Introduction xi

Introduction

This Instructor’s Resource Manual is for use with the 8th edition of Understanding Psychology by Charles G. Morris and Albert A. Maisto. This introductory section describes the contents of the various chapters, lists other resources available to the instructor, and offers suggestions for final projects and special assignments.

Format of this Manual

The contents of each chapter are described below:

• A Chapter Outline highlights the main points discussed in the chapter.

• Learning Objectives that students should master after reading each chapter are listed. These correspond to the learning objectives that students will find in the Study Guide accompanying the textbook.

• Lecture Suggestions provide detailed descriptions of topics not included in a chapter but relevant to its content. These suggestions give enough information upon which to structure a presentation and list references for further review.

• Discussion Topics were gathered from Tony Morris’s considerable experience in the classroom. Each chapter includes several “conversation starters” to illustrate and extend the material covered in the textbook. Consider assigning these discussion topics ahead of time, so that students will have thought about the issues and be prepared to talk about them.

• Demonstrations and Activities describe class projects, in-class mini-experiments, debates, and other activities useful in presenting information and promoting student involvement. Many chapters include handouts to facilitate your use of several of these demonstrations.

• A set of Student Assignments is available in each chapter. These are suggestions for written reports, class presentations, and graded exercises that students can complete outside of class.

• The Video section lists films from a variety of sources, from “classics” to recent presentations. Running times and brief descriptions are given for each film; a master list of video distributors is included at the end of this manual.

• The Multimedia section highlights material available on CD-ROM and on-line. These valuable resources will help you create dynamic presentations and provide additional information to enhance your students’ learning.

• Prentice Hall has developed a set of Transparencies for use with introductory psychology textbooks. A guide to the specific transparencies suitable for use in each chapter is given. Your Prentice Hall representative will be happy to provide you with more information about this resource.

• Handouts are reproduced for use with demonstrations and activities discussed in each chapter.


Enhancing Your Course

On the next several pages are suggestions for activities that can be used on a semester-long basis in your Introductory Psychology course. The first two sections summarize activities that are mentioned in greater detail throughout this manual. The last section discusses several ideas that can be used as final course projects or as substantial written assignments.

Applying Psychological Principles to Literature and Film

There has been a call for introductory psychology assignments that encourage students to apply psychological principles to their lives outside of the classroom. In response, several writers have advocated using literature (e.g., Bennett, 1985; Williams & Kolupke, 1986) and feature films (e.g., Fleming, Piedmont, & Hiam, 1990; Kinney, 1975; Nissim-Sabat, 1979) to improve writing and critical-thinking skills; to increase the perceived relevance of psychological principles; and to illustrate the connection between art and psychology.

Presented below is a list of books and feature films that are recommended for use as writing assignments in the introductory psychology course (although this is by no means an exhaustive list; you might have favorites of your own that you’d like to add). The books and films are presented here, according to the chapter and topic for which they are most relevant, so that you can get some idea before the semester starts of the titles available for final papers, extra-credit assignments, or alternatives to make-up exams. If you require a final paper, for example, you may want to select a subset of four to six novels or films representing different areas of psychology and describe these on your syllabus. This way, students can choose a project that corresponds both to their interests and their schedules. Or, if you prefer, you can preread or prescreen a title of your choice and assign all students to the same book or film during the coverage of the relevant chapter. Story synopses and suggested assignments can be found in more detail in the corresponding chapters of this instructor’s manual. Note that many of the titles listed are available in both book and video format, so you can decide whether to have students read a book, watch a film, or choose between the two. All titles listed here should all be readily available in your city or community; check for them at local bookstores, libraries, and video stores.

Chapter Item Content

2 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Neurological disorders

4 Altered States States of consciousness

Drugstore Cowboy Drug addiction

5 Walden Two Behaviorism

6 Total Recall Implanted memories

7 Children of a Lesser God Language barriers

Charly Mental retardation and genius

Little Man Tate Genius and giftedness

9 The Breakfast Club Adolescence

To Dance with the White Dog Aging

11 And the Band Played On AIDS

Longtime Companion AIDS

12 Clean, Shaven Schizophrenia

The Eden Express Schizophrenia

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer Antisocial personality

Nuts Insanity defense

13 David and Lisa Schizophrenia therapy

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest ECT, lobotomy

Ordinary People Depression therapy

Sybil Dissociative disorder

14 Boyz in the Hood Ethnicity, subculture

Defending Your Life Attribution, attraction

Erewhon Attraction, values

Europa, Europa Prejudice, discrimination

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Prejudice, discrimination

Lords of Discipline Obedience, conflict

Tootsie Sex and gender

Twelve Angry Men Conformity, group behavior

Bennett, S. M. (1985). Coordinated teaching of psychology and composition: A valuable strategy for students and instructors. Teaching of Psychology, 12, 26–27.

Fleming, M. Z., Piedmont, R. L., & Hiam, C. M. (1990). Images of madness: Feature films in teaching psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 17, 185–187.

Kinney, D. K. (1975). Cinema Thrillers: Review of films highly rated by psychology students. Teaching of Psychology, 2, 183–186.

Nissim-Sabat, D. (1979). The teaching of abnormal psychology through the cinema. Teaching of Psychology, 6, 121–123.

Williams, K. G., & Kolupke, J. (1986). Psychology and literature: An interdisciplinary approach to the liberal curriculum. Teaching of Psychology, 13, 59–61.

Using Debates to Promote Critical Thinking and Active Learning in the Classroom

Besides offering an exciting change of pace from other class activities, in-class debates promote lively, informed discussion of controversial psychological issues and are excellent for getting students to consider points of view other than their own. You might consider scheduling several debates throughout the semester to coincide with some of your favorite controversial topics, such as the value of electroconvulsive therapy or the ethics of animal research. A variety of issues that could create outstanding debates are suggested throughout the demonstration and activities section; a master list is also presented below to give you an overview of potential debate topics, (For more detail about a given topic, see the corresponding chapter of this Instructor’s Resource Manual.)

Although there are several ways to conduct debates, we recommend the following method. For each debate, select eight to twelve students (for two groups of four to six) beforehand to be participants; the rest of the class should serve as the audience. (Debates should be scheduled throughout the semester so that all students have the opportunity to experience a debate from the inside, as a participant, and also from the outside, as an observer.) Several days before a debate, assign all students (including the audience) to research the topic. You might provide one or two source articles for students and, depending on the depth of discussion you want, require the participants to find additional sources from the library. One excellent resource for background readings is Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Psychological Issues, which contains different issues discussed from both pro and con points of view (as reprinted from other sources). If you plan to assign several debates, consider making Taking Sides a required text. If you plan to conduct only one or two debates, you can put the original source readings on reserve in the library. Tell your students beforehand that they should come to class prepared to defend either side of the issue. This ensures that students carefully and thoroughly consider both sides of the issue rather than clinging to any preformed opinions.

On debate day, randomly assign students to a group and a position, and then allow groups to meet for about 10 minutes to build their arguments and decide on an opening statement. Give each group five minutes for an opening statement and then allow groups to take turns in rebuttal. During the debate, the audience should play a passive role (by jotting down any criticism or comments and holding them until after the debate), and the instructor should serve as a neutral mediator (e.g., by asking questions, writing key arguments for each side on the board). After the debate, conduct a class discussion in which you allow audience members to give their reactions and the participants to present their own opinions. Students typically become very involved in the issues and report that they gave both sides of the issue serious consideration, perhaps for the first time (some will even change positions as a result of points made during the debate).

Slife, B. (2000). Taking sides: Clashing views on controversial psychological issues (11th ed.). Guilford, CT: Dushkin Publishing Group.

Slife, B. (2002). Taking sides: Clashing views on controversial psychological issues (12th ed.). Guilford, CT: Dushkin Publishing Group.

Slife, B. (2003). Taking sides: Clashing views on controversial psychological issues (13th ed.). Guilford, CT: Dushkin Publishing Group.

Final Project Ideas

Many introductory courses involve a writing component, typically taking the form of “pick a topic of interest to you that we’ve discussed, and write a 10-page research paper on it.” As an alternative to that kind of substantial integrative exercise, you might consider the following assignments. They are highly recommended for the greater student involvement and active learning they engender, and for their ability to help students synthesize material from the entire breadth of the course.

The Game Project

Many instructors have assigned “The Game Project” instead of a major paper, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Working in groups of three, students are asked to create an original game incorporating their favorite psychological concepts. The key requirement is that their game—which can be entirely unique or modeled after an existing game (e.g., Jeopardy, Trivial Pursuit)—should be designed so that advancement or success in the game is dependent on knowledge of psychological concepts covered in the course. Students are asked to design the game for two, three, or four players, so that it takes approximately 20–30 minutes to play. Their games must also include clear, step-by-step instructions as well as all props needed to play (e.g., dice, cards, board, scoring sheets). Students turn in their games on the second-to-last day of class, and on the last day of class there is a pizza party/game day in which students get an opportunity to play one another’s games.

The response to this project has been outstanding. Students report that they enjoy the opportunity to review the material (without the pressure of a research paper) twice: Once while creating their own game, and once while playing other students’ games. Overall, they felt that the project was challenging and worthwhile, and they enjoyed the opportunity to be creative in their final projects. I am always extremely impressed at the creativity and ingenuity students have displayed—some of the games were so good they could almost be commercially marketed as is! An added benefit is that many of the games can be used in future classes as a fun review for students before exams.

Some criteria for grading the project: Consider the breadth or depth of material covered. Students are free to cover a broad range of information from across the course, or to focus on a more defined set of principles (“Skinner Boxing,” based on operant principles and complete with a boxing ring, was a wild success!). Regardless of the approach, reward mastery of the material. If breadth is emphasized, look for equal coverage of information. If depth is the criterion, grade on the cohesiveness of the concepts or on how they fit together as a logical unit. Effort and creativity should also be highly rewarded; I’m more impressed with a game that starts from scratch than one that simply covers up a Monopoly board with psychology questions. Finally, presentation counts: Neatness, quality of design, and visual impact should be judged. Ask students to submit a proposal several weeks before “game day” so you can judge the feasibility of the project and offer suggestions early on.

Adapted from Reedy, M. (1994). Psychology 101: Game project. Paper presented at the Seventeenth Annual National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, St. Petersburg Beach.

Media Portfolio

Rider (1992) describes a simple but worthwhile project that helps students to develop a scholarly understanding of course material and also to see the real-world relevance of psychological principles outside of the classroom. For this project, ask students to develop a “media portfolio” of newspaper and magazine clippings that illustrate psychological concepts. Encourage them to include samples from a wide variety of sources, including newspapers, magazines, editorials, advice and medical columns, cartoons, etc. Rider suggests that students collect at least 15 clippings distributed across each major unit of the course, and that they annotate each clipping by providing its source and explaining how it relates to a particular psychological concept, theory, or research finding from the text or lecture. [Note: After you have done this project once or twice, you can show students good examples of portfolios from previous classes.] Portfolios can be collected at the end of the semester and evaluated on four major dimensions: (a) relevance of the clippings to the course material, (b) accuracy of students’ descriptions, (c) breadth of coverage (i.e., across the range of course topics), and (d) originality (i.e., ability to make clever or nonobvious connections between clippings and concepts). Additional benefits suggested by Rider are that the portfolios are easy to grade, they can be used in large classes, they promote high student interest, and, perhaps most importantly, they stimulate students to continue to relate psychology to current events, even after the course ends.