6 x Questions on Psychology
Please do not use anysources other than your textbook.
http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Introduction%20to%20Psychology.pdf
1. Choose one person from the following list whom you feelplayed an important role in the history ofpsychology:
Freud, Pavlov, Skinner, Maslow, or Piaget. Describe
what that person did, the approximate time that this personlived, what makes their contribution important, and criticisms of their work ortheoretical position.
2. You are an experimental psychologist interested in findingout how effective a new medication might work for treating depression. Describea study you might conduct to reach some conclusions on this matter. Be sure todefine and provide examples of the following terms and concepts, demonstratingyour understanding of each: hypothesis, independent variable, dependent variable,random assignment of participants, ethical guidelines.
3. When your best friend hears that you are taking a psychologycourse, she asserts that psychology is simply common sense. Explain why yourawareness of both the limits of everyday reasoning and the methods ofpsychological research would lead
you to disagree with your friends assertion.
4. Imagine that you were involved in a legal case in whichan eyewitness claimed the he has seen a person commit a crime. Based on yourknowledge about memory and cognition, discuss some of the problems ofeye-witness accounts.
5. David’s history teacher asked him why so many German peoplecomplied with Hitler’s orders to systematically slaughter millions of innocentJews. David suggested that the atrocities were committed because the Germanshad become unusually cruel, sadistic people with abnormal and twistedpersonalities. Use your knowledge of the fundamental attribution error andMilgram’s research on obedience to highlight the weaknesses of David’s explanation.
6. Choose a behavior that you would like to modify or changeusing the principles of operant conditioning. Be sure to use and explain thefollowing terms: operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, negativereinforcement, punishment, schedules of reinforcement, shaping and extinction.
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1 x Question on Philisophy
This week, we look at twoarguments in particular that examine further the relation between mind andbody. In our discussion, let’s focus on functionalism and whether it advancesour understanding of mind and body, or whether it advances us not at all, ormaybe isn’t even right. Your views on this will be interesting, to be sure.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_on_our_consciousness
