A.P. Psychology The “Rap”

Course Overview/ Expectations The Book

Web resources Class website A.P. Central Resources

Read and take notes on the Prologue. Be prepared for an abbreviated test on 9/1 (Summer readings are ‘fair game’)

A.P. Central

AP Central Resources A.P. Central

How is the test constructed? Types of questions? Length of exam?

Do I have to take the exam? When is it?

Summer Reading * Stephen Pinker

Pinker, Stephen. The Mystery of Consciousness

Explain how our understanding of consciousness has changed in recent years.  What intriguing questions remain?   In what ways has this discussion affected your view of “consciousness?”   

Who is Stephen Pinker and what are his areas of academic focus and intellectual accomplishment?

Stephen Pinker Edge Pinker Bio Pinker on Colbert

Summer Video * V.S. Ramachandran

Ramachandran, V.S.  Your Mind

What three disorders/phenomena does Ramachandran use to discuss the functioning of the human brain/mind?  What is his overarching point? 

Who is V.S. Ramachandran (if interested consult the New Yorker article on his contributions to the field of psychology?) Brain Games

V.S. Ramachandran Edge Ramachandran Bio

Summer Reading * Walter Mischel

Lehrer, Jonah. Don’t

Describe Mischel’s Study. How did his early research become the basis of longitudinal research on delayed gratification?  

Describe Mischel’s cross-cultural research and more famous findings in the area of personality and situational influence. Mischel

Summer Video * Dan Gilbert Why Are We Happy?

What is Gilbert proposing? Describe several interesting research findings in the area of human happiness. Distinctions between natural and synthetic happiness?

What are Gilbert’s academic and intellectual bona fides?

Dan Gilbert Edge Gilbert Bio

An Introduction to Psychology

One Definition for Psychology

The science of human behavior (what we do) and the mental and physical processes that underlie our behaviors (sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, etc.,)

Key Figures and Ideas in Early Modern Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt and Structuralism (Lab in Liepzig) Structuralism used introspection - American Titchener Functionalism and William James Principles of

Psychology (1890) Mary Whiton Calkins paired associates techniques,

first female president of APA (1905) Margaret Floy Washburn Ph.D (1908) Edward Thorndike animal learning experiments (1898)

Identify early contributors to the field of psychology by associating them with an accomplishment

Francis Galton heredity studies (1870s) Hermann Ebbinghaus memory research (1885) Alfred Binet and Intelligence testing (1905) Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Classical conditioning

experiments (1906) John B. Watson “Father of Behaviorism” (1913) Austrian physician Sigmund Freud (1900) Personality,

psychoanalysis and dream theory Gestalt theorists emphasis on perception. M. Wertheimer, F.

Koffka and W. Kohler

Identify early contributors to the field of psychology by associating them with an accomplishment (Mnemonic exercise)

More Key Figures and Ideas in Early Modern Psychology

Perspectives and Early Proponents Behaviorism/Social Learning (early proponents

Watson/Skinner/Bandura) Psychodynamic (Freud/Jung) Humanistic (Maslow/Rogers) Cognitive (Piaget/Vygotsky) Biological

Neuroscientific Behavior Genetics Evolutionary

Social-cultural

Describe the major focus (foci) of the broad perspectives in Psychology

Major Psychological Perspectives

Social-Cultural/Cross-cultural

Research of Robert Nisbett, Culture and Point of View

Indonesian Tsunami Tsunami and PTSD

Perspectives and Early Proponents Behaviorism/Social Learning (early

proponents Watson/Skinner/Bandura) Psychodynamic (Freud/Jung/Adler) Humanistic (Maslow/Rogers) Cognitive (Piaget) Biological

Neuroscientific Behavior Genetics Evolutionary

Social-cultural

What the textbook says…

Psych Perspectives and the Hansens

Artist Al Hansen was often inspired by the Zen belief wabi-sabi. Hansen defined wabi-sabi as "...the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent or incomplete." His grandson…

Psych Perspectives and the Hansens

Beck, born in 1970, is the son of a lower-echelon Warhol Factory girl by the name of Bibbe Hansen and a Hollywood arranger and Scientologist named David Campbell. He was raised in and around the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, which was a kind of racially mixed bohemian ghetto. His maternal grandfather was the artist Al Hansen, who was part of the Fluxus movement, a loosely organized collection of interdisciplinary artists devoted to finding "alternative channels" for art. Al Hansen's specialty was turning trash into art. He made thousands of images inspired by the prehistoric fertility icon Venus of Willendorf out of Hershey's wrappers and used matchsticks. When Beck was a child, Al enlisted him to walk up and down Sunset Boulevard collecting cigarette butts for use in his collages. From Junk Yard Angel, The New Yorker, 10/14/02

Describe the major focus (foci) of each of the broad perspectives in Psychology and apply them to a given behavior

Apply each of the perspectives in Psychology to Al and Beck Hansen…The process Beck uses to create music is influenced by his grandfather's artand includes improvised recording sessions in which songs are created on thespot. Beck's use of sampled sounds from existing sources to create music thatis, essentially, an audio collage is also very similar to his grandfather's use ofrefuse and sound in his visual and performance art.”

Behaviorism/Social Learning Where It's At Psychodynamic New Pollution Humanistic Cognitive Social-cultural Biological

Neuroscientific Behavior Genetics Evolutionary

Social-cultural

Basic/Pure Research vs. Applied Research

Clinical/Counseling School and Educational Industrial/Organizational Developmental Personality Social

Distinguish between Basic and Applied Science. Identify the major applied fields in Psychology and be able to discuss their interests. What do they do?

Contemporary Major Fields

What are the goals of I/O? What do they do? Numerous specific examples (More later…)

Reorganization -Theory Y (v. Theory X) Team building Quality circles Flextime Ownership incentives Rule of seven Ergonomics/Human factors

Describe the applied field of I/O and give an example for each of the above concepts

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Consumer Psychology

Consumer Psychology – The use of psychology to influence consumer behavior. Specific techniques include test marketing (olestra), market niche, brand loyalty, packaging and aisle layout, product placement, sex sells and various propaganda techniques, e.g. bandwagon, testimonial and plain folks. Absolut Vodka and distinguishing the indistinguishable Wow! Chips, Olestra and “loose stools” Neuromarketing Re-Thinking Jeffrey Goldberg

Describe the goals of consumer psychology and provide an example in advertising for one of the above techniques

Consumer Psychology

Slightly better than “anal leakage” (proposed originally by the FDA)

Environmental Psychology

EPs study the effects of one’s physical environment; temperature, light, population density, color, sound, etc., on one’s behavior.

SAD and natural light studies Personal space (proxemics) Middlemist study Noise: Stress and neurological effects Odors and behavior

SLG Describe the focus of environmental psychology and cite a research finding related to physical environment and its affect on behavior

Other Subfields in Psychology…

Forensic Psychology Sports/Performance Psychology Community Psychology EcoPsychology Positive Psychology Peace Psychology Military Psychology

http://www.apa.org/about/division.html?imw=Y

Positive Psychology

Emerging and very popular field. Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania

Dan Gilbert Time Happiness UPenn Authentic Happiness