New Book by Michael Britt: Psych Experiments

Recently, a friend of the blog and creator of The Psych Files podcast/educational website, Michael Britt, published a book called, Psych Experiments. In short, for those teachers who want the learning of research methods to come alive, this is the book we've been waiting for. This is a book written with high school students in mind--no unnecessary complications and attempts to bulk up the academic language for publication. Just old-fashioned direct language that is highly understandable.

After piquing the curiosity of the reader with some psych history and a couple cool stories, Britt lays out the thinking behind the book. He explains that the replications will not be exact, but rather "conceptual replications" by examining the key ideas behind the famous and infamous experiments.

In preparation for the research to be carried out, Britt emphasizes respecting the participants, using informed consent and ability to withdraw. He examines the ethics, risks, and benefits. Britt points out that he also avoids using technical terms like independent and dependent variable, operational definitions, etc. in order to make the book accessible to non-academics. Teachers can use this intentional omission as a tool to use with students.

With his signature style, Michael Britt takes classic research studies and breaks them down into understandable bits in a way that is highly readable and informative. The primary and basic information for each research study covered in a way that students will find very helpful.

Here is one example:

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Noticing a Face in the Crowd
I NEVER FORGET A FACE

Psych Concept: Identifying Emotions
Name of Experiment: Constants Across Cultures in the Face and Emotion
Original Scientist/Research: Paul Ekman and Wallace V. Friesen (1971)
Name of Replication/Extension: Finding the Face in the Crowd: An Anger Superiority Effect
Replication Scientist/Research: Christine H. Hansen and Ranald D. Hansen (1988)

Overview of the topic
Original experiment/research described
"Let's Try It" section
"What to Do" section to carry out one's own version of the research with step by step instructions
The Results section
Why It Matters section

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So what kinds of research does Britt put into the book? Well, the book is less than 300 pages but manages to deal with 50 research studies. Here are some of the topics he deals with:

• classical conditioning
• manipulation and money
• memory
• creativity
• method of loci
• getting workers to be more productive
• mental sets
• psychiatric labels
• ergonomics and design
• roles and how they impact behavior
• romance and partner choice
• conformity
• happiness
• persuasion
• cognitive dissonance
• inkblots
• false memories
• attractiveness
• brain imaging
• curiosity
• superstitions
• discrimination
• and so much more!

So I give my strongest recommendation for purchasing this book. Go out to a bookstore and get it. Go on Amazon and get it. Just get it! It will likely become an integral tool in your teaching tool belt.






posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Teach Psych Science

I'm gearing up for a new semester of AP Psychology in about 2 weeks and this semester I am starting with Research Methods on Day 1 and pushing History and Perspectives to the end of the semester, right before the exam. (My thought - they just don't have enough background knowledge to navigate the perspectives, and it is always such a struggle. And, my first day lecture is generally on structuralism and functionalism, Wundt, etc... and the first night reading is the whole History chapter with 2453 names and many of my students get overwhelmed with all that content right  off the bat. I'm going to see if moving History and Perspectives to the last unit after Social Psychology will make more sense to them as they'll be able to put all those perspectives, names, theories and movements of psychology into some sort of timeline and framework.)

ANYWAY...while looking around for some new Hindsight Bias, Confirmation Bias and Scientific Method-type activities, I came across this website. Um...wow. It is called "Teach Psych Science" and appears to be a great place to find activities for the teaching of various scientific method-type activities and also statistics and research type activities. The website appears to accompany the following Research Methods text from Macmillan Publishing (which I promptly requested a sample of!)

Teach Psych Science Link 

This great intro to Intuition vs Empirical Reasoning seems like a great way to get kids thinking about psychology as an empirical science for the first day! It is a variation of the "Which Door to Choose" activity.

Other good ones I came across?:

When does a joke go too far?- Ethics 

Smarties vs. DumDums - Internal Validity Activity 

Seriously - get to this website and check it out! Everything here looks amazing and very engaging for the high school psychology classroom. I'm excited to explore some more!!

--- Posted by Amy Ramponi

(Remember that snow and cold I wanted, yeah. It is 7 degrees out today. Low is going to be -1. What was I thinking?!)http://teachpsychscience.org/

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List of Top Unethical Psychological Studies

Quick post this morning.

The usual suspects are here and Mental Floss has created a list of the most unethical psychological studies ever done.  The list also has several clips that can be found on YouTube.  There are overviews of the Zimbardo prison study, Milgram, Little Albert, Darley and Latane's research on bystander effect, Harlow and his monkeys, and more.  Could be a great handout or discussion starter about the ethics of research for students.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/52787/10-famous-psychological-experiments-could-never-happen-today


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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The Hi-Low Game

Scott Reed of Hamilton High School, Chandler, AZ has developed an activity for his psychology classes called the Hi-Low Game. The game involves students trying to predict survey results of the general population. While I don't believe it was Scott's intent, the Hi-Low game is a variation of the short-lived game show from 2007-08 called "The Power of 10" with Drew Carey.

This activity could be used at anytime during the school year, but would probably work best at the beginning of the course when discussing scientific method, statistics, surveys, and the like.

The directions for the game can be found on Scott's website at http://hhspsychology.com/Documents/hi-low.doc or downloaded from the 4Shared file sharing account (look for "Scott Reed's Hi-Low Game.doc") at http://www.4shared.com/dir/10555367/29577282/sharing.html

The one major challenge of this activity is keeping the survey statistics up-to-date. If anyone has found books similar to those Scott uses or a website containing similar information, please leave a note in the comments section of this posting.

Thanks to Scott for his willingness to share this activity.

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Psych in the news

Phil Zimbardo does a TED talk about time. As ScienceBlog notes: "In this video, [he] says happiness and success are rooted in a trait most of us disregard: the way we orient toward the past, present and future. He suggests we calibrate our outlook on time as a first step to improving our lives."

Word Spy's word of the day: phantom fat. "People who were formerly overweight often still carry that internal image, perception, with them," says Elayne Daniels, a psychologist in Canton, Mass., who specializes in body-image issues. "They literally feel as if they're in a large body still."

If white coats are so bad (because of the spread of infection) why do doctors still wear them? Because a white lab coat says "I am a scientific healer."

Good news skinny dudes! "Beefcakes may be able to attract women by rippling their muscles, but the downside of all that brawn is a poor immune system and an increased appetite, a new study finds." (via Freakonomics)

How the outcomes in Iran's election returns reveal possible fraud: humans are bad at making up random numbers. (via Freakonomics)

"It’s the latest in a series of studies that show that sound from both human ears is processed differently within the brain. Researchers have noted that humans tend to have a preference for listening to verbal input with their right ears."

"Once people own something - they have an established or imagined "property right" to the object - that something dramatically increases in subjective value." How does this endowment effect work?

Numerous studies have now demonstrated that REM sleep is an essential part of the learning process. Before you can know something, you have to dream about it.

And finally, which dime is the right one, and why are we so bad at noticing changes to familiar things?

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