It is my sincere pleasure to be your PSYC 402 instructor this fall.

Please call me: Professor or Dr. Cardenas (pronouns: she/her/hers)

Email: [email protected] — For most things, I will respond within 36 hours on weekdays, and by Monday for any emails sent over the weekend. For time-sensitive emails about in-class presentations, I will respond as soon as I possibly can.

About me: I am an experimental psychologist interested in the application of social and cognitive psychology to the criminal justice system. My research focuses on understanding how innocent people remember their alibis, how emotions and group identities influence how people interpret police use of force incidents, how people make and evaluate legal decisions, and more. If any of this research sounds interesting to you, come talk to me!

About my fur baby: His name is Appa. He is 1 year old and, as my PSYC 101 students know, immune to the bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility. Read: He’s cuddly-looking but not cuddly unless you’ve bought his love through considerable effort, time, and emotional labor. He will be in my office from time to time. You may come look at him, but unfortunately he will likely not tolerate any petting 😞.

Yes, that Appa.

My teaching philosophy. I value transparency, so I want you to know my philosophy on teaching. Knowing this will help you understand the context in which I have structured this course. I didn’t conjure my views from thin air or base this course on my gut feelings about what works and what doesn’t. Instead, I use an evidence-based approach to teaching psychology—meaning I apply strategies based on the empirical studies from the teaching and learning literature (Fifer, Brooks, O’Connor, 2019). This means that we’ll use activities, assignments, and lecture materials that will maximize your learning and help you to develop important skills (like collaboration and critical thinking) that you’ll want to have when navigating the world outside this course.

First, countless empirical studies show that learning occurs best when you are active and not passive. Thus, you will not learn best by simply coming to seminar and expecting facts to be poured into your head. I am not a watering can and you are not a potted plant (not a knock on plants which I’m wild about). Instead, we’ll do a lot of small-group discussions, demonstrations, writing assignments, and more—sometimes together, other times independently. Moreover, you’ll need to read a lot, think a lot, and monitor your own learning quite a lot. The majority of our thinking about the course material will be done outside of class. Seminar and workshop meetings do not provide enough time to appreciate the richness of the sources and concepts that we are working with. Remaining enrolled in this course means that you are ready to devote the time, effort, and energy that reading and thinking about this topic deserves.

Second, in my student-centered approach to teaching, I see my role as one of providing structure, facilitating, and guiding you along your active exploration of various interactive tasks. Think of me not as a “sage on a stage”, but rather as a fitness trainer or a coach—I can help you develop a plan for success tailored to your needs, motivate you, and teach you how to deal with challenges, but I can’t do the actual heavy lifting for you.

In sum, in this class you will be encouraged to set personal goals, be given choice and autonomy to contribute in various ways, and learn in a supporting and non-threatening environment.