Welcome.

I’ve been looking forward to your classes (3rd and 4th periods) for some time now. A lot of people ask me if AP Psychology is hard. I usually answer that “it is not hard it’s just a lot and fast.” Because the state adjusted our school calendar and will not let us begin school until August 25th we lost a few weeks of class time. The AP Exam is still in mid May so we have to work quickly through the material.

I will lecture from powerpoints that I’ve created many days. Mostly I will be reinforcing what is in your reading, therefore it is of the utmost importance that you stay current on reading your textbook. It is not exciting or entertaining, but your text book does a good job of explaining the ideas that you will need to understand in order to do well on the AP Exam and earn college credit.

Read. Take notes on your reading or on my lectures–either will be fine. Do what you prefer, but do take notes.

We will be creating vocabulary lists throughout the year as well. In the past I have had students create 400+ notecards for review. It is effective, but someone suggested making those throughout the year and that makes sense to me. So, you might want to go pick up several packs of notecards. I don’t think I can get away with looting that many notecards out of the teacher work room:)

We will have days where all we do are activities–with play dough, waterguns, toothpicks, magic markers, coca cola, pixie sticks… Sometimes we will spend time doing surveys and calculating the results using a Likert Scale.

Sometimes the material will not be interesting to you at all. Sometimes class may seem like it is never going to end.   But stick with me during those days and we’ll race our way to May 11th and knock out the exam. After that we can take a huge deep breath and finish out the remaining month of school with entertaining and interesting projects that you will have 99% per cent of control over.

I will setup or be glad to join a group on Facebook if we need to–either way I do check the ‘Book quite often so you can contact me there outside of school hours.  It will mainly be for your convenience and discussion, but I will moderate and answer questions if I am needed. I will primarily post discussion questions and assignments only on this blog, because you can access it through the school’s network. It is not filtered by the man.

Can’t wait til Thursday! Ok, ok, so the long weekend is nice, but you know what I mean:)

dt

Phineas Gage.

 

The curious accident of Phineas Gage The Iron bar shown here is in the collection of the Museum of Harvard Medical School, a relic of a terrible accident. In September 1848 Phineas Gage, a twenty-five-year-old railroad worker in Vermont, was tamping a charge of black powder into a hole drilled deep into rock in preparation for blasting. The powder unexpect­edly exploded, blowing the tamping iron, over three feet long and weighing thirteen pounds, through Gage’s head and high into the air. (Illustration from Psychology by Rod Plotnik)Incredibly, Gage regained consciousness and was taken by wagon to his hotel, where he was able to walk upstairs. T.M. Harlow, the physician who attended him noticed that the hole in Gage’s skull was 2″ by 31/2 wide, with shreds of brain all around it. He cleaned and dressed the wound, but two days later Gage became delirious and remained near death for the next two weeks. The wound became seriously infected, but eventually healed. In a month Gage could get out of bed without help; in two months he could walk unassisted.Gage lived on for over twelve years. Physical impairment was remarkably slight. He lost vision in his left eye and the left side of his face was partially paralyzed, but his posture, movement, and speech were all unimpaired. Yet, psychologically, he was a changed man, as a summary by Harlow makes clear:       his physical health is good, and I am inclined to say that he has recovered. Has no pain in head, but says it has a queer feeling, which he is not able to describe. Applied for his position as foreman, but is undecided whether to work or travel. His contractors, who regarded him as the most efficient and capable foreman within their employ previous to his injury, considered the change in his mind so marked that they could not give him his place again. The equilibrium or balance, so to speak, between his in­tellectual faculties and animal propensities, seems to have been destroyed. He is fitful, irreverent, indulg­ing at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little de­ference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when It conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operation, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. A child in his intellectual capacity and manifestations, he has the animal passions of a strong man. Previous to his injury, though untrained in the schools, he possessed a well-balanced mind, and was looked upon by those who knew him as a shrewd, smart, businessman, very energetic and persistent in executing all his plans of operation. In this regard his mind was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was “no longer ‘Gage’” (Bigelow, 1850, pp. 13-22) Gage’s case is one of the earliest documented examples of massive damage to the frontal regions of the brain, and it illustrates the great subtlety of the psychological symptoms that accompany such lesions. Indeed, it was Gage’s family and friends, rather than his doctor, who noticed the changes in him. Gage’s symptoms, such as “obstinacy” or “capriciousness,” are hardly so remarkable that we would attribute them to brain damage in someone whose history we didn’t know. Yet, it is interesting to note that they represent the very kinds of antisocial behavior that prefrontal lobotomies are supposed to prevent.

Neural Dysfunctions

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) attacks or hardens the myelin sheaths of axon bundles in the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Sufferers usually experience muscular weakness, lack of coordination and impairments of vision and speech. MS usually begins in early adult life and is characterized by remissions and relapses over a significant period–if you’ve ever seen West Wing President Bartlett suffered from this.

Parkinson’s Disease is characterized by its involuntary tremulous motions. After years of study, neuroscientists in the 1960s discovered that the tremors result from the death of nerve cells that produce dopamine making Parkinson’s the first disease to be attributed to a neurotransmitter deficiency. Physicians learned that dopamine would not cross the blood brain barrier. In 1967 they realized that L-dopa would cross the barrier and that the brain would subsequently transform it into dopamine. This miraculous treatment is described in the move Awakenings–which of course was a book first–and is one of the first movies I ever really loved. It also led me to love the movies that Robin Williams acted in… If i can find the DVD we’ll watch a few clips. There are some serious side effects due to the massive amounts of L-Dopa required for treatment.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig‘s disease strikes about 6 in 100,000 people usually later in life. Death is usually within 5 years of diagnosis. It begins with general weakness, first in the upper throat and chest, then progressing to the arms and legs. Walking, swallowing, and speaking become difficult. ALS is caused by the death of motor neurons that connect the rest of the nervous system to muscles enabling movement. Presently there is no cure.

I’ve always thought it fascinating–or frightening depending on the day–that the magnificent structures of our bodies that enable us to function at such high levels can turn on us and destroy our bodies and minds. Uplifting huh? Seriously though, what thoughts, if any, do you have on this stark reality?

dt

Fact or Fiction?

Often we will begin a new unit of study with a few questions such as these. Since you have already read your chapter–right?–you should have a good idea of whether these statements are true or false. Note also that the internet is pretty awesome. I will hyperlink several terms in the text that will link you with other sites that can help explain the content.

1. Human intuition is remarkably accurate and free from error. (T or F)

2. Most people seem to lack confidence in the accuracy of their beliefs. (T or F)

3. Case studies are particularly useful because of the similarities we all share. (T or F)

4. We tend to overestimate the number of people who share our attitudes and beliefs. (T or F)

5. The opinions of 1500 randomly selected people can provide a very accurate picture of the opinions of an entire nation.

6. The scientific finding that children who watch violence on television tend to be violent proves that viewing violence causes it.

7. Listening to a tape with a subliminal message suggesting that you have a good memory can actually help improve your memory.

8. The purpose of the experiment is to re-create behaviors exactly as they occur in everyday life.

9. An analysis of the research indicates that psychologists have sometimes unnecessarily caused extreme pain to animals.

10. As a science, psychology is objective and value free.

Summary Outline for AP Psych

The exam is not May 13th it is May 11th.  They moved it up 2 days on us from last year.  Here’s what we’ll be studying.

2-4%    history
6-8%    methods and approaches
8-10%    biological bases of behavior
7-9%    sensation and perception
2-4%    states of consciousness
7-9%    learning
8-10%    cognition
7-9%    motivation and emotion
7-9%    developmental psychology
6-8%    personality
5-7%    testing and individual differences
7-9%    abnormal psychology
5-7%    treatment of psychological disorders
7-9%    social psychology