Abnormal Psychology (Tuesday, 11/29/2005, 1:00 p.m.)

[romanywitch]

OOC: I have just started grading. For the sake of my sanity, this post is now CLOSED. A new psych post for Thursday's class will be going up shortly.

Jenny is sitting at the desk, laptop in front of her and sign-in sheet in front of the desk.

"Okay, guys, sign in, sit down, and take a look. Since your 100 word proposal was due today, I expect you guys aren't going to have any problems using them in the discussion. Be sure to let me know who you're partnered up with when you turn in your proposal." She gestures over at a series of bins. "Make-up homework goes in the OCD threads I'll be creating shortly there, guys."

On a projection screen in the front of the classroom is this image.

"Read through your handout on the Asch Conformity Experiment and the scientific method, and then start talking about a few things:

"First, how well does your experiment proposal translate into a hypothesis? Jack, Paige, your initial proposal included a hypothesis, so you're both a step ahead of the game. If it translates well, tell me why. If it doesn't, tell me why not." ETA: This goes in the Scientific Method discussion thread.

"Second, what's your prediction of the results of your experiments, guys?" ETA: This goes in the Scientific Method discussion thread.

"Third, check out the study in the handout. What do you think you would have done in the situation? Be honest with me. Not everyone here is a rugged nonconformist. And whatever answer you would have given? Tell me why in a 100 word essay. Turn it in in the right comment thread where the homework bin is or you won't get credit for it." ETA: Any discussion on this experiment goes in the Asch Conformity Experiment discussion thread. Your essay goes in the Current Homework thread.

"Now, I'm creating an additional comment thread sending out an e-mail to the class list for group discussion. This is partly for those of you that are going to be missing a class due to a scheduling conflict. This isn't intended for those of you who should be here to make up something--unless you come see me about getting an excused absence. Anyone who wants to earn some extra-credit, though, it'd be nice if you guys could do some discussion with the ones that are going to miss being in the class. Right? Any questions? I'll also be holding regular office hours. You can always turn in missing homework in my office if you'd rather."

"And guys?" Jenny looks over the class. "Don't make me hand out detentions for missing proposals. You've had two weeks to find a partner and come up with an idea and 100 words to explain it. Get them in to me by the end of class."

The Scientific Method
1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena.

2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena.

3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations.

4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.

OOC: Those with IC schedule conflicts (so far, the only ones I'm aware of are Callisto on Thursdays and Jessica on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and excused absences can post in the comment labeled 'e-mail' and it will count towards their attendance/participation grade. Please see me in Jenny's office hours--preferably with an IC note from the clinic--to get an excused absence.

Useful Links:
Jenny's Voice Mail
Jenny's E-Mail

Comments

SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[romanywitch]

Jenny's got bagels and cream cheese sitting out by the attendance sheet.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

Duce takes a bagel and schmears it before heading to a seat. She winces at the Asch conformity diagram, because seen through many sets of eyes, it's enough to induce a headache. The snakes, however, think it's clever.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Canine or not, Cameron pads into the room and barks his attendance, hoping Jenny got Spider's voice mail.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack signs in, and nabs a bagel. He's having a good day week month. His life pretty much can't get any better. Accordingly, he beams at Ms. Calendar, hands in his overdue assignments [[in the OCD threads below]] and takes his seat secure in the knowledge that the universe loooooooves happy people and would neeeeeever mess up their lives.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[master-of-fear.livejournal.com]

Jonathan sadly signs in, he completely ignores the bagels.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

Callisto signs in. She does not act like she's trying to be invisible. Really.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[http://users.livejournal.com/_gottahavefaith/]

Faith signs in, looks at the bagels, thinks of yearbook food, discards this thought, considers that it is psych class, and decides not to risk it.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[2ls-in-oneill.livejournal.com]

Jack signs in and takes a seat.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

Broots signs in and nabs two bagels.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders signs in, and gets a very happy grin on his face at the sight of the bagels and cream cheese. He takes a bagel, slathers it generously with cream cheese, and eats half of it. The other half he saves very carefully.

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

Vala shows up, juggling papers and somehow not noticing there's a wolf in class today or that her boyfriend's missing

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[persian-eunuch.livejournal.com]

*signs in*

((ooc: Sorry about lateness, somehow missed it being posted last night.))

Re: SIGN-IN/ATTENDANCE

[blueskin-mystiq.livejournal.com]

Mystique signs in.

DISCUSSION - THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

[romanywitch]

...

Re: DISCUSSION - THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

"Fond as we are of the scientific method, it can, sadly, be used to posit and 'prove' just about anything. Example. A neurotic, barking dog.
Observe: The dog is a neurotic, barking, pest.
Hypothesize: The dog is a neurotic, barking pest because it's got no bone.
Theorize: Presence or absence of enrichment will affect the dog's neurotic barkyness.
Test: Give the dog a bone. It shuts up. Give it a toy, it shuts up. Take the bone and toy away, and the dog barks again.
Theory proven out: Enrichment affects the state of the dog's neurosis.

Looks cool and happy and proven, right? Until you realize that something is missing from the equation. Dogs are social creatures. If left alone long enough, all dogs will become neurotic and yappy and eventually violent, because they go insane. It wouldn't have been the enrichment at all, but the contact with the person who brought the enrichment, that actually helped the dog. Contrariwise, if you did the same experiment but never let the dog see another living being, the enrichment wouldn't matter, the dog would eventually curl up and waste away."

Duce sighs, "Which is why the scientific method is nice in theory, and very helpful in creating theory, but fails if used as the only method of proving a theory."

DISCUSSION - ASCH CONFORMITY EXPERIMENT

[romanywitch]

...

Re: DISCUSSION - ASCH CONFORMITY EXPERIMENT

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

O.K., That just makes no sense. I mean, unless they thought they'd get something out of going along with the idiots who obviously couldn't see straight? Or be punished if they didn't? Because if not, why would you just agree with the idiots around you?

CURRENT HOMEWORK - ESSAY ON ASCH CONFORMITY EXPERIMENT

[romanywitch]

...

Re: CURRENT HOMEWORK - ESSAY ON ASCH CONFORMITY EXPERIMENT

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

Obviously a lot of people will be stupid just because other people tell them to do so. After all, some of my the greatest cons of all require people to react the way you tell them to, rather than the way the should if they were thinking straight.

I can't see going along with something like that because I'm the one doing the conning, not the sucker! not much for following the crowd.

But I guess that is what Anders' and my experiment is positing -- that telling people something tastes different will make them believe it. It's not quite the same thing, but very close: messing with people's perceptions simply by lying to them.

MAKE-UP HOMEWORK: EXPERIMENT PROPOSALS (100 WORDS, DUE 11/18/2005)

[romanywitch]

Callisto/O'Neill, Jack
Crane, Jonathan/St. Clair, Medusa - Revisions Needed
Darkholme, Raven
Harkness, Jack/Matthews, Paige - Revisions Needed
Addams, Wednesday
Anders, Samuel T.
Bontecou, Bagoas
Lehane, Faith
Mal Doran, Vala
Malfoy, Draco
O'Neill, Jack
Sark, Julian
Sawyer, James

Re: MAKE-UP HOMEWORK: EXPERIMENT PROPOSALS (100 WORDS, DUE 11/18/2005)

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Hypothesis: Competitiveness increases retention

Experiment: Two groups. Both groups are given a list of words to memorize for a set amount of time. The list is then taken away. One group (the control group) is asked to recite as many of the words on the list that they remember. The other group is asked the same thing, but at the beginning of the experiment were also given some sort of tangible object (bean, poker chip, etc.) equal to the number of words on the list. They are told that for every word missed (either forgotten or misremembered), they will lose one of their chips. Whoever has the most chips at the end "wins".

Expected result: The second group will display a statistically higher ability to retain the list of words.

MAKE-UP HOMEWORK: SAMPLE DIAGNOSIS - DRUSILLA (100 WORDS, DUE 11/10/2005)

[romanywitch]

Bontecou, Bagoas
Harkness, Jack
Mal Doran, Vala
Malfoy, Draco
O'Neill, Jack
Sark, Julian
Sawyer, James
St. Clair, Medusa - Made Up 11/28/2005

Re: MAKE-UP HOMEWORK: SAMPLE DIAGNOSIS - DRUSILLA (100 WORDS, DUE 11/10/2005)

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Professor Drusilla was a sadist. I don't know if that is technically a diagnosis or not, but that's what she is. She is a complete sociopath (Jack looked up an actual diagnosis). She creates disruption for no other reason than it was fun, and makes people suffer because it amuses her. Whoever placed her in a position of power should be shot gave her the opportunity to exercise control over her students for their detriment and she used that power to the utmost. In conclusion, I'm really, really, really, really, really, really glad that Ms. Calendar is our teacher now.

MAKE-UP HOMEWORK: YOUR PARENTS & THEIR INFLUENCE (100 WORDS, DUE 10/27/2005)

[romanywitch]

Bontecou, Bagoas
O'Neill, Jack
Sark, Julian

MAKE-UP HOMEWORK: CLASS EXERCISE LEARNING (DUE 10/20/2005)

[romanywitch]

If you feel uncomfortable doing this, it is the one homework assignment I am assigning an alternate essay for. Please see me after class, during office hours, or drop me an e-mail.

Bontecou, Bagoas
Harkness, Jack - We discussed an alternate on this; hand it in by the due date.
Matthews, Paige - We already discussed this one; you owe it to me by November 29th.
O'Neill, Jack - We discussed an alternate on this; hand it in by the due date.
Sawyer, James

Re: MAKE-UP HOMEWORK: CLASS EXERCISE LEARNING (DUE 10/20/2005)

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

100 word essay on a famous psychologist's contribution to the field.

Subject: Alfred Kinsey

Alfred Kinsey was a professor zoology who managed to bring the 20th century out of the dark ages regarding human sexuality. Before his landmark studies (and even for some time after, which is just really weird), people honestly believed that there was one rigid (heh, "rigid") and proper way to "be" sexual; to heterosexual and have completely boring and unimaginative sex. By interviewing thousands of people and getting them to tell the truth about their sexual urges (rather than what society thought they should say), Kinsey suggested that the scale of human sexuality was broad and throbbing diverse, rather than narrow and limited.

QUIZ: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER? (DUE 09/29/2005)

[romanywitch]

Anders, Samuel T.
Broots, J.C. - Done
Darkholme, Raven
Sark, Julian

Re: QUIZ: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER? (DUE 09/29/2005)

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

I think I definitely like the kleptophilia I got hit with. It was pretty harmless and I didn't try to kill anybody unlike some people, although I probably owe Kawalsky some new pens and the . . . side effects were kind of fun. Though I guess if I was stuck with it for more than 24 hours I might get into a lot of trouble for swiping things even if they were little things.

MAKE-UP HOMEWORK: FIND A PICTURE OF INSANITY (DUE 09/22/2005)

[romanywitch]

Addams, Wednesday
Anders, Samuel T.
Bontecou, Bagoas
Callisto - Made Up 11/28/2005
Darkholme, Raven
Lehane, Faith
Matthews, Paige
Sark, Julian

Re: MAKE-UP HOMEWORK: FIND A PICTURE OF INSANITY (DUE 09/22/2005)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_gottahavefaith/]

Here's a good one (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v719/gofugyourself/bahris2.jpg)

AFTER CLASS ENDS

[romanywitch]

Need to talk to Jenny privately? Can't manage to make it to her office hours or reply to her e-mails? This is a good time to do so.

Re: DISCUSSION - THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Cameron had remained quiet through class seeing how the only things he could add were barks and whines. He waits for the rest of the students to leave to see if Miss Calender wants to talk to him, though.

E-MAIL/OUT OF CLASS DISCUSSION

[romanywitch]

An e-mail goes out to the students containing the handouts from today's class and a written version of Jenny's opening lecture.

Re: E-MAIL/OUT OF CLASS DISCUSSION

[the4thsister.livejournal.com]

Miss Calendar, I'm afraid I won't be able to make it to Tuesday's Psych lessons as it's clashes with my Western Literature Class.

I hope this will be okay, I will keep up with the work this why though no problem.

*attached are the pieces of missing work*

((I've not had chance to write the essay cos of RL stuff, sorry))