by each member of the class. It is important that you be able to participate for a brief time each weekday of the semester to timely interact with other members. There is no fixed time for this participation within the day.
Chat Room. We will participate synchronously, (that is at the same time, to be determined by the class) with the Sakai chat room feature. We will typically have at least two times so you can pick which one will be most convenient to you. Typically, they are at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, late enough so the kids are in bed (if you have kids), but not too late so that we are all tired (or if you don�t have kids, that you could not go �out� after the chat) and then another choice first thing in the morning (Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m.).
Messages. It is like the Forum, but it allows you to send messages that only the recipient can read. You will use this each week to send me your self-evaluation. You can also send Messages to other students in the class. Since I only use Messages for your self-evaluations that you send to me each week, please use regular email (first word of the subject: 4820) to communicate with me for any other purpose.

You are probably familiar with search engines to find information on the Internet such as Google at http://www.google.com or, Metacrawler at: http://www.metacrawler.com .

The Sakai software allows you to create a small �home page� so that I and the other students can get to know you at the beginning of the class. You will be given access to the course a few days before the start and you are required to upload you own biographical sketch and picture before the first day of class. I will send you instructions on how to easily accomplish this when I send you instructions on how to enter the course one week before the start of class. Please plan to have the biographical sketch (a paragraph or two) and a scanned picture (JPEG format or *.jpg) ready a few days before class starts. Your home page will be for only the other class members to read and see, so that we all gain an appreciation of each other as a class. You can read and learn about me by exploring the UW/CC site at: http://www.uwyo.edu/uwcc especially my section of the faculty page and following is the link to my page in the psychology department which is: http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/psychology/displayfaculty.asp?facultyid=1286

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email, first word of the subject for all email for this class: 4370 and then add the subject of the message.

George L. Blau, Ph.D., J.D.

Professor Emeritus of Psychology

Adjunct Professor of Criminal Justice

geoblau@uwyo.edu