Repost: Summer Reading and Teacher Resources

Originally posted in May of 2012.  Reposted for ideas for reading and classroom resources.
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It's that time of year when we are thinking about assigning summer reading for ourselves and our kids and getting ready for next year.  Below are some resources that I have either seen and/or read.  I make these recommendations since I have positive personal experience with each one.  I am certainly not saying that these are the only good resources out there, they are only a list of items on my bookshelf--that I can see/recall.  I have many more.  Each link below takes you to the Amazon.com site where you can order the books immediately should you wish.

(note: As I finish this list, I am kind of stunned that I've read all these books.  Too bad all the info has not stayed with me.  Perhaps it's time to go back to learning to play guitar.)

Books for summer reading:

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

Minds on Trial: Great Cases in Law and Psychology The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain

Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche

Imagine: How Creativity Works

How We Decide

Proust Was a Neuroscientist

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Sleep Thieves

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales

An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales

Emotional Intelligence: 10th Anniversary Edition; Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

My Lobotomy

A Natural History of the Senses

A Natural History Of Love

Thinking, Fast and Slow

An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind

The Social Animal

Readings About The Social Animal

Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts

Influence: Science and Practice (5th Edition)

Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World

A Geography Of Time: On Tempo, Culture, And The Pace Of Life

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition

50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Outliers: The Story of Success

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls

The Story of Psychology

Emotions Revealed, Second Edition: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

The Sociopath Next Door

Columbine (on my reading list, but not yet read--highly recommended though)

The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity (I have not read this, but it looks fascinating)

The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

WHY Do They Act That Way?: A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen
Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain

DVDs to get your hands on:

 (sorry--VHS only)

Some Valuable Resources for Every Teacher:

Activities Handbook for the Teaching of Psychology

As and A-Level Psychology Through Diagrams (Oxford Revision Guides)

Challenging Your Preconceptions: Thinking Critically About Psychology
The Human Brain Book

Forty Studies that Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research (6th Edition)

Teaching Introductory Psychology: Survival Tips from the Experts The Critical Thinking Companion for Introductory Psychology






posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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The return of psychat

I am delighted that a tremendous group of psychology teachers has agreed to become the hosts of #psychat this year. If you use Twitter as part of your professional learning community/network like I do, then you know there are a wide range of chats that are specific to certain topics designed for educators to interact with each other - such as #sschat or #edchat. The psychology version #psychat was started by Christopher Potter (mrpotter on Twitter) more than a year ago, and I helped "run" the chat for a while, but it was never as organized as it could have been.

That's all changed because Jen Schlicht, Amy Ramponi and Dawn Clemens (who met this summer at the APA-Clark University Workshop for High School Psychology Teachers) decided to take over #psychat and run it the right way. Here's Jen with more:

Twitter’s best psychology teacher chat #psychat starts up again Wednesday August 21 at 8pm central.  We are moving nights and times hoping to increase participation by trying a new time slot.
Aside from the time change, each chat will be moderated/hosted by a different #psychat participant who chooses the topic. If you would like to sign up to moderate a chat, please sign up on our google doc tinyurl.com/mduwd3n
All chats will be archived, the moderator/hosts will upload their materials and resources to a #psychat drop box AND we will house all of these items on our #psychat wiki!  We are still in the process of finalizing the accounts and URL’s so the links will be provided soon.
So follow #psychat on Wednesday nights at 8pm central and join the conversations! 

So join them on Twitter Wednesday night at 8pm central/9pm eastern!
--posted by Steve

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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

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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:

US News | Royal Baby | More ABC News Videos

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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