How many scientific studies find their inspiration from a parable in the bible? Well, this one does and for my 50th episode I’ll go over a very interesting study based on the Good Samaritan parable. We’ll take another look at the topic of bystander intervention by asking the question: are people more likely to help someone if they are thinking “pious” thoughts at the time?

After reviewing the study I’ll take a look at a couple articles that cite the good samaritan parable and ask the question: what does the results of this study imply about the value of character education, virtues programs, codes of ethics, citizenship and ethical behavior in general?

The Good Samaritan Parable (Luke 10: 27-37)

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus…”And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down the road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by the other side. but a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? He said, The one who showed him mercy” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Resources on Helping Behavior

• Darley, J. M. & Batson, C. D. (1973) From Jerusalem to Jericho: a study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27(1), 100–119.
• Samuels, S.M. and Casebeer, W.D. (2005). A social psychological view of morality: why knowledge of situational influences on behaviour can improve character development practices. Journal of Moral Education, 34, 73-87.
• Kotre, J. (1992). Experiments as Parables. American Psychologist, 672-673.

Episodes on Bystander Intervention and other Good Stories

• What Really Happened to Kitty Genovese?
• Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Study.
• John Watson’s study on Little Albert.
• Sherif’s Robber’s Cave study on group conflict.

Other Experiments as Parables

• Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance.
  Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203-210
• Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,
  67, 371-378.
• Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment. In H. Guetzkow (ed.) Groups, leadership and men. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.
• Watson, J.B. & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned Emotional Reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1-14.

Site Search: Ethics, Social Psychology

 

 Psychological Study Ripped Straight from....the Bible?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Kitty Genovese: what you think you know about what happened to her is wrong. Kitty Genovese was repeatedly attacked while others watched and did nothing right? Wrong. While the story lead to a long and successful line of research in the area of bystander intervention and diffusion of responsibility, the facts of the story are incorrect. What are the facts behind the Kitty Genovese case and if groups are so unlikely to help, how do you explain how people came together to help at 911? Let’s take another look at the legacy of this famous story in this podcast.
[display_podcast]

Resources For This Podcast

• Here’s a link to the American Psychologist.The article of interest here is called “The Kitty Genovese Murder and the Social Psychology of Helping: The Parable of the 38 Witneses” by Rachel Manning, Mark Levine, and Alan Collins. You’ll need to get the article from your library however, as it is not available online.

Here are links to the author’s websites:

• Rachel Manning’s UWE webpage.

• Mark’s Lancaster University webpage.

• Alan’s Lancaster University webpage.

• There is a great deal of information about what really happened to Kitty Genovese on the Kew Gardens website.

• Here’s a video showing how the “smoke under the door” scenario results in a lack of helping:
  

• Interesting video on Helping Behavior on YouTube.

• If you’re a Psych Teacher you should definitely join the Teaching In the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) discussion list to stay in touch with your “virtual colleagues”

• Another great discussion group for psychology teachers is PsychTeacher.

Technorati: kitty genovese, bystander intervention, diffusion of responsibility

 

 Episode 36: The Myth of the Kitty Genovese Story [36:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Time for a little fun. I know you’ve asked yourself this question: why do people engage in those dangerous sports like hang gliding, bungee jumping and rock climbing? Would you believe it might have something to do with neurotransmitters and something called Monoamine Oxidase? In this video episode we learn about Sensation Seekers. Come along for the ride.

[display_podcast]

• Darn! The video I made with the chasing snow mobiles using the Stuntman video game didn’t come out looking so good in this podcast. In case you want to see the video, I’ve embedded it below. I’m still thinking about ways to use machinima for educational purposes. If you’ve got any ideas let’s talk about it.
• 
  Click on this image to use the drag-and-drop activity to demonstrate neurotransmitter movement across the synapse.

Resources for this Podcast

• Personality Psychology website at Arcadia. This site has a lot of great resources on personality. Highly recommended.
• Take the sensation-seeking scale here.
• Lots of resources on personality can be found at the Personality Pedagogy site.
• Good article here from the HealthyPlace website on monoamine oxidase and it’s role in depression.
• A nice overview of Sensation Seeking can be found in Motivation Theories and Pinciples 5th edition by Robert Beck.
• Biopsychology by John Pinel has some excellent illustrations and extensive explanations on how neurotransmitters work.

Media Resources for this Episode

• Thanks to the band 3Kisses for allowing me to use “It’s Not About You” for the soundtrack to my extreme snowmobile chase.
• Extreme Bungee on YouTube.
• Here’s the YouTube video showing the extreme hang gliding video featured in this episode.
• The snowmobile chase machinima was made with the video game Stuntman: Ignition
• Here’s a link to one of the many machinima sites.
• I created the neurotransmitter animations using Adobe Flash

Technorati: extreme sports, neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin, sensation seeking

Del.icio.us Tags:
sensation seeking, monoamine oxidase, neurotransmitters

 

 Episode 35: The Psychology of Extreme Sports [21:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To learn or not to learn that is the question this week on The Psych Files. Come with me as I explore mnemonic techniques, learn to memorize Hamlet’s famous speech, and learn 2 keys to true, lasting learning.

[display_podcast]

Resources For This Episode

• Click to read the article in New York Magazine by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman about the psychology of sleep.
• The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play

Mnemonic Techniques:

• Acronyms: "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" and ROY G BIV
• Rhyme - "30 days has September"
• method of Loci
• Pegword ("one is a bun")
• Keywords

Using keywords to remember the lobes of the brain:

• Occipital - Eyes - octopus with eyes instead of suckers
• Parietal - Touch - piranha biting you
• Temporal - Hearing - tempo is something you hear
• Frontal - Thinking - "front door" you open the door and Einstein is there

 

 Standard Podcast [36:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The gestalt principles of perception - how do they explain how we not only sometimes perceive strange things, but also how we can appreciate works of art? In this episode I take a close look at why people see a lot of strange things around them - including me. We’ll see images on lemon slices, floor panels, building tops, etc. Why do we perceive these things?

[display_podcast]

Resources for this Podcast

• Perceptual Set Experiment: go here to do the "Man on a horse" experiment I created. You can run this experiment on your friends, or even use it for a project in class. Have fun with it and let me know if you’ve got any feedback/suggestions. NOTE: The control condition is the "condition 1" button (random pictures which are unrelated to the man on the horse). The experimental condition is the "condition 2" button (pictures of animals which should help the viewer more easily see the man on the horse).

Here are a few sites which further explain some of the Gestalt principles of organization:

• You can learn how psychological gestalt principles apply to web design at the Web Design for Instruction site
• And more about psychological gestalt principles from the Spokane Falls Community College Graphic Design website.
• Here’s the NASA site where you’ll find the "Face On Mars" pictures.
• Here’s a good site which describes the gestalt principles. It’s from the Interaction Design website.

 

 Episode 31: Lemon Slices and a New Face on Mars! Gestalt Principles at Work [19:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Why are we often anxious about or even suspicious of statistics? Let’s take a look at this topic. Along with some interesting examples I’ve got some statistics-oriented jokes I hope you’ll find funny (okay, maybe you’ll just find them…interesting. Humor me). Conquer your fears this week on The Psych Files.

[display_podcast]

Resources For This Podcast

• Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences by John Allen Paulus is a very interesting book. I highly recommend it.
• Michael Shermer’s book, Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time is also an excellent book on the kinds of thinking that lead us astray. This is the book I mention in the podcast where Mr. Shermer took a tour through the Edgar Casey museum and took the ESP “test”.
• Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, is also a very readable book regarding why we believe strange things.
• Correction: In the podcast I said that Mur Lafferty was the host of the Grammar Girl. Actually Mignon Fogarty is the host and here is the link to the Grammar Girl. Mur Lafferty is the host of another interesting podcast called I Should Be Writing. Here is the link to her podcast.
• Here is the TED talks presentation by Peter Donnelly. Fascinating.

 

 Standard Podcast [35:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week on The Psych Files we take a stroll through the various phases of life: from childhood, to adolescence, into mid-life and then we listen to two interesting voices of men nearing the end of their lives and they do so with very different perspectives John Wayne and Roy.

[display_podcast]

Memorize Erikson’s Eight Stages

Do you have to memorize Erikson 's Eight Stages of psychosocial development? Having trouble remembering which one comes after Trust vs. Mistrust? Well, here 's how I learned to remember the stages using the pegword technique.

Click on the play button above to listen to me talk about my mnemonic devices for Erikson’s stages, or download it to your ipod, Zune or other mp3 device.

Remember: pegwords are effective when they are:

• Bizarre
• Colorful
• Contain action
• Most important - when they evoke images that are familiar to you.

Here is the list of my keywords:

1. Bun - (Trust vs. Mistrust) a rusty red (rust-colored) bun

2. Shoe (Autonomy vs. Shame): a huge automobile (maybe a humvee?) stuffed into your shoe: license plate says shame

3. Tree (Initiative vs. Guilt) a tree with lots of quilts (guilt) (initiative)

4. Door (Industry vs. Inferiority): industry: you open a door and you see a factory (industry) with smoke coming out the top. It’s a very tiny (inferiority) factory

5. Hive (Identity vs. Identity Diffusion) picture a dented (identity) beehive that has one of those radioactive signs on it to remind you of fusion (diffusion)

6. Sticks (Intimacy vs. Isolation): picture two sticks in love (intimacy) they have their little twigs around each other and they kissing. I will also picture a stick all by itself (isolation).

7. Heaven (Generativity vs. Stagnation). picture a generator (generativity) up in heaven connected to the pearly gates and a stag (stagnation) is pulling the rope to try start up the generator. Or picture all your previous generations (grandparents, etc.) are in heaven. Granda riding a stag. OR: general: you could picture a general in heaven who just shot a stag

8. Plate (Integrity vs. Despair): picture a plate of grits (integrity) with a pear (despair) next to it on the plate.

Click to view or download an image of the above information that will help you to memorize Erikson's Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development

Click to hear brief audio snippets from the people in the podcast who are each at a different stage of Erikson’s stages of development

Resources for This Podcast

Shakespeare describes the stages of life in his “All the World’s A Stage” speech from “As You Like It.” It was read by Reed Martin of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. Click here to go to their site.

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice
In fair round belly, with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav’d, a world too wide,
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

• Here’s a great webpage which describes all of Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development.

• I mentioned a website which discussed each of Erikson’s stages. Click here to go to Support for Change site where I found this interesting note about how adolescents “subsitute philosophy for experience”: “A significant task for us is to establish a philosophy of life and in this process we tend to think in terms of ideals, which are conflict free, rather than reality, which is not. The problem is that we don’t have much experience and find it easy to substitute ideals for experience. However, we can also develop strong devotion to friends and causes.”
• Click here to go to StoryCorps where you’ll find lots of interesting interviews with regular folks of all ages.
• Click here to go to the page on Archive.org where you can hear the original recording of John Wayne.

 

 Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Life [50:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 How to Memorize Erikson's Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Do feel slightly uncomfortable in the bathroom? How does the presence of others in the bathroom affect you? What about places other than the bathroom? How close is too close? A psychological study was done in 1976 in which psychology researchers hid in men’s bathrooms to observe…well, you’ll find out. Learn more about personal space in this episode of The Psych Files.
[display_podcast]
The article discussed in this episode:

Middlemist, R. D., Knowles, E. S. & Matter, C.F. (1976). Personal Space Invasions in the Lavatory: Suggestive Evidence for Arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33 (5), 541-546.

Watch this episode from NPR video on personal space in Second Life: “Avatar gender and personal space invasion anxiety level in desktop collaborative virtual environments.”

Helpful Links:

Shy Bladder website
Paruresis website

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Psychological Research in your life: does your local grocery store know more about you than you do? We take a look at the research that’s been done to learn more about your behavior in the supermarket and how that information is used to get you to buy more than you planned for.

Click to listen to this episode and learn more about how psychological research is used in your life.

From the MSN article “15 Ways Stores trick you into spending”

Read this article to find out more details on how observational research is used to design grocery stores.

• Shopping Carts: they are large and tend to be right near the entrance to entice you to use them
• Toys: far from the entrance
• The most expensive versions of items are at eye level while bulk options are at the bottom
• Items that are not on sale are arranged to look like they are on sale (placed at the end of the isle with a large sign)
• Commodity items, like socks, are surrounded by non-commodity items, like shirts and jeans (for example, peanut butter and jelly are placed near each other)
• There usually isn’t a section where inexpensive items are placed all together - inexpensive items are placed among expensive ones
• “Stores are designed to maximize the number of stops you have to make” because you buy when you stop
• Restrooms are placed far from the entrance to force you to go past things you might buy

From the article “The Theory of Supermarkets”

The New York Times Magazine, March 10, 1996

• The stock of your typical store (10 years ago) held about 30,000 items - tough competition among all these products
• have you noticed that the first thing you see when you walk in the door is produce? This is done to give you the idea of freshness and “bounty”. Notice also the colors, the water that rains down on the celery, etc. Gets you “in the mood” Other supermarkets begin with flowers
• Butchers have no blood on them because research has shown that this turns customers off (bloodier activities take place in the back)
• Cart behavior: when you turn the cart in one direction, you tend to look in the other direction. So, if we can steer you just right through the isles, we can put “specials” on the “strong side”
• you will buy more soup if it is not in alphabetical order
• store labels are always to the left of popular brands. Why? like reading, after your eye is caught be a familiar label, you tend to look left next. so, put the store brand on the left of the popular brand.
• The best viewing angle: the average eye height of a woman is 59 inches and a man: 64 inches, so 15 degrees below horizontal (51 to 53 inches off the floor)
• by the way, when you examine a shelf you’re likely to stand 4 feet away.
• background music: slow it down to about 60 beats/min and your cart will slow down as well and you’re more likely to see things you might purchase. classical music gives your products a higher degree of perceived value:
• play classical in the background - barnes and noble/ new agey
• play upbeat - clothes stores
• play rock - music stores, etc.
• Cereal arranged by type (flakes, brans) rather than by brand will decrease sales
• Also on cereal: make it difficult to compare them: create different size boxes, and call them by different names (Apple Cinnamon or Honey Nut) and it makes it diffiuclt to compare.

Other research:

• The smell of cucumber makes a room feel larger, while the smell of barbeque makes it feel smaller
• Lavender smell is relaxing
• Red colors tend to draw you physically closer

How to fight back?

• Use a list
• Don’t come hungry
• Don’t use a shopping cart unless you need to
• At the checkout re-think everything you put into your cart
• Start at the back and work forward
• Look at the bottom shelf first
• Carry a calculator
• If you don’t know for sure that something is a good deal don’t buy it (it’s probably not a good deal and you’re being tricked into thinking it might be)

Musical Resources

The classical guitar music you hear throughout the podcast is performed by David Temple and used by permission. You can go to David’s website by clicking here.

Rock Music: “Moonscape” by 37Hz. Click here to go to the site for 37Hz on Podsafe Music.

Upbeat Music: “If there was no people” from Chachi On Acid. Click here to go to their site in the Podsafe Music site.

How do you really raise self esteem? This week we take a look at all the talk about young people, narcissism and the self esteem movement. Then we answer the question: how do you raise self esteem?

Listen to episode 9 on self esteem and narcissism.

Show Notes

Quick Summary of major points:

How self esteem grows:

1. Doing well (achieving your goals), on
2. Tasks that you value (are important to you)

How to give effective praise:

1. Be sincere
2. Don’t praise too frequently
3. Be specific - help your child learn what strategies lead to success
4. Be careful about attributing success to “smarts” - that can backfire. Try to focus on the effort that went into success

Links mentioned in this episode:

• You’ll love the movie The Incredibles. Look for the various references to self esteem throughout the movie.
• DVD review of The Incredibles which discusses the references to self esteem.
• Another review of The Incredibles which also points out the references to the controversy over self esteem.
• Here’s the link to the article entitled, “How Not To Talk to your Kids” by Po Bronson which addresses the self esteem issue.
• Here’s the link to Po Bronson’s great book “What Should I Do With My Life?” on Amazon: What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question

Blog of the Week

Here’s a link to the very interesting blog I mentioned that appeared on the Random Yak also about self esteem.