Monday, July 29, 2013

Highlights from psychology presentations at the AP conference

(Sorry! This terrible picture is the only one I managed to take!  --Steve)
AP Psychology was well represented at this year's AP Annual Conference in Las Vegas. Here are the links to most of the presentations (still waiting on Kimberly's, and will update this post when I get it). As you know, they're called presentations for a reason - that is, I imagine that some of you might be a little puzzled by some parts of some presentations (including my own) because you weren't there for the "presenting" of the information verbally. Regardless, I hope you will contact the presenters directly if you have questions!

Steve Jones - This is Your Brain Online: Using Interactive Sites to Teach the Brain (PDF)
Amy Fineburg - Flipping the AP Psychology Classroom: Strategies for Active Learning
Michael Munson - Using Research to Illustrate Principles of Social Psychology (PDF)
Rob McEntarffer - Does That Psychology Demonstration Really Work? - slides and handout
Kimberly Patterson - Staying Positive About Teaching Biological Psychology

If you would like to present at or attend the 2014 conference on July 11 & 12 in Philadelphia, start thinking about it now! The 2014 call for proposals is here and the deadline is October 18. Do it now since you'll no doubt be busy when mid-October rolls around.

--posted by Steve

Friday, July 26, 2013

TV alert - Would You Fall For That?

Tonight (Friday 7/26) at 9 pm (ET) ABC premieres a new show called Would You Fall For That? and it looks to be quite promising. Tonight's episode includes segments on change blindness, the foot-in-the-door phenomenon and the Forer effect (also known as the Barnum effect). In fact, as I grumbled about Brain Games recently, this looks like a show that we need to watch not only because our students will - but also because they will be stealing some of our best activities and demonstrations! Oh well, #psychteacherproblems, right?

Here's the embedded preview, followed by the press release from ABC:



The Cameras are Rolling as “Would You Fall for That?” Embarks on an Entertaining Adventure Examining Human Behavior 

Would you follow your instincts, or would you follow the herd? From the creators of “What Would You Do?” comes “Would You Fall for That?” – a one hour show that takes eye-opening and sometimes head-scratching psychological experiments out of the classroom and into the real world.   “Would You Fall for That?” secretly transforms public parks, art galleries, tourist attractions and other everyday locations into settings for social experiments that reveal the often funny and provocative ways the human mind can play tricks on us.  Anchored by ABC News Correspondent Nick Watt, and featuring comedians Scott Rogowsky and Sasheer Zamata, “Would You Fall for That?” asks and answers some of the most mind boggling questions about human behavior.  “Would You Fall for That?” premieres Friday, July 26 (9:00 – 10:00 pm ET) on the ABC Television Network and airs for two subsequent Fridays.

On the premiere episode:

Photo Swap/Change Blindness:   Under the right circumstances our brains are wired to be blind to changes happening right in front of our eyes.  Using only a digital camera, a large cardboard sign and some helpful passersby, “Would You Fall for That?” gives this scientific principle a real-world test.  Watch as people agree to snap a photo of our bearded host, Scott, only to end up taking a picture of clean-shaven Nick — without ever spotting the switch!  And what if Scott and Sasheer switch places? Or a picture of Scott and Sasheer becomes a three shot of Scott, Sasheer and Nick? Will anyone even notice?

Bird in a Tree/Foot in the Door Theory:  ”Foot in the door” theory says that if you start small, you can gradually get people to do more and more outlandish things. Really? How outlandish?  ”Would You Fall for That?” takes flight to New York’s Central Park to find out.  Scott, dressed up as a bird watcher, stops random park goers and tells them he has spotted a ridiculously rare bird in a tree. What he doesn’t tell them is he bought the stuffed bird and wired it to the tree. Using “foot in the door technique,” Scott sees how far out on a limb he can get people as he asks them to perform more and more bizarre things in an effort to attract the attention of our Bird in A Tree.

Horoscope/The Forer Effect, Subjective Validation:  How many people will believe that a generic horoscope, cut and pasted from several newspapers over 60 years ago by a psychology professor, is meant just for them?  Why do horoscopes have such a powerful impact on people?  To find out Nick Watt disguises himself as a famous astrologer from London and “reads” the horoscopes of six random people who believe they will be on a pilot for a new TV show. Will they fall for it? And how will they react when we tell them the truth? Cameras are rolling for their surprising reactions.


--posted by Steve

Monday, July 22, 2013

Is the Placebo Effect Real?

I discovered this little gem of an article on Big Think.

http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/placebo-effects-psychologys-fundamental-flaw-why-active-controls-are-not-enough

The title grabbed my mind and shook it hard.  One of the most basic of ideas I have always been taught and had reinforced was being challenged.  I know that is the point of science--take accepted ideas and challenge them.  This one caught me off guard.

This article essentially questions the validity of experimental psych research.  Take a look, it's well worth your time.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Can We Continue to Blame Genes for Mental Illness?

Screencap from the article from Big Think
As I re-examine my course and content, I was going over the genetics and biological predisposition with genetics at the fore to describe the causal factors of depression and schizophrenia.

I was reexamining the information on the twin studies.  The texts I was reading gave great props to the twin studies.

This morning, I ran across this article on Big Think. Both the article and comments make for some fascinating reading.

The title of the post was "Mental Illness: It's Not in Your Genes"

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Psychology represents at the AP conference

I (Steve) am excited to be attending and presenting at my first AP Annual Conference this week in Las Vegas, Nevada, and also thrilled that there are so many great psychology presentations happening. I will post the full list below of presentations, but first I would like to point out that two of the three highlighted speakers have direct connections to psychology.
Angela Lee Duckworth should be a familiar name to those of you who teach about Martin Seligman and positive psychology. Duckworth was one of his former graduate students who has emerged on her own, particularly with the concepts of grit (one of my favorites) and self-control. 

The speaker who has a more tenuous connection to psychology is John Quinones, who is the host of the ABC TV show What Would You Do? I know this show isn't for everyone; however, to me, it does an excellent job of not only showing social psychology in action but also modeling for students the kinds of things they could do and say if they were in similar situations. Is it a scientific experiment? No - but it does bring in the real world and inspire conversations among students.

And now to the psychology presentations! I'll list them by date, then by time, with the name of the presenter and the title.

Thursday, July 18
Jeanne Blakeslee (veterans) and Margaret Davidson (rookies) - AP teacher workshops

Friday, July 19
Elizabeth Hammer (chief reader) - Results from the 2013 AP Psychology exam
Steve Jones - This is Your Brain Online: Using Interactive Sites to Teach the Brain
Amy Fineburg - Flipping the AP Psychology Classroom: Strategies for Active Learning

Saturday, July 20
Michael Munson - Using Research to Illustrate Principles of Social Psychology
Rob McEntarffer - Does That Psychology Demonstration Really Work?
Kimberly Patterson - Staying Positive About Teaching Biological Psychology

If you are attending, please post your thoughts in the comments below. Also, if you're on Twitter, follow the hashtag AP_Conf for posts about all of the conference. I'm sure that Rob (@rmcenta) Amy (@afineburg) and I (@highschoolpsych) will also be sending out some psych-specific tweets  as well. Heck, I'm hoping to meet @AP_Trevor so if that happens you know I'll tweet about it!

--posted by Steve

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Depression: An Amazing Infographic

I was doing some reading on Twitter last night and found this excellent infographic at this site: http://www.gmeded.com/gme-info-graphics/major-depression.  Its size is quite large so you may need to open the image in a new tab to view it correctly.
Original image is here: http://www.gmeded.com/files/styles/infographic/public/major-depression.jpg 



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Bipolar Disorder: An Amazing Infographic

I was doing some reading on Twitter last night and found this excellent infographic at this site: http://www.gmeded.com/gme-info-graphics/bipolar-disorder.  Its size is quite large so you may need to open the image in a new tab to view it correctly.

Original image is here: http://www.gmeded.com/files/styles/infographic/public/V.3.Bipolar.jpg 


posted by Chuck Schallhorn