Syllabus
Psychology 325—Multicultural Psychology
Winter 325

Meeting Times:	MW 4:00–5:50 PM, Room 5-103
Credit Hours:	4

Instructor:	Jeffery Scott Mio, Ph.D.
Office:		5-115
Phone Number:	(909) 869-3899
E-Mail Address:	jsmio@csupomona.edu
Website:		http://www.csupomona.edu/~jsmio
Office Hours:	Mondays:	2:00–3:00 PM in APISC
				3:00–4:00 PM in office
		Tuesdays:	3:30–5:30 PM
		Wednesdays:	3:00–4:00 PM

Textbook:  Mio, J. S., Barker-Hackett, L., & Tumambing, J. S. (2009). Multicultural psychology: Understanding our diverse communities (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Course Description

Class meetings will contain lectures, class discussion, and class presentations. Lectures will be comprised of both formal presentations and videotapes. Discussions will be built into class meeting periods. Occasionally, these discussions will be based upon in-class writing periods. Class presentations will be based upon examination of issues outside of the classroom.

Topics covered in the class include culturally relevant styles of communication, values from different cultures, racial identity, power and privilege, and issues involving affirmative action. This course will help prepare students to grapple with issues of multiculturalism in the modern diverse society.

Focused Free Writing

As many of you are aware, Cal Poly Pomona is encouraging all disciplines to include writing components in their courses. Such writing practices are designed to help students hone their writing skills while at the same time gaining a deeper understanding of subject material. One such form of writing is called “focused free (or speculative) writing.” This form of writing is a “stream of consciousness” writing, where you write down whatever comes to your mind with respect to a target subject given to you. There will be a certain amount of writing in this course that will be non-focused free writing. However, on occasion you may be asked to do three kinds of focused free writing:
•	Writing purely for yourself, not letting anyone else see it in order to solidify your thoughts and feelings about the topic;
•	Writing to put your thoughts down, then sharing them with the class or a small group within the class;
•	Writing to put your thoughts down, then handing them in to me so that I can get a sense of what the class thinks and feels.

Evaluations

There will be two midterm examinations, a final examination, and weekly reaction papers. All examinations will be a combination of multiple choice and essay format. Students will be expected to integrate lecture material with assigned readings. The point breakdown is as follows:

	Midterm	1		50 points
	Midterm 2		40
	Final Exam		40
	Weekly Reaction Papers	20
			          _______

			             150 points

Each reaction paper is worth 2 points. There will be a reaction paper due on the day of the final exam. Reaction papers must be 1–2 pages in length, typed and double-spaced.  If you are just short of one page, that will count, but papers much shorter than one page long with large headers and margins will not count.  Reaction papers must be turned in every Monday (except for holidays, in which case it will be due on that Wednesday) by the authors in person. In other words, you may not ask a friend to turn in your paper for you. However, you may have one opportunity to turn in your reaction paper via email by the end of the due date. This can be used for emergencies or other situations that arise that prevent you from attending lecture the day the reaction paper is due. On occasion, I may find that one of your reaction papers in whole or in part may be particularly relevant to some writing that I do. I would like your permission to quote you anonymously. Should you not want me to quote your paper directly in my writings, please let me know.

Letter grades for the course:

	Grade		Points
	    A		139–150
	    A–		132–138
	    B+		125–131
	    B		119–124
	    B–		112–118
	    C+		105–111
	    C		  97–104
	    C–		  90–96
	    D+		  82–89
	    D		  75–81
	    D–		  68–74
	    F		  67 or below

Schedule
Date		Topic										Chapters
Jan	  4	Introduction to course								          1
	  6	Introduction, cont.; multicultural research and testing				        1, 2
	11	Multicultural research and testing, cont.; differences in worldviews; reaction papers due	        2, 3
	13 	Differences in worldviews, cont.							          3
	18	Martin Luther King, Jr., Day—no class
	20 	Differences in communication; reaction papers due					          4
	25 	Differences in communication, cont.; reaction papers due; review for Midterm #1	     4; 1–4
       ***	27 	Midterm #1; acculturation issues							     1–4; 5
Feb	  1 	Acculturation issues, cont.; racism and related issues; reaction papers due		       5, 6
	  3	Racism										          6
  8	Racism, cont.; reaction papers due							          6
	10	Racism, cont.									          6
	15	Presidents’ Day—no class
17	Identity development; reaction papers due						          7
	22	Identity development, cont.; reaction papers due; review for Midterm #2		     7; 5–7
       ***	24 	Midterm #2; health disparities							     5–7; 8
Mar	   1	Health disparities, cont.; reaction papers due					         8
	   3	Mental health issues								         9
	   8	Mental health issues, cont.; building multicultural competence; reaction papers due	      9, 10
10	Building multicultural competence, cont.; review for final exam			  10; 8–10
       ***	15 	Final Examination, 3:50–5:05 PM; reaction papers due				      8–10

Make-up exams will not be given unless the student has an extremely good reason for missing the exam. Not being prepared or merely forgetting an exam time does not constitute a good reason. No one will be allowed to drop the course unless there is an extremely good reason.  Doing poorly does not constitute a good reason.