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Senior Seminar
Homework Questions & Tips for Reading
Assignments
Note: These questions are intended to help you get the most out of
your reading and to prepare you to participate in the class discussion. Your notes on the reading should not
be limited to the questions below, but you should be sure to address each of
these questions somewhere in your notes.
Other reactions and ideas that come to you as you read should also be
recorded. Type up your notes and submit
before 6 p.m. on Monday. Having done
this, you should be ready to engage in an involving analysis and debate over
the material.
Chapter 1—The
Beginnings of Psychological Practice
1.
The authors state that “psychological services” have been provided to
people since the beginning of recorded history.
Have any of your other courses taught you about these prescientific
purveyors of psychological services?
2.
How does the “Lake Wobegon Effect” apply to phrenology? Does this indicate a conscious effort to bias
the data?
3.
Do you think there could be any validity to physiognomy? (Consider FAS children, race-related bone
structure & cultural differences, etc.)
If you have a favorite literary passage suggesting physiognomy, add it
here.
4.
Mesmerism (or animal magnetism) has been regarded by some as the
beginning of psychotherapy in America.
Explain how one could support this claim.
5.
Did you ever play with a Ouija board?
Were you ever tempted to believe in its powers? Any surprise as to its background in
spiritualism?
6.
These pages introduce the early efforts to apply psychology to child
study, counseling, schools, and the workplace.
Find a few things to comment upon.
1.
What was the asylum movement? How
was moral therapy an improvement over the earlier treatments?
2.
In the larger asylums, why did so few patients receive rehabilitative
care?
3.
Why is Witmer so important?
4.
In Galton’s day, who was smarter—morons or idiots?
5.
American psychologists were impressed with Freud’s abilities as a
scientist—right?
6.
Describe the turf war between the Emmanuel Movement, physicians, and
psychologists? Who won? Was this a good thing?
7.
Why did Leta Hollingworth propose certified training for clinical
psychologists? How much training did she
advocate?
8.
For extra credit: Make a brief
report on the phrenology sites on the internet.
Some of them can be found through the history of psychology links listed
at www.humboldt.edu/~campbell/p480links.htm
Be sure to check out the "History of Phrenology on the Web"
site, http://pages.britishlibrary.net/phrenology/
9.
Psychology was roaring in the Roaring 20s. Explain this “outbreak” of psychology?
10.
The early clinical psychologists earned a living primarily by making
psychological assessments. What did their
early assessment instruments measure?
11.
Why was the Rorschach Test so popular in the 1940s and 50s? Why did it lose its place of prominence?
12.
How was psychology’s role different in WWI and WWII? In what ways did clinical psychology benefit
in the aftermath of WWII?
13.
What is the “Boulder Model”? Do
you agree with it? Would you favor the
alternative Psy.D. programs if you were going into applied psychology?
14.
Who opened the door to psychologists allowing them to work as psychotherapists?
15.
Clinical psychology was supposed to be based upon scientific
findings. Why was this so difficult to
demonstrate?
16.
The chapter traces briefly the progression of psychotherapy from psychoanalysis
to behaviorism to humanistic psychology to cognitive psychology.
Do you have a preference among these?
17.
Report on the APA Division 42 website.
http://www.division42.org/
18. What are the “hot topics” in current issues of Professional Psychology? Either examine issues in the library, or use the web: Go to the HSU Library
Databases and select PsycARTICLES. Select “Browse Journals” and then “Browse Journals by Name.” Go to Professional Psychology, click on
“Issue List,” then “Table of Contents,” and you should be able to take it from there.
Chapter
3—School Psychology
1.
What led to the child saving movement?
2.
Note that Goddard and Terman studied different tails of the intelligence
distribution. Is there anything about
this research that makes you uncomfortable?
Explain?
3.
Was Witmer primarily an advocate of the nativist or the environmentalist
position? What do you think of this guy?
4.
When and where was the Thayer Conference held? What was its significance? What did it accomplish?
5.
What was Sputnik? How did it
create new work for the school psychologist?
6.
How did the IDEA impact school psychologists?
7.
Why was NASP formed? What is your
assessment of the professional standards created by this organization (degree
level, number of graduate units, etc.)?
8.
NASP is seen as primarily practicioner-oriented and lacking in
scientific interests or ties to the larger psychological community. Your comments?
9.
Report on the website for Division 16:
http://www.indiana.edu/~div16/index.html
10.
What are the current hot topics in School
Psychology Quarterly? Either examine
issues in the library, or use the web:
Go to the HSU Library Databases
and select PsycINFO. Select the "Advanced" tab (if it
doesn’t open with this selected). Type:
school psychology quarterly in the first "terms" space. Then
directly under it, click on the down arrow to get the drop down menu and
selected "source." Then click on "search" and you
will see a list of over 300 articles from School Psychology Quarterly beginning
with most recent. Examining the titles
of these articles will give you some idea of what school psychologists are up
to. Click on "Complete Record"
and you will get the full abstract for each article. Spend a little time with this article listing
and you should soon be confident that you know what researchers have been doing
in the area of "school psychology."
1.
Application of psychology to business and industry goes way back. Which I/O course in our department has roots
extending to an 1895 questionnaire survey?
What economic forces encouraged this research topic?
2.
What is the significance of the research done by Hollingworth for the
Coca-Cola Company?
3.
Do you see a difference in the research approaches of Hollingworth and
Watson? Do you think it appropriate for
psychologists to work in the service of advertising agencies and marketing
departments?
4.
Did Taylor’s principles of scientific management make sense to you? What happened to cause his ideas to be banned
in government agencies?
5.
Journal of Applied Psychology
began publication during WWII with emphasis on psychology applied to the
workplace. Examine recent contents (in
library or on PsycARTICLES database. Is
this emphasis still apparent today?
6.
Evaluate the logic in the quotation by Henry Link on p. 135. Do you agree with it?
7. How was Taylorism different from the
industrial psychology of the 1930s?
8. What is the original meaning of “The
Hawthorne Effect”? What does it mean in
the context of research design?
9. What did the Hawthorne researchers find
regarding the correlation between worker performance and ability? What implications did this have for
industrial psychologists?
10. What is human factors? Why did it emerge? What do these folks do today? You can browse the contents of Human
Factors or Ergonomics using PsycINFO. Just go to library.humboldt.edu and select “Journal and Newspaper
Finder.” For recent articles in Human
Factors, you type in this journal name and hit “return,” then select
“OmniFile_FT_Mega” in the page that results.
On the next page that opens, just hit “GO” without entering any issue
info. The result should be a list of
issues with articles beginning with the most current. For the journal Ergonomics, the
procedure is similar. If you need a bit
of diversion about now, take a look at some of the examples of product design
that failed to benefit from the
services of a human factors psychologist: http://www.baddesigns.com/
11. How did the civil rights legislation (on
discrimination in employment decisions) affect the work of I/O psychologists?
12. Describe the parallels between OD and clinical/counseling
psychology.
13. Report on the websites for Divisions 14 and
21.
http://www.apa.org/divisions/div21/
1.
Describe the progressive movement in the early 20th century.
2.
What is a settlement home? What
was Frank Parsons’ contribution to the Civic Service House in Boston? Which university became the home of the
program he developed?
3.
Describe the battle between psychology and education for the vocational
guidance turf. Does this specialty more
properly belong in a school of education or in a department of psychology (in
your humble opinion)? Support your
position.
4.
What was Leta Hollingworth’s contribution to the 1916 book Vocational Assessment?
5.
Based on Paterson’s research at the University of Minnesota, what is the
correlation between physical traits and intellectual ability? Would you really expect this correlation to
be zero?
6.
Many of our psychology faculty did not have to pay for their graduate
education—their departments covered their academic expenses including enough
for apartment rent and food. What
federal legislation set this “gift” of training grants in motion? Do these training grants still exist?
7.
Describe the difference between clinical and counseling psychologists
with reference to the 1950 Ann Arbor conference.
8.
When Carl Rogers suggested that the counselor be supportive but refrain
from administering tests or providing direct advice, how was he received by
other counselors? Where are you on this
issue?
9.
What consequences did Sputnik have for counseling psychologists?
10.
In 1959, an APA committee issued a report on the status of counseling
psychology. What happened?
11.
One outcome of the Greyston Conference was a Division 17 document
defining counseling psychology. Briefly,
what was this definition?
12.
Compare the websites for APA Division 17 and the American Counseling
Association:
Chapter 6—The
Psychological Profession in the 21st Century
1.
What is managed care? How has it
impacted psychologists?
2.
“The golden age of psychotherapy is gone. In fact, doctoral-level psychologists may
soon be extinct as providers of psychotherapy.”
Explain and provide your reaction to these claims.
3.
“The prescription train for psychologists has already left the station
and it does not appear that it can be stopped.”
Briefly, what are the arguments pro and con?
4.
To what extent did Munsterberg’s 1908 book cover the current topics in
forensic psychology? Did he miss any?
5.
How old is sports psychology?
What do these folks actually do?
6.
How are “leading causes of death” statistics related to the growth of
health psychology?
7.
Have you tried stress inoculation techniques in your own life? Do they seem to help?
8.
Which of the three new specialties (forensic, sports, health) appeals
most to you? Why? If interested, take a
look at the APA division sites for these respective specialties and tell me
what you think—Psychology and Law: http://www.ap-ls.org/
, Exercise & Sport Psychology: http://www.psyc.unt.edu/apadiv47/index.html
, Health Psychology: http://www.health-psych.org/
9.
What is the Ph.D. vs. Psy.D. dispute all about? After reading this material, do you feel that
the Psy.D. is a second-rate doctoral degree?
10.
Why are practice guidelines controversial? Might these encourage mental health
practitioners to be more scientific in their work?
11.
Does the final section, “The Future of the Profession,” leave you
feeling optimistic or pessimistic about the practice of psychology? Explain.
1.
Why start the roots of psychology in ancient Greece and Rome?
2.
Hippocrates rejected the priests.
What was his disagreement with them?
Describe his theory of humors.
3.
You wouldn't want to be a slave in Galen's time. Why?
Did his ideas have lasting impact?
4.
Any reactions to the ancient uses of math? (ancient Egyptians vs. Thales &
Pythagoras)
5.
Socrates was the teacher of Plato who was the teacher of Aristotle. In what ways was each of these people
different? Which one appears most
“modern” in his thinking?
6.
Are you more of an epicurean or a stoic?
Would the world be better off if more people were like you (in the
epicurean/stoic sense)? Explain your
reasoning. Which of these two “styles”
best characterizes the students you know today?
7.
Extra Credit—for this and all
chapters in the Hothersall text, report on some of the web links associated
with the chapter at www.humboldt.edu/~campbell/p480linksHoth.htm You will also find helpful review material
on the publisher’s study site (e.g., practice quizzes).
Chapter 2—Philosophical & Scientific
Antecedents of Psychology
1. Galileo's interest in learning about the world
through empirical observation was so radical that he nearly lost his head. Consider how different the world was then. What do you think they taught at the
universities if there was no science (as we know it)?
2.
Descartes’ influence on scientific thinking was simply huge. Which information about this man do you find
most interesting? Explain your
selection.
3.
Describe the issue involved in the nativism vs. empiricism debate. Which philosophers represented each
side? Which side do you agree with most,
and why do you favor this side?
4.
What were the associationists up to?
Try to put yourself in their shoes.
Were they nativists or empiricists?
Do their efforts make sense to you?
5.
Berkeley (or “Berserkeley”) is often described as a pretty extreme
university town. The man it was named
after seemed a bit extreme as well. Do
you agree?
6.
Don’t forget the extra credit opportunity—exploring the web links on the
student site at http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072849657/student_view0/
Chapter 3—Early Studies of the Central
Nervous System
1.
Prepare notes tracing the series of scientific questions on the CNS from
frog leg reflex to neural "conduction" of electricity to speed of
neural conduction...up to questions about localization of brain function. (That is, sort out the various research questions
as you work through the reading assignment.
And provide answers to these questions—after all, these are your study
notes)
2.
Scientists are human--and they don't always get along. Consider the Magendie-Bell or Golgi-Cajal
disputes. Your reactions?
3.
Introductory psychology texts sometimes appear to make fun of phrenology--"What
a stupid idea!" But maybe it wasn’t
such a goofy idea after all. Do Gall’s
efforts seem reasonable to you when considered in their social/historical context?
4.
Is there an ethical problem with electrical stimulation of the
brain? Consider Fritsch & Hitzig or
Bartholow or Penfield.
5.
We have our contemporary analogs to phrenology. Consider astrology, biorhythm analysis, and
ESP. Or maybe they are not analogous. What do your think?
Chapter 4—Wilhelm Wundt & the
Founding of Psychology
1.
Wund’s first American student, James Cattell, comes across as a brash
American—agreed? Besides being highly
intelligent in an arrogant way, another text says he displayed erratic behavior
as a student that "may have been due to his frequent use of alcohol,
nicotine, opium, hashish, and morphia."
Have students changed much in the past 120 years?
2.
Why couldn’t Wundt and his buddy Bunsen find a subject for their
salt-urine study? Do you think
researchers should act as subjects in their own studies more often these days?
3.
After reading about Wundt in this weeks' assignment, pull out your
introductory psychology text (or go to the HSU Bookstore and examine one of the
texts for Psyc 104) and read the description of Wundt's contribution (probably
in chapter 1). How accurate is it? Does the author report that introspection was
a rigorous experimental technique or that most of Wundt's research did not
involve introspection? Is his later work
on cultural psychology included, or does it appear that Wundt was only
interested in the "structure of the mind"?
4. Why is "introspection" a
poor choice of words for "experimental self-observation"?
5. Wundt was a lively and popular lecturer, despite his odd way of
shuffling into the lecture hall. He attracted students from all over the
world. He you even had a professor with this level of fame and
influence? Would you like to?
6.
Wundt's lab represented the beginning of the "brass
instrument" era of psychology.
Provide a brief report on the Museum of the
History of Psychological Instrumentation.
Chapter 5—Edward Titchener & Hugo
Munsterberg
1.
Some have called Titchener a disciple of Wundt. In what ways is this true? In what ways were they different?
2.
Write a brief description of "structuralism" in your own
words.
3.
Was Titchener a supporter or an antagonist of women in psychology?
4.
Munsterberg was a supporter of applied psychology. In what areas did he "apply" it?
5.
Describe the industrial psychology that Munsterberg "founded."
6.
Compare and contrast Titchener and Munsterberg.
Chapter 6—German Psychologists of the 19th
and Early 20th Centuries
1.
Fechner was the founder of psychophysics. What exactly is
"psychophysics"? What was
Fechner's best known contribution? Why
should psychology majors get excited when Oct 22 rolls around?
2.
Ebbinghaus is famous for his monograph, On memory. Describe the
nature of his memory research. Who were
his subjects? Where did he get the idea
of using nonsense syllables? Would you
be able to do the type of research he did?
(Why or why not?)
3.
Brentano's work is a bit confusing.
Based on your reading, what is his "act psychology" and what
method did he use to study it?
4.
Stumpf was a skilled musician and loved the arts. How did his musical ability influence his
research accomplishments? Could Stumpf
be considered a developmental psychologist?
5.
What struck you as most interesting about the case of Clever Hans? What was the outcome? What is the "lesson" that
psychology students should retain from this investigation?
6.
What was the rift between Wundt's lab at Leipzig and Kulpe's lab
Wurzberg? What modern specialty in
psychology resembles the work at Wurzburg?
7.
Why are the German psychologists in this chapter generally forgotten
while Wundt is remembered?
Chapter 7—Gestalt Psychology in Germany
& the United States
1.
In what ways was Gestalt psychology “a new, more dynamic, more relevant
psychology?”
2.
Do you have any training in art?
Did the work of Gestaltists play any role in your training? (Consider the Arnheim comment on the role of
dynamic forms in sensory experience.)
3.
When did Gestalt psychology reach its peak? What caused its demise? How did the Americans come to the rescue?
4.
Contrast the views of Thorndike and Kohler on how animals learn.
5.
Have you ever had a teacher like Lewin—holding informal discussions at a
nearby café?
6.
Lewin was involved in a lot of interesting research projects. Which one would you have liked to work
on? What attracts you to it?
7.
Comment on the statement, “you can’t legislate goodwill.” What is your position? Is this consistent with what you have been
taught in your classes?
Chapter 8—The History of Clinical
Psychology & the Development of Psychoanalysis
1.
Your reading in Hothersall covers two topics so be ready to discuss each
separately--
a) Conceptions of mental illness:
1. Explain: “During most of recorded history the
plight of the mentally ill has been desperate.”
2. Bloodletting was a common medical treatment
until a century ago. What was the point?
3. Ever since the days of Rousseau, there have
been those who say people are inherently “good” and that modern civilization
corrupts them. The discovery of feral
children can be seen as a natural experiment related to Rousseau’s
beliefs. What do these experiments tell
us?
4. When did we stop treating the mentally ill
like criminals? Provide an example.
5. What do you think of psychosurgery, ECT, and
psychoactive drugs? Do they have a valid
role in modern treatment of mental illness?
b) Sigmund Freud and
psychoanalysis:
1. Was he really a cocaine addict?
2. Why did Freud stop using hypnosis? What did he use in its place?
3. Freud thought that patient memory of
childhood sexual experiences was usually fantasy. Modern research on repressed memory has led
Elizabeth Loftus and others to a similar position? Where are you in this debate?
4. Freud kept attracting “disciples” and then
kicking them out. What was his problem?
Chapter 9—Darwin, Galton, Cattell, James,
& Hall
1.
What led Darwin to develop his theory of evolution? Provide a concise statement of his theory in
your own words. If you were to take
part in a debate over creationism vs. evolution, which side would you
take? Do these two positions have to be
in conflict?
2.
Galton founded the Eugenics Society.
What is eugenics? When was it
popular and what caused its’ demise?
From a scientific perspective, is there anything wrong with the
basic principle of eugenics?
3.
Cattell’s Freshman Test didn’t predict academic performance. Why not?
What would have worked better?
4.
What made William James “America’s foremost psychologist”?
5.
What would you say was G. Stanley Hall’s greatest contribution?
Chapter 10—Functionalism and the
University of Chicago and Columbia University
1.
In what way does Dewey’s psychology show Darwin’s influence? In your opinion, is the education provided at
HSU consistent with Dewey’s educational philosophy? What about our senior seminar?
2.
How elegant were Thorndike’s puzzle boxes? What famous “law” was derived from his cats’
puzzle-solving abilities? How would you
rate the city you grew up in using Thorndike’s G and P scales?
3
What was functionalism’s fate?
Chapter 11—Historical Uses and Abuses of
Intelligence Testing
1.
In what ways did Binet’s approach to intelligence testing differ
from Galton’s and Cattell’s?
2.
What procedure did Stern suggest for reporting a person’s
intelligence? Why did Binet oppose this
procedure?
3.
What conclusions did Goddard reach when he administered the
Binet-Simon scale to schoolchildren in the U.S.? What procedures did Goddard suggest for stopping
the deterioration of intelligence in the U.S.?
Why is it OK to breed farm animals and pets but not OK to apply the same
principles to humans?
4.
In what important way did Terman modify the Binet-Simon
scale? What prompted Terman’s
longitudinal study of gifted individuals?
Summarize the results of Terman’s study of gifted individuals.
5.
How did Yerkes suggest that psychologists help in the war
effort? Was the effort that resulted
from this suggestion a success or a failure?
6.
Where do most psychologists stand today on the nature-nurture question
as it applies to intelligence?
7.
Check out (and prepare comments on) the National Park Services web site
for Ellis Island. www.nps.gov/archive/stli/serv02.htm#Ellis (You might also enjoy the museum site at www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island_history.asp ) Your text says “lunatics and idiots” were
barred from entry into this country by Congress in 1882. Who is barred from entry today? (It must be
on the web somewhere.)
Chapter 12—The Research of Ivan Pavlov
and the Behaviorism of John B. Watson
1.
Which professor is credited with sparking Watson’s intellectual
development as a psychologist? Can you
point to a teacher in your own experience that has had such an impact upon
you? (If not, who comes closest?)
2.
Watson designed a series of experiments to determine exactly how rats
learned to solve mazes. What do you
think was the larger research question that Watson was seeking to answer
through these experiments? Do you have
any problem with how he set about answering it?
3.
Have the antivivisectionists lost any of their fury in the past 100
years?
4.
Consider the coverage in the popular press of the work by Watson and
later by Myrtle McGraw. How valid were
the press reports in the 1920s and 30s?
Can we expect reporting that is more honest and unbiased from the
general media today?
5.
What was the real story of “Little Albert” and what was the
outcome? Describe the procedure that
Watson and Mary Cover Jones used to extinguish Peter’s fear of rabbits. What advice did Watson and Watson give on
child rearing?
6.
What was Watson’s final position on the role of instinct in human
behavior?
7.
Summarize how Pavlov would use his conditioning paradigm to determine
whether dogs are color blind.
8.
How did Pavlov and his associates make dogs crazy (neurotic)? Why would they do such a thing? And how did Pavlov explain differential
susceptibility to experimental neurosis?
9.
Who was Twitmyer?
10.
For extra credit, suppose Watson’s marketing firm was hired to come up
with a catchy product name and “jingle” to help sell Pavlov’s gastric
juices. If you were Watson, what names
and slogans would you propose?
Chapter 13—Four Neobehaviorist
Psychologists
1.
It is from Tolman that we got the concepts, independent variable,
dependent vairal, intervening variable.
Apply these three concepts to an interesting example representing your
own personal “theory” of human behavior.
(E.g., pick a problem behavior that you know something about, identify
the causes and other relevant factors.)
2.
When asked by his Ph.D. examining committee to identify objections to
behaviorism, Skinner said he couldn’t think of any. Do you consider this an example of graduate
student arrogance or a bit of necessary self-deception for someone who will
move the discipline forward? Or perhaps
you think he was correct—that behaviorism is a sufficient theory with no
weaknesses.
3.
Which of Skinner’s applications of operant conditioning (the air crib,
Project Orcon, Walden II, etc.) do your find most interesting? Why?
4.
Have you applied either type of conditioning in your personal life? With what consequences? Do you have any serious issues with this form
of behaviorism?
Epilogue and Introduction sections
1.
Epilogue--As you read this, think about the progress made in the
areas of psychology you know most about.
Do you agree that psychology is a “soft” science? In your opinion, which areas of psychology
are most valid? Least
valid?
2.
Introduction--How successful have we been in avoiding
"Whig" history?
3.
Psychology began as a male-dominated discipline. Now most psychology majors and half of our
new Ph.D’s are women. Do you think
psychology has become “feminized” over the years? In which ways might such a shift be
desirable?