Monday, February 7, 2011

Genie

Psych 1 started the Nova documentary today "The Wild Child," which reflects on the story of "Genie" aka Susan Wiley. Genie was discovered at the age of 13 when her mother escaped the abusive father. Read more about Genie here: http://www.feralchildren.com/en/showchild.php?ch=genie

Here is a transcript of the video http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html

Story and pictures of Genie's brother, as well as more recent pictures of Genie http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4873347&page=1


Remember that while Genie was able to grow physically and develop relationships, full communication still evades her

Monday, January 31, 2011

Cognitive Development Stages - Piaget

Jean Piaget, the Swiss Cognitive Psychologist, helps us to understand the developmental stages of children related to cognitive tasks. Here are some video clips that illustrate these concepts.

Stage 1 - Sensorimotor Stage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue8y-JVhjS0&feature=related

Stage 2 - Preoperational Stage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLj0IZFLKvg&feature=related

Stage 3 - Concerte Operations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA04ew6Oi9M&feature=related

Stage 4 - Formal Operations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjJdcXA1KH8&feature=related

These clips were used in our lesson today!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Intelligence Test Project Resources



While working on your project try to stay true to your belief about intelligence. When creating your definition keep in mind that your end result is to assess your definition. This assessment should evaluate each individual taking the test to determine intelligence. Your test might include questions looking at different areas. The following websites have resources that may be helpful to you. You may use these as a reference:







http://www.intelligencetest.com/questions/index.htm
http://www.mensa.org/workout.php
http://www.quizrocket.com/intelligence-quiz
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index3.aspx?id=44&menu_id=793


Multiple Intelligences:
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/questions.cfm
http://www.howardgardner.com/FAQ/FREQUENTLY%20ASKED%20QUESTIONS%20Updated%20March%2009.pdf

Monday, October 25, 2010

Intelligence Test Project

Objective: Construct a psychological measurement that validly (and hopefully reliably) measures the intelligence of an individual. This test should assess intelligence defined by your group.


Requirements: (Things to include)
1. Name of your test, testing agency, group members.
2. Definition of intelligence. Your peers will be assessing if you were able to create an intelligence that that measures what you defined.
3. Norming population. What is your target population? How would you go about obtaining a representative sample for your target population? What procedures would you use to “norm” the test?
4. Administration procedure. How would the test be administered? Group? Individually? Are the directions to be read? What age group? ANY thing else that could be useful to individuals that would be administering the test. Are the administration guidelines clear?
5. Scoring procedure. How does the administrator score the test? Is there an IQ given? Is it a descriptive score? How are the results presented? And how does the administrator explain the results? Are the scoring guidelines clear?
6. Item analysis. Be sure that EVERY section of the test and EACH question on your test has criterion validity (each item relates to a particular characteristic of intelligence) Does your test measure what it is supposed to measure?

Things to think about:
1. Testing principles – reliability, validity, standardization, research ethics, etc.
2. How are you going to assess your definition? Is there going to be a score? A description? Is your definition measurable?
3. Validity: does the test measure what it is supposed to measure? (Content Validity, Face Validity)
4. Reliability: would your test give similar results if administered more than once (Test-retest Reliability, Split-Half Reliability)
5. Feel free to look at other achievements tests, intelligence tests, etc. for inspiration. DO NOT COPY THEM!!!!!!!!! This is considered to be plagiarism and will result in an F on this assignment as well as disciplinary action.
6. Try to stay true to what you believe is intelligence.

Assessment:
1. On November 1 we will be doing a peer evaluation of your intelligence test.
2. Have 7 COMPLETE copies of your Intelligence Test Project (MUST INCLUDE ALL ELEMENTS)
3. See handout for a copy of the rubric.
4. Your grade will be computed as the following:
     a. Score on the project = (Mrs. Hardwick’s evaluation + Average score from peer evaluation)/2

So in essence, I will add my evaluation score to the AVERAGE score given to you by your peers, then divide by 2. (Averaging the two together) WHY?? It is important that you are not only able to do the task set in front of you, but you are also able to produce a product others can understand. An invaluable skills is to be able to clearly express yourself.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Milgram Experiment - Modern Day

In the 1960s Stanley Milgram conducted research to answer the question - How far will people obey authority? His results were shocking, over half of his participants were willing to give an innocent "learner" high voltage shocks. A few years ago after the disturbing images from the treatment of prisoners at Abu Grahib, researchers were asking the same questions again. Their results? Read the article below to gain some insight.




http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2765416&page=1

Monday, August 23, 2010

Significant Contributors to Psychology

This week Psychology 1 students are researching "Significant Contributors" to the various fields of Psychology.  Monday and Tuesday students should be researching their assigned psychologist and preparing an informational poster about that individual. Wednesday (August 24) the poster should be complete and will be on display in the Psych classroom for our "Walk Through Psychology History".

Below are some sites that could be used to research information for your informational poster.

Wiki's list of Famous Experiments - scroll down to find the Psychology Section
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famous_experiments

Classics in the History of Psychology - search the site for various articles
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/index.htm

Psychologist Biographies
http://allpsych.com/biographies/index.html

History and People of Psychology - Psychology Encyclopedia
http://www.psychology.org/links/People_and_History/

Reminder that the poster is worth 20 points - 5 extra credit if - it is typed, colorful and has a picture of the psychologist! See your handout from class for more information.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

WELCOME BACK!!!

Wednesday, August 18 we begin the 2010-2011 school year. Oh boy did that summer go by fast. I hope all the Psychology students had a summer filled with friends, family and relaxation. Thank you for taking Psychology at BNHS this year - we are going to have a great time! Feel free to peruse this blog at your leisure, checking out previous postings and links included on the site. As always, please let Mrs. H know if you have found an interesting site, video, audio clip, etc. that is applicable to our current topic in Psychology.