SPSY 3040 was a new Honors Seminar offered during the Fall 2022 semester. This course was officially named the "Evolutionary Psychology of Violence," and focused on the psychological underpinnings of aggressive behavior and possible ways to treat it. I chose to take this class because it sounded interesting, and I wanted to learn more about why aggressive people may act the way that they do. I figured this would be a useful class since I am interested in the legal field and would allow me to develop a better understanding of the psychosocial reasons for aggression. Interestingly enough, there was a bit of overlap in material from a class I took previously, Blind Injustice, when we discussed reasons for and repercussions of violent behavior. 

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This class was relatively simple: we had assigned readings for every lecture and then we would go to class and listen to the lecture. Outside of class, there were weekly quizzes and the occasional discussion board assignment. In terms of big assessments, we had a midterm and a final, as well as a large final paper assignment. I enjoyed how laid-back and low-maintenance this class was, and I appreciated that the professor really took into account what we all wanted the class to look like. For example, whenever we had a discussion board assignment, Dr. Deochand would ask us what we all wanted to write about, and then he would make the discussion board prompt based off of what we suggested. This allowed me to talk about the aspects of the course I found interesting and hear Dr. Deochand's thoughts on things as well when we talked about our responses during the next class.

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I learned lots of new things throughout this course, including how to define aggression biologically, psychologically, and socially. We learned how to do contingency mapping for different given scenarios. We also talked a lot about the psychology behind aggression and the different levels of intervention in treating violent behavior. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot. It taught me a lot about aggression and how to understand it better, which I think is a very useful skill to have. It was a nice, low-maintenance course and definitely provided a nice change of pace from my other major-required classes.

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​I have chosen to showcase the final paper I wrote for this class, which involved doing a semester-long project that aimed to decrease some form of aggressive behavior by increasing another positive behavior in our lives and sharing the results. For my project, I chose to make daily to-do lists to lower my stress levels, and in turn, I would be less aggressive and rude to those around me. This project and paper were really fun to work on: it forced me to get back into a routine and stick to it throughout the day. It also opened my eyes to how often I choose to respond to situations with aggressive comments, which is something I never really noticed before taking this class. This paper showcases many things we talked about throughout the semester, which is why I chose to showcase it as a representation of what I got out of this honors experience.