Monday, September 17, 2018

Unit 2, Chapter 1 - History of Psychology

Psychology started as people began to scientifically observe and experiment to try to understand human behavior and mental processes. Prior to psychology, philosophers used their imagination and logic to attempt to explain things like thought, emotion and behavior. This chapter is about how psychology began, and the different "schools of thought" that have made up the field from the past to the present. 



Bernstein Chapter 1  Pg. 1-26
Reading assignment notes check (10 pts): Due Tues 9/18  (How many pages per day?)
Flashcard check (10 pts): Due Wed 9/19
History of Psych Quiz on Thurs 9/20


Objectives (think about these as you read and review– KNOW THE ANSWERS!!
            1. What is psychology?
            2. What are the major subfields of psychology and how are they different?
            3. How is psychology related to other fields like philosophy and biology?
            4. What is empiricism and what is empirical research?
5. Describe the history of psychology by comparing psychophysics, structuralism, Gestalt psychology, psychoanalysis, functionalism, behaviorism and humanism.
6. Compare and contrast the basic assumptions of six major approaches to understanding psychological phenomena: Biological, Evolutionary, Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive, Humanistic.
7. What is the “eclectic” approach to psychology?
8. How does culture influence behavior and mental processes?
9. What is “diversity” in psychology – how might bias affect the field of psychology?

Bernstein Text Chapter 1 Pp. 1 – 26 –
Read and take Cornell notes based on your reading instructions. Write down how long it takes you to complete the reading and notes so you can know what to expect in terms of studying for future chapters.
             
Flashcards  - 

1.     Key Term Flashcards: Make Flashcards of the Key Terms that are bolded in the text in addition to cards for the following terms:  Gusav Fechner, Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchner, Structuralism, Gestalt, Freud, Psychoanalysis, William James, Functionalism, Mary Whiton Calkins, John B. Watson, Behaviorism, Humanism, Social Psychology

If you're ready to have your big brain explode, our friend Hank Green does a great job of laying out the basics of the history of psych too... be ready for some rapid-fire knowledge with this one.



You can watch it directly on Youtube too.


And while this video about the history of psych is not a snappy as Hank's, it covers more people and movements in the history of this most interesting field.





Some really helpful timelines of the history of psychology:

http://www.learner.org/series/discoveringpsychology/history/history_nonflash.html

http://allpsych.com/timeline/#.VgioYGRViko

http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/psychistory.htm

And... a sample from a comic called Action Philosophers

http://www.actionphilosophers.com/eviltwin_actionphilosophers_preview.pdf

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Unit 1 Ch. 7 Memory!!

Unit 1 Chapter 7 Memory
Key ideas from Memory Unit:
Encoding, episodic vs. semantic and procedural memory, explicit vs. implicit memory, maintenance and rehearsal strategies to improve memory, various models of how memory works such as PDP and Info Processing, understand the difference between sensory, short term, and long term memory, compare recency and primacy effects, understand what affects memory retrieval, understand the limits of eye-witness testimony, Herman Ebbinghauss , compare retroactive and proactive interference,  compare retrograde and anterograde amnesia,
*****Use mnemonics and distributed practice to learn all this stuff and know why you are remembering and forgetting.




Good overview of basic memory concepts.

A whole site dedicated to human memory... very helpful. It has this very complete concept map.
http://www.human-memory.net/types.html
Crash Course Psychology with our friend Hank!
How we make memories...  https://youtu.be/bSycdIx-C48 




Remembering and Forgetting 
  
Some fun memory games you can do online

Elizabeth Loftus's Ted Talk - The Fiction of Memory... the rape conviction of an innocent man... 


NOVA: How Memory Works


Article - What Science Says about Ferguson: Hacked memory.  We may all be working from different sets of "facts" about the same event.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/fayeflam/2014/12/01/what-science-says-about-the-ferguson-case-memory-can-be-hacked/

This is not specifically about memory, but about implicit associations we make about people.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/ You can take some of the Implicit Association Tests to see what some of your implicit associations about people and groups are. I’m putting it with this unit as an example of implicit vs. explicit thought processes.

Story from National Public Radio (NPR) about H.M., the man who had the bilateral removal of his hippocampus (What is the plural of hippocampus?) and ended up with the nearly complete inability to form new memories. Find out why he had his hippocampus removed and learn about this amazing case study of anterograde amnesia. 
 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7584970

And an article from Psychology Today about H.M.

This video clip was made based on 2000 slices that were made of H.M.'s brain after he died in 2008. 



The movie Memento was the first feature film by star director Christopher Nolan who went on to direct The Dark Night and Inception. It is a fictional film about a character who, like H.M.,  loses the ability to create any new memories, but still tries to solve a horrible crime.

It is rated R due to some very violent content and adult language. If that sort of film is acceptable to you and your parents, you can stream it on Netflix or rent it. It's definitely not appropriate for younger siblings.