What does Butt mean when he says that the issue of “What constitutes one’s true self?” would not arise outside the late modern context? What is his rationale for taking this position? How is the issue relevant to the conception of self that he prefers?

Review Butt’s description of Schneider, the World War I veteran who lost the ability to locate himself in time and space (original description pp. 98/99). What point is Butt trying to make about the self by his reference to Schneider in relation to the concept of the existential self (pp. 130/131)?

Explain in what way the ideas presented by Damasio about emotion are consistent (or not) with Butt’s claim that “Our connection with others is primarily pre-reflective.” (p. 137)

Butt says that “what ‘having a self’ means is having a constructive relationship to the past and the future” (p. 137). Explain what you think this quotation means. Explain why you think he includes the word “constructive” in his description.

Butt suggests that we should think of ourselves as being bodies rather than as having bodies. Merleau-Ponty suggests we think of ourselves in terms of being-in-the-world. What practical consequences can you imagine might follow for people (Psychologists, for example) who take this suggestion seriously and try to live by it?

How would a phenomenological definition of a concept (marriage, autism, greed, for example) differ from an objective one? How would one go about evaluating the quality of a particular phenomenological definition that someone proposed for one of these concepts?

What is meant by the concept of "constructive bankruptcy," and what is important about this concept? Can you provide an example from your personal life or from a character in a novel or film who seems close to constructive bankruptcy? Explain your example.

Explain your understanding of the meaning and the significance of the concept of "joint action". Provide an example of a time why you engaged in joint action as described by Butt. Would you agree that joint action is a better way to describe your example than to describe it as an interaction of personality and situational variables?

Imagine that Mead, Freud, and Skinner each overhear an argument between two lovers and that they attempt to analyze it from their respective points of view. Describe what features of the conversation you think each of the three is likely to pay attention to in order to understand the two people who are arguing. Explain why you think they would make these choices.

Butt says, "We are part of other people - in internal relations with them. Our individuality is an achievement and a construction, not a given" (p. 119). Explain your understanding of the meaning and significance of this quotation.

What do you see as the advantages and the disadvantages of conceptualizing PTSD from an interpretive understanding point of view as described by Butt in Chapter 6?

Proponents of analyzing phenomena from a phenomenological perspective object to attempting to separate the phenomena into person variables and situation variables. Why?

Causal science, reductionism, and individualism are terms that we have associated with contemporary Psychology during our course. Which of these terms, if any, is consistent with social constructionism as described by Butt? Explain.

Gergen has written that social constructionism challenges “four overarching presumptions in modern psychology: the existence of a basic subject matter; the ultimate discovery of universal properties; an emphasis on experimental method; and a belief in research as progressive” (Butt, p. 62). Summarize what is involved in each of these presumptions and in what way social constructionism takes a position different from that of modern psychology.

Berger and Luckmann argue that we are both free agents and mere puppets (Butt, p. 74), that we are both constructed by society and constructors of society. Provide an example of one or more situations in your everyday life where you are both a free agent and a puppet in the sense intended by Berger and Luckmann.

Give a brief description of what is meant by each of the following terms and how they are used by Butt in his description of social constructionism and other approaches to the understanding of people:

Pragmatism; Hermeneutics; Discourse and discourse analysis; Agency; Internalisation, externalisation, objectivation; Verstehen; phenomenological

Moghaddam says that for social constructionists “language is recognized as not just descriptive, but constructive”. Butt introduces (p. 68) the concept of language games and says that promising, warning, and cajoling are examples of such games. Is the concept of language games more consistent with the idea of language as descriptive or with the idea of language as constructive? Explain.

Butt is giving us (and Psychologists, in general) advice about how to understand people. One possibility he suggests is that we try to interpret people in the same way that we interpret texts. He cautions, however, "If we want to appreciate a text, we will never do it by learning the alphabet" (p. 88). Explain what you think his comment means about how Psychologists should go about studying people.

Identify a particular psychological phenomenon that we have discussed at some point in the course (conformity or obedience to authority, for example). Indicate in what ways the approach of psychologists to the study of this phenomenon seems to be atomistic and/or individualistic.

Much of Damasio's thinking about human emotion and the achievement of a contented life is based on a notion of balance. Describe the ways in which this concept is important to his thinking.

Two psychologists, Charles and Inez, have a common acquaintance named Cleo. Charles thinks of himself as a causal scientist, but Inez considers herself a normative scientist. Both agree, however, that Cleo is very difficult to work with because she is quick to become frustrated and then to respond angrily to those around her. What kinds of explanations for Cleo's behaviour do you imagine Charles might propose? What kinds of explanations for Cleo's behaviour do you imagine Inez might propose?

Cleo recognizes that she is experiencing some difficulty maintaining her friendships and decides to approach Charles and Inez for some advice on how she might change her problematic emotions and behaviour. In what ways do you imagine that the advice from these two psychologists might differ?

How would you summarize the points that Damasio wishes to make with respect to God, spirituality and Psychology?

In the initial pages of his first chapter, Butt describes several issues that arise when we try to develop a theory of why people act as they do. Choose one of these issues and explain what the problem is. Does Butt seem to have a preferred way of resolving the issue you selected? Explain.

Damasio alludes on page 275 to a connection between the goals of Spinoza and Freud with respect to reason and emotion. Try to elaborate this connection based on our earlier study of Freud's psychodynamic theory.

Butt says (p 19) that the concept of hermeneutic understanding suggests that understanding people is like understanding a text. He doesn't explain this simile at this point, but what ideas does it suggest to you? When you try to understand something that you are reading, particularly an article/book that is a bit ambiguous or unclear, what are some of the things that you do to try grasp the meaning? Do any of these strategies seem applicable for trying to understand a person? How so?

Damasio recounts Chesterton's story about an invisible postman, and he does it in a section titled "The Invisible Body." What is he saying is invisible with respect to the mind-body problem? What is his point in calling attention to this invisibility?

What does Damasio mean by a "foundational image" (p 197)? What role do these foundational images play in his theoretical account of the mind-body problem?

What does Damasio mean by a "foundational image" (p 197)? What role do these foundational images play in his theoretical account of the mind-body problem?

On page 199 Damasio refers to "building blocks" and pieces of Lego. What specifically is he saying is like pieces of Lego? Who is doing the building with these Lego-like pieces? What is the goal of the building, that is, what is being built and why?

What is Damasio's purpose in introducing a description of vision in the species Ophiocoma wendtii (p 203)? How does the example relate to the human mind?

On p 206 Damasio says he doesn't like to write sentences that are laborious to parse, but he gives us one anyway. Explain what he means when he writes, "The brain's body-furnished, body-minded mind is a servant of the whole body."

Damasio claims that the mind and the sense of self are products of evolution. We know from Moghaddam’s discussion of evolution that natural selection chooses for characteristics that enhance the likelihood of survival. Summarize Damasio's view of how these two characteristics increase likelihood of survival in comparison to organisms that do not have these characteristics but do have biological systems capable of neural mapping.

Summarize Damasio's view of what is most important/interesting about Spinoza's contributions to an understanding of the mind-body problem.

Earlier in the course we discussed the concept of Social Darwinism and the idea that the implication of evolution is that humans are by nature competitive, even that competition with clear winners and losers for resources is good for humans. Damasio speaks of cooperation as the most important result of human evolution. Explain how cooperation could arise in evolution? Is this idea compatible with Social Darwinism or contradictory to it? Is there biological evidence to support either or both?

Summarize Damasio's position with regard to whether people have free will.

How would you summarize Damasio's answer to the question he poses, "What are feelings for?"

How might the somatic marking process help us survive as a species? Where does the somatic marking take place in the body? Are we, or can we sometimes, be aware of somatic marking taking place?

Damasio concludes his section on Homeostasis and the Governance of Social Life with the comment that "A formal proposal on the neurobiology of ethical behaviors is outside the scope of this book" (p 169). Yet, he has speculated quite a lot about how biology might be a major factor in the determination of ethical systems. Summarize the basic position he is taking about the biology/ethics relationship.

Choose one of the following quotations from Damasio's Chapter 4 and explain in your own words what you take it to mean and what concepts or evidence he uses to support his idea:
• ... the integrity of emotion and feeling is necessary for normal human social behavior. 155
• The history of our civilization is ... the history of a persuasive effort to extend the best of 'moral sentiments' to wider and wider circles of humanity. 163
• To be sure, the beneficial role of the culture depends, in large measure, on the accuracy of the scientific picture of human beings the culture uses to forge its future path. 164
• ... the World Health Organization, UNESCO, and the much-maligned United Nations. All of these institutions can be seen as part and parcel of the tendency to promote homeostasis on a large scale. 169
• Happiness is not a reward for virtue: it is virtue itself. 175
• It is a matter of discovering the circumstances in which feelings can indeed be an arbiter [of good and evil], and using the reasoned coupling of circumstances and feelings as a guide to human behavior. 179

Damasio is perhaps best known for his somatic marker hypothesis. Explain the basic idea of this hypothesis and describe some of the evidence that Damasio offers in support of it.

Explain what Damasio means by a body state and by a body map. What is the fundamental difference between the two. Describe the basic role that each plays in the production of feelings

Feeling is no doubt a psychological concept, but does Damasio’s approach seem to eliminate any need to talk about feelings in a psychological way. Is he saying that feelings are just biological processes. Does he leave any room anywhere for non-biological psychological processes in his explanation of feelings?

Explain what you think Damasio means when he writes, "feelings are based on composite representations of the state of life in the process of being adjusted for survival in a state of optimal operations. The representations range from the myriad components of an organism to the level of the whole organism" (p 130). How do the concepts of homeostasis and conatus relate to the ideas in this quotation?

Damasio describes several studies which he claims support his conception of the biology of feelings. Summarize one of these studies. Be sure to include whether or not the study has an introspective component.

Review the basic requirements that Damasio suggests an organism must meet in order to experience feelings. Briefly explain each of these. How do these requirements illustrate Damasio's connection between feelings and the process of evolution?

Summarize your sense of why Damasio thinks it valuable to make a distinction between emotions (Ch 2) and feelings (Ch 3). Has he convinced you that emotion comes before feeling? Explain. What do you think he means when he says (p 111) that feeling is not a passive process?

Explain in more detail Damasio's hypothesis about what a feeling is (p. 86) - for example elaborate the hypothesis with examples of what is meant by "perception", "certain state of the body", "certain mode of thinking", etc.

Damasio describes several studies which he claims support his conception of the biology of feelings. Summarize one of these studies. Be sure to include whether or not the study has an introspective component.

Damasio raises the question of whether emotions are innate. His answer isn't a simple yes or no. Summarize his response.

Is Damasio open to the idea that learning plays a role in emotion? Explain your answer including an example.

From Damasio's point of view how does the concept of mood differ from the concepts of emotion and feeling? Give an example of a mood and explain what emotions or feelings you think would be associated with it.

In relation to his tree image for emotions, Damasio writes, “The history of evolution is written all over that tree” (p. 38). Explain what he means by this statement and why it is important with respect to his view of emotions.

Provide a list of emotionally competent stimuli for at least three of the primary emotions (p. 44). For each example indicate whether you think the ECT is innately connected to the emotion or learned by association.

Briefly summarize the case of the 65-year-old Parkinson's syndrome patient who broke into tears during the neurological treatment she was receiving. What point is Damasio seeking to make about emotion and feelings by means of this case? What evidence is he relying on in making this point?

Briefly summarize the case of A. K. or the case of Patient C. and indicate what point Damasio is seeking to make about emotion and feelings by means of this case. What evidence in the case is he relying on in making this point?

Do you think Psychologists with a social constructionist approach would be sympathetic, unsympathetic or neutral with respect to the use of idiographic research methods (as compared to nomothetic methods)? Explain.

Describe how the concept of social constructionism is related to the concepts of reductionism and individualism in the study of psychological phenomena?

What does Moghaddam mean when he says that “language is recognized as not just descriptive, but constructive” by social constructionists? Can you give an example of how language might be constructive?

Summarize your understanding of the relationship between the concept of social construction on the one hand and the concepts of agency, meaning systems, and normative science on the other.

Is a social constructionist more likely to provide a normative explanation or a causal explanation of a psychological phenomenon? Why? Illustrate by choosing a psychological phenomenon and suggesting the kind of explanation for it that a social constructionist might give.

What does it mean to say that the basis of inter-group conflict in Western society (race and religion, for example) is a social construction? Why is the possibility that the conflict has a socially constructed foundation important for Psychology?

What does Moghaddam view as the most important differences between assimilation policies and multiculturalism policies so far as psychological variables such as identity are concerned?

Canada was founded on the basis of balance and dialogue among three very different peoples – Native, English and French. Canada’s current multiculturalism policy is a natural outgrowth of this founding – diverse peoples maintaining a strong sense of cultural identity within a framework that is supportive of all and encouraging of dialogue as the means to make decisions and maintain national unity. Based on Moghaddam’s description of the psychological phenomena relevant to functioning in a multicultural environment, would you say that he is optimistic or pessimistic about the long-term social benefits of Canada’s multiculturalism policy? Why?

Moghaddam tells us (p288) that social identity theory takes the position that “humans are motivated to achieve a social identity that is both positive and distinct.” However, in Chapter 15 he tells us that humans readily conform to group norms. In your view are the ideas associated with social identity theory contradictory to the ones associated with the conformity concept, or are they compatible? Explain.

At the psychological level (behaviour, thoughts, emotions of individuals) what differences would you expect to observe among people in a nation where minority assimilation was taking place and one where melting-pot assimilation was taking place? Explain the basis for your expectations.

What is psychological about the conflict Moghaddam sets up between cultural relativism and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

What is the psychological problem that Moghaddam calls by the name “good copy problem”? Would this problem be less likely to occur in a multiculturally oriented society? Why?

We are often unaware of the cultural norms of our own society until we visit another country. When you first visited another country did you have any experience that suddenly made you aware of a norm you hadn’t realized you held? Describe this experience and the norm involved.

What do evolutionary psychologists have in mind when they say that “culture itself is a result of evolution” (M297)? Describe how it is possible for genes and culture to affect each other.

How are norms involved in the Zimbardo prison research? How is obedience involved? Would you say that any of the behaviour observed in the Zimbardo study was predictable from the Asch conformity studies or the Milgram obedience research? Explain.

What are the primary suggestions that Moghaddam gives for people who are in a minority position and wish to bring others to conform to their way of thinking or acting? Can you think of an example of a minority position becoming a majority position? In your example does it seem that the shift was related to the kind of approach suggested by Moghaddam?

Is the Milgram research technically an experiment? If so, what are the independent variables that are studied? Is the Zimbardo prison research an experiment? If so, what are the independent variables that are studied? Dependent variables? Controls?

The idea of an “extreme male brain” is connected with the idea that women are much more likely than men to experience and demonstrate empathy. Do you agree that such a difference with respect to empathy actually exists? What suggestions can you offer for how a study might be done to determine whether or not males and females differ with respect to empathy? If a difference were demonstrated to exist, what are some cultural mechanisms that might be studied as possible explanations for the difference?

What is the difference between the concept of sex and the concept of gender? What is the relevance of this distinction to Psychologists? What does it mean to say that “gender identities are constructed” (M p264)?

What does Moghaddam mean when he says that Feminist Psychology takes an anti-relativist position? Does it seem appropriate to you for a Psychologist to take an anti-relativist position? Why?

Moghaddam (p267) questions whether it is true that traditional Psychology is politically neutral. Can you think of any examples have we considered earlier in the course that suggest that traditional Psychology may sometimes hold political biases?

Explain what Moscovici means by his distinction between conversion and compliance. Can you give examples of situations in which you have just complied with the behaviour of a group and ones in which you actually converted to the behaviour of a group?

How does the discomfort of Milgram’s students engaged in his subway research project demonstrate the importance of norms in human behaviour? Can you provide an example of some other situation that a researcher might use in place of the subway requests and that might show similar results with respect to norms?

Provide an example from your high school days of a situation where you felt the need to conform in some way. What was the source of this feeling? What did you gain by conforming, or what did you lose by not conforming in the situation? Would you say that any kind of power was involved? Explain.

Do you think that one’s decision to conform to a particular norm of society is more a matter of personality, or more a matter of the particular social situation in which one finds oneself? Why? Do you think the same is true of a decision not to conform? Do you think the same is true of a decision to obey or not obey the instruction of a superior? Explain.

Choose one of the following concepts and use it to analyze an event in your life or the life of someone you know.

a) The dramaturgical model of the self,
b) The looking-glass self,
c) Posttraumatic growth.

Based on Moghaddam’s chapter as a whole to what extent would you say that he views the notion of self to be a social construction? What are some examples of how the self is socially constructed? What are some possible universal elements of self?

Describe the logic behind the “rouge test” and the purposes for which it has been used by psychologists. What would it mean to say that the test was reliable and valid? Can you see any reasons to suspect that it might lack either reliability or validity?

Moghaddam (p. 222) raises the possibility “that our self-perceptions have social origins and that they are arrived at in relativistic terms.” Explain what you think this statement means and give some examples from your personal experience that seem to be consistent with it.

The personality construct is based on the idea that individuals are relatively stable with respect to certain characteristics across most situations. Consult the list of Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors, then describe to what extent you regard your own behaviour as consistent with respect to these factors? Describe how your behaviour changes across contexts for at least one of these factors.

A. Suppose that a personality test such as Cattell’s 16 PF or Eysenck’s EPQ were given to you at ages 10, 20, 30, and every ten years for the remainder of your life. Do you think that the results of the test would be more or less the same each time?

B. Speak to someone in their 40’s or older and ask them how stable their personality has been over their lifetime. In those cases where you or your interviewee indicates large changes, to what factors is the change attributed?

Explain what is meant by the concept of intersubjectivity (as used by Moghaddam, p166) and what the concept has to do with attachment theories.

Suppose that you were going to do a laboratory study of some aspect of the attachment phenomenon. Would attachment work better as an independent variable or as a dependent variable (or both)? What are some possible operational definitions of attachment that you might be able to use?

Harlow raised infant monkeys in the presence of wire mothers (that provided food) and cloth mothers (that did not). What result would behaviourists predict from these monkeys when they were frightened? Why would they expect this? Why is the actual result damaging to the behaviourist view of learning and behaviour?

Describe how the attachment process might affect the formation of schema in young children and how the schema formed might influence subsequent thinking and behaviour.

Identify what is meant by at least one of the following concepts and explain its importance in the study of Developmental Psychology:
a. Strange situation b. Scaffolding c. Ideal forms

Summarize the main idea of the frustration-aggression hypothesis and describe any evidence presented by Moghaddam for or against it.

Moghaddam makes several references in his book to the “pessimistic” theory of Freud. What is pessimistic about Freud’s theory in general and about his inter-group psychology in particular?

Have you ever been angry with someone more powerful than yourself (for example, an employer, a parent, a teacher …), been afraid to act aggressively toward them directly, but found yourself engaging in indirect aggression toward that person? Do you think such a phenomena is biologically based and bound to occur, or is it possibly a learned phenomena and we could also learn to avoid acting in these indirect aggressive ways?

Moghaddam says that Western Psychologists focus primarily on the individualist features of stage models. Explain what he means by this comment. In particular, explain what it would mean to focus on the individual with respect to a stage. What would it mean to include more consideration of the social environment?

Behaviourists argue that child development proceeds according to the laws of learning – children grow in knowledge and skill through conditioning processes in their environment. Explain why this behaviourist description does not fit into Moghaddam’s chapter on stages of development?

What would it mean to say that a concept or skill that you had not yet learned was in your zone of proximal development (ZPD)? Can you give an example from your past school experience of a situation in which either:
- a teacher appropriately chose a task within your ZPD to work on with you, or
- a teacher inappropriately chose a task for you that was above or below your ZPD?

How does Vygotsky’s notion of the environment differ from that of a behaviourist who is seeking to use rewards and punishments to promote learning through conditioning?

The word “reductionist” often refer to theories that search for the biological bases of behaviour. From what you know of Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories, to what extent would it be appropriate to label either of them biological reductionist? Explain your reasons.

Summarize the idea of schema as associated with Bartlett (M p115) and Piaget (M p136). In what way does schema seem to be a biological concept and in what way is it a meaning system concept?

Moghaddam says that Vygotsky’s understanding of “social” emphasizes collaborative construction. What are some examples of collaborative construction from your experience?

Explain what Moghaddam means when he says, “play … allows children to extend themselves developmentally, to act above their age, to do things as part of a collectivity which they are individually too young to do” (p 158). Can you give an example of such play from your own experience?

Galton examined his society and saw that many of the most eminent people came from just a small number of different families. Why is this observation insufficient evidence to conclude that intelligence is an inherited (native) ability rather than a product of environmental influences?

How does the study of twins help us understand the nature-nurture controversy with respect to intelligence better?

Explain what is meant by the idea of eugenics and why most people today find the concept offensive. How is it linked to the theory of evolution?

Some psychologists have proposed that we should elaborate a concept of “emotional intelligence” in the same way that we now think about analytical intelligence. If you were advising these psychologists, what characteristics would you advise them to look for in order to identify someone who was emotionally intelligent? Do you think the elements of emotional intelligence that you have described are more likely to be innate characteristics or learned ones?

Many York students moved to Canada as young children when their parents immigrated here. Suppose these students and their parents were all asked to take an intelligence test such as the Stanford-Binet today. What are some reasons that the students might do better than their parents even though their actual abilities are pretty much the same? Why would such a result be important in the nature-nurture debate?

Describe what Bartlett means by schema and provide an example of schema from your own experience. What makes schema a cognitive concept rather than a behaviourist one?

Summarize Chomsky’s view of language as presented by Moghaddam and explain why it is more consistent with a cognitive approach to Psychology than with a behaviourist one.

A common laboratory procedure for classical conditioning involves directing a puff of air into the eye of an immobilized rabbit. The automatic response to this stimulus is an eyeblink. In the conditioning procedure, a tone is sounded just prior to delivering the puff of air. Identify the CS, CR, UCS and UCR in this situation. Suppose you wanted to undo the conditioning; use the same terminology to describe how you might go about trying to do this.

Describe a situation in which it seems plausible to explain someone’s behaviour as an example of the law of effect. Do the same for the law of exercise. Does it seem to you that these laws are like the law of gravity and Boyle’s law which cannot be violated; or are they better conceptualized as patterns of behaviour that are regularly, but not always, observed? Explain.

Moghaddam tells us that one research goal of the Chinese Psychologist Kuo was to demonstrate the malleability of how kittens interact with rats. Why would this goal be of any interest to a behaviourist Psychologist? Kuo also opposed using instincts as an explanation for behaviour. Do you think that most other behaviourist psychologists probably agreed with Kuo? Explain why.

Provide an example of an everyday situation not mentioned by our authors that you think could be analyzed as an example of operant conditioning. What is the behaviour (the operant) being conditioned? What is the reward or negative stimulus involved? Does the situation involve positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or punishment? Do you agree that most learning is a product of conditioning rather than a product of cognitive process that take place in the situation?

Almost every Introductory Psychology textbook written in the last 50 years mentions Watson’s work with the infant Albert. Why? What is the theoretical point made by this work that is so important that virtually every textbook author would consider it essential for newcomers in the field to know about it?

Describe how classical conditioning principles might be used to create an aversion therapy program to eliminate one’s excessive drinking behaviour. How are classical conditioning principles involved in the desensitization therapies (therapies designed to eliminate phobias of snakes, for example)?

Is your initial reaction to Skinner’s vision of the ideal society as he outlined it in Walden II generally favourable or unfavourable? Why? What points could be made in support of his ideal and the suggestions he makes for achieving it? What points could be made in opposition?

Explain how the double-blind procedure works in drug treatment studies. What kind of variables is the procedure designed to control for? How is the topic of double-blind procedure related to the topic of placebo effect?

Jerome Frank and other psychologists say that therapy helps people feel better by convincing them to change the way they view the world around them, particularly by convincing them to change the meaning of the experiences that are bothering them. Do you agree that emotions like sadness, regret, jealousy, anger, etc. can be changed in this way? Can you describe a situation in your own life when you helped yourself feel better by changing the meaning you gave to events or people in your life?

In many team sports it seems that a team plays better when the game takes place in their local city, rather than in the city of their opponent. Discuss whether or not you think the meaning system model of the placebo effect applies well to this situation and why it does or does not apply.

What are some ways in which parents make use of the placebo effect to help their children feel better? Describe a situation in which you think you experienced the placebo effect personally? What beliefs and values were involved in making the placebo effective?

What role does conflict play in the Freudian unconscious? What is the source of this conflict, and what are some of the possible negative and positive outcomes to which the conflict can lead?

Reflect on films you have seen and your past study of literature. What examples can you recall of stories in which unconscious processes are a prominent feature? Why do you think the unconscious is so readily taken up by film and literary critics, but treated rather skeptically by academic psychologists?

Describe the role played by each of the component parts that Freud hypothesized to be present in the mind - the id, the ego, and the superego

Shakespeare was not a psychologist, but he was a keen observer of human behaviour. He has Hamlet say in one scene, “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Does Shakespeare, through Hamlet in this case, seem to be taking a causal science view or a normative science view of life?

Some Psychologists believe that eventually it will be possible to explain all psychological phenomena in terms of biology (that Psychology will be “reduced” to Biology). Are you inclined to agree with this position, or do you think it will never be possible to explain Psychology on the basis of Biology alone? Explain your reasons.

What would it mean to say that you had a bathroom scale that was extremely reliable but not valid?
-- Could you have a scale that was valid but not reliable? Why or why not?
-- Moghaddam says that a laboratory study might have good reliability and good internal validity but still lack external validity. What does he mean by this?
-- Could the same be said for an interview or survey? Explain

Moghaddam introduces the idea of “carriers” within meaning systems as a suggestion for why certain behaviour patterns might occur or persist over time (even when people have considerable degrees of freedom about how to behave). Meaning systems can often be summarized in terms of certain beliefs and values, and these are sometimes symbolized by carriers. Propose an example of something you think might constitute a meaning system and an example of a carrier of this meaning system.

A researcher is interested in depression and the effectiveness of various treatments for depression. She decides to randomly assign each of 30 people seeking assistance with depression to one of three treatments -- behaviour modification, cognitive behavioural therapy, or rational-emotive therapy. Prior to treatment she interviews each person and rates the severity of the depression on a scale from one to ten. She repeats the interview and rating after 12 weeks of treatment. What are the relevant variables in this study? Which ones are independent and which are dependent? Are there variables that will have to be controlled in this study? What are they and how might they be controlled? Is this an example of cause and effect research, or is it normative research?

Suppose you were a Psychologist and decided to study the specific emotion of jealousy. What are some possible ways that you might “operationalize” the concept of jealousy?
-- If you chose to do an experiment on jealousy, what are some independent and dependent variables that you might use in your study?
-- Are there any variables that might have to be controlled?
-- Do you think that a laboratory experiment would be the best method for studying jealousy, or do you think observation or interviews might be better? Explain.

Are you familiar with any Psychologists? What persons have you heard about who you think might be Psychologists? What can you say about why the Psychologists with whom you are familiar are well known?

Geologists study rocks, volcanoes, ocean floors, etc. Historians study events that occurred in the past. Physicists study elementary particles like atoms, electrons and their movement in space. Economists study money and its movement through society. What is your idea at this point about what Psychologists study?

What are some topics or ideas that you expect a student might hear about in a Psychology course? Which topics are you particularly interested in learning more about?

Think of some important social problems that you care about -- poverty, racism, global warming, homelessness, .... Do you think there are psychological aspects to these issues? How might a psychologist be involved in studying and resolving such problems?