Author Archives: Ian

Week 4 Blog Prompts – Neuroscience

Hand writing on a notebook

Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag “Neuroscience” on your post.

For your blog prompt this week, you are to choose one of the following TED talks:

Each talk focuses on a different aspect of the brain. In your response, address the following issues:

  • What drew you to choose the talk you did?
  • Briefly summarize the talk.
  • What did you find most interesting about the talk?
  • How trustworthy did you find the presenter and the information she or he presented? Explain why.(Note: you must go beyond talking about the reputation of TED talks in general)
  • Come up with a research idea of your own based on the information presented in the talk and briefly outline how you would conduct it.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

 

Week 3 Blog Prompts – Development

Hand writing on a notebook

Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag “Development” on your post. Here are the prompts for this week:

Option 1

Tiger moms, jellyfish dads, and helicopter parents. These terms all refer to various parenting styles and each has been both promoted as an ideal and criticized as “the problem with kids these days.” Explain each of these parenting styles, discuss the pros and cons of each style, and connect each one with one of Baumrind’s parenting styles with which it shares the most in common. Then briefly outline your thoughts on the ideal way to parent.

Option 2

Your book briefly discusses James Marcia’s theory of identity development (p. 98). Look up more information so you can explain his theory, discuss how accurate you think the theory is, and which of the 4 identity statuses you believe fits you best.

Option 3

There are many claims out there about the effects of divorce on children. Find a source that claims divorce is harmful for children and another one that claims divorce is beneficial (or at least not harmful). These cannot be the same source (I want you to find sources that clearly argue one side). Critique the evidence provided by each source and report your conclusions regarding children and divorce.

 

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

 

Week 2 Blog Prompts – Research Methods

Hand writing on a notebook

Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag “Research Methods” on your post. Here are the prompts for this week:

Option 1

For this week’s discussion, I want you to design a research study about a topic you find interesting in psychology. You can choose any topic you would like as long as you relate it to something from our textbook. In your post make sure to do the following:

  • List your research question
  • State your hypothesis (what you think the outcome would be and why)
  • Decide which methodology you would use (i.e., survey, observation, etc.) and explain your choice
  • Describe your procedure (what you would have participants do, how you would recruit participants)

Make your research idea something feasible that you could actually do as a student researcher. In other words, assume you have a fairly small budget and a limited amount of time. If you’re a psychology major or minor, you will eventually take Research Methods and have to conduct a research project, so this is great practice to start thinking about what you might want to do.

For your comment on a classmate’s post, I want you to make a suggestion about a way to improve the study he or she described. I also want you to say why the suggestion would be useful.

Option 2

Mythbusters is a popular TV show on the Discovery Channel which tests popular ideas using scientific methods. The show generally does a pretty good job, but now that you’ve read the chapter and discussed the scientific method, you are in a good position to critique the show. Select one of the mini-myths (short clips from the show) below and critique the methods used to test the myth. Remember, critique means list the strengths and the weaknesses. For each weakness, discuss why it is a problem and suggest a solution.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

 

Spring 2016 Week 1 Blog Prompts: History of Psychology

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Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag “History of Psychology” on your post. Here are the prompts for this week:

  1. The history of psychology in your textbook is overwhelmingly about male figures. Yet women made important contributions even early in psychology’s history. The website Psychology’s Feminist Voices documents the contributions and milestones of women in psychology. Using this page on their site, select one of the women who received her PhD before 1950 and provide an overview of her career. Make sure to list your sources at the end of your post.
  2. While you may not have personal ties to psychology’s history just yet, your birthday probably does. The website Today in the History of Psychology is sponsored by the American Psychological Association and allows you to input your birthday (day and month, not year) and see events related to psychology that happened on that day. Choose something listed for your birthday and write a post giving information you found about it (list your sources) .
  3. When we talk about historical figures in psychology, it is a good idea to read their actual works in addition to interpretations and summaries of their contributions. The website Classics in the History of Psychology has numerous documents from the “giants” of the field. Choose someone mentioned in Chapter 1 of the textbook and read a document he or she authored. Summarize what you read as best you can (you may not be able to follow all of it, that’s okay), and describe whether or not that lines up with what is in the textbook. If it doesn’t, why do you think that is?

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

 

Introductory Blog Post Guidelines

Hand writing on a notebook

Welcome to PSY 101 everyone!

It’s spring semester 2016 and I’m very excited to get to know all my new students. This first blog post will be pretty easy and give your classmates, readers, and I a bit of information about how you’re approaching this class. To that end, please include at least the following information in your first post on your blog:

  • Why you chose to take this class?
  • What do you associate with the word “psychology”?
  • Which 3 topics from the syllabus look the most interesting to you (and why)?
  • Which 3 topics from the syllabus look the least interesting to you (and why)?
  • What one question you want to be able to answer by the time this class is over?

You are of course encouraged to add additional information about yourself as well. Whatever you feel comfortable sharing and think would be good to know about you would be great.

I look forward to seeing what you post!

 

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

 

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 are still hosted on their own websites, so to leave comments you will need to click the link to the original content at the top of each post. I’m hoping this will encourage more conversations between you and the students, since you will be able to more quickly and easily access their work.

I’ve also upgraded the site navigation to provide the ability to quickly filter posts by category or content. Once the semester is up and running, you will also be able to filter by student author. You will find these new features at the bottom of the page. Finally, I have made it easier for you to share our content via you own social media with one-click options for a number of popular outlets.

If you have other ideas about improving the blog or connecting with my students, you can contact me at imacfarlane@austincollege.edu.

Looking forward to a great semester!

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.

Finals Week Blog Prompt

This is the prompt for finals week. You must post by 1 am Friday, 5/15 to receive credit (comments will be accepted until 5 pm on Friday, 5/15). This prompt can only be used to replace a non-zero post from earlier in the semester. If you have a score of 9 or better on all 8 blog posts, you can earn up to 2 extra credit points for your post. Same criteria for the comments (score of 4.5 or better on all 8 comments).

Return to your introductory blog post where you described the 3 topics you were most and least excited about for this course, and the one question you wanted to be able to answer when it was over. Reflect on whether your predictions came true in terms of your favorite and least favorite questions, and try to answer the question you posed.

Week 13 Student Blogging Spotlight: Topic – Social Psychology

Microphone stands in spotlight by kjeik, on Flickr
Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License   by  kjeik 

The main foci of the social psychology week were stereotypes and discrimination, obedience (no General Psychology course is complete without Stanley Milgrim!), and conformity. Students had the choice of examining their own implicit biases toward other groups via the Implicit Association Test or to break down the types of persuasion used in a set of commercials (see here for full prompts). Only one student chose the latter option by breaking down two Taco Bell commercials. The remainder opted to try the IAT and reflect on their results. Check out their posts and leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5, Link 6, Link 7

Week 12 Student Blogging Spotlight: Topic – Stress

Microphone stands in spotlight by kjeik, on Flickr
Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License   by  kjeik 

The focus this week was stress: what is it and how can we cope with it? My students had the option for this week’s blog to either watch a TED Talk that might make them think a little differently about stress (Kelly McGonigal’s How to make stress your friend) or discuss their own coping strategies for stress (for full prompts see here). Most students chose the former, though five decided to talk about their coping strategies and how to improve them (read these to get some ideas and leave your own in the comments!).

TED Talk: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5, Link 6, Link 7, Link 8, Link 9
Stress Coping Strategies: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5