Activities, Discussion and Debate

This page provides instructors and students of psychology with suggestions on how to take the topic of the podcast and expand on it further with discussion or debate questions or with activities.

The Full Monty Backstage

There were several controversial opinions about body image and gender. Click on this link: body image and gender to hear several of the audio files that I’ve pulled out and made available.

A good discussion or reaction paper could be had around these questions:

• Stripping: men vs. women: is stripping a sexual experience for men while merely a “goof” or a “fun time” for women? Do you agree with “Lanette” that it’s “the story” that is told while a man strips that is important for women and that men don’t need a story to be interested in female stripping?
• Men’s bodies not as attractive as women’s bodies: Alex said that she had no desire to see a man dance around naked - that a man’s body is just not as beautiful as a woman’s body. Do you agree? Is this attitude culturally influenced? If so, how?
• Men’s fat is more attractive than women’s fat: what do you think of this statement - agree or disagree? Again, why do you think this woman holds this opinion?

Episode 50: A Psychological Study Ripped Straight from…the Bible?

• Create A Character Education Program that Incorporates Findings From Social Psychological Research. I think what would interesting for either a paper or presentation would be to explore first, briefly, what traits are currently talked about in Character Education. Just doing a search on this term in Google will lead you to many good sites that outline a program. As mentioned in the episode, such programs typically emphasize Resonsibility, Fairness, etc. Then decide on what findings from social psychology should be incorporated in a revised character ed program. How would you do this incorporation? I mentioned on concept from social psychology that felt ought to be taught to young people: the concept of diffusion of responsibility. But how do you teach this idea to young people (what’s your catchy phrase for example?). What other concepts from social psych should also be incorporated into such a program that will help people realize how powerful situations can sometimes over-ride our desire to be good, helpful citizens? What’s your catchy name and how do you teach it?

Episode 45: Basic Research

• Changing Hair Color: if you really wanted to conduct this study and make sure to get rid of any potential confounds and noise that is created by the models having different clothes, different backgrounds, etc., then you’ll need to use a program like Photoshop. I did a quick Google search and found this site which explains how to change hair color. Try it.

Episode 38: How Big Is Your Office? A Classic Psychological Study

• Teachers: This study is not hard to understand and can be used to demonstrate a couple of key issues in research design:
  
  • Design: it’s both a between subjects design (there were those subjects in the high status offices, those in the low status offices and those who stayed in their offices or moved to equal status offices who served as the control subjects) so they used a between subjects Anova to see if the groups differend before during and after the subjects were re-assigned. It was also a within-subjects design in that each subjects’s productivity levels was measure at three times (before, during and after).
  • Dependent Variable: as mentioned in the podcast, productivity was defined as the “number of life insurance applications reviewed”. However, because some applications are more complex than others, this number had to be adjusted for complexity (experts judged complexity of each application). The quality of each decision rendered by each subject was also measured. A good conversation could be had around the issue of how would measure productivity for a variety of different jobs. For example, the productivity of someone working at MacDonalds. Ask students about the jobs they’ve held and brainstorm on what would be good measures of productivity for that job.
  • Manipulation Check: were subjects aware that they were in a higher or lower status office than others? This is important to check because it’s important to know that subjects perceived a difference in their working conditions relative to others. This percpetion is what theoretically sets up the feelings of inequity whcih then leads to changes in productivity.
  • Potential Confound: see if any student can pick out the potential confound in this study. Here it is: what if the low status offices contained so many distractions (loud noises, lots of people around them interfering with their work, etc.) that the subjects in those offices had lower productivity because they simply couldn’t perform their jobs as well as they could in their old office? Greenberg checked this by asking them to fill out a questionnaire addressing this issue. Subjects said that they were able to complete their jobs in their new offices equally well as before.

Episode 35: The Psychology of Extreme Sports

• As a teacher, it would be interesting to ask how many students participate in some kind of extreme activity. What does it do for them?
• You might create a bell curve on the board to represent the Optimum Arousal curve and write 1 though 10 on the board under the curve. Ask each student where they fall on this curve from low to high desired levels of arousal.
• Students: write a paper or create a presentation on Sensation Seeking. Use video from YouTube as I did. Embed the URL’s in a PowerPoint presentation to interesting and fun examples of people involved in extreme sports.
• Teachers: get Zuckerman’s Sensation Seeking scale from the link in the show notes for this episode. Consider printing it out and handing it out in class for students to take in class (it’s a short scale). You could use the results to talk about the concepts of scale reliability and validity. After studetns have taken the sensatino seeking scale, find out who scored lowest and who scored highest. Does these persons agree with the results? Does the class agree that these are the low and high sensation seekers in the class?
• Use the Neuron Transmission animation in class: In the show notes I’ve included a link to the animation I used in the video. Use it to demonstrate again to students how SSRI’s work to block the re-absorbtion of serotonin and use it to show how Monoamine Oxidase works to destroy serotonin and dopamine. I didn’t go into much detail about this, but you could mention how Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MOAIs) work. MOAI’s combat depression by preventing monoamine oxidase from destroying serotonin and thus keeping serotonin levels high in the system.

Episode 33: Timeout Revisited - Dealing with Challenging Kids

• Discussion: a great class discussion could be had on the topic of the effectiveness of Time Out. I’d put students into groups first and have them discuss how they were disciplined as a child. As they discuss this, go around and ask each student how they were disciplined. Write down how many students fell into each category: a) spanking, b) timeout, c) yelled at, d) other. Then have the groups report to the class on how they were disciplined and how effective they thought it was. They can discuss how their siblings were disciplined as well. It would be interesting to see if parents used different methods on different siblings.
• Experiences in Daycare or Babysitting: for those students in the class who have worked in daycare settings, it would be interesting to hear how they were instructed to “behaviorally manage” the children in their care. Where does it fall in the Positive or Negative Reinforcement/Punishment matrix? Thoughts on effectiveness?

Episode 32: Midterms, Mnemonics and Two Keys to Learning

• Here’s a challenge: see how much more of the “To Be or Not To Be” speech either you (or you and your students together) can memorize. A great cross-discipline exercise.
• The Memory Book is an excellent resource on mnemonic techniques. If you’re a teacher - it should be in your library, if you’re a student - don’t go to college without it!. There’s a section on using the keyword technique to memorize all 50 states. Try that exercise in class.
• Learning languages: another way to show the connection between psychology and other courses students take in college is to use mnemonic devices to learn something in another language.

Episode 31: Lemon Slices and a New Face on Mars! Gestalt Principles at Work

• Students: make sure to go through the online experiment on perceptual set: www.thepsychfiles.com/gestalt. You could use it as the basis of an experiment in a Research Methods class. For example, you could show one class of students condition 1 (control condition) and another class would see only condition 2 (experimental condition). As the experimenter clicks through the steps of the “Man on a Horse” image, students raise their hand at the step when they think they know what shape the blogs make. At this point the experiementer pauses while an assistant goes over to see if the student is correct. If the student is correct, then the step number is written down on that student’s paper and the paper is collected. That student is now out of the study while the other students continue through more steps. Make sure students are instructed at the beginning of the study to not yell out what they think the image is. This would, obviously, ruin the study for the rest of the subjects at that point. The dependent variable here is the average number of steps it took for students (subjects) in each condition to correctly identify the image. You would use an independent samples t-test to analyze the results.
• Teachers: the study described above could be done in class. Just have half the class wait outside and this group would form the control or experimental condition.
• Teachers: here’s an idea for getting everyone up and awake: go out of class and take a walk around campus. Examine the ground, the shape of the clouds, etc., and you’ll probably find something that makes a recognizable shape. This might be an interesting way of discussing the topic of falsifiability: if you make no prediction regarding what you will find in the dirt or the clouds, then anything you believe you see can be claimed as a significant, unusual finding. If, on the other hand, you make a specific prediction such as “You will find an image of Elvis in the clouds over the Campus Center at 12:03 today”, this is more likely to come out unsupported (hopefully!). This statement is falsifiable.

Episode 30: Equine Assisted Therapy

• Equine Assisted Therapy vs. Pet Therapy: it’s important to understand the difference between these two types of therapy and this would make for an excellent term paper. My take: pet therapy is more informal and its effectiveness depends merely upon the calming influence of the presence of an animal. Equine Assisted Therapy is, first of all, not aimed at the same clientele, and is more structured. Pay particular attention to the part where Nancy King talks about how the gate of the horse’s movement affects the rider and the purpose (therapeutically) of using the brushes on the horse.
• Equine Assisted Therapy and Occupational Therapy: as students consider their career options, they might want to consider Occupational Therapy. Few students know what it is or that it is even a potential direction for them. Occupational Therapy is worth looking into and would make for a good paper or presentation.

Episode 29: Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic vs. the Motivation To Learn

• Every year the controversy over extrinsic methods of getting students to read like the “Book-it” program by Pizza Hut. The topic is a little old, but still worth a debate and/or paper. Check out the Book-it program at Pizza Hut’s site: http://www.bookitprogram.com/ and see if you can find out how they defend the program against critics.
• Students: Since everyone knows about the controversy, it would pretty audacious of you to declare that NEITHER approach is as powerful as the one you’re going to discuss (in your paper or presentation): the Motivation to Learn. Learn more about it in Good & Brophy’s textbook: Windows in Classrooms, but look online as well for more resources on this fascinating topic.
• Teachers: Extrinsic, Intrinsic and the Motivation to Learn approach each come from a different underlying philosophy. Extrinsic motivation strategies are clearly rooted in behavioristic theory. Intrinsic strategies have clear ties to a Humanistic philosophy. The Motivation to Learn concept has one foot in Humanism, but I think another foot in the Gestalt school of psychology in that the strategies are based on our very active mind. The mind is not passive, as in Behavioristic theory, it is very active and can be activated further through the use of Motivation to Learn strategies. Discussing this with students might help to differentiate these schools of thought.

Episode 28: Is “Time Out” Really Effective?

• Teachers: this topic is perfect for class debate when you get to the chapter on learning. I’m almost certain that any student who has worked as a babysitter or in any formal child care capacity has been trained to employ time out as the behavior management system for a child who is behaving poorly. You might begin by simply listing the places that children are placed in time out (bottom of the stairs, in a corner, etc.). There might be some general disagreement as to how long a child should be in time out and what upon what basis a child should be taken out of time out. All this is good fodder for the debate. However, what it comes down to his this: do students think that the system is effective? And of course, when is it effective and when is it not effective?
• Students: the effectiveness and controversy surrounding time-out would make for an excellent term paper. See the sources listed in this post and you’ll see that there is a good deal of disagreement about how to employ the time out method. Look carefully at the Smart Love and The Explosive Child for ideas on why this method is not recommended at all. You’ll get lots of student attention on this topic if you have to give a presentation on it because most students don’t question the effectiveness or necessity of using time out.

Episode 26: Why do Statistics Make Us So Queasy?

• You should definitely try out the “mind reading” demonstration I mention in this podcast on your class or on your friends. It should work. Remember: this lesson from this demonstration is that people who appear to be reading our minds or telling the future are, in different ways, taking advantage of our tendencies to, in this case, not choose the same the same option twice. We have many other tendencies that can make us gullible.
• Don’t forget to check out the many sites that have cartoons that make fun of statisticians. Just do a Google search on “statistics cartoons”. Nothing like a little humor to make the rest of the lesson go down a little easier.

Episode 22: The Brains Behind Erikson Part 1 - Timeliner

• The Timeliner program is not inexpensive ($79.00 at http://www.tomsnyder.com/), but if you’re a teacher think about whether you might use the program in other classes. Maybe there are professional development funds that could help you purchase it. It’s an easy to use program with lots of multimedia tools built right in. If you’re being asked to use some technology in your classes then Timeliner is the way to go.
• Students: by the time you reach college, Powerpoint is so “last century”. If you have a presentation to do, and your topic would lend itself to a timeline, then Timeliner will make your presentation stand out. Listen to that! I sound like a salesman. Believe me I have no connection to Tom Snyder Productions. I just love the product. I also love technology, but that’s my issue.

Episode 21: Erikson’s Eight Stages of Life

• Students could interview members of their family, their extended family, their friends, their parent’s friends, and their friend’s kids, to get further insight into what are the challenges and concerns of people in the different stages of life. Ask students how what they’ve learned from the interview - how did the thoughts of the person interviewed differ from what Erikson (or other developmental theorist) says should be the concerns of a person in that age group?
• I do my recordings using a fairly expensive digital recorder called the Zoom H4 (click here to see it at Amazon.com), but if your students have iPods then the next best (and less expensive) device for making digital recordings that can later be edited on the computer would be the “iTalk” by Griffin Technologies (click here to see it at Amazon.com), or the TuneTalk by Belkin (click here for the link to this device on Amazon.com).

Episode 20: Conflict Resolution: A Classic Psychology Study

• Some might argue that the Robber’s Cave study produced many benefits to humankind (a better understanding of group conflict), would we say this about the personal space study? (a discussion around the typical ethical dilemma of “risks to the subject”/benefits)
• If you were a member of the personal space study you might be upset if you later learned that you were a subject in a study - would you be upset if you later learned that your son was a member of the Robber’s Cave study?
• The personal space study clearly involved the observation of a private behavior - did the Robber’s Cave study involve observations of private behavior? How are they different?
• What would you have done in both studies to address these issues? Is there a way to do informed consent or debriefing without hurting the studies?

Episode 16: They’re at it again - My Favorite Weird Psychology Studies

• As I mentioned in the podcast, this study has been examined closely because a very private bodily function was observed without telling the subjects that the observation was going to happen, nor did the researchers tell subjects after the study that it happened. A good debate might be had in which some students argue in favor of what the researchers had to do, and others argue against. For example, if I’m on the side of the researchers I might say, “Why give the subjects informed consent? It’ll just ruin the study entirely. How could the subjects act naturally in the bathroom if they knew some kind of study was going on?” If I was to argue against the researchers I might say, “Couldn’t you at least have given them a debriefing and asked them if it was okay to use the data taken from observing them?”.
• The whole point of the study was to unobtrusively observe whether your body is in some way aroused by the close presence of another person. Could this study have been done in a different way in which some other bodily function was measured?

Episode 15: It’s Not Fair! Equity in Life and Work

• Can equity theory explain why battered women remain in relationships with their batterer? If what the woman is getting out of the relationship (the relationship outcomes, or the numerator in the equity equation) is so low, why stay?
• What are soem examples of inequity in your life? How about in a job you either now or once held? Were the outcomes from the job equal to the inputs you brought to it?
• Even in a non-battering relationship, my students often say that women “do more” than men do. they do more cleaning, shopping etc., as well as do more to get their boyfriend/husband to talk about his feelings (which helps keep the relationship going). Why is this? Does culture play a role?
• Consider equity issues in relation to jobs in our culture. Who gets paid a lot? who gets paid less? Are our priorities out of whack? What do salaries say about what we value in our culture?

Episode 14: What Does Your Car Say About You?

• Some people probably believe that their car does reflect their personality. What is the problem though with using a person’s car as a way to measure his/her personality? How is it an unreliable measure?
• What does the class think a guy is “saying” when he drives a huge truck? Is he successful? Is there a corrrelary type of car for women (a very “feminine” car)? Do women “say” anything with the type of cars they tend to drive?

Episode 13: Big Brother? What Your Grocery Store Knows About You

• Do students have other ideas about how stores try to manipulate us into buying products? How about clothing stores?
• Do any students have any additional suggestions for how to not be manipulated by such tactics?
• Activity: have students go into different stores (perhaps in groups of 2 if possible) and take pictures of what they see as examples of attempts by the store to manipulate them into buying products.

Episode 12: The Necessity of the Frame in Psychotherapy

• Why would psychologists have to think so much more about the frame than, say, medical doctors?
• Not everyone in class might agree with eerything on this list of guidelines. Which ones in particular could students see as being okay to deviate from?
• Might there be times when a therapist could hug a client? Or no? Justify your answer.

Episode 11: What Does Your Bowling Style Say About You?

• Watch the part of the video where the trainer is telling the bird to “dump the ball in the basket”. The bird doesn’t do it right away. Is it possible that the bird is “training” the trainer to say “dump the ball in the basket” over and over again? Something to wonder about.
• Are there other activities in life in which we see connections between our actions and outcomes in the world where in fact, there really is no connection at all? (for example, why do you push that calculator “clear” button more than once?)

Episode 9: How Do You Really Raise Self-Esteem? The Incredibles vs. American Idol

• There are other ways to raise self-esteem. Does the class have other suggestions?
• What does the class think about events where “nobody loses” and where every participant gets some kind of prize? Good idea, or no?
• Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell obviously have very different philosophies about hhow to give people feedback. Ask the students to come up with a list of what is good and bad about each approach. Who would you rather be judged by if you only going to be judged by one of them?

Episode 7: Blaming the Victim and other Biases

• Do students agree that the optimistic bias is stronger than any education we might give women? If that’s so, what can be done?
• Students could debate the statement that “women should know what they are getting themselves into” when they go to frat parties and the like. You could ask students to anonymously write down a number from the following scale: 1 = it’s totally the woman’s fault if she gets date raped at a frat party, to 10 = it’s not at all the woman’s fault. then discuss the issue and take another anonymous poll (little slips of paper folded and handed into the teacher for counting) after the discussion.
• One treatment for violent offenders, including rapists, is to have them watch and listen to rape victims so that they see the pain that is inflcted on them. Should this be done at college orientations? If some students consider this approach too drastic, what other ways might there be to help college men understand the gravity of this violation?

Episode #6: The Negative Side of Positive Thinking

• Has anyone in class heard of “The Secret”? If not, some information can be gleaned from the website (http://thesecret.tv/). What do they think of this so-called “Law of Attraction”?
• Do students know of anyone who is successful in part because of his/her positive attitude?

Episode #5: In Defense of Defense Mechanisms

• My students had a constructive time coming up with their own examples from their own lives for each of Freud’s defense mechanisms.

Episode #2: Rewards and Punishments

• Time out is considered by many to be an excellent alternative to punishment. However, Jane Nelson, author of Positive Discipline” and “Positive Time Out” has a different take on how time out should be given to children. Her ideas are worth a student paper and/or presentation.