Fall 2007 General Psychology Assignments (Section F29, TR 2:00-3:15; Section L04, MWF 11-11:50)
Prof. Conway

Psychotherapy Assignment (Due Thurs. Dec. 6 for sec. F29; Friday Dec. 7 for sec. L04)

Read these two articles and turn in written responses to the questions below:

Rosenhan, D. L. (1973).  On being sane in insane places.  Science, 179, 250-258.

Carey, B. (2006).  Parenting as therapy for child's mental disorders: Troubled children/Doses of reality.  New York Times, Dec 22.

For Rosenhan (1973), answer the questions in one sentence each and :

1. Describe the purpose of the study:

1a. What is the main question that Rosenhan raised about the concept of ‘sanity’?

1b. What method did Rosenhan suggest for investigating this question (i.e., what kind of study did he propose)?

2. Briefly describe the procedures of this study:

2a. what did the eight ‘pseudopatients’ do initially (when they first met with someone from one of the institutions)?

2b. Describe how the pseudopatients behaved in the institutions.

3. Briefly describe the results of this study:

            3a. How often were the pseudopatients detected by hospital staff members?

            3b. What were their diagnoses?

            3c. How long were their stays in the hospitals?

            3d. How did other patients respond to the pseudopatients?

4. State one conclusion you can draw from the data presented in Table 1.

___________________________________________________________________________

For Carey (2006), answer these two questions in a total of about one paragraph:

1. What major kinds of therapy were described in the Carey article?

2. What is the major point of the article?

Positive Psychology Assignment: Due Monday, Nov. 12 (sec. L04) and Tuesday Nov. 13 (sec. F29)

Read these articles:

Kohn, A. (1999).  In pursuit of affluence, at a high price.  New York Times, Feb. 2, 1999 (also available at http://www.alfiekohn.org/managing/ipoa.htm)

Sax, L. J., & Astin, A. W. (1997).  The benefits of service: Evidence from undergraduates.  Educational Record, 78 (3-4), 25-32.

Answer the following questions in about one paragraph each; turn in answers on the due date:

1. According to Kohn, what does psychological research show about people who value “extrinsic goals” (money, fame, and beauty)?

2. If the research Kohn describes is correct, why do you think people in our society seem so attracted to the pursuit of money, fame, and beauty (e.g., trying to earn more money; watching TV shows featuring rich & beautiful people)?

3. According to Kohn, is it a good idea to follow the often-stated advice “Follow your dream”?  Why or why not?

4. According to Sax and Astin (1997), what can higher education do to promote citizenship development among students?  Name it and give a brief description.

False Memory (Due Wed. Oct. 31 for sec. L04; Thurs. Nov. 1 for sec. F29

Read the article:

Loftus, E. F. (2003).  Make-believe memories.  American Psychologist,58 , 867-873. 

a. What is the main point of this article?

            b. What research result did Loftus report that involved Bugs Bunny?

            c. Is it possible to tell the difference between true memories and false memories?

d. Describe one practical implication of false memories that Loftus discussed.

Learning/Conditioning (Due Wed. Oct. 24 for sec. L04; Thurs. Oct. 25 for sec. F29)

Read the article:

Brandt, R (1995).  Punished by rewards? A conversation with Alfie Kohn.  Educational Leadership, 53, 13-16.

* Does Alife Kohn think the use of rewards with schoolchildren is a good idea?
* What are his reasons for his opinion?
* Does he feel the same or differently about praise as he does about other types of rewards?

Citizenship and Identity Assignment (due Thurs. Oct. 25 for sec. F29; Wed. Oct. 24 for sec. L04)

Our theme for the semester is ‘civic engagement’ and a closely related concept is that of ‘citizenship’.  The concept of citizenship involves combining/balancing one’s personal identity and social identity.  Write about 1 ½ double-spaced pages explaining what you think it means to be a good citizen (of your community, town, state, country, even the world).

1. Start by listing the characteristics you think a good citizen has.

2. Next, discuss how important an individual’s personal identity is to being a good citizen (say how important you think it is, and explain why).  I. e., to what extent does good citizenship involve doing things that you want to do?

3. Do the same thing for social identity – discuss how important it is to citizenship and why.  I.e., to what extent does good citizenship involve connecting with other people?

4. Finally, include a short paragraph on how well you match your definition of a good citizen; you should refer to your own personal and social identities in this paragraph.

Your essay should demonstrate an understanding of both personal identity and social identity, and should talk about how they can be integrated (balanced).  Your grade does not depend on the position you take, but on how well you demonstrate that you understand and can integrate the concepts of personal and social identity.

Development and Socioeconomic Status (SES) (Due Wednesday, Oct. 17 for sec. L04, and Thursday, Oct. 18 for sec. F29)

Read the following:

Evans, G. W. (2004).  The environment of childhood poverty.  American Psychologist, 59, 77-92.  [Excerpts Only; available in Word format in CentralPipeline]

Kozol, J. (1988).  Rachel and her children: Homeless families in America.  New York, NY: Ballantine Books. [Excerpts, pp. 51-66]

Notes:

(1) I have taken excerpts from the Evans (2004) paper and the Word file in CentralPipeline includes only the excerpts.

(2) You will read about 1½ chapters from Rachel and Her Children.  In this book Jonathan Kozol tells the story of homeless families in New York City in their own words, based on extensive time he spent in shelters with families.

Answer the following questions:

1. In about 2 sentences each, VERY briefly summarize each paper.

2. What, if anything, surprised you in these two papers? (please write one paragraph)

3. Taking into account the two readings, How responsible do you think we should hold people for being poor?  Do you think it is reasonable to expect people to work their way out of poverty, or do you think the negative developmental effects of poverty create obstacles that are difficult to overcome?  (These are two possible positions; yours may be a mix of them or something completely different.)

Hypnotism (Wed., Oct. 10 for section L04; Thursday, Oct. 11 for section F29)

Read this article:

Nash, M. R.  (2001). The truth and the hype of hypnosis. ScientificAmerican.com

There is no written assignment to hand in; we will discuss the readings in class.

* Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales
* Henry Szechtman's 1998 study
* Thomas McGlashan's 1969 study
* Pierre Rainville's 1997 study
* Evans & Orne's 1971 study
Hypnosis and memory
What it's good for

Nash (2007) - The Gift of Mimicry - for Tues. Oct. 2 (F29), Fri. Sept. 28 (L04)

Read this paper:

Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo (1973) - for Thurs. Sept. 20 (F29), Wed. Sept. 19 (L04)

Read article (you do not need to turn anything in).  You should know:
    * what the purpose of the study was
    * what the procedure was
    * what the major findings and conclusions were

Bartholow and Anderson (2002) Video game paper (Due Tues. Sept. 11 for sec. F29; Wed. Sept. 12 for sec. L04)

Read the Bartholow and Anderson (2002) paper (accessed through the library’s course reserves or through CentralPipeline) and answer the questions below.

Bartholow, B. D., & Anderson, C. A. (2002).  Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior: Potential sex differences.  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 283-290.

1. Briefly, what is the purpose of this study?  What were the hypotheses?

2. Briefly describe the methods (who participated?  What did they do?)

Assignment #1 - Bowling Alone (due Thurs. Sept. 6 for sec. F29; Fri. Sept. 7 for sec. L04)

Read (available in CentralPipeline):

Putnam, R. (2000).  Bowling alone: Living alone and liking it.  Presentation to the Commonwealth Club of California.

Answer the following questions in about one paragraph each:

1. What explanations did Putnam give for the declines in community connectedness?

2. According to Putnam, why is the decline in community connectedness important?