Psychology: Final Project-- Due May 10, Tuesday

Psychology

Seven Assignment Review Packet

350 Points

            Introduction to Psychology

1. Write down 20 questions you have about psychology. Now try and answer them using what you learned in class. If you can’t find the answer, use one of the class set psychology books. Examples, why are my parents becoming grouchy lately? Why am I hungrier in the winter? Does hypnosis really work?

Approaches to Psychology

2. Write a dialogue between two psychologists who disagree on the nature of humans. One psychologist could be a proponent of the cognitive approach, for example. The other might believe more in the behaviorist approach. Try to make the dialogue as realistic as possible. The two could argue, let’s say about why gambling seems to be on the rise or why students drop out of school.

Brain, Body and Behavior

3. Several advertisers explicitly use the theory of left and right hemisphere dominance to promote their products. For example, they openly claim that their products appeal to the left hemisphere and then supply statistics. At the same time, they claim that their products appeal to the right hemisphere and then supply vivid, emotional pictures.

Other than obvious examples, do advertisers direct their sales pitches to one hemisphere or another? To find out, collect 5 magazine ads that appeal primarily to the left hemisphere, 5 that appeal to the right hemisphere, and 5 that appeal to both hemispheres. Tape or paste each ad onto a sheet of paper, and provide captions explaining why you chose these ads.

            Motivation and Emotion

4. Make a list of everything that you ate yesterday. Next to each food item, write “I “if the item was eaten primarily because of internal cues (for example, you were hungry), or write “E” if the item was eaten primarily because of external cues (it was time to eat, everyone else was eating, the food was there, and so on). For some items both I and E may apply. In this case, pick the cue that seemed dominant or stronger at the time.

Analyze your list. Is there a pattern? Do you eat for different reasons at different times of the day, for instance? Which cues seem to play a greater role in your eating habits? Explain.

            Infancy and Childhood

5. This activity will help you examine how much your personality is influenced by your heredity and how much by your environment. Make a list of 10 characteristics that you have in common with your parents/guardians. The characteristics can be physical, mental, and behavioral-- just about any similarity that you can think of. After each item, write down whether the characteristic, in your opinion, is influenced mainly through heredity or mainly through environment.

Next, have one of your parent/guardian make the same list following the same instructions, but don’t let him or her see your list

Compare the two lists. Were the characteristics listed pretty much the same? Were your conclusions about heredity and environment about the same? What general conclusions can you draw from this? For example, which kinds of characteristics (physical, mental, behavioral, and so forth) seemed to be most influenced by heredity? Least influenced by heredity? Explain.

            Adolescence

6. This activity will give your parents/guardians to reminisce about their own adolescence. Have your parents/guardians think back on their adolescent years and have them make a list of things that an adolescent needed to do in order to be “cool” (or what it meant to be “uncool”). Ask them to include at least 10 items. Without looking at their list, write your own list of things an adolescent needs to do today in order to be “cool.”

Compare and contrast the two lists. What are some similarities and differences? Based on the lists, would you say that the period called adolescence has changed much in the past 20 or 30 years? Explain. Finally, show the two lists to your parents/guardians and discuss their reactions to the lists.

            Gender Differences

7. It seems that everyone has some opinion on gender differences. Men are better drivers. Women have a more sophisticated sense of humor. Write a journal entry essay (one to one-half pages) in which you discuss some of your own opinions about gender differences. Some areas you may want to address: sports, work, school, emotions, romance.