Posted: November 10th, 2014

Psychology Application section

Psychology Application section

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:  For your course project, you will do some exercises that allow you to apply the concepts that we have studied this semester.  Hopefully you will find these assignments informative and insightful – not just “busy” work!  Remember that what you really want to do with these topics is to PROVE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED from a PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE!

NOTE THAT THERE ARE TWO PARTS to this project!!!  Additional web-based research is not required, but may strengthen your response.  Be sure to cite your references if you do that extra “digging”!

PART I:  There are 9 activities to choose from below.  You will select TWO of them, and conduct the exercise and write it up (each write-up should be 1-2 typewritten pages).

PART II:  Then you will select THREE of the statements in the Psychology Application section, and utilize the information that we studied and reviewed this semester, in the text, in essays, and on websites, to summarize what your “psychological” response is now.  Apply as many psychological principles as you can!

PART I – ACTIVITIES / WRITING PROJECTS:

Select two activities to complete and write-up.  Worth 25 points each!

A.  SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

1.  Rank order the top five characteristics you consider most important in a platonic (non-sexual) friend.  Then rank order the top five characteristics for someone that you would “casually” date (assuming you were single).  Finally, rank order the top five characteristics for a long-term relationship (partner/spouse).
2.  Discuss differences between the three lists.  How do your choices compare to the variables that scientists find important about attraction – similarity, proximity, and physical attractiveness?
3.  Using the three lists, go back and identify items you consider “non-negotiable” (you could not live without) and those you consider “negotiable” (you want them but COULD live without them).  Explain your choices.
4.  Summarize your findings in relation to why you might have different “criteria” for different people in your life, why some qualities are more important to you, etc.  Your paper should be 1-2 pages.  Also submit your lists!

B.  PSYCHOTHERAPY / COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING

1.  Choose three friends or family members and interview them regarding their negative thoughts involving school, work, or personal relationships (e.g., “I am a poor test taker”, “I hate my job”, or “I just can’t ask someone out on a date”).  List at least five negative thoughts for each of the three people.
2.  Help each person develop alternative positive thoughts for the same situations and include these positive thoughts on your paper.
3.  Ask these three people to practice their positive thoughts for one week.  Interview them once again at the end of the week and explore whether the positive statements had any effect on their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.  Include their responses in your paper.
4.  Summarize your findings in a 1-2 page paper.  Give your personal evaluation of cognitive restructuring as a tool for psychotherapy.  Does it work?  Why or why not?  Can it be used only in a professional setting, or is it useful as a self-help technique?  Can you use it in your own life?  Why or why not?  Submit your interview data too!

C.  PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

1.  Devise a plan to display “deviant” behavior (e.g., talking to yourself or an inanimate object, dressing in bizarre clothes, using bizarre hand or facial gestures) – in the presence of others – preferably others unknown to you if possible (e.g., some place on campus, in the mall, in a coffee shop), or around your family.  Don’t do anything illegal, against societal or college norms, etc.
2.  Note how people react to you.  Do they ask if you are all right, or simply avoid you?  Write a 1-2 page paper detailing what you did, how you felt, how others responded, and what you learned about abnormal behavior.  How might the stigmatization of having a mental illness feel?

D.  PERSONALITY / MOTIVATION

1.  This activity is related to Maslow’s “peak experiences” idea.  Think of the most wonderful experience of your life:  the happiest moments, ecstatic moments, moments of rapture, perhaps from being in love, or from listening to music, or suddenly “being struck” by a book or painting, or from some creative moment.  Describe this time in careful detail, and discuss how you might increase your opportunities for more “peak experiences”.  Why are these experiences important to our development as a person? – relate your thoughts to Maslow’s theory and teachings.  Your paper should be 1-2 pages.

E.  DEVELOPMENT of GENDER ROLES

1.  Analyze the roles of men and women in magazine advertisements aimed at different audiences, such as those in Cosmo, Redbook, People, Ebony, Newsweek, Playboy, etc.  Use at least 5 different types of magazines.  What are the differences in how males and females are portrayed?  Are there any underlying similarities, differences, messages?
2.  Analyze the roles of males and females in a selection of children’s books (at least 5).  Who gets to do what?  How are boys/girls portrayed in illustrations?  What do their parents do?  Are the books targeted for a specific audience?
3.  Summarize your findings about development of gender roles in a 1-2 page paper.

F.  STRESS / DEVELOPMENT

1.  Make a list of all the ways that play is important for the growth of children – your list should have at least 15-20 items.  Once you have that list, go through it again and note what functions of play DO NOT apply to adults.  Write a review of what value “play” has for adults.  Why do so few adults spend time in play?  How do you play?  What qualities or resources would adults need before they could better rediscover the value of play?  Relate this issue to stress and coping in adults.

G.  “SUBCULTURE” IQ TEST

1.  Your task is to develop a 10-15 item questionnaire to measure “intelligence” in your selected subculture (probably either your friends, or your family).  Think about what it means to be “intelligent” in this group that you select.  Create a questionnaire that could discriminate between people in your group who are highly intelligent, average, and less intelligent.  Administer the “test” to 5-10 people who are members of your subculture.
2.  Submit the questionnaire and 1-2 page paper detailing what you learned about intelligence and intelligence testing.  Tie this information into what you learned from your text about this topic, and speculate on what your IQ test might mean to people who want to join your “subculture”.

H.  CONSCIOUSNESS / SLEEP

1.  Administer the questionnaire below to 10 friends or family members.  Identify the age, gender, ethnicity, and job/career of each of your participants.
2.  After working on the questionnaire, have each participant tell you which dream “theme” was the most common for them, least common, and their thoughts on how people might differ in their responses according to age, gender, culture, etc.
3.  Then explain the “activation-synthesis hypothesis” of dreaming to each participant (see your text), and ask them with what they think about that theory.
4.  Add what you think about that theory, as well as what you think are the most common dream themes overall.  Include all of this information in a 1-2 page paper.  Submit your questionnaire results too!

Dream Survey:

Place a check mark next to each dream theme you can remember EVER dreaming about.

1.    Falling
2.    Being attacked or pursued
3.    Trying repeatedly to do something
4.    School, teachers, studying
5.    Sexual experiences
6.    Arriving too late for an event
7.    Eating
8.    Being frozen with fright
9.    Death of a loved one
10.     Being locked up
11.    Finding money
12.    Swimming
13.    Snakes
14.    Being dressed inappropriately
15.    Being nude in public
16.    Being smothered
17.    Fire
18.    Failing an examination
19.    Flying
20.    Seeing yourself as dead
21.    Other- what?

I.  SENSATION and PERCEPTION

It is generally assumed that most people who are blind or deaf would prefer to have sight and hearing.  For this assignment, imagine yourself as Helen Keller (in today’s world) – she was deaf and blind.  Write a 1-2 page paper describing only the ADVANTAGES of not having sight and hearing.  This may cause you to have to rethink any stereotypes you may have – and be sure to discuss how your other senses would improve!

PART II –  PSYCHOLOGY APPLICATIONS

Select THREE of these topics, and explain your response within the context of the psychological principles that we have studied in our text this semester.  Your response to EACH of the three topics you choose should be at least 2-3 good paragraphs.  Your goal is to try to “prove” what you have learned about this topic BASED ON A PSYCHOLGOICAL PERSPECTIVE.

More points will be awarded for critical thinking and specific examples. Additional research and citations are not necessary, but you might want to make the effort, in order to increase your score!  Worth 25 points.

a)    Using animals for psychological research is inhumane and should be severely limited.

b)    In almost all cases, divorce is bad for children.

c)    If I had my life to live over, I would come back as the other gender.

d)    Mothers of young children should not work outside the home.

e)    Abstinence education is the best sex education for teenagers.

f)    Lie detector tests can prove guilt or innocence in a criminal case.

g)    A child’s personality is generally set and unchangeable after age 5.

h)    Insanity as a legal defense should be abolished.

i)    People who attempt suicide should be involuntarily committed to a locked psychiatric ward.

j)    Electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT) should be illegal.

k)    Prejudice in children results from prejudiced parents.

l)    Viewing televised violence creates violent children.

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