Stress and Music Assignment

Hi All,

A couple of you noticed that I had a regular psychology assignment embedded as an option in my Emotions/Stress Hyperdoc. I forgot I had put that in there. I believe that music can be a wonderful way to connect with students. We share and they share. Of course, we all experience stress. At the end of this assignment, I ask the students to share other songs that make the stress connection.

My regular psychology class is project-based and I wanted to show my kids that love and sex are not the only things singers croon and rap about.

So here is the link to my stress and music assignment:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aNQ1qiP76irzqrWsuTW9lCXXhEn5uCsd14xdtbsXPeE/edit?usp=sharing



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Hyperdoc for Emotions/Stress Unit

Hi All,

Previously, I told you I would post the hyperdoc I created for the Emotions/Stress portion of the Motivation and Emotions unit. I finally have a chance to do that. FYI, this doc is created for my textbook Myers for AP, 2nd edition. Myers does not include everything and has some materials that I find to be superfluous. Careful reading will show where I have added and omitted questions.

As always, I appreciate feedback and constructive criticism.

Happy emotions!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fkpXZG4p0TOaxcWxN-gBKe8XG_wCUv-CdagGHu8WS6I/edit?usp=sharing



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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A Murder Over a Girl: Justice, Gender, Junior High

A Murder Over a Girl is a new book by Ken Corbett, a gender studies expert and NYU professor who went to Southern California to learn why a 15-year-old transgender student Larry 'Letitia' King was murdered. Corbett takes the reader through painstaking detail through the trial with its various witnesses, describing each with both a flair for observation, and inferences about the context, motivation, and meaning of the words they used. The book is not just about the murder or even the trial, but about how context matters for everything and how we shape the context in our own lives can lead us down very different paths. This book is fascinating, trouble, and insightful.

Cover Art

Corbett analyzes race, identity, poverty, culture, gun violence, and adolescence in a way I have never read before. Some parts of the book were hard for me to read due to the abhorrent nature of the ideology examined. That said, I believe this is a necessary book for all psychology and sociology teachers to help us understand the role that culture plays in our personal and collective lives. After so many years of teaching experience, I learned to look at education and my students through a new lens after reading this book.



From the Amazon description:

A psychologist's gripping, troubling, and moving exploration of the brutal murder of a possibly transgender middle school student by an eighth grade classmate On Feb. 12, 2008, at E. O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, CA, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney shot and killed his classmate, Larry King, who had recently begun to call himself "Leticia" and wear makeup and jewelry to school. Profoundly shaken by the news, and unsettled by media coverage that sidestepped the issues of gender identity and of race integral to the case, psychologist Ken Corbett traveled to LA to attend the trial. As visions of victim and perpetrator were woven and unwoven in the theater of the courtroom, a haunting picture emerged not only of the two young teenagers, but also of spectators altered by an atrocity and of a community that had unwittingly gestated a murder. Drawing on firsthand observations, extensive interviews and research, as well as on his decades of academic work on gender and sexuality, Corbett holds each murky facet of this case up to the light, exploring the fault lines of memory and the lacunae of uncertainty behind facts. Deeply compassionate, and brimming with wit and acute insight, A Murder Over a Girl is a riveting and stranger-than-fiction drama of the human psyche.

From the Publisher:

On February 12, 2008 in Oxnard, CA, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney and the rest of his eighth grade class walked to the computer lab with their teacher, Dawn Boldrin. As his classmates typed their history papers, Brandon quietly stood and shot 15-year-old Larry King—who for just two weeks had been wearing traditionally female accessories and identifying as “Leticia”—twice in the head. Larry died in the hospital two days later. Psychologist Ken Corbett was unsettled by the media coverage that sidestepped the issues of gender identity and race, and went to California to attend the trial. In his new book, A MURDER OVER A GIRL, Corbett, a leading expert on gender and masculinity, details the case, and all the social issues still littering the American landscape eight years later. The brutal murder begged the question: How this could happen? Ellen DeGeneres spoke out; Newsweek and The Advocate ran cover stories. Once again, a “normal boy” like Brandon had taken a gun into a school and killed another student in cold blood. But others, still, wondered: How could this not happen? In many ways this was a “perfect storm” of race, poverty, gun violence, and gender identity fueled by ignorance and fear. Brandon had been raised by drug-addicted parents. His mother shot his father days before their wedding, and his father later shot his mother in front of him. His home was a veritable culture of guns. Larry’s birth mother was a 15-year-old drug addicted prostitute. He had recently been removed from his adoptive parents’ home after reporting abuse. Larry identified as gay from the age of 10, and by 15 had realized he was a girl. He wore makeup and stilettos to school with his uniform and had asked the boy who would be his killer to be his valentine. Brandon says he was being sexually harassed by Larry and sought peace the only way he knew how. Eight years later, the citizens of this country have yet to get on the same page on so many of the major issues at play: gender identity; sexual and racial equality; gun control; drug laws. Neither experts nor lawmakers nor voters can come to a consensus, and yet, teachers—most of whom have received no training in any of these areas—are thrust to the forefront in the classroom.

 posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Lawrence University (Appleton, WI) hosts Lecture Series on Intersection of liberal arts and neuroscience

MORE EXCITING PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MIDWEST! 

From blogs.lawrence.edu : 

The intersection between the liberal arts and emerging technologies that reveal new answers for the way the human brain functions will be the basis for a new speaker series at Lawrence University.

Over the course of the next eight months, five national experts will explore how brain research is connected to various areas of the liberal arts, including religious studies, music, art and literature.

Edward Vessel

The series, “Liberal Arts in the Century of the Brain,” will incorporate the interdisciplinary areas of neuroscience and cognitive science to create connections with other disciplines at Lawrence by examining questions such as whether the brain processes literary fiction differently than formula fiction or how perception, emotion and cognitive processing impact creative expression.

Edward Vessel, director of the New York University ArtLab and a noted research scientist at NYU’s Center for Brain Imaging, opens the series Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m in Steitz Hall of Science 102 with the presentation “Art and Neuroesthetics.”  A question-and-answer session follows. The event is free and open to the public.

The emerging field of neuroaesthetics uses neuroscience to study art to determine why certain works of art produce an emotional response. Through the use of neural imaging, Vessel will share recent research that focuses on understanding the basis for how people derive pleasure and inspiration from various art forms and how this may be related to learning, motivation and well-being.

What a great way to bring Neuroscience and the Science of Psychology to students, teachers (of all disciplines, but especially us Psychology lovers), and the general public.

The OCTOBER speaker is none other than Dr. Richard Davidson. For real. So exciting. He will speak at 11:10 on October 30th in the Chapel at Lawrence. No cost to the public. For more information on Dr. Davidson's amazing work, check out his website here. SO EXCITING. 

I'm so excited for all the amazing opportunities being presented for HS Psychology teachers in and around my state. Wonderful!

-- Posted by Amy Ramponi 

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Amy Poehler's Smart Girls: Just Breathe

On her website, Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, there is a video entitled, "Just breathe." It is a wonderful short examining what happens to the body and brain when we get angry or excited and how to counteract the rush of emotions. Great video and ideas to control emotions.
http://amysmartgirls.com/short-film-just-breathe-helps-kids-deal-with-emotions/

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Your Brain, Love, and Addiction

I recently ran across this article on love that compared being in love to addictions.  They linked to the Rachael Leigh Cook, "This is your brain on drugs" commercial, which was one of my all-teim favorites.  This post was an excuse to share the video.

Here is the article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/love-and-sex-in-the-digital-age/201501/is-your-brain-love
I suspect your students might like or hate this, depending upon their current romantic state.




posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Ghettocide

The other day I had one of those NPR moments when I was driving home and could not turn off the engine until I had finished listening to the story that was playing.  It was an interview with the author of Ghettocide: A True Story of Murder in America.  The author was talking on Fresh Air and discussing different kinds of grief that people experience.  She had interviewed many people who had lost loved ones and she noticed that their experiences with death were different and had longer lasting impacts especially if there was no closure of an arrest of the perpetrator.  Her interview was so riveting, I ordered the book and will receive it later today.

Listen or read here: http://www.npr.org/2015/01/26/381589023/ghettoside-explores-why-murders-are-invisible-in-los-angeles

Here is her appearance on the Daily Show

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Brain Games--National Geographic Series

I could have sworn I had posted about this before, but perhaps I had just created a false memory based upon mental repetition of the intent to do so.

If you have not seen these shows, they are fantastic.  The first season begins with hour-long episodes. Seasons two, three, and four have half hour episodes, but each one runs 22 minutes.  The segments are as varied as psychology itself, but ultimately, you will have one of the best resources you can imagine.

Demonstrations I used to create for class or had on old VHS video are now all in high resolution and prepared professionally by editors and graphic artists.  I must say, I am a huge fan of this show. Below are links for you to order them from Amazon.com.  I have seasons 1-3 and have preordered season 4 since I have watched them on tv.  Simply great tv and great psych.  For me, seasons two and three were excellent, but one got me hooked.  Check them out.  You will not regret it.  This is great for both regular and AP Psych.









posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Emotions, Language, and the Untranslatable

This is a cross-post to both the Teaching High School Sociology and Psychology Blogs.  This chart shows primary emotions and the less-used words that are related.  The chart also offers us some untranslatable nuanced terms that are found in other, non-English languages.

It is an infographic that I found from Mental Floss at this address:
http://mentalfloss.com/sites/default/legacy/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Other_Languages_b1.png

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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"Bloom Stuff" and "Maslow Stuff"

I stumbled across this picture (via Twitter, retweeted originally from @DocbobLA) and this quote/idea reasonates with me: I believe that if we don't attend to the "Maslow stuff" with students (e.g. sense of belonging/trust, etc.) we won't be able to even get to the "Bloom stuff" (e.g. analysis, synthesis, other critical thinking skills).

In my district, I get to co-present with other administrators on the topic "Relationship Matters." The main idea of that presentation supports the claim this quote makes: relationships are the "oxygen" in teaching/learning situations. Positive relationships have to be in place before learning can occur - they are the atmosphere teachers and learners breathe and operate in.

I think I've always had and operated on that belief as a teacher, but I've never thought about the belief in this "Bloom and Maslow" context before. I'd love to hear from other psych teachers about

• whether or not the quotes "fits" with your teaching (or not!) 
• how you attend to "Maslow and Bloom" stuff in your classroom
• possible connections to the motivation unit? If this quote is true for learning, maybe it could be the basic idea behind some really interesting discussions/activities during the motivation unit?

posted by Rob McEntarffer

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Beware the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...

The connection between St. Patrick's day and this post is tenuous at best, but it might start interesting conversations on any day!

I've been seeing more research lately on the impact of wealth/money on our attitudes and actions, and this might be an important discussion topic for psych students as they think about college/career/life path, etc. The research doesn't send a simple message - psychological impacts of wealth are more complex:

• This Psychology Today blog post is a good overview, I think. Addresses connections to some of the "big" motivation theories, and the link to the quizzes on http://www.beyondthepurchase.org/ are intriguing (that website looks a bit fishy at first glance, but it's run out of San Francisco State, and the research seems legit)
• Scott Miller (hi Scott!) keeps sending me great stuff, and this article describes a fairly simple study that is an important addition to the topic. Perhaps counter-intuitively, humans seems to accumulate much more than we can use: "Always wanting more, whatever the price"
• This PBS News Hour story on the impact of wealth includes a powerful video summary of a "monopoly" study - surprising and dramatic results! worth watching! "Exploring the Psychology of Wealth" 

posted by Rob McEntarffer

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The Science of Kissing

You and your kids will love this video--it puts a common activity and scientifically explains WHY kissing is so enjoyable.  It goes beyond the average answer.
Good stuff.



Here is a link to a book on this topic for those who want to explore more.

The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us

 posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Guide to the Brain--Scientific American Mind

I recently rediscovered these two links and videos that will likely be helpful for AP review.  Check them out and enjoy.


Social Cues in the Brain [Interactive]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=social-cues-in-brain







Memory in the Brain [Interactive]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=memory-brain-tour-video







 posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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10 Unsolved Mysteries of the Brain

I love reading David Eagleman's summaries of brain research. We've posted about Eagleman's work several times before (on the Colbert Report, Twitter invitations to participate in research, and his book Incognito). He combines a deep knowledge of brain research along with an author's artistic sensibility about how to communicate that research effectively (in my opinion).

Recently I stumbled across this old (6 years ago!) blog post he did for Discover Magazine: "10 Unsolved Mysteries Of The Brain" The "mysteries" he lists are still provocative to me (I never thought about what the baseline activity of the brain might represent before) and this list might be the basis on interesting classroom research: could students look at more current research and think about whether or not any progress has been made on these "mysteries" in the past 6 years? They could even be brave and write to Eagleman - I wouldn't be surprised if they got a response! We often talk about how quickly brain research moves and changes - this activity might SHOW that (or not!)




posted by Rob McEntarffer

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Color, Advertising and Psychology

I've always had students question me about the psychology of color, but I've never had any resources.  Today, while reading tweets, I ran across this article (which I retweeted, of course):  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-honigman/psychology-color-design-infographic_b_2516608.html

It's an infographic that illustrates and describes the meanings of colors and how they are used with particular products.  If this is accurate, it is very cool.  If anyone has other resources, please share in the comments section.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn
https://twitter.com/psydways

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BOO!

A couple quick Halloween-related links in case anyone is looking for that today:

- slideshow of Halloween related (kinda) visual illusions from Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=illusions-reign-supreme-halloween

- blogs about the psychology of fear from Psychology Today:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201210/scared-silly

Hope you all have a fun Halloween. Teachers affected by Sandy, we're all thinking of you and sending you good (and dry) vibes.

Anyone dressing up in psych-related costumes for Halloween? Send us pictures and we'll post them!



posted by Rob McEntarffer

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The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain

I was going through my books today and rediscovered a wonderful reference for class.  It's called The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain.  It takes a person from 5 am and waking up, what brain chemicals are activating us and other sensory issues.  It goes on to deal with coming to consciousness, morning emotions, directions to work, facing others, performance at work/stress, decision making, the hungry brain, the tired brain, boredom, pain, exercise, the dimming of the day, getting home from work, music, humor, love and lust, getting to sleep, falling to sleep, sleeping and problems, and people who have to work at night.  The book is at a reading level appropriate for those of use brushing up on brain science as well as high school students.

In short, take any person on any day and the book will have a section on what is happening in a person's brain.  I can imagine a creative teacher, with proper resources, making this a class assignment--what is going on with the brain and rest of the biology of humans during each part of the day, and dividing it up like the chapters/sections of this book.  If you do that, just keep this book hidden ;)


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Motivated by T-Shirts! Maria Vita's cool assignment

High school teacher extraordinaire Maria Vita (@MariaVita1 on Twitter) from Penn Manor High School developed this great, creative way to encourage students to think deeply about motivation theories: Make t-shirts!

Maria challenged her students to summarize key points about a motivation theory of their choice and figure out how to represent them visually. Maria posted the original assignment and pictures of their t-shirts here. Multi-modal learning! Semantic encoding! Awesome fashion statements! Great stuff!

posted by Rob McEntarffer

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Using motivation with students - and a great motivator for teachers

Two big fans of high school psychology: Dr. Lee Gurel and Dr. Nancy Budwig (Clark University)

My favorite part* of writing this blog is when I get feedback from readers who enjoy reading the site regularly, so I was thrilled last year when I learned that Dr. Lee Gurel looks forward to reading THSP in his inbox each day that we publish. If you don't know who Dr. Gurel is - and you should - he's an amazingly generous man who is a big fan of high school psychology and who has contributed his time and resources to fund a number of amazing programs from the APA/Clark University workshop each summer to revisions of the TOPSS lesson plans to funding for travel so that teachers can attend conferences and workshops. He is a great motivator for high school psychology teachers! For more on Lee Gurel, check out this nice interview with him (Giving Back to Education) in the June 2010 issue of the APA Monitor.

So I was thrilled to open my inbox last week and find an e-mail from Dr. Gurel with a tip for me - a link to a guest post in the New York Times Learning Network from teacher Larry Ferlazzo on student motivation. I have read Mr. Ferlazzo many times on technology issues, but I didn't know he was a social studies teacher and I'm now wondering if he teaches psychology! His column is about ways to build intrinsic motivation, and he includes references to the work of:

• Edward Deci and Dan Pink on motivation
• Carol Dweck on mindset
• Walter Mischel and Jonah Lehrer on the marshmallow experiment
• Roy Baumeister on self-control

Check out Ferlazzo's column and share your thoughts in the comments below. And thanks again, Lee, for the great tip!
--posted by Steve

*P.S. Okay, it's my second favorite - my favorite is getting fabulous ideas from my fellow psychology teachers!

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Dancing Squid and Frog Legs--Do They Connect to Psychology?

This Discovery online uses two different YouTube hits to explain why post-mortem activity can still occur in a dead organism.  Creepy, fascinating, ethical, unethical and more responses are on the various pages where this is linked.  Potential for chemistry of not only deceased organisms, but also potentially applicable for for living ones.  What you do all think?  Of course, I suppose one could apply this to emotions and disgust as well.




posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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