Learning psychology through the texts

Abstract

This study focused on the tasks set by Psychology lecturers teaching the undergraduate course that involve reading and producing written texts. Via ananalysis of the published curricula for the 28 core and obligatory courses that comprise the degree, we determined the frequency and type of a) reading activities and b) hybrid activities involving reading and writing, and their distribution over the six first semesters. The results indicate a high number of reading tasks and a much lower percentage of hybrid tasks. In turn, the more frequently used hybrid tasks –completing questionnaires, reports on practical sessions– presented far less complexity than tasks used less frequently, such as writing summaries or essays based on more than one source.