Unit 3 Biological Bases of Behavior

Study Plan

Objectives

Understand the relationship between biology and behavior

Gain an understanding of the nervous system and its interrelationship with the endocrine system

Identify the parts and functions of the brain.

Explain the various methods used to study the brain.

Evaluate theories concerning the nature/nurture debate

Topic
1. Introduction to the Biological Bases of Behavior

Lecture: An overview
Reading and discussion: ‘The boy without . . .’

A Tragic Update to the case of David Reimer

2. Neural Communication and The Nervous System (Chapter 2)

PowerPoint Presentation

Lecture and demonstration:
Dominoes and Action Potential

Reaction-time Measure of Neural transmission and Mental Processes

More information can be found at this link.

Graphic Organzers and the Nervous System

3. The Brain

Mapping the brain through structure and function.

Graphic Organizer and the Brain

Psychsim 5 (See Myers support material)

"Brain and Behavior" and "Hemispheric Specialization"

Video “The Behaving Brain” and “The Human Body”

Split Brain PowerPoint Presentation

Handout 2-2: Challenging the myth that we only use 10% of our brains.

Visit this outstanding website on the brain.

4. Genetics and Behavior (Chapter 3)

Lecture: Evolutionary Psychology
Reading: “Our Cheating Hearts”
Handout 3-2

Handout 3-3

5. Seminar: The nature and nurture of behavior

Topic: That biology is destiny.

What is a Seminar Presentation ?

Focus Questions

1. What is the relationship between genes and behavior?

• Reading pp. 100-101

2. In what ways do the ideas of Evolutionary Psychology support/reject the argument that biology is destiny?

• pp. 101-107
• Article "Our Cheating Hearts"
• Article Cave Thinkers
• Article "Biology isn't destiny"

3. Behavior Genetics has provided numerous insights into the naturer/nurture debate. What contributions have been made to date?

• Reading pp. 108-116

4. How does the prenatal environment, early experiences, peer influences and culture effect behavior?

• Reading pp. 108-125

5. Is your sex/gender the most important thing about about you?

• Reading pp126-130
• The New Sex Scorecard

6. Review

Assessment

1. Chapter Test

2. Seminar

Focus:
What do you think is meant by the saying: “Biology is destiny” ?


To what extent do you agree with its implications?

Designing an Experiment

Design an experiment to test the effectiveness of a new aspirin product.

The hypothesis of the experiment is that the group who receives the new aspirin product will report a greater lessening of pain than the group who receives who do not receive the new aspirin product.

The IV is the administration of the drug. The experimental group would receive new aspirin product drug while the control group would receive a placebo.
The DV is the subject’s self-reports concerning the relief of pain. They would make their judgments on a 5-point scale.

A population of people suffering from pain would be identified and then a random sample selected. Random sampling would remove any confounding variable such as race, age, sex and so on. Generalizations can then be made to the entire population.

Participants would then be randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group. This also controls any possible confounding variables.

To control for experimenter bias and participant bias the experimental design would be a double blind one. Neither the administrator of the drugs nor the participants would know whether they are receiving the new aspirin product or a placebo.

Descriptive statistics would be used to display the data. Data would then be analyzed using inferential statistics. The average scores of the two groups would be compared. If the results showed a significant difference, i.e. the difference was not just a chance occurrence, then the hypothesis would be accepted.

Homework 29 August 2006

Design an experiment to test if a new aspirin product is effective in reducing pain.
Identify the following:
What is your hypothesis?
What is your IV and DV?
How will you obtain subjects for your experiment?
How will you group them?
What controls will you use to ensure a valid experiment?
How will you use statistics?

Dr Nasty's Experiment

Research Methodology

An Experiment Not to be Replicated

Dr. Nasty wants to understand how punishment changes student performance on math tests. He tells his psychology class they must be the subjects in his experiment. He assigns 10 students with the best GPA to the PUNISHMENT GROUP and 10 students with the lowest GPA to the WITHOUT PUNISHMENT GROUP. Dr. Nasty is sure that the PUNISHMENT GROUP will perform best. He carries out the experiment himself.
When students make a mistake on a math problem his give them a pinch on the arm. If they make another mistake he gives them two pinches. Nothing happens to the WITHOUT PUNISHMENT Group if they make a mistake though sometimes Dr. Nasty mutters that they are dumb. Both Groups complete the same problems, but the PUNISHMENT GROUP has to complete the experiment at 2 am when Dr. Nasty returns from a heavy night of disco dancing. The WITHOUT PUNISHMENT Group completes the problems at 9am. To Dr. Nasty’s surprise the average score of the WITHOUT PUNISHMENT GROUP is better than the WITH PUNISHMENT GROUP.
1. Identify the DV and the IV. (2)
2. Identify the hypothesis. (2)
3. Identify 3 flaws in the experimental design and explain why they would invalidate the experiment. (6)
4. Make suggestions as to how you would correct these flaws and explain why they would make the experiment more valid. (6)

Phillips Flawed Experiment

Model Answer

1. 1. The focal behavior of the experiment is the reading ability of young children and the factors that enhance this ability.


2. 2. The hypothesis is that watching one hour of an educational program like Sesame Street each day for 3 months will improve reading ability as measured by a standards reading test. Alternatively, the hypothesis is that the group who watched the educational TV show will have a higher mean reading score as measured by a standard reading test than the group that watch non educational TV shows.


3. The IV is the type of TV program watched, either educational or non educational.


4. The DV is the scores achieved on a standardized reading test.


5. 1) The experimenter told the participant’s parents his hypothesis and they may have tried to improve reading in other way. 2) The experimenter did not randomly select from a target population to remove confounding variables and enable generalizations to be made.
   3) The experimenter did not randomly assign participants to the two groups and this may have introduced confounding variables.
6. The experiment was not valid because it did not employ statistics to determine whether the results occurred by chance. Inferential statistic can determine the level of significance of the results, only then will the conclusion be valid.

Unit 2 Research Methods

Study Plan 2
Objectives
1.identify psychological research methods
2.critically evaluate psychological research to determine validity, reliability and ethicality


Topic
1. What is the Scientific Method?

2. Research Methods
Research Methods in Psychology
Exercise: Selecting the appropriate
research method

3. Experimental Design


4. An Introduction to Statistics
Psychsim5 Descriptive Statistics (See Myers Support Material)

5. Ethics
How to be ethical in psychology.
The APA Guidelines: General Principles

6. Video
Discoverying Psychology: Understanding Research


Assessment
Free Response Writing
Chapter Test

Unit One History and Approaches

Study Plan 1

Objectives
1. Define psychology and list its specialization and associated careers
2. Describe and critically appraise the major psychology perspectives

Topic

1. What is psychology?
a) Groupwork: Psychology Today and Yesterday
b) Instructions for your Weblog
c) Setting up your AP Blog. Post your first entry: My motivations for studying psychology.

2. What is AP Psychology?
a) Course requirements and assessment

3. History of Psychology
a) Reading pp 1-17
b) Prolugue PowerPoint
c) Video “Past Present and Promise”
d) The Perspectives and great names. PowerPoint Presentation
e) Class discussion: Why do we do the things that we do?

4. Approaches and Perspectives
a) Where do you stand on important psychological issues: Handout 1.4

5. Psychology as a Career
a) Interviews and reports
b) Video "Careers for the 21st Century"
What career in psychology appealed most to you?

6. Assessment
a) Chapter Pre-test
b) Chapter test
c) Read the article "Best of the Century" and write a weblog response that answers the following questions:
1. What have been the major changes in psychotherapy this century?
2. Twenty breakthroughs are identified. Which 5 do you think are the most important? Justify your answer. Identify what perspective is being taken by the psychologist.
Focus:
What comes to mind when you hear the word psychology. (List as many ideas as you can)

Weblog Instructions for Students

Weblog Basics
For Students

Setting up your blog
Go to http://blogger.com/

Step One
i. Choose a user name: You will use this to log on each time you want to make a posting to any one of your blogs:
Suggested format:
e.g. peteranthony2006 (no spaces)

ii. Display name: This name will appear as the author of postings and comments.To protect your privacy, do not use your full name:
e.g. Peter @ RIS
(spaces okay)
You can change this later.


Step Two
i. Blog Title: This is the name that will appear as your banner at the top of your blog.
Peter’s AP Psychology Blog (spaces okay)
You can change this later or delete it entirely and create a new blog.

ii. Blog Address (URL): This is the address of your blog so it is best to keep in simple.
e.g. peterappsychology2006 (no spaces)
(The entire URL in this case will be peterappsychology2006@blogspot.com is write this down until you add it to your favorites)
You can change this later.
Step Three
i. Choose your template
ii. Make a posting: This could be a welcome message to readers of your blog.


Fine-tuning your blog

Log on to Blogger using you user name and password.
Go to the Dashboard.
Go to Edit Profile. To ensure your privacy uncheck “Share my profile” This is an important consideration so that your privacy will be protected.
Return to the Dashboard
Select Change Setting Icon (It is a blue cog.)
You have a number of tabs most of which are for advanced use only.
Go to the Formatting tab and change to Thailand Time
Go to the Comments tab and select “Show Word Verification for Comments”. (This will stop you being spammed.)