Introduction to Psychology

NEWSLETTER AND REMINDERS
April 3, 2001

In preparation for our class discussion of emotion on Friday, read this brief article on the relationship between emotion and health.  People quoted in the article claim that the reported research idea is brand new, and that it is not New Age.  Do you think it is new?  What relevant information is presented in the textbook on the physiological changes of emotion?  Is that new research?  If you have time, you might also look at the connections between emotion and health presented in chapter 17.

We recently talked about Freud's theory of dream interpretation.  Read this news story about some current reactions to Freud's "royal road to the unconscious."

Next due date:  Read chapters 3 & 4 by Wednesday, Feb. 7.  If you choose to do a reaction paper to a topic from chapter 3 or 4, it is due by Feb. 7.  Term paper topic, paragraph explanation, and initial working bibliography of at least 12 scholarly references due Friday, Feb. 9.

Second contribution to the discussion folder is due by Feb. 12.

Check the following news stories by following the links:
    Are some men missing a piece of their brains?
     How are our brains different from those of monkeys?
     Is it spinal chord or spinal cord?

Second class project:  Much of our psychological makeup begins before we are born.  As we begin our study of developmental psychology, read this article from last week's British Medical Journal on birth weight and intellectual ability, and answer the following questions:
1.  What is a longitudinal study?  Do you think it is a good research design?
2.  Is the study reported an observational study, a correlational study, or an experiment?  Why?
3.  What other explanations can you think of for the results of this study? (If you get stuck, read this response from some other students--although I hope you can do better.)
4.  Did the relationship between birth weight and intellectual measures persist throughout the longitudinal study?  What do you think may be happening?
Your responses to these questions are due Feb. 12, and should be handed in on paper or e-mailed directly to me.  Do not post your answers in the discussion folder.

Review/tutoring sessions:  Thanks to the good offices of Student Academic Services, Kristina Buch will be holding review and tutoring sessions each Thursday from 8 to 9 p.m. in B-328, our classroom.  Of course, you are invited to talk to me about the course content (or anything else) at any time.

Discussion folder:

• To find the posted discussion folder for the class, open Outlook.
• Then, go to the folder list on the left side of your screen.  (If it is missing, click the File menu and select Folder list.
• Scroll to the bottom of the folder list to find Public Folders, and click the plus sign.
• Click the plus signs beside each of the following, in order:
• All Public Folders...Academic...Classes...Young P.
• Click on IntroPsych01, and you are into the folder.  Please read the first message from me, and reply.
• To read any message in the folder, double-click it.
• To reply,  click the Post Reply button; type your message; and click the Post button.
• To post a new message rather than a reply, click on the folder. Then click New on the Outlook toolbar at the top of the page, type your message, and click Post.
• Helpful hint: Click on IntroPsych01 and drag it up the folder list to Favorites, to eliminate most of the above searching steps in the future.  But don't drag it anywhere else.

The first article to read is "They all answer to 'Psychologist'".  It tells you something of the breadth of the discipline.  The second article to read is "The (Mis)organization of psychology".  In it, the authors argue that the current organization of the field, the one that is in the textbook and that we study together in class, has too many problems, and should be replaced.

After you have read the articles, answer these five questions:
1.  What five common factors ("commonalities", "similarities") link together the different subfields in psychology?
2.  What are dichotomies?  Describe three dichotomies that may actually not be dichotomies.
3.  What three factors maintain the current organizational scheme for psychology, according to Sternberg & Grigorenko?
4.  Using your own words, explain two of the article's reasons to change the current structure of psychology.
5.  How do Sternberg and Grigorenko think psychology should be organized?

News story, February 10, 2000: Adrian Raine has just discovered that certain violent men really are missing a part of their brain--a piece of the pre-frontal cortex (right above the eyes), such that they are missing about two teaspoonfuls of cortex.  Given the role of the pre-frontal cortex in judgment and self-control, the result is intriguing.  Read the BBC news story.

Reminder: Have you found the website for your textbook yet? From the index page, select a chapter, and then you have access to the learning objectives, practice quizzes, and more web links. The quizzes will be helpful in preparing for class quizzes. To help you out, here is a link to a practice quiz for chapter 1.

If you do a bit of surfing, you can find other introductory psychology websites. This one by Terry Pettijohn is very helpful, for example, with web surveys and exercises, as well as quizzes. An especially nice feature is the availability of brief biographies for individual psychologists. Read the biographies for Wilhelm Wundt, William James, Sigmund Freud, and John Watson.

Chapters 3 & 4.  Are we really like monkeys? Here is another point of view in the evolutionary psychology debate: What are the characteristics of the human brain that are different from the brain of monkeys? This Science Daily report explains how Susan Courtney used functional MRI to show that spatial memory, located in the frontal lobe in monkeys, is in the parietal lobe in human beings. Courtney speculates that for human beings, the frontal lobe is dedicated to other functions.

Chapter 4. I have published the Spinal Chord as a PowerPoint slide.  Why not get a quartet together to sing it for us?

Chapter 5.  What is a reinforcer? According to one news story on a study of dopamine as a reinforcer in the nucleus accumbens of the hypothalamus, dopamine may be only one step in the reinforcement process, but that it does not maintain ongoing reinforcement after the initial surge. Other neurotransmitters may be responsible for different parts of reinforcement.

Chapter 9.  Why don't dolphins drown when they sleep? As one of the topics in the consciousness chapter is sleep and another is hemispheric communication, this article on sleeping one hemisphere at a time will be interesting. Check out the links at the bottom of the article, too.

Chapter 12.  Here is a useful site on developmental psychology. Check out the links for additional
information on some of the topics we cover.

Chapter 16. As we are not going to spend class time on the stress chapter, I want you to read a couple of short articles from the Web. One is on the effects of stress on memory.

Chapter 17  For our discussion of psychological disorders, and in the context of our  discussion of intelligence and education, read this brief article on the diagnosis and treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. What do you think? Have you seen people treated with Ritalin and or behavior modification? Did either of them seem to help?
 
 

Checking this newsletter regularly may help you stay current with the course, and connected to the world. You may even get a grin or two.

Chapter 8. Terms:
 

Essays:

1.What are the processes involved in encoding information in working memory? What factors influence the encoding process? What are the limits on working memory?

2. Explain how study strategies and mnemonic tactics can be used to enhance your memory for material in this course.

Chapter 9. Terms:
 

Essays:

1. Compare and contrast three different views of consciousness.

2. What is the role of consciousness?

3. What does the research on selective attention tell us about the organization and action of consciousness?

4. What does the research on altered states of consciousness tell us about the organization and action of consciousness?

5. Outline the progression of stages in a typical night of sleep. Describe the events which are associated with each stage: waveforms, mental events, and behaviors or actions.

6. What has research revealed about the duration and content of events in dreams?

7. Why do we dream? Why do we sleep?

Chapter 10. Not on final exam.

Chapter 11. Terms:
 

Essays:

1. Compare and contrast three approaches to the study of intelligence.

2. Compare and contrast Pearson's g theory with Spearman's s theory of intelligence.

3. What do factor analysis studies (Birren and Morrison, Thurstone, and Cattell) show as the components of intelligence?

4. Why did Binet develop the first intelligence test? How did his work develop into the concept of the IQ?

5. Explain three obstacles to problem-solving.

5. Outline and explain five methods of problem-solving.

Chapter 12. Terms:
 

Essays:

1. Explain three issues which organize the study of developmental psychology.

2. What methods do psychologists use to study the abilities of infants?

3. What is cognitive development? Explain and evaluate Piaget's theory.

4. What parenting styles have been studied by psychologists? What outcomes correlate with the various styles?

5. How did Kohlberg research moral development? What stages did he suggest? How did Gilligan criticize Kohlberg's stages?

6. Explain Erikson's ideas about psychosocial development. Outline the stages in his theory. What happens if a person does not satisfactorily master the developmental tasks at given stages?

7. Compare and contrast Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories of moral development.

Chapter 13. Terms:
 

Essays:

1. What are the homeostatic mechanisms in a biological theory of motivation?

2. Compare and contrast two theories of motivation.

3. Outline and explain Maslow's theory of motivation.

4. Explain how conditioning may affect motivation. Why might behaviors persist even if they are not drive-reducing?

5. What factors control the starting and stopping of eating?

Chapter 14. Terms:
 

Essays:

1. Compare and contrast two different trait theories of personality.

2. Explain Freud's theory of psychosexual development. Show how developmental problems (fixations) at each stage may affect the person's personality later in life. Explain the Oedipus and Electra complexes.

Chapter 17. Terms:
 

If you have any comments on ways to improve this newsletter, the course website, or even the humor, please send me an e-mail.

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