An Assignment to Obtain Examples & Enhance Vocabulary

One of the most difficult things is to help students learn different examples and how they connect to specific vocabulary terms.  As part of that, our school has been focusing on "academic vocabulary" and using books such as Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Communities at Work, Building Academic Vocabulary: Teacher's Manual, and Inside Words.  We use these books are references for tools for creating assignments that help us modify our instruction to help our students who do not necessarily grow up reading and who are likely not reading at their own grade level.  While I do not have that as a big problem in my psych classes, it is definitely there in my government classes.

So to help compensate for those two ideas, I have created this assignment using the 40 or so introductory psych texts that I have been able to obtain over the years.  Let me know how you would modify it--I am always looking to improve.
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My sample graphic using the term "cult."  I drew it on MS Paint and inserted it into a sample term as an illustration.

The original document can be downloaded from this link:
https://sbhs-sbhsd-ca.schoolloop.com/blogdocs
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posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Therapy Assignment

I do not know where I got this assignment or even if I made it myself (I did specify page numbers in my text, Coon and Mitterer's Intro to Psych).  If you have proper attribution, I would love to find out.  This is an assignment for the therapy unit that I am assigning today.
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AP Psychology Poster Making Assignment

C

ase Study—Cindy Rella is a young woman who suffers generalized anxiety as well as a phobia of furry creatures that are dog-like.  She has many conflicts with her sisters and feels abandoned by her parents who died (she is being raised by a step-mother).  She engages in fantasy-prone thinking and has difficulty focusing on reality.  Her inability to focus has given her difficulty keeping jobs.  She also feels persecuted by her step-mother.

Using the assigned therapy technique:

A.    diagnose her (using DSM information)

B.     explain where you think the problems are coming from

C.     assess which aspects of her life you can assist with, and how would you go about doing so (include basic counseling skills on 590-592)

D.    Describe the process using concepts found in the text

E.     Create a graphic that illustrates a key component of the therapy you’ve been given

1.      Psychoanalysis 2.      Client-centered Therapy 3.      Existential Therapy 4.      Gestalt Therapy 5.      Behavior Therapy 6.      Cognitive Therapy (include REBT) 7.      Group Therapy 8.      Biomedical Approach

The poster will look like this:

Title of Therapy	First/Last Names of Makers/Date
Give her a tentative diagnosis based upon existing information to set up possible therapies.  Yes, the information is incomplete. (use the DSM as guide)	Explain where you think the problems are coming from (from your therapeutic perspective)
Assess which aspects of her life you can assist with, and how would you go about doing so (include basic counseling skills on 590-592)—(this is the “what”)	Describe the process using concepts found in the text that your therapy would use for this case (this is the how)

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Call for Submissions: Whitman Journal of Psychology

From Marisa Del Savio, Advisor, Whitman Journal of Psychology:

"The Whitman Journal of Psychology is currently looking for submissions for the Fall 2012 issue. DEADLINE  is June 1st!  This is the only high school student-run psychology journal in the country. This provides your students with a unique opportunity to have their psychology research published nationally.

Please note the changes for submissions.  We are looking not only for experiments and research but also literature reviews conducted according to APA guidelines. Submissions may relate to any aspect of psychology. Students should send their submissions to whitmanpsych@gmail.com with the word "submission" somewhere in the subject line. Please note that articles must be written in the third person and follow APA guidelines. Students may refer to  www.whitmanpsych.com for previous articles and the full list of requirements.

If you have any questions you can email me at marisa_m_delsavio@mcpsmd.org.  Please encourage your students to submit.  Thank you for your continued support.  "


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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2012 APA/Clark University Workshop for High School Teachers

The announcement below (from the wonderful Emily Leary and Caitlin Crowley at the APA) about the 2012 APA/Clark University Workshop for High School Teachers provides details about the nature of the workshop and how you can apply. Several of us involved in this blog have participated in this workshop (if you look closely at the picture above you can spot Kristin and Steve!) and I think I can speak for everyone when I say: APPLY! It's a great experience: wonderful college faculty, wonderful facilities, wonderful relationship-building with other teachers, and you will learn heaps and gobs of good stuff for your classroom! Apply!

From Emily Leary:

"We encourage all interested high school psychology teachers to apply for the eighth annual APA/Clark University Workshop for High School Teachers, to be held July 16-18, 2012 at Clark University in Worcester, MA.  The workshop will be open to 25 teachers. Workshop presenters will include faculty from the Clark University Psychology Department. Michael Sullivan of Hopkinton High School (Hopkinton, MA) and Debra Park of Rutgers University and West Deptford High School (West Deptford, NJ) (retired) will also present. Randy Smith, PhD, of Lamar University (Beaumont, TX) will give the keynote address, titled Though This be Madness, Yet There is Method In't: The Importance of Research Methods in Introductory Psychology. 

Housing in the Clark campus dorms and materials will be provided for all participants. There is no registration fee. Participants will also receive travel stipends of $100. Five travel scholarships of $250 each will be available to teachers in need of extra travel support (please note that the maximum travel reimbursement any teacher would receive is $250). A hard copy application form (PDF, 40KB) and an online application form are both available.  The application deadline is April 15, 2012 and participants will be selected by approximately May 1.

This Workshop is sponsored by the American Psychological Foundation, Clark University, and APA, with generous support from Lee Gurel, PhD.  Please contact Caitlin Crowley by email (ccrowley@apa.org) or at (202) 336-6076 if you have any questions."

image credit: http://www.clarku.edu/departments/psychology/apa/index.cfm

posted by Rob McEntarffer

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"Multi-tasking"/Task Switching tests

I discovered two "multi-tasking" tests via Twitter recently and they both look like they might be useful during the Cognition or Sensation and Perception chapters (whenever you discuss selective attention, etc.)

• The Dual Task website created by Hal Pashler has several very effective tests for "multi task performance." The one I tried is the "Visible PRP Effect" When you click on that link, you may have to wait a bit for an "applet" to load, but after that the test ran smoothly, and it is a very effective demonstration of how trying to attend to more than one "channel" impairs performance. 
• Sue Frantz tweeted a test from the Scientific American website: "Test Your Multitasking Skills" This demonstration is more complicated, with graphics and more complex instructions, but the scenario it uses is engaging and effective. 

These demonstrations could be extended into conversations about the "multi-tasking" many of us commonly engage in, and the specific topic near and dear to many of our students hearts: talking on the phone while driving. 

posted by Rob McEntarffer

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School Discipline, Race, and Social Psychology

Are your districts talking about the recent Department of Education report about different rates of "punishment" among student racial groups? The data are pretty stunning (and depressing): Across the 70,000 high schools studies, about 18% of the students were black, but about 30-45% of students who were suspended one or more times (or eventually expelled) were black. The report goes into much more detail about the statistical analysis, but it looks thorough and well done.

Although it might be a sensitive discussion topic, our psychology students could think about these (depressing) findings and others like them through a social psychology lens: They could talk about how the social psychology concepts they know (e.g. in/outgroup bias, stereotyping, prejudice, confirmation bias, representativeness heuristic, etc.) might contribute to this "over-identification" of black students for suspensions and expulsions. This conversation might extend into other stereotypes about people their age: I bet most of them have been followed through a store by a clerk just because of their age or appearance.

There may also be other psychological "angles" to explore as well:

• Learning: In certain classes, I felt comfortable asking students to try to explain acts of racism through classical and/or operant conditioning principles (write up of this activity: Conditioning and Racism)
• Developmental/Historical: The "doll" experiments of Kenneth and Mamie Clark are significant in both the history of psychology and U.S. History.

Unfortunately, it's not hard to find current event examples of racial bias. We have to handle these discussions with sensitivity, but our classrooms can become one of the places young people "unpack" reactions/feelings/prejudices related to race, and maybe these discussions could be a small start to a change.

image source: http://pulsociudadano.com/2011/12/odio-mi-piel-morena-el-racismo-visto-por-los-ninos-mexicanos/, creative commons attribution share-alike license

posted by Rob McEntarffer

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Academic "Fights"

Two neuroscientists wrote an extensive review of Jonah Lehrer's new book Imagine. The comments section under the review is a fascinating example of how scholars "fight".

The reviewers point out some serious concerns in their review, for example:

"He is at his best when putting his considerable talents to the task of telling a story that is true according to the facts as we know them, rather than telling a story people want to hear."

Students could critically examine how well they support these criticisms (what evidence do they provide? How do they "prove" their criticism?)

Then students could look at Lehrer's response to the critics. He starts his response with the polite phrase "Thanks for the thoughtful and critical review" and then goes on to try to answer each critique. Students could examine this "debate" and decide which evidence is most important, etc. Later in the responses, the two critics respond to the responses.

I worry sometimes that the argumentative tone of the national debate on science topics (e.g. climate change, etc.) sounds like matters of opinion and bias. Cognitively productive, scientific "arguments" like this one are great examples about how disagreements in science can be PRODUCTIVE. The history of science is full of debates like this one, and without these disagreements, science wouldn't progress!

I'd love to hear your thoughts: does anyone help students work through "scientific disagreements" like this one?

posted by Rob McEntarffer

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Hello All!

I'm not sure how many of you have taken the time to check out the online resource Psych Exchange, but I recommend taking a look. After registering, there are SO many resources that you can upload for use in your course. You can also sign up to receive emails of new posts. Recently, I received a link to a video clip for Dissociative Identity Disorder ( INSIDE Multiple Personality Disorder; http://www.psychexchange.co.uk/videos/view/21136/ ). It is a theatrical portrayal of DID, but a great one to use to open a discussion about this disorder. After viewing the clip, my students and I discussed the accuracy of the portrayal of DID. Then we discussed the controversy surrounding the diagnosis and existence of this disorder.

I recommend taking a look at Psych Exchange and see what if might have to offer you and your students.

Kristin H. Whitlock

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Minds on Trial--Great Book for Forensic Psych

When recently searching for some forensic psychology books, I stumbled upon this wonderful overview about the "great cases in law and psychology."  Among the famous cases that are worth examining:

1. Lee Harvey Oswald
2. Patricia Hearst (kidnapping and brainwashing)
3. The Twinkie Defense (the junk food made me do it)
4. John Hinkley (presidential assassination and Jodie Foster)
5. The Judas Priest Trial (the evil music made my kid attempt suicide)
6. John Demjanjuk (the recently deceased "Ivan the Terrible" Nazi Guard living in the US)
7. Jeffrey Dahmer
8. Woody Allen and Mia Farrow
9. Mike Tyson
10. Andrea Yates (who killed her kids)
11. plus ten more cases

This is a very readable book with some excellent details that most of us are not aware of.  Definitely worth the read.

posted by Chuck

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