PSYC 407
Success and Failure Fall 2024
Division III

The theme of this psychology senior seminar will be success. We will discuss the path to personal success, including the relative importance of hard work, genetic talent, and luck; barriers to success like poverty and discrimination; the importance of parents, family, teachers, and friends; and what we really mean by success. For each topic we cover, we will read a book or watch a film, then delve deeper by reading and discussing scientific journal articles. Class meetings will be student-led discussions. Students will write three 5-7 page papers. The larger goal will be to practice useful life skills such as how to lead and participate in a meeting (i.e., a class discussion), how to write engagingly and convincingly, and how to assess an argument skeptically and discuss it using evidence.