We’ve Moved!

I'm starting a new position at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, PA in Fall 2017. The General Psychology course there is 105 instead of 101, so I've created a new page to host the student blogs that you can access here. It was a difficult decision to move the main site, as there are many of you who have this site bookmarked or have signed up for the email summary of new content. I would encourage you to update your bookmarks so you continue to see the new content. Unfortunately, you will have to sign up for email notifications again on the new page. I apologize for any inconvenience. I hope to see you all on the new site to keep up with a new round of Gen Psych students exploring psychological concepts.

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Spring Semester 2017: A New Semester, A New Approach to Blogging

Hello readers, I hope you have all been well since we last left you at the end of spring semester 2016. Spring semester 2017 starts tomorrow morning, and a new batch of student bloggers will be joining us for the next 14 weeks, as they explore the exciting world of psychology. I hope you will welcome them and engage with their writing. I'm trying something a little different than I have in the past this time around. In previous iterations of this course blog, students wrote posts after we've covered new material in hopes it would help them solidify material from the lesson and add depth to what we covered in class. While it seemed to serve that purpose, I want to try something new this semester. This time, students will write posts before we cover new material in order to organize their original ...

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Spring Semester Is Right Around the Corner!

"Back to School" written on chalkboard

CC0 Public Domain by Pixabay user Geralt-9301

Spring semester at Austin College starts on February 1st, so make sure you start checking the blog regularly or subscribe to see a new batch of students' thoughts and ideas about the concepts we explore. We'll have a few new features this semester. The biggest change is my blog will serve as a blog hub for all my students' blogs. What does that mean? Instead of me posting links to students' work as part of weekly summaries or you having to individually check each blog, when a student make a post to his or her blog, you will be able to view all students' posts related to the class here on my site. This will make it easier for you to find their content and interact with them. Their blogs ...

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Way Overdue Spring Semester Wrap-Up

It's a little embarrassing to see the semester ended over 2 months ago and I didn't do any kind of culminating post. I'll blame the craziness that always seems to reign at the end of spring and then launching into summer classes for the lapse, but it's mostly just excuses. It was a pleasure reading my students' thoughts this semester. I learned a lot about how they think and what they believe, which I find a valuable perk to my choice of career. I'm already looking forward to seeing new students' reactions to some of the popular prompts as well as coming up with new questions and ideas to discuss. I won't be teaching 101 in the fall, so you won't see much posted here until February of 2016. I am planning on expanding my use of blogging into other courses, so I'll post links here for those who are interested.

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Reaching Beyond General Psychology

As part of Austin College's most recent Strategic Plan, we are working toward increasing digital literacy, communication skills, and demonstration of transferable skills. As online communication has become increasingly important in a variety of industries over recent years (especially advertising), it is vital that our students understand how to use the web to reach out to others. To this end, I decided to incorporate student blogging into my General Psychology (PSY 101) course to replace the short reflection papers read only by me or the comment boards in our learning management system I've used in ...

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Spring Semester 2015

Spring semester starts today, which brings a new group of students together for PSY101. I am always a mix of excitement and nerves on the first day of class, and today is no different. I've reorganized the course a bit this semester and I'm anxious to see how it pans out. A new semester also means a new set of students blogging about psychology! Throughout the semester I will be posting weekly prompts here and highlighting student responses. Feel free to look through the archives to see the types of prompts that have been used before. Some will likely be used again while others will be replaced with something fresh. Well, I'm off to get ready for class. Hope to see you again soon!

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Week 2 Response

Here are this week's blog prompts.

I'm going to cheat a little bit and write about a theorist we didn't talk about in class. I'm choosing her because she is a great example of how one's personal life can influence the professional life, I want a chance to talk about her in Gen Psych, and I make the rules so I grant myself an exception.

The theorist I'm going to discuss is Dr. Marsha Linehan. As you can see from Dr. Linehan's CV on her website, she is a prolific scholar with numerous professional accolades and accomplishments. I'm going to focus on her development of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which is currently the treatment of choice for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Prior to Dr. Linehan's efforts, effective treatments for BPD were severely lacking, and many considered the disorder untreatable. Her theory of treatment grew out of her work with clients who had ...

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Introductory Blog Post

The prompt for the week is available here. As the instructor for the course, this initial prompt is a little difficult for me to answer in the same way as my students, but I'll give it a shot. The reason I'm in the course is because I'm teaching it, obviously. The reason I teach General Psychology, however, is because I truly enjoy being able to expose students to the field of psychology. I remember hearing about all the cool things psychologists have learned about the ways humans think, feel, and behave, so I consider it a privilege to be the one who provides the same service for others. Also, on a selfish note, it helps me stay connected to developments outside my specific discipline of counseling psychology and see new ways to think about the material as students bring their unique perspectives. It's really tough for me to pick the three ...

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