Friday, May 14, 2010

Blog Assignment 7: Looking forward and back

This will be the last course blog assignment. Starting next week, you'll be posting comments to one another's individual blogs, but there won't be a common assignment for the entire group.

So let's do a little looking back as well as some looking forward.


Blog Assignment 7 | Due Wednesday May 19 | 3:00 pm
GOALS: 1) Reflecting on your learning, 2) Offering advice to future students

What's been your favorite assignment from another course you've taken? Give the course name and briefly describe the assignment. What made it a good assignment, and what did you learn from doing it?

What advice would you give future students for the first half of this course?

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Blog Assignment 6 | An Image is Worth 1000 Angry Words

This coming Wednesday, May 12, we're going to be discussing the popular belief that "It's better to express anger to others than to hold it in." We'll be examining whether people commonly think it's healthier to express your anger or to suppress it, and what the research literature has to say on the issue.

It's also the second half of the course, which means you're busy researching your own
blog. I'd like to see people include images in their blogs as evidence to prove a point, as a concise way to capture complex concepts or emotions, or simply as comic relief.

Blog Assignment 6 | Due Wednesday May 12 | 3:00 pm
GOALS: 1) Practice finding images to illustrate a belief 2) Analyze an image

Your task is two-fold:

1) Find an online image that makes a point about expressing anger and whether or not it's good for you.

The point could be that expressing anger is cathartic, or damaging, or healthy. It could convey that suppressing your anger is damaging - or perhaps it keeps you out of trouble. Whatever image you choose, it shouldn't just show someone expressing or suppressing anger, but it should convey that the person thrives or suffers (or something in between) because of it.

Provide a link to the image so that the rest of us can view it.

The visual image could be just about anything that has a spatial element:
- a photo
- a drawing
- a web comic
- a graph or chart
- a video
- a map
It could include words, but the spatial layout of information should be important for it to qualify as a visual.


2) Analyze the image. This involves two discrete steps. Make it clear which is which.

A. First, what do you see in the image? Describe what's actually there, without any interpretation.

B. Second, what do you infer from the image? If it's a graph, what does it suggest about anger? If it's an emotional image with people or animals, what is the relationship between the characters and what emotions does the image convey? Most importantly, what does it say about the popular belief

"It's better to express anger to others than to hold it in."

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Directory: Individual Blog Projects

This is it! This is where you should post the url for your individual blog. Please add a quick sentence describing your myth so that people are enticed to check it out (you can just cut and paste the description of your myth from Assignment #5 if you like).

Deadline: Monday, May 17, 12:00 noon

All blogs should be live with a Welcome page by that deadline, and all urls should be listed here.

If you need a copy of the guidelines for the final blog project, they are posted on the course Angel website, under "Readings and Assignments."

Happy blogging!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Blog Assignment 5 | Key Words and Internet Research

This coming Wednesday, we’ll begin discussing your individual blog projects and we’re taking a mini field-trip to the library to launch your research (ok, not as cool as a field trip to the zoo, but decidedly more relevant). This week's blog assignment is to help you prepare for that discussion.

Because You Asked: When Sven and I met this week to discuss your feedback on the course, he said that one simple improvement would be to have these weekly blog comments due a little later in the day. That’s a reasonable request. So the new deadline is 3:00 pm on Wednesday, instead of noon. I want to read them before class so I can direct our discussion accordingly.

Blog Assignment 5 | Due Wednesday May 5 | 3:00 pm

GOALS 1) Share your blog topic with the class, 2) Strategize on search terms


1) What is the myth that you’ll be researching in this class? In two to three sentences, why does it interest you?

2) Good search terms are critical to good research. How will you identify good search terms to use? Suggest a new strategy that no one has listed.

3) What’s the best piece of advice you’ve heard (or perhaps discovered yourself) about doing research online?

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Blog Assignment 4 | Sorting Savvy Sources

One of the goals of this course is to build your research skills. Everyone needs to pick a blog topic / popular myth by this Wednesday (so exciting!), and you’ll soon begin researching your blog, if you haven’t already. This week’s blog assignment relates to the sources you’ll be using.

Blog Assignment 4 | Due Wednesday April 21 | 12:00 noon

GOALS 1) Develop criteria for the popular sources we use in this course 2) Practice applying those criteria

In order to investigate your myth, you need to be able to distinguish reputable and useful sources from questionable ones. Later in the course, we’ll talk about how to judge the quality of a published scientific journal article. But first, let’s look at popular sources, the kinds of things the average person would find when they do a quick internet search on a topic. After all, when someone has a question about something they've heard, these are probably the kinds of sites they will read first.

Your task this week is two-fold:

1) What makes a website, blog, or Wikipedia entry one that’s credible and reliable? Describe one or two standards that you would use to determine if a site a) is scientifically based or b) rises above the reasoning errors we’ve been discussing in class.

You can also elaborate upon a standard that someone else has posted. It’s perfectly fine to disagree with someone else’s post, but please do so courteously. Recall we’ve agreed that we won't make assumptions, we'll critique the idea, not the person, and because tone is very hard to convey online, we won't use sarcasm.

2) Post a website that’s related to the course and evaluate it based on the standard(s) you’ve proposed. The site could be one of the best sites you’ve seen or it could be abysmal – the point is to practice applying your criteria.

The topic of the site you choose should address something we will be discussing in class in the future. It could address
- popular myths about psychology in general
- the autism epidemic, which we’ll discuss on Monday
- the notion that memory works like a video camera (Wednesday’s topic)
- the complex issue of repressed memories (topic for Monday, April 26)

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Blog Assignment 3 | Duking it Out

This coming Wednesday, April 14, we're going to have a semi-structured debate in class about gender differences in aggression. Here's the basic question we'll be debating: Are boys more aggressive than girls?

It’s a hotly debated topic, trust me, and there is plenty of evidence for either side. I say "boys" and "girls" rather than "men" and "women" because we're going to be focused on kids. Let's limit the discussion to children under the age of 10.

Blog Assignment 3 | Due Wednesday April 14 | 12:00 noon
GOALS: 1) Share knowledge and resources for the course 2) Prepare to take a position in class

Your task is two-fold:

1) Take a position.

POSITION 1: Under the age of 10, boys are more aggressive than girls.
POSITION 2: Little boys aren’t really more aggressive than little girls.

I would like a balanced debate, so I’m asking that half the class take position 1 and the other half take position 2. To make your position obvious, start your post with these capital letters (POSITION 1 or POSITION 2). Folks who post early will get to pick their position, but folks who post later – please review what your classmates have argued and pick the position that’s under-represented. The discussion and debate will be so much more interesting if both sides have a voice.


2) Find a resource to support your position.

- Do some web research and find a resource that supports your position. It can be a full article on the topic or it could be an abstract to a journal article. It shouldn't, however, just be a mom's blog about her over-aggressive son or daughter.

- Read the article or abstract.

- Describe one of the arguments the article or abstract makes in support of your position. (See my example below). You don't have to make an elaborate, four paragraph argument here - you can save the big guns for the in-class debate.

- Post the link to the article so others can find it.


Look, Ma! No clunky url. For the last assignment, I had folks post long urls to webpages, but I should have shown you the very cool "LINK" feature. You can see this feature when you're writing your comment to be posted. Once you've found the website you want to use, look at the toolbar on the top and click on the 5th icon from the left (on my monitor, it looks like a sickly, green globe with a chain link on it). This embeds the link within the post.

POSITION 2: For example, I found a great article by Hyde (1984). This article reviews 143 studies that looked at gender differences in aggression. According to this study, gender differences in aggression were going down in more recent studies, especially when the researchers looked at the parents’ or teachers’ reports of kids’ behavior. Of course, this study was published in 1984, 26 years ago, but let's look past that fact for the moment.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Blog Assignment 2 | The Wonder Years

This Wednesday, we’re going to begin talking about child development and popular parenting beliefs.

Blog Assignment 2 | Due Wednesday April 7 | 12:00 noon
GOALS: 1) Create a feeling of community and familiarity 2) Practice finding and linking images

Since we’re going to be thinking about a child’s environment, tell us where you grew up and post a link to an interesting online picture taken in your home city or region. It doesn’t have to be a picture you took yourself - just an interesting photo. In addition to that link, describe one belief that your parents / grandparents / guardians had about how children develop (or how you should be raised) that you
found a little questionable at times. It could be something that you agree with now, or something that you still find sketchy.