Psychology, Day 3

Psychology's Scientific Method

2. Types of Psychological Research

1. Descriptive Research
1. Observation
2. Surveys and interviews
3. Case studies
4. The value of research

2. Correlational Research
1. Correlation is not causation
2.  the value of correlational research
3. Longitudinal designs

3. Experimental Research
1. Independent and dependent variables
2. Experimental and control groups
3. Some cautions about experimental research
1. Experimenter bias
2. Research participant bias and the placebo effect

4. Applications of the Three Types of Research

Descriptive research:  research that determines the basic dimensions of a phenomenon, defining what it is, how often it occurs, and so on

Case Study/History:  an in-depth look at a single individual

Correlational Research:  research that examines the relationships between variables, whose purpose is to examine whether and how two variables change together

Third Variable Problem:  the circumstance where a variable that has not been measured accounts for the relationship between two other variables.  Third variables are also known as confounds

Longitudinal Design:  a special kind of systematic observation, used b correlational researchers, that involves obtaining measures of the variables of interest in multiple waves over time

Experiment:  a carefully regulated procedure in which the researcher manipulates one or more variables that are believed to influence some other variable

Random Assignment:  researchers' assignment of participants to groups by chance ,to reduce the likelihood that an experiment's results will be due to preexisting differences between groups

Independent Variable:  a manipulated experimental factor; the variable that the experimenter changes to see what its effects are

Confederate:  a person who is given a role to play in a study so that the social context can be manipulated

Dependent variable:  the outcome; the factor that can change in an experiment in response to changes in the independent variable

Experimental group:  the participants in an experiment who receive the drug or other treatment under study--that is, those who are exposed to the change that the independent variable represents

Control Group:  the participants in an experiment who are as much like the experimental group as possible and who are treated in every way like the experimental group except for a manipulated factor, the independent variable

External Validity:  the degree to which an experimental design actually reflects the real-world issues it is supposed to address

Internal validity:  the degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable

Experimenter Bias:  occurs when the experimenter's expectations influence the outcome of the research

Demand Characteristics:  any aspects of a study that communicate to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave

Research Participant Bias:  occurs when the behavior of research participants during the experiment is influenced by how they think they are supposed to behave or their expectations about what is happening to them

Placebo Effect:  occurs when the participants' expectations, rather than the experimental treatment, produce an outcome

Placebo:  in a drug study, a harmless substance that has no physiological effect, given to participants in a control group so that they are treated identically to the experimental group except for the active agent

Double-blind Experiment:  an experimental design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants are aware of which participants are in the experimental group and which are in the control group until the results are calculated

1. Psychology's Scientific Method

1. Observing Some Phenomenon

2. Formulating Hypotheses and Predictions

3. Testing Through Empirical Research

4. Drawing Conclusions

5. Evaluating the Theory

Variable: anything that can change

Theory:  a broad idea or set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observations and to make predictions about future observations

Hypothesis:  an educated guess that derives logically from a theory; a prediction that can be tested

Operational Definition:  a definition  that provides an objective description of how a variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study

Meta-analysis:  a method that allows researchers to combine the results of several different studies on a similar topic in order to establish the strengths of an effect

3. Research Samples and Settings
1. The Research Sample
2. The Research Setting
Population:  the entire group about which the investigator wants to draw conclusions
Sample:  the subset of the population chosen by the investigator for study
Random Sample:  a sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected
Naturalistic Observation:  the observation of behavior in a real-world setting

4. Analyzing and Interpreting Data
1. Descriptive Statistics
1. Measures of central tendency
2. Measures of dispersion
2. Inferential Statistics
Descriptive Statistics:  mathematical procedures that are used to describe and summarize sets of data in a meaningful way
Mean:  a measure of central tendency that is average for the sample
Median:  a measure of the central tendency that is the middle score in a sample
Mode:  a measure of the central tendency that is the most common score in a sample
Range:  a measure of dispersion that is the difference between the highest and lowest scores
Standard Deviation:  a measure of dispersion that tells us how much scores in a sample differ from the mean of the sample
Inferential Statistics:  mathematical methods that are used to indicate whether results for a sample are likely to generalize to a population

5. Conducting Ethical Research
1. Ethics Guidelines
2. The Place of Values in Psychological Research

7. The Scientific Method and Health and Wellness

6. Thinking Critically About Psychological Research
1. Avoid Overgeneralizing Based on Little Information
2. Distinguish Between Groups Results and Individual Needs
3. Look for Answers Beyond a Single Study
4. Void Attributing Causes Where None Have Been Found
5. Consider the Source of Psychological Information

Topic Ideas

**Look up Tegrity link on Blackboard!!**

word-finding difficulties in class with reading
chemical or biological weapons attack
keep drivers focused on the road
workplace stress

Rural Soc Day 3: Chapter 1

Sociology

began in Europe as a response to the social and

economic changes during the Industrial Revolution

Globalization

reveals patterns of interdependence throughout the globe

and creates markets for goods

Rural Sociology

emerged in the United States (1900s) due to the shift

from an agrarian economy to an industrial one

Sociological Imagination

is the ability to see how social forces shape biographies

and to distinguish troubles from issues

England - a feudalistic nation

• affairs were tirected by theology
• society was hierarchical
• most people lived in rural areas 

Irwin Iowa Case Study...

Hebrew Bible Day 4: Ancient Middle East

HW:  Read chapter 3 in Collins; read Genesis essay in Bible

The Ancient Middle East

focus:  Mesopotamia, a.k.a. the "Fertile Cresent"

• Historical Divisions
• Neolithic (stone tools) ~ 8000-4000 BCE
• Bronze Age (copper + tin tools) ~ 3200 - 1200 BCE
• Iron Age (iron tools) ~ 3200-1200 BCE
• The Bronze Age
• Sumerians developed the first writing system
• cuneiform (of cubes)
• on clay tablets
• Akkadian language 
• Egyptians developed hieroglyphics and build pyramids



Eurpoean Rediscovery

1. 1800s -- Napolean goes to Egypt and finds the Rosetta Stone
1. composed of:
1. hieroglyphics
2. demotic (?) language - common Egyptian language
3. Greek
2. code cracked by Champolllion in 1822
2. Babylonia unearthed in the 1800s
1.  tablets of cuneiform found
2. Akkadian decifered (1950s)
3. Ugarite (1929)
1. clay tablets of cuneiform found
2. the language was close to Hebrew and Arabian

These artifacts tell us about the historical and cultural concepts of time period in which they were created.

Myths

Myth:  a story (Gr), often a "sacred story," that reveals what was important in the culture at that time

           e.g. Enuma Elish and the parallels to the story of Adam and Eve

Documentary Hypothesis -

concerning the Torah/Pentateuch

• Spinoza argued that the Torah could not have been written by Moses and was instead written by Ezra.
• John Astruc, the father of the Documentary Hyphothesis, noticed the difference in the names of God.
• Elohim (God)
• YHWH
• Four "Authors"
• (J) - God is YHWH
• (E) - God is Elohim
• (P) - priestly writings
• (D) - Deuteronomist writtings
• (R) - redactions

Hebrew Bible Day 3: Critical Study tools

Critical Study Tools for the Hebrew Bible

1. The Bible
1. oldest versions
1. codexes (scrolls are not a single codex)
1. Codex Vaticanus
2. Codex Siniticus
3. Codex Alexandrina
2. written in the 4th and 5th centuries CE
3. in Greek (supporting that these were Christian documents
2. Septuagint ~ 3rd century BCE
3. Allepo Codex
1. 10th century CE
2. complete Bible with vowells
3. stolen; now in Jerusalem

             Note:  There is no single authoritative codex that make the Bible infallible.  Furthermore, internal chronologies do not match up, and archeological evidence can at times oppose the Bible. 

The Bible is clearly redacted, that is, been edited and organized together.

1. The Bible
2. Source Criticism
1. Wellhausen
2. looking at the sources who wrote the biblical accounts
3. looking at changes in literary style
1. the "register"
2. language and vocabulary
3. Form Criticism
1. Gunkel
2. looking at genres and literary forms
3. "sitz in laben":  where the literature "sits in place" in society
4. Redaction Criticism
1. looking at large chunks of the Bible
2. looking at the reasons behind the choices of arrangements
5. Archeology
1. Albright
2. e.g. Jericho inconsistency
3. either verifies or discounts biblical records
4. fills out the text, esp. the social and cultural aspects
6. Literary Criticism
1. looking at the text as a whole
2. reading the text closely
3. looking at how people have interpreted the text

Career Explorations: Day one and Email

 From Professor Oliver:

OliverR@health.missouri.edu

First of all – congratulations to everyone for finding our classroom last week. Well done! Our guest presenter this week will be Ruth Crozier. Ruth will give you a general overview of the health professions and ideas on how to pick or confirm if you are heading

Sun 4:01 PM

OliverR@health.missouri.edu

Actions

To:

M

Oliver, Richard E.

Cc:

M

Crozier, Ruth E.

 

Sunday, August 28, 2011 4:01 PM

First of all – congratulations to everyone for finding our classroom last week.  Well done!

Our guest presenter this week will be Ruth Crozier.  Ruth will give you a general overview of the health professions and ideas on how to pick or confirm if you are heading in the right direction career wise. 

Also – buy and start reading the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.  This book lets you look at life thought the eyes of a young man who views the world in a different and unique manner.

Also see below a couple of my favorite poems.

REO


The Dead” by Billy Collins

The dead are always looking down on us, they say,
while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
they are looking down through the glass bottom boats of heaven
as they row themselves slowly through eternity.

They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,
and when we lie down in a field or on a couch,
drugged perhaps by the hum of a long afternoon,
they think we are looking back at them,
which makes them lift their oars and fall silent
and wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes.



The Lanyard - Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Psychology, Day 2

What is Psychology?

Outline:
1. Defining psychology
1. The psychological frame of mind
2. Psychology as the science of all human behavior
2. Psychology in historical perspective
1. Wundt's structuralism and James's functionalism
2. Darwin's natural selection
3. Contemporary approaches to psychology (7)
1. The biological approach
2. The behavioral approach
3. The psychodynamic approach
4. The humanistic approach
5. The cognitive approach
6. The evolutionary approach
7. The sociocultural approach
8. Summing up the seven contemporary approaches
4. What psychologists do
1. Careers in psychology
2. Areas of specialization
5. The science of psychology and health and wellness
1. How the mind impacts the body
2. How the body impacts the mind

Psychology	The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Science	The use of systematic methods to observe the natural world, including human behavior, and to draw conclusions
Behavior	Everything we do that can be directly observed
Mental processes	The thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly
Critical thinking	The process of reflecting deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating the evidence
Empirical method	Gaining knowledge through the observation of events, the collection of data, and logical reasoning
Positive psychology	A branch of psychology that emphasizes human strengths
Structuralism	Wundt's approach to discovering the basic elements, or structures ,of mental processes; so called because of its focus on identifying the structures of the human mind
Functionalism	James's approach to mental processes, emphasizing the functions and purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual's adaptation to the environment
Natural selection	Darwin's principle of an evolutionary process in which organisms that are best adapted to their environment will survive and produce offspring
Biological approach	An approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system
Neuroscience	The scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system, emphasizing that the brain and the nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion
Behavioral approach	An approach to psychology emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants
Psychodynamic approach	An approach to psychology emphasizing unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives (such as the drive for sex) and society's demands, and early childhood family experiences
Humanistic approach	An approach to psychology emphasizing a person's positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny
Cognitive approach	An approach to psychology emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing:  how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems
Evolutionary approach	An approach to psychology centered on evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors
Sociocultural approach	An approach to psychology that examines the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior
Psychopathology	The scientific study of psychological disorders and the development of diagnostic categories and treatments for those disorders

Religious Studies 2500--Introduction

Instructor: 

Professor Nathan Hofer

Email:  hofern@missouri.edu

Office Hours:  Tuesdays and Thursdays 10am--11:30 am in 221B Arts and Sciences Building

Full syllabus is available on Blackboard.

Introduction, pgs 1-20

assigned Day 2

Topics:

1. Different Canons
1. Apocrypha
2. Why three cannons?
2. The Text of the Bible
1. discoveries
2. translations
3. The Bible and History
1. biblical chronology
2. historical context/discrepancies
4. Methods in Biblical Study
1. Types
1. "composite artistry"
2. "literary criticism"
3. "form criticism"
4. "redaction criticism"
5. New Criticism and Old Historicism
2. Comparative models
3. Sociological methods
4.  

Day 2: Cannons and Translations

Note:  the Final Exam will be taken at 3pm on December 16th in the lecture room.

CE:  Common Era
BCE:  Before Common Era

KEY QUESTION:  How did the Bible get into our hands?
   Two compononets:  1) Cannon, and 2) Translations

Cannons
   --the Hebrew Bible is a "tripart text" text because it is divided into three parts:
      the Law, Prophets, and the Writings.

• Jews
• divisions are the Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim
• **called "Tanakh" for short** 
• no Apocrypha
• Protestants (Old Testament)
• major difference from Hebrew Bible:  Prophets at the end and the Writings are in the middle
• no Apocrypha
• Roman Catholics
• Apocrypha
• Green Orthodoxy has further Apocrypha

Composing a Cannon
**The Hebrew Bible is said to be composed into what it is today by the 1st century CE**
  
   The issue:  The Jews had many books in several different languages, so they had no set Cannon.

   The Dead Sea Scrolls

• found, sealed and buired, in 1947 by accident   
• **Significance:  they reveal was which sacred texts were read in the early 1st century**

   Josephus

• stated that there were 22 sacred books of the Hebrew Bible
• **Significance:  this means that the Jews had already established what was in the Hebrew Bible**

   Yavneh

• legendary council of rabbis who established the Cannon
• Daniel, Songs of Solomon, and Ezekiel were all debated
• **standard for exclusion:  post-prophetic works**

Translation

• Septuagint:  the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible
• written in the 3rd century CE
• "seven scholars" worked on the translation
• included Apocrypha
• rearranged the cannonical order

Note:  **The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint are major helps in tracking the development of the Hebrew Bible**

• Vulgate:  Gerome translated the Bible into Latin
• Hebrew with vowels
• the Masoretes created a new Hebrew writing system with vowels
• they re-wrote and officially composed the Hebrew Bible in the 10th century CE
• Muslims had recently added vowels and translated the Quran

The English translations

• 1st-8th centuries
• some select paraphrases in Old English
• 8th century inter-linear gloss for monasteries
• a collection of Psalms in Old English
• John Wycliff:  translated the Vulgate (Latin) into English
• 14th century (before printing press)
•  wanted the people to have the Bible
• condemnation
• Guttenberg (Germany):  movable type
• first printing was the Psalms
• 1450 Vulgate printed
• Tyndale:  New Testament in English (1525)
• Coverdale:  printed entire Bible translated from Vulgate to English (?)
• ~~~~~~Reformation~~~~~~
• King James:  "starting over"
• scholars recruited to translate the Bible to English from the original Greek and Hebrew
• project lasted from 1604 to1611
• named the "King James Version"

Religious Studies 2500--Day 1

Teacher:  Professor Hoover
Room Number:  210 Strickland
Office Hours:  10:00-11:30am in 221B, Arts and Science Building
Books:  Intro to the Hebrew Bible, Collins
             Myths from Mesopotamia,
             Annotated Bible with Apocrypha (bring this to class daily)

Key questions for the class:
  --What do the texts tell us about the people who wrote them?
  --What have people done with the Bible?

Grade Components:  4 short essays, one final paper, and one final exam

Faith and Medicine Now Joining Forces - Urban Christian News

Faith and Medicine Now Joining Forces - Urban Christian News