Vacancy Notice: Dean of College of Arts & Sciences

[Pollak, Edward]

West Chester University of PA is searching for a Dean of the College of Arts
and Sciences.  If you know of anyone who might be interested (and
qualified), please pass this link on to them. 

http://www.wcupa.edu/scripts/vacancies/zoomm.asp?Notice=02-44


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846
Office Hours: Mondays 1-4 p.m.; Tuesdays & Thursdays 8-9:15; and 2-3; and by
appointment 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and
herpetoculturist ( http://www.adcham.com)

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

Random Thought: It's Not About Things

[Pollak, Edward]

> Louis_Schmier quoted a college as charging
>   "It is touchy feely people like you,"  she accused, "who are
> undermining the professorhood.  "There is no place in our intellectual
> environment for the emotion you want to ram down our throats," she wrote
> in something of a denouncing tone.  She blamed me for "helping to destroy
> what's left of the academy's sanctity with continued demonstrations of
> weakness in the classroom."  She bemoaned the need to "sacrifice my
> valuable time for students who shouldn't be in my classroom in the first
> place when I could be doing important research ."  She continued, "My
> class is not a charity ward.  It is not my job to hold their hands or wipe
> their sniveling noses. I don't get paid for that."  She went on to
> proclaim, "We are professors, not teachers!  I am dedicated to my
> discipline!"  She ended her scathing message with ""my position of
> authority comes from the degrees and awards hanging in my office.  My
> legitimacy rests on my research and publications, not from pandering to
> unprepared and incapable students.  Your Dean ought to take you out to the
> shed and spank some sense into you" 
> 
At the outset let me say that I have cast my share of stones at the
"touchy-feelie types."  Students consider me a traditional "hard ass" and
many of my colleagues consider me too soft.  I can safely say that I have
never asked my students to sing and I am reasonably skilled at lecturing and
inviting participation but I am still primarily an old fashioned lecturer.
But 12 years as a Dept. chair has also caused me to appreciate the strengths
in faculty.  Would I want a dept. full of Louis Schmeiers?  Not a chance.
Would I want a dept. full of the sort of folks that flamed Louis?  Not a
chance.  A good dept. is one where some faculty are heavily engaged in
research and offer opportunities for student participation in research.
It's also a dept. where some faculty routinely give out their home phone
numbers and who are available many hours/week to talk with students,
counsel, commiserate, tutor, etc. It is unrealistic to think that one
faculty member can "do it all."  We should strive to do as much of
everything as possible but our emphases can be very different. Heterogeneity
in a Dept. is a good thing. (Notice how I avoid the term "diversity"?)
Some shoulder the heaviest committee loads, some do the bulk of the
advisement/counseling.  Unfortunately, some do virtually nothing beyond
their classes and office hours.  

In many ways, I think we need to give more recognition to those of our
colleagues who are more "student centered."  The researchers among us get
the lion's share of the academic prizes such as promotions, merit raises,
TAs, etc. The sort of help Louis provides usually goes unrecognized and
unrewarded.  I do bemoan the fact that a great lecturer is often not given
the credit that goes to those with less traditional strategies.  These days,
a great teacher is assumed to be one who does the most "group learning" or
discussion-centered instruction.  The "lecturer" is often looked at as, at
best, an anachronism.  On the other hand, I realize that I, as a "lecturer"
am not taking the risks that my less traditional colleagues are taking.  

Can the type of service Louis provides be over done to the point where it
might be considered as providing a "charity ward?"  Certainly.  Can Louis'
detractor be accused of missing the entire point of higher learning (i.e.,
helping students to learn and maximize their potentials)?  No doubt.  A
balance is required.  That balance can be achieved best by fostering
heterogeneity of contributions among our colleagues. 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846
Office Hours: Mondays 1-4 p.m.; Tuesdays & Thursdays 8-9:15; and 2-3; and by
appointment 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and
herpetoculturist ( http://www.adcham.com)

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

RE: Linda Woolf: Darling of the NRA

[Pollak, Edward]

Will do.  And FWIW, I'm sure that the rest of the list took the title of
note as it was intended: with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846
~~~
http://www.adcham.com

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.


 Original Message-
> From: Tikva Ruth [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 5:00 AM
> To:   Pollak, Edward
> Subject:  Re: Linda Woolf: Darling of the NRA 
> 
> Hi Edward,
> 
> I am currently in Amsterdam, checking my email, and
> have no way to forward a note to TIPS as I am using my
> email account.  
> 
> Obviously, I can not read the entire article from the
> attachment.  It appears that the author simply took a
> quote from my web page.  
> 
> Please be clear however and pass my thoughts on to
> TIPS for me.  I am not anti gun control.  The argument
> usually used by such authors is in relation to the
> Holocaust and Nazi Germany's gun control policy.  One
> could also make the same claim in regards to the
> genocide of the Armenian.  However, this correlational
> argument usually grounded in a single case is weak at
> best.   
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Linda 
> 
> 
> --- "Pollak, Edward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I'm not sure TIPS accepts attachments but I had to
> > try.   Our own Linda
> > Woolf was cited in a letter to the editor in our
> > local newspaper today.  It
> > was an anti-gun control piece.  If the attachment
> > doesn't come through on
> > the list and you'd like to see it, contact me
> > off-list.
> > Ed 

expected salary?

[Pollak, Edward]

> Gary J. Klatsky wrote 
> At SUNY Oswego they pay ~$2300 for a single class (for a masters level
> instructor).  
> 
Here in the Pennsylvania State System (4 year schools) the absolute bottom
of the pay scale is around $4,000/course.  (Sorry for my delayed response,
Jen,  but since I'm no longer chairperson I don't have  to sleep with a copy
of the Collective Bargaining Agreement on my night stand anymore! )
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler not necessarily in order of importance. 

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.


 

Publishers' Permission

[Pollak, Edward]

What does one do about getting permission to reproduce a drawing from a book
whose publisher is apparently out of business.  It's a 1964 book (Peter's
Dictionary of Herpetology) and I'm pretty certain the author is dead.  The
company, Hafner Publishing, has apparently published nothing later  than
1972.  Can I just go ahead a use the drawing?  I'd be publishing it on a web
site I'm developing. 


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler not necessarily in order of importance. 

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.


 

Scientech Balance

[Pollak, Edward]

Can anyone give me any feedback on Scientech analytical balances? They seem
to be a really good buy for the money .  We're looking at the SA-120
http://analytical.balances.com/


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler not necessarily in order of importance. 

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.


 

FW: chalkboard anyone?

[Pollak, Edward]

> Matthew Raney wrote
> > I've actually received a lot of positive feedback about powerpoint
> > overheads.  I keep them very skeletal in nature, but the words are
> usually
> > more clear and with better contrast, which has been a boon to those
> seated
> > further back or with visual impairments.  Also, if you work it right,
> you
> > can plug in some demos right into powerpoint (a short-term memory one
> > comes to mind, for example).  I've actually never used a chalkboard to
> > date.  Granted, this is only my
> > third year teaching, and I'm still in graduate student mode, but I
> prefer
> > to spend time talking and discussing rather than writing in class
> > 
> As someone who has observed MANY faculty using power point over the years,
> I
> have strong feelings on the matter.  You're right that power point slides
> need to be kept "skeletal" lest the students are so obsessed copying them
> they neglect to listen.  Also, I HATE IT when I can read a slide in 30
> seconds and then have to listen to the prof say the same thing for the
> next
> 10 minutes. Bring. 
> 
> One real advantage of writing on a board or overhead is that you are
> forced
> to pace yourself.  Folks who use powerpoint or overheads (especially the
> overly detailed type) often don't give the students enough time to write
> down the material.  I also urge faculty to go to the back of the room to
> see
> if the slides/overheads/powerpoint are large enough for folks to actually
> read.  You wouldn't believe how many faculty use fonts so small that they
> can't be read or can be read only with great effort.  And don't say that
> the
> student could always move closer if he/she can't see the board.  Yes, they
> could.  But no, they often won't. 
> 
> My last complaint about powerpoint, etc. is that faculty often become
> glued
> to the lectern/computer stand and lose what little animation they might
> exhibit.  None of these problems is insurmountable but they need to be
> addressed. 
> 
> As for dry erase boards, I hate them.  Give me a chalkboard.  I agree with
> all the complaints: markers disappearing, drying out, using permanent
> markers by accident, etc.  (I keep a small vial of methyl alcohol in my
> briefcase to deal with the latter problem!)
> Ed
> 
> Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
> West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
> Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846
> ~~~
> Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
> bluegrass fiddler not necessarily in order of importance. 
> 
> Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
> Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
> directions.
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 

Every disorder is a brain disorder(was:Is addiction...)

[Pollak, Edward]

Steven Davis wrote 
> I am curious as to what y'all think about all of these "discoveries" that
> various
> psychological problems are "really" brain problems.  Seems to me that this
> is at
> the same time both obviously true and misleading.  This seems to really
> just be a
> level of analysis problem.  Of course psychological conditions can always
> be
> thought of as chronic changes in the way the brain works, but can't
> everything?
> If a disorder is learned, don't we store that learning as subtle changes
> in how
> our brain works?  Does that mean that is is BEST to think of all learned
> problems
> as "brain disorders" (with the implied consequence that victims lack the
> ability
> to change those problems by any but medical methods)?  I am getting a bit
> tired
> of these "discoveries" being interpreted as evidence supporting the
> medicalization of psychology.  I guess my response to these kinds of
> findings
> recently tends to be, "of course its a brain condition, but so what?"
> 
Personally I LIKE it   1)All that is obvious us but many of our students
have not thought about it before (i.e., that even learned phenomena are
"biological").  2)It may or may not be "best" to think of these things as
first and foremost "brain disorders" but it is certainly better to think of
them as involving changes in brain structure and function AS WELL AS the
effects of experience.  3)I tell my students that it's a two way street:
just as neurochemicals cause us to behave in certain ways, experiences
(including various non-medical therapies) clearly affect neurochemistry and
thereby affect behavior.  We can then discuss the pros & cons of changing
brain function via drugs or non-drug therapies.  

Finally, I find these new discoveries to be of great help in dealing with
unrepentant, Cartesian dualists who inhabit my classrooms! 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler not necessarily in order of importance. 

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.


 
  

chalkboard anyone?

[Pollak, Edward]

Matthew Raney wrote
> I've actually received a lot of positive feedback about powerpoint
> overheads.  I keep them very skeletal in nature, but the words are usually
> more clear and with better contrast, which has been a boon to those seated
> further back or with visual impairments.  Also, if you work it right, you
> can plug in some demos right into powerpoint (a short-term memory one
> comes to mind, for example).  I've actually never used a chalkboard to
> date.  Granted, this is only my
> third year teaching, and I'm still in graduate student mode, but I prefer
> to spend time talking and discussing rather than writing in class
> 
As someone who has observed MANY faculty using power point over the years, I
have strong feelings on the matter.  You're right that power point slides
need to be kept "skeletal" lest the students are so obsessed copying them
they neglect to listen.  Also, I HATE IT when I can read a slide in 30
seconds and then have to listen to the prof say the same thing for the next
10 minutes. Bring. 

One real advantage of writing on a board or overhead is that you are forced
to pace yourself.  Folks who use powerpoint or overheads (especially the
overly detailed type) often don't give the students enough time to write
down the material.  I also urge faculty to go to the back of the room to see
if the slides/overheads/powerpoint are large enough for folks to actually
read.  You wouldn't believe how many faculty use fonts so small that they
can't be read or can be read only with great effort.  And don't say that the
student could always move closer if he/she can't see the board.  Yes, they
could.  But no, they often won't. 

My last complaint about powerpoint, etc. is that faculty often become glued
to the lectern/computer stand and lose what little animation they might
exhibit.  None of these problems is insurmountable but they need to be
addressed. 

As for dry erase boards, I hate them.  Give me a chalkboard.  I agree with
all the complaints: markers disappearing, drying out, using permanent
markers by accident, etc.  (I keep a small vial of methyl alcohol in my
briefcase to deal with the latter problem!)
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler not necessarily in order of importance. 

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.


 

Mirror Tests Reflect Dolphins' Intelligence

[Pollak, Edward]

I thought some of you folks might like to see this..
Ed

> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010430/sc/science_dolphins_dc_1.html
> 

Mirror Tests Reflect Dolphins' Intelligence

[Pollak, Edward]

I thought some of you folks might be interested in this
Ed

> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 6:51 PM
> To:   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject:  [BP/BNnews] Mirror Tests Reflect Dolphins' Intelligence
> 
> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010430/sc/science_dolphins_dc_1.html
> 
> Monday April 30 5:08 PM ET
> 
> Mirror Tests Reflect Dolphins' Intelligence
> By Will Dunham
> 
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a reflection of their intelligence, bottlenose
> dolphins named Presley and Tab at the New York Aquarium have displayed the
> ability to recognize themselves in a mirror -- a quality previously seen
> only in people and the great apes, researchers said on Monday.
> 
> The two male dolphins were housed in a pool with reflective glass walls at
> the aquarium in Brooklyn. Researchers found the dolphins reacted to their
> own reflections without the social responses they displayed when seeing
> other dolphins.
> 
> Testing whether they could distinguish themselves from other dolphins, the
> researchers placed markings in non-toxic black ink on various places on
> the
> bodies of 13-year-old Presley and 17-year-old Tab. The dolphins then swam
> to the mirror walls and exposed the mark to the reflective surface in
> order
> to look at it.
> 
> The location where they were marked changed from session to session --
> sometimes, for example, between the pectoral fins, on the tummy, or on
> different parts of the head. The dolphins were indifferent toward the
> markings on one another.
> 
> But they swam more quickly to the mirror after a black mark had been left
> on their bodies, the researchers found. They spent more time in front of
> the mirror after being marked than when they were not marked, and the
> first
> behavior when arriving at the mirror was exposing the black mark to check
> it out.
> 
> ``One of the things we try to do is find ways of characterizing and
> measuring and comparing intelligence in other animals across species,''
> Diana Reiss, a scientist in the Wildlife Conservation Society's Osborn
> Laboratories of Marine Science located at the aquarium, said in an
> interview.
> 
> ``So this is one of those nice studies that allows us to say these
> abilities are not just found in primates, they are also seen in dolphins.
> It lets us really get a better understanding of the nature of the
> dolphins'
> intelligence.''
> 
> Reiss conducted the study with Lori Marino of Emory University in Atlanta.
> The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
> Sciences (news - web sites).
> 
> ``There are places in the world where these animals are being
> slaughtered,'' Reiss said. ``This perhaps may heighten our awareness of
> the
> importance of conservation efforts and the need to protect these
> animals.''
> 
> Elite Company In The Animal Kingdom
> 
> The great apes -- chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans -- all have shown
> the mirror self-recognition ability in experiments. But other animals have
> failed the test in various studies, including lesser apes, monkeys and
> elephants.
> 
> ``This is the first conclusive study that shows that there seems to be a
> convergence in these abilities between the large-brained primates,
> including humans, and a very different animal (a dolphin) that's come from
> a very different background and environmental history, and has a very
> different body type and brain organization,'' Reiss said.
> 
> In people, the mirror self-recognition ability generally arises between
> the
> ages of 18 months and 2 years and represents the beginning of a
> developmental process of achieving increasingly abstract psychological
> levels of self-awareness, including introspection, the researchers said.
> 
> Experts are debating whether this self-recognition in great apes and
> dolphins means they are capable of more abstract levels of self-awareness
> -- for example, to conceive of their own identity.
> 
> Marine biologists already knew dolphins were among the most intelligent
> animals.
> 
> ``What we see is that they show a lot of the similar cognitive processes
> that chimps do -- they have excellent skills for memory, they are able to
> learn and comprehend artificial codes,'' Reiss said.
> 
> ``Their social behavior is quite complex,'' she added. ``They form
> long-lasting bonds. There's a great deal of social learning that occurs
> between a youngster and its mother.''
> 
> 
> Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or
> redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the
> prior
> written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or
> delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
> Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
> 
> To receive Biological Psychology/Behavioral Neuroscience
> news [BP/BNnews] articles, email the command:
> subscribe biopsychology
> in 

Brain activity and religious experiences

[Pollak, Edward]

> Jeff Ricker  wrote
> Given the extent to which religion gets discussed on TIPS in recent
> years, I thought that some of you might be interested in reading the
> following article from the current New Scientist. I have reproduced the
> first few paragraphs below.
> 
Many thanks for that, Jeff.  Andy Newberg is the son of my wife & my best
friends.  I was at the little guy's bar mitzvah.  I'm getting really old!!! 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Husband, father,
grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass fiddler not
necessarily in order of importance. 

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

Class questions

[Pollak, Edward]

> Gerald Peterson 
I have noticed at various times that students having the most difficulty in
class also have trouble locating material in the text and understanding
questions.

Good timing.  I just had a conference with a student who couldn't believe
that she got a particular question wrong.  To make a long story short, she
had studied for a specific question: "What is the most common type of
parental care in a)birds, b)mammals & c)fishes?"  

But what I asked was "When you see uniparental care in fish, it's usually
the male.  In birds and mammals it's usually the female.  Why?"

She was damned and determined to answer the question she expected me to ask
whether I asked it or not.  Too bad, because the fact is that if you could
answer the first question you could almost certainly answer the second one.

Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology.  Husband, father,
grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass fiddler not
necessarily in order of importance. 

exams, mindreading, and defensiveness

[Pollak, Edward]

Pat Bromley wrote 
> I go over the exam in class, but I do not take questions out loud at that
> time. 
> Students may WRITE comments about items they feel are unfair, misleading,
> have
> two "best" answers, or are just plain wrong.  I give them 2-3 minutes to
> do so,
> then I collect the exams.  In the privacy of my office, I can think about
> their
> comments, look in the book to see if the "but the book said," comments are
> correct, and write out my response.  
> 
Absolutely right.  NEVER argue over questions in class.  It makes you and
the students get defensive and strident.  I don't usually go over exams in
class but I invite everyone to stop by my office to go over the exams.  Of
course, the only ones who usually show up are the ones who want to see which
3 question (out of 75). No on ever shows up to find out which 30 questions
they missed!


Then Miguel wrote
> Now, I know that many/most of us take the utmost care in producing fair
> and
> valid exams for our students.
> 
I hope so.  But I have one colleague whose final is constructed by the
secretary when he tosses her the test bank and says, "Here, pick out and
type up 200 questions."  Arghh. 

Then Rick Froman wrote
> For those of you without scantrons .. I do have a rough and ready
> procedure that works fairly well.   I take all of the tests and
> put them in order from high score to low and look at the items
> (the high scorers missed.
> 
I do the same thing when I'm too lazy or hurried to run the exams over to
the computer center.  

Then Jeffrey Nagelbush wrote
> "in my experience, as I taught multiple sections of the same course, I
> found vastly different item-analysis results in each section.  I would
> have questions that discriminated well in one class and was negatively
> correlated with overall score in another section. I could find no
> consistent pattern.  Maybe it was just me.  Has anyone else had this
> experience.
> 
Absolutely.  Sometimes I find that it's my fault.  Sometimes I realize that
had neglected to emphasize (or even mention) a particular point in one
section.  Because I'm compulsive about writing exams 2 weeks before the
actual test date I must assume that I'll get to point B but don't always
make it.  If we get onto an interesting tangent, point B may fall by the
wayside and I may not realize it.  So there's a test question on it even
though one section may not have heard the relevant part of my lecture. 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology. Husband, father,
grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass fiddler not
necessarily in order of importance. 

RE: TIPS Digest V #1478

[Pollak, Edward]

It's not one or the other.  I look harder for possible ambiguities in a
question if the difficulty & discrimination indices are out of whack.  FWIW,
I try to emphasize to the class that my adjustments are not a "curve."
Instead, I am introducing a "correction factor"  for bad questions.  I
suspect that the difference is lost on them but it makes me feel better.
And to give Michael an "amen": both he and I  have reputations as being
pretty tough and neither of us has a problem with grade inflation.  That
makes it a lot easier to play "Mr. Niceguy." 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology,  Husband, father,
grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass fiddler not
necessarily in order of importance. 


> Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 12:37:40 -0500
> From: Chuck Huff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: MC thanks & discrimination index
> Message-ID: 
> 
> Thanks to both Ed Pollack and Michael Renner for suggesting the 
> following criteria:
> 
> 1) A cutoff of .25 or .33 of those who got it correct
> 2) The item to whole correlation as a discrimination index
> 3) Asking for what students were thinking of when they got it wrong.
> 
> I like 3 the most, since it helps me figure out why the question may 
> have been misleading.
> 
> I am still not sure how to interpret the item-to-whole correlation, 
> though.  Is it bad only if it is negative?

Mind reading and exam performance

[Pollak, Edward]

Chuck Huff asked
> What are the lousy statistics that folks look for? I have done 
> histograms of the number of folks who choose each choice in each 
> item, but when I looked at these, I was not convinced to toss a 
> question even though most folks got it wrong. Are there particular
> question profiles that help you spot good and bad questions, and if so,
> what are they?
> 
I think it's important that when you find a question where a third or fewer
got it wrong, you asked some of the students what they were thinking.  When
I'm writing or picking a question, I know the point I'm trying to make and
the answer may be obvious to me.  But I've often had students say "Oh, I
thought you were trying to get at something else and that's why I answered
as I did."  

As for other statistics, we get a "discrimination index," a point biserial
correlation between the students' total scores and whether they got that
item right or wrong.  A big negative correlation tells me that the item was
less than ideal.  
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

Mind reading and exam performance

[Pollak, Edward]

Michael Renner wrote
> The "lousy exam" message is easier to diffuse with MC exams if you use
> some
> form of machine scoring.   In my case, I spend
> about two minutes after each exam explaining this and giving the results,
> including any adjustment to the exam scores based on what I learned; I
> give
> everyone a point for each question that produces lousy statistics, but
> there
> are lots of legitimate approaches. The point is to address the issue and
> do
> something consistently so that students can count on not getting shafted
> when you write or use a question that doesn't accomplish what you
> intended.
> You're sending the message that you care about the quality of the exam,
> and
> demonstrating that you will address the issue if the evidence shows that
> there's a problem. Since I started doing this, I rarely if ever get
> complaints about lousy exams. 
> 
Agreed.  Many's the time I've had a student explain his/her answer to a MC
question and wound up saying, "yeah, I guess if you were reading the
question from that perspective, your answer is reasonable."  I then give
everybody an extra point.   I also invite the students to stop by and go
over their exams and argue with me about anything they think unfair.  It is
quite common for me to add a point or two to an essay question or conclude
that an MC question was not clear.  I tell the class that they should feel
free to argue with me because "all the items can't be gems and I don't get
insulted or defensive when an item is challenged."  Frankly, I can't
understand faculty who get their noses out of joint when challenged (as long
as the challenge is civil) and the challenges tend to be civil when you
invite the students to challenge you!  In 26 years of teaching I've NEVER
had a problem.  I'm not saying that every student is happy or even thinks
that the tests were fair (the fundamental attribution error being what it
is) but I've never had to endure any open rancor despite my (thoroughly
undeserved) reputation as being one of the tougher profs in the dept.  The
moral: Be open minded to student complaints.  Failing that, appear to be
open minded. It works almost as well. Just learn to fake that genuine
positive regard!   
Ed

Darwinian slip and a thought

[Pollak, Edward]

Linda wrote 
> While a number of the Mizvot seem to have no logic behind them, the
> prohibition against the above is speculated as follows - It would be too
> cruel for the mother to endure having their young killed in front of
> them (something else you are not to do) and then to have them play a
> role in their young's death. There are a number of Mitzvot concerning
> animals which are based in kindness 
> 
Other scholars (including the Rambam (Maimonides) have argued that many of
the mitzvot were included to keep the People from adopting customs of the
Canaanites.  Thus, if boiling meat in milk was a pagan custom or part of a
pagan ritual it would be forbidden.  Similarly, the prohibition against
rounding the corners of the beard was suggested as a practice of pagan
priests.  Anthropologists such  as Marvin Harris have given interesting
explanations of some of the dietary prohibitions.  But many of the mitzvot
seem to have been designed to keep the People sanctified (sensu "set apart")
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

deciphering mind readers tricks..help!

[Pollak, Edward]

I don't know about stage performers but students have an inherent need to
believe in mind reading. If you don't believe me, ask a student who flunked
your last essay exam whether he/she believes that you should have been able
to tell that he/she knew the information even though it was identifiable no
where on the paper!! :-o

Just yesterday I  had to deal with a student who vigorously proposed that I
should be employing such an "Amazing Kreskin Model of Grading!" 


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 8-9 and 11-12 and 
Mondays and Wednesdays 12-1 and by appointment, 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

Department:  http://www.wcupa.edu/_academics/sch_cas.psy/
University: http://www.wcupa.edu/
 

Popular Psychology Courses

[Pollak, Edward]

> On Fri, 23 Feb 2001, Retta Poe wrote:
> > Are any of you at institutions that offer undergraduate psychology
> courses
> > - BESIDES introductory psychology and psychology of adjustment - that
> attract
> > healthy numbers of students looking for general interest electives
> (i.e., not
> > necessarily for general education or to meet requirements for other
> majors)?
> 
The obvious answer is that students will take almost anything from a really
good prof as long as that course has a 100 or 200 number.  That being said,
the following courses seem to be pretty big draws:

social psych
abnormal
anything with "child" in the title

"Teats equal spinnerets"

[Pollak, Edward]

This is a bit off topic but it deserves a read because of the vast
implications.  FWIW, I told my wife that wasn't fulfilling her full
potential.  Instead of just nursing our children she could have made me a
parachute. 

> http://www.forbes.com/global/2001/0219/061.html
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

Giving away psych texts: an alternative

[Pollak, Edward]

I'm sorry if this has been brought up before but rather than giving psych
books to other professor-types there are more philanthropic possibilities.
I once had a local high school take a fair number of psych books off our
hands.  On other occasions I've received requests for such books from
universities in 3rd world countries.  Just thinking out loud
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 8-9 and 11-12 and 
Mondays and Wednesdays 12-1 and by appointment, 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

RE: Milton Erikson

[Pollak, Edward]

Bill McCowen wrote
> Trivia- Old Milton was clinically supervised as an undergrad (I don't know
> doing what) by Hull. That is probably where his experimental influence
> came
> from, I would surmise.
> 
HULL I was trying to remember the "big name" with whom Erikson studied
as an undergrad.  
Thanks.  It would have driven me nuts all weekend until I got back to check
the books in my office.
Ed

milton erikson

[Pollak, Edward]

> Gerald Peterson wrote 
>   "It's been a while since I have read about Milton Erikson, the
> famous
> hypnotherapist.  I understand his work has garnered a strong following
> among those promoting "neurolinguistic programming" or NLP.  I am
> wondering if any tipsters present info about hypnosis in their classes
> and use his cases or ideas?  Also, are the cases/stories about his
> amazing use of suggestion hyped or exaggerated?  Are there better
> balanced treatments (not Haley, Rosen, etc.) of his ideas, work, etc?"
> 
A number of years back I was interested in experimental hypnosis and read
quite a bit of the literature including the collected works of Erikson (I
think Rossi was the editor).  For my purposes I didn't find most of it to be
particularly enlightening but I was coming from an exptl. rather than a
clinical perspective.  The one exception was the volume on Erikson's
earliest writings.  He actually did some very interesting experimental work
in his student days and I used to use some of it in my lectures.  These
volumes are fun reading and I recommend them highly but I was always quite
skeptical about deriving much of academic interest from his case histories.
Unfortunately, I've not really followed the literature since 1986 so I don't
know what books are in print on the topic.  
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

mind/body/spirit

[Pollak, Edward]

Have your student go to http://www.google.com/ and search for "spirit
spirituality graduate psychology college university".  I got a lot of
potentially relevant hits. 


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible
warning.   --Catherine Aird

Student Question

[Pollak, Edward]

Children born deaf and blind do, indeed, smile at the appropriate age.  This
fact is often cited as evidence that smiling and some other basic behavior
patterns as "hard wired." 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 8-9 and 11-12 and 
Mondays and Wednesdays 12-1 and by appointment, 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible
warning.   --Catherine Aird

FW: TIPS Digest V #1403

[Pollak, Edward]

Nancy asked: 
> What are the possible results in terms of behavior if the amygdala is
> damaged? 
> 
The short answer: 
a)Interference with learned fears.
b)Disruption of social behavior, esp. (sexual) mounting of inappropriate
objects and difficulty in responding appropriately to social signals from
other animals.
c)reduction in aggression. 

But a lot of this really depends on exactly which part of the amygdala is
damaged.  

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

typical class caps

[Pollak, Edward]

FWIW, I find that once you're over about 20-25 students in a course you're
talking about a more or less straight lecture class.  If that's the case, I
don't see much difference between a class of 35 and one of 100.  A lot
depends on the physical set up.  Some rooms are conducive to 100 students.
But if you have 100 students scattered in a 400 seat lecture hall I think
you lose something.

The real question is "what does your administration want vis a vis writing?"
If they don't mind all mult. choice exams, then there's no reason you
shouldn't raise your maxes from 35 to 100.  But if they expect you to
include essay questions or have your students do writing assignments, I
would think that 20-25 would be ideal and 35 an absolute max.

Just me 2 cents.
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 8-9 and 11-12 and 
Mondays and Wednesdays 12-1 and by appointment, 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Recommendation for a student

[Pollak, Edward]

Because this is a phone reference there's probably only a 50-50 chance that
you'll be called.  

That being said,  I tell the sugar-coated truth, i.e., that this is a
student who does well when she puts her mind to a task and that she has
excellent potential. With that info and with the student's transcript, the
potential employer should be able to put 2 & 2 together. If the student is
coming to you it's a safe bet that she has no one who thinks better of her.
That being the case, you'd be sending her up the proverbial creek by
refusing to serve as a reference.  You don't have to lie but neither do have
to be brutally honest. 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

> --
> 
> Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 12:20:45 -0500
> From: Deborah Briihl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Recommendation for a student
> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> A student e-mailed me, asking for a recommendation for a job. I e-mailed 
> her back and asked her what the job was about and a few other questions. 
> This is her reply:
> 
> In the interview he asked me what I thought you would say about me and I 
> said that because you knew me on a more "professional (?)" level that you 
> would prob. say that I was a good speaker (from Senior Seminar)...he told 
> me that I would have to speak to crowds during meetings, and that I had 
> been exposed to researching and reporting...because I will be reviewing 
> credit and making decisions about the data given to me. I told him about
> my 
> 100 on my final (that may be an interesting topic to talk about :)
> 
> Here's the problem. This student was barely a "C" student and her last 
> semester she almost received a "D" in one of my courses. The _only_ reason
> 
> she didn't was because she REALLY buckled down and studied for the last 
> test and, indeed, received a 100. However, nothing else that she did even 
> came close. She was an OK speaker, nothing special. Any suggestions on how
> 
> I'm supposed to handle this phone call? Can I tell the interviewer about 
> her other grades? I believe that she included me as a recommendation
> before 
> I was asked.
> Deb
> 
> Dr. Deborah S. Briihl
> Dept. of Psychology and Counseling
> Valdosta State University
> Valdosta, GA 31698
> (229) 333-5994
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> --
> 
> Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 21:33:17 -0500
> From: "McKinley-Pace, Marcia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 

teaching brain parts/functions

[Pollak, Edward]

> I agree wholeheartedly with Jeff.  The Brain & Mind series are fabulous.
> I especially recommend "Clive Waring: Life without memory" for discussing
> hippocampal function.  If students don't get turned on by that they're
> brain dead.  
> 
Neurological deficits are inherently fascinating.  Any prof who spends the
bulk of that unit discuss action potentials should be stripped of his/her
chalk and be banished from the academic quadrangle!   I discuss phantom limb
pain, aphasias, disconnection syndromes (esp. alexia without agraphia and
"pure word deafness"), "blindsight," hemithesias, hemiplegias, etc.
Students are enthralled.  For the neurochemistry part I focus on drug
actions albeit at a low level in an intro course.  They'd much rather hear
about "what the drug my cousin is on" is doing to their brain than to hear
about the details of synaptic transmission.  The biopsych chapter is
admittedly the toughest in the book but should also be the most fascinating.


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

FW: Search for Graduate Dean

[Pollak, Edward]

If you know of anyone interested in this position, please forward this link
to them.

http://www.wcupa.edu/scripts/vacancies/zoomm.asp?Notice=01-57


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

reaction to Gypsies

[Pollak, Edward]

> Django Reinhardt was a guitarist.  Grappelli was the (premier jazz)
> violinist with whom he often played.  Their classic, Piece "A Minor Swing"
> is heavily Gypsy-influenced.  I believe that Grappelli was French. 
> 
FWIW, there was a wonderful documentary on the Roma on the History Channel a
few months back. It's called "In Search of History: Curse on the Gypsies."
See
http://store.aetv.com/cgi-bin/ae.storefront/0/Ext/OutsideFrame/UT/32/Product
/42227


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

10 Commandments

[Pollak, Edward]

Stephen disagreed with my ban on internet sources while Rick agreed.
Actually, Rick expressed my thoughts rather well.  They can certainly use
the internet for finding printed sources.  They could even use the internet
to read (e.g.,  NIMH) reports that are printed elsewhere.  The real problem
is not that there isn't some great stuff on the web.  The problem is that
there is no way to separate the (cyber)dross from the (cyber)gold.  And as
for Breedlove's service:  I receive it but frankly, the articles are too low
level to be useful in anything but an intro psych report.  Too often they
have stories like "Love circuits Found in Brain) but then don't mention
which brain regions are involved.  I routinely forward such articles to my
class dist. lists to pique their interest but to actually use such a story
as a reference for an upper level paper would be unthinkable.  You still
need to go to the original source.  
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

RE: 10 Commandments of Paper Writing

[Pollak, Edward]

Sally wrote 
> >I love this!  But, I don't do "drafts."  I do peer reviews.  I've had bad
> 
> experiences with agreeing to review drafts.  The tendency is for our
> students 
> is to throw references together in a haphazard fashion and expect us to
> edit 
> them into an A paper.
> 
Agreed.  You need to give the proper caveats.  I tell them that if they give
me F paper I can give them guidelines on how to make it a passing paper.  If
they give me a B or A paper I'll edit it in a more fine grained way to help
them get an A or A+.  I even had one student (who I was allowing to rewrite
a paper) return the exact the same paper to me (complete with all my
previous editing marks) and ask me to edit it again i.e., re-write
it for her.   I did tell her one thing she hadn't known before.   I gave her
a detailed definition of the word "Chutzpah." 
Ed  

10 Commandments of Paper Writing

[Pollak, Edward]

The 10 Commandments of Paper Writing

I.  Though shalt not cite directly a paper thou hast not read. Neither
shalt thou include in thy reference section any paper that thou hast not
read nor any paper which has not been cited in the body of thy paper.  Such
practices constitute the "padding" of thy reference section.  They are an
abomination.

II. When paraphrasing part of an article, thou must significantly
rewrite the relevant material.  Failure to paraphrase constitutes plagiarism
for which you will be cut down.  

III.Excessive quotations are to be avoided.  If thou canst not
paraphrase a thing, thou dost not understand that thing.  If thou dost not
understand a thing, study it until thou dost understand it and by that
understanding, are able to paraphrase it.  Excessive quotes are naught more
than "filler material" used by slothful students who do not have enough
material to write a decent paper. 

IV. In the rare case that thou must use a quotation thou must know that
short quotations shalt always be enclosed within quotation marks. Quotations
longer than one or two sentences shall be indented.  All quotations must be
followed by both the reference and the relevant page number (e.g., Pollak,
1974, p.322).  Thou shalt include page numbers only for quotations.  For
paraphrased material though shalt cite only the author(s) and date.  

V.  Though shalt use APA style in all things.  Thou shalt consult the
APA style manual or any current issue of the American Psychologist.  APA
style means that thou shalt use few (if any) footnotes and that all
references will be cited in the body of the paper (e.g., Pollak, 1974).
Thou shalt not use numbered references.  They are an abomination.

VI. Thou shalt avoid long, flowery, complex sentences in favor of a
crisp, telegraphic style. 

VII.Thou shalt include an abstract at the beginning of thy paper. An
abstract is a summary of thy paper.  It is not an introduction to thy paper.


VIII.   Thou shalt use only those sources that come from scholarly journals
and books.  Psychology Today and other popular magazines are not scholarly
journals.  Neither are internet sources and encyclopedias appropriate for
college-level papers.  These things are an abomination before our eyes.  

IX. Thou must know that many of thy resources will not be contained
within the library of West Chester University and must be sought elsewhere
or must be ordered through inter-library loan.  Therefore I say unto thee,
verily must thou begin thy research at the earliest possible time lest the
day of judgment approach and thou art found wanting before thy professor.   

X.  Thy professor is a jealous professor.  Do not attempt to place upon
his lectern a paper first written for another professor.  But know too that
thy professor is also gentle and gracious professor and that thou mayest
consult with thy professor at any and all stages of the research and writing
process that thou might not fall into error.  Thy professor shalt treat thy
inquiries with helpfulness and charity even unto reading an early draft of
thy work.  If thou dost listen to my words and do these things that I
command, thou will be found worthy and thy grade point average will prosper
even unto summa cum laude. 



Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office hours: Mondays 2-4; Tues. & Thursdays 10-noon.
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

For recent pix of the world's most gorgeous grandson, Eli Lewis Levine, see
http://webpages.charter.net/jeffnjanet/

Senior Seminar

[Pollak, Edward]

Tasha R. Howe wrote 
I'm teaching senior seminar for the first time this winter. I
would REALLY appreciate all your ideas. What do you do in there? What
topics do you cover? Specific readings you love? Fun/unique
assignments/activities? It's supposed to be an "integrative" experience
that ties all they've learned over the 4 years together. I'd love any
and all ideas on or off the list. 

All too often, senior sem is "give a talk & write a paper". often on any
topic the student wants.  Of course, that means that most re-write papers
for other classes.  Giving them handouts/reprints to read for other student
presentations rarely works.  They don't come prepared.  I found that the
best thing to do is to assign a book and require presentations & papers
relevant to the book.  The last time I taught it (many years ago) I assigned
Jaynes' "Origins of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind."
For the 1st 1/2 of the semester we discussed the book while the students
were researching & writing their papers.  The 2nd half they gave their
talks.  Topics had to be approved by me and included things like drugs &
consciousness, hypnosis, dreaming, schizophrenia, animal consciousness,
etc., etc. . all things discussed by Jaynes.  Exams made certain that
they were reading the material.  Of course, they also received my "10
Commandments of Paper Writing" to head off plagiarism problems.   For those
of you who haven't seen it I'll send it in a separate post.
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office hours: Mondays 2-4; Tues. & Thursdays 10-noon.
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

For recent pix of the world's most gorgeous grandson, Eli Lewis Levine, see
http://webpages.charter.net/jeffnjanet/

Physiological Psychology: Upper vs. lower level?

[Pollak, Edward]

We're currently kicking around the idea of switching physiological
psychology from a 400 level to a 200 level course.  Personally, I think it
might be fun top teach such a course and it would mean that more students
would get physio earlier in their careers and would then have the
prerequisites to take more advanced courses such as hormones & behavior,
psychopharmacology, etc.  I'm a bit stuck on what text might be used in a
200 level physio course.  Schneider & Tarshis is/was a pretty low level text
but as best I can tell it's no longer in print.  I would anticipate using
something like Sacks' "man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" but I really need
a basic text.  Any suggestions? 
Ed


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Requirements to Declare Major?

[Pollak, Edward]

We are also discussing this.  We currently have a moratorium on internal
transfers to Psychology because our 500+ majors are really taxing us. We
just passed a rule that to transfer into psychology the students need to
have passed psych courses in two different categories with grades of C or
better.  For various reasons we're not permitted to use a GPA criterion even
though education can (because of certification issues).  

FWIW, I have always fought against arbitrarily high entrance criteria for
the major.  The fact is that we are a liberal arts school and require that
our students major in SOMETHING.  If all Depts. adopted a 2.5 GPA for new
majors it would make a mockery of the notion that a 2.0 is passing and would
represent fraud toward students who were told  that they could  major in
psychology and are now told they can't.  Let's face it, the marginally
competent student needs a major.  If you won't let them have one, then don't
admit them!  

That being said, I see nothing inherently wrong with making the PSY major
more rigorous.   Such a move is (to me) inherently more fair than an
arbitrary GPA requirement.  It also lets students see (up front) what the
requirements are.   If your fear  is that the Psych major is becoming the
"last refuge of the incompetent,"  taken by those who can't hack it in other
majors, the solution is to make your program more rigorous.  That way you
increase the quality of your program, let students know up front what's
required, and warn off those students looking for an easy way out.
Increasing the GPA requirement is, IMNSHO, just a cheap fix that unjustly
punishes those students who get off to a shaky start in their first year and
does little to improve the major.  Heaven knows we've all seen students get
drunk on freedom in their first year and take an academic nose dive.  But
we've also seen that many of those students sober up their second year and
become great students.  Whatever method you employ to restrict the major you
need to have some way to accommodate these prodigal students. 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

> Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 17:21:04 -0500
> From: "Bev Ayers-Nachamkin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Requirements to Declare Major?
> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> Our students declare majors at the end of their first semester as
> sophomores. Once again I find myself jealously eyeing Education's
> requirement that, among other things, any student who wishes to major in
> Ed.
> must have and maintain a 2.5 gpa (soon to be 3.0). Have any of your
> programs
> established criteria that must be satisfied in order to major in Psych or
> Behavioral Sciences?
> Second half of the semester - must be I'm getting cranky ;-)
> 
> If there is sufficient interest, I'll be glad to compile responses for the
> list.
> 
> Cheers,
> Bev
> 
> >>>@@
> Bev Ayers-Nachamkin
> Wilson College
> 1015 Philadelphia Ave.
> Chambersburg, PA 17201-1285
> 717-264-4141, Ext. 3285
> 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 

Adjunct Positions

[Pollak, Edward]

Jessica Percodani wrote to ask about getting an adjunct position.

In addition to what's already been said:
1)Saturate local schools with a C.V. and cover letter stating your
interests.  
2)Go onto the web and look at the school's catalogues.  In your cover
letter, LIST THE SPECIFIC COURSES that you would like to/are willing to
teach.  I used to get letters from people telling me how they'd love to
teach a course in e.g., marital counseling, grief counseling, death and
dying, drug addiction, etc.  Sorry, but we don't offer such courses and I'm
certainly not going to add one to the schedule just because a temp I don't
even know says she'd like to teach it!  List courses that the school OFFERS
rather than the ones you'd like to teach in a perfect universe. If you want
to mention a special topics course, fine.  But do that only after you've
told me about the "traditional" courses you can teach.  Your chances of
teaching a topical seminar of your choosing are VERY slim. 
 
3)Especially in larger schools like mine, the one verity in a chair's life
is that "S#@%! happens!"  That means that virtually every semester, last
minute courses become available.  Faculty get pregnant, get sick, get
release time for administrative duties, for grants, etc.  (A chair's job is
not an easy one.) So make sure your info is in the "emergency hire" file.  

4)Your chances are better in non-clinical fields because the world is
saturated with new MAs , Ph.D.s & PsyDs who are just trying to start a
practice and want the prestige & extra cash of a university affiliation.
They also have lots of time on their hands.  Finding someone to teach S&P is
tougher than finding someone to teach abnormal or personality. 

5)In your cover letter, indicate availability vis a vis times/days if
possible.  Chairs have a zillion CVs from people who want to teach a 3
credit course but only at night.  Getting someone to come in MWF 12-1, on
the other hand, can be a bear.  So the more flexible you can be the better. 

Good luck,
Ed


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

For recent pix of the world's most gorgeous grandson, Eli Lewis Levine, see
http://webpages.charter.net/jeffnjanet/

institutional approval of student research

[Pollak, Edward]

This doesn't sound that surprising to me.  Because of the Education Privacy
Act schools need to be a little paranoid.  If they are allowing you and your
student access to other students' private educational records it seems that
they would have every right to protect themselves by requiring such approval
to publish.  They need to make certain that you aren't revealing information
which could leave the school open to litigation.  You should talk to the
registrar and make sure this is their rationale.  If it was something else
(e.g., they wouldn't want the world to know how low their standards really
are, or their true graduation rates, etc., ) THEN you can get annoyed.  But
this could be an innocent, good faith provision to protect the university. 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

-
> Have any of you encountered a situation in which empirical research
> conducted by a student under faculty supervision (or by a faculty person
> for
> that matter) has been "censored" by the institution?
> The research is still in the proposal stage, but we cannot obtain approval
> to proceed without inclusion of a statement that the results of the
> research
> cannot be presented or published without the permission of our college.
> The
> research concerns predictors of student retention. The student, an
> outstandingly promising psychology major who hopes to go on to graduate
> school, is quite frustrated because if she completes the study she may not
> be able to present it or publish it in any form without "permission" --
> potentially preventing her from being able to demonstrate that she has
> conducted and presented or published research when she wants to apply to
> graduate programs.
> 
> I feel like there are issues of academic freedom and of proper scientific
> methodology involved here (I was taught -- and teach -- that the scientist
> has the responsibility to make the results of empirical work publicly
> available), but also the educational issue of failing to facilitate the
> academic development of a student.
> 
> If you have encountered such a situation, I would appreciate hearing about
> how it was handled or resolved (you can reply to me back channel at
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> If you haven't encountered anything like this but have any wise advise for
> proceeding, I'd appreciate that as well.
> 
> Thanks,
> Deb Hume

2 semester Intro course/ low level exptl. course

[Pollak, Edward]

> We're going through similar ruminations (and have been for 20+ years).
> One
> thing that always stops a 2 semester intro psych courses dead in its
> tracks
> is the fact that intro is a service course for Nursing, Education and
> several other majors.  Their accrediting agencies often need the one
> semester course and those same agencies require so many courses that
> these
> other majors could not easily add yet another required course (i.e., a
> 2nd
> semester of intro psych).  Of course. a 2 semester intro course for
> "majors
> only" is appealing.
> 
> On a related issue: we're getting some pressure from within the
> department
> to offer a 200 level course in some area of exptl. psych.  Currently,
> our
> students need to take 3 of the following 5: physiol. psych, motivation,
> animal behavior, learning, cognitive.  We also offer S&P but in another
> category. But these are all 300 or 400 level courses and there's
> some
> sentiment that we should get students introduced to exptl. areas earlier
> by
> offering a (new) 200 level course or by downgrading the course number &
> content of one of the above.  I'm of 2 minds.  On the one hand, I could
> easily envision a 200 level physiol. course,, perhaps with an applied
> focus
> (e.g., drugs, neuropsych rehab, biol. basis of disorders, etc.).  We'd
> still
> keep the 400 level course for those who wanted it.  On the other hand, I
> 
> really dislike the idea that I'm being forced to consider developing a
> course just because someone thinks that a 200 level exptl. course is a
> good
> idea.  It seems like the cart leading the horse.  You should develop a
> new
> course because you think the COURSE is a good idea, and then you should
> decide on the number/level of the course.  You shouldn't develop a new
> course because you like the number and then try to develop a course to
> fit
> the number!
> 
> Another possibility might be a more general 200 level exptl. course. One
> 
> question I have is that for those who offer intro psych in 2 semesters,
> and
> the 1st semester is "psych as social science" and the 2nd semester is
> "Psych
> as a natural science", how much of a difference is there between the 2nd
> 
> semester of intro vs a 200 level "general exptl. course."
> 
> FWIW, our student take a stats course (PSY245) and research methods
> course
> (PSY246).  Another idea that I was considering was to make animal
> behavior a
> 200 level course (it's now 335).  There are 2 problems with that: 1)some
> 
> faculty think animal behavior is "too narrow."  Personally, I think
> they're
> nuts.  Animal behavior deals with evolution, learning, cognition,
> physiol.
> psych, S&P, motivation, etc.  It's the broadest of courses with the
> exception of intro.  But another problem is that we have an optional lab
> 
> with animal behavior and that really can't be a 200 level course because
> the
> students should have had the (PSY246) research methods course before
> taking
> the animal behavior lab.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> Ed
> 
> Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology,
> West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383
> ~~~
> Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
> bluegrass fiddler
> 
> 

Animal Behavior Text

[Pollak, Edward]

Last chance to help a doddering old professor:  I've reviewed the following
animal behavior texts and find all of them to be inadequate on one or
several dimensions: 

Siiter is too low level, too heavy on primates (4/16 chapters) and has
virtually NO discussion of behavioral endocrinology. 

Goodenough, et al. is written for biology majors and too molecular
Maier is written for biology majors and too molecular

Alcock is written for biology majors and has too great an emphasis on
insects.  Let's face it, psych majors want vertebrates. 

Are there ANY other animal behavior texts out there?  Book orders are due
soon and I'll be very unhappy if I have to go with one of these.  And not
having taught the course in 15 years I'd really like a good book!!! 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
~~~
Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

Animal Behavior Text

[Pollak, Edward]

I'm in the process of choosing a book (or books) for Animal Behavior.  The
only recent ones on my desk are those by Alcock and by Siiter.  Anyone have
any preferences?  Any other good ones out there? I've used Alcock before
(many years ago) and thought it was OK but a little heavier on invertebrates
than Psychology majors might like.  I'm also considering ordering Dawkins'
"The Selfish Gene" as an entertaining and lucid intro to the theory of
sociobiology.  I was really disappointed to see that  Vincent Dethier's "To
Know a Fly" is out of print.  I'd have loved to order it for the optional
Animal Behavior Lab course. 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office hours: Mondays 2-4; Tues. & Thursdays 10-noon.

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

Animal Behavior Lab

[Pollak, Edward]

I'm scheduled to teach an animal behavior lab next semester.  Can anyone
tell me a source (printed or web-based) of lab exercises, etc for such a
course?  I found the lab exercises on the ABS site but little else.  I also
have a 20 year old manual of lab exercises but something more recent (and in
print) would be nice!  Any help greatly appreciated.  The last guy who
taught the course here (Hi, Michael) did it primarily at the Philly Zoo.
I'm trying to do it in our lab.  Currently, I'm bouncing around ideas on rat
sexual & maternal behavior, blue gourami sexual, nest-building & paternal
behavior, anole aggression, gourami or Betta splendens aggressive behavior
and maybe something on squirrel foraging/hoarding.
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office hours: Mondays 2-4; Tues. & Thursdays 10-noon.

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Psychopharmacology Text

[Pollak, Edward]

I'm currently developing a graduate psychopharmacology course geared toward
clinical grad students in our terminal M.A. program.  The two books I think
best fit what I'd like to use are Lickey & Gordon's "Drugs for Mental
Illness" and "Medicine and Mental Illness" by the same authors but they are
quite dated (1983 & 1991 respectively).  Most of the others are  organized
around drug categories.   I'd prefer one organized around disorders.  I also
liked Solomon Snyder's "Drugs and the Brain" but it, too, is a bit dated and
curiously incomplete e.g., no discussion of tolerance.

I've looked at the Grilly, McKim, and Palfai & Jankiewicz texts but find
them too heavy on the pharmacology and too light on the implications for the
etiology of behavior disorders.  All suggestions gratefully accepted.
Ed


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office hours: Mondays 2-4; Tues. & Thursdays 10-noon.

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

Prenatal Androgen & Male Homosexuality

[Pollak, Edward]

I recently saw a blurb on an article implicating excess prenatal androgens
in MALE homosexuality.  I seem to have misplaced the reference.  Can someone
help me out? 


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office hours: Mondays 2-4; Tues. & Thursdays 10-noon.

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and
herpetoculturist. 

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

Stereotaxic unit ear bars

[Pollak, Edward]

I just received the following from a former undergrad student of mine,
currently a new grad student at another university.  When I did my last
stereotaxic lesion (30 years ago) I remember that there was can alternative
but 1)my memory could be faulty and b)it might have turned out to be less
accurate, etc. than the traditional ear bars. 

>   I am going to be using a stereotaxic (is this how it is said) for a 
> lesion study.  I observed another member of her lab doing a 
> similar procedure (I will be looking at a different area of the brain).  
> Anyway, when he inserted the bars into the rats ears he destroyed the 
> eardrums of the rat and claimed that this was normal.  Is this necessary?
> I 
> would like to avoid this if possible. Do you have any suggestions. 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office hours: Mondays 2-4; Tues. & Thursdays 10-noon.

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and
herpetoculturist. 

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

Jamie Leigh Curtis

[Pollak, Edward]

Every semester I teach physiological psychology.  When I get to the subject
of androgen insensitivity syndrome (AKA testicular feminization syndrome)
some student invariable says "Oh, yeah.  That's what Jamie Leigh Curtis
has!"   Can anyone confirm this?  Inquiring minds ..
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, 
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846; 
Office hours: Mondays 2-4; Tues. & Thursdays 10-noon.

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and
herpetoculturist. 

Shameless self promotion:  The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every
Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, PA. Call 610- 486-0953 for
directions.

FW: announcement

[Pollak, Edward]

> The Department of Psychology at Michigan State University seeks
> applications for an academic year tenure-track position at the rank of
> Assistant Professor effective August 16, 2001. We seek a scientist with
> interests in developmental psychobiology, cognitive development, or social
> development to complement our strengths in behavioral neuroscience,
> cognitive science, and social-personality psychology. We are interested in
> candidates in one of these areas who have demonstrated the potential to be
> productive researchers and effective teachers at both the undergraduate
> and
> graduate levels. Investigators with postdoctoral research experience are
> especially encouraged to apply, as are women and members of minority
> groups. Review of applications will begin November 1, 2000 and continue
> until the position is filled. Applicants should send a vitae,
> representative reprints/preprints, and three letters of recommendation to
> Hiram E. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., Chair, Developmental Search Committee,
> Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
> 48824-1117. MSU is an AA/EO
> Institution.
> 

Sexual Reassignment

[Pollak, Edward]

Diana asked : "I'm trying to locate a copy of the program Oprah did on
sexual
reassignment.  Any help would be appreciated.."

At the risk of asking the obvious:  Have you gone to the Oprah or Harpo
Productions web site? 
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, West Chester Univ. of PA,
West Chester, PA 19383 Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax:
610-436-2846; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Office hours: Mondays 2-4; Tues. & Thursdays 10-noon.

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and
herpetoculturist.  To find out what a herpetoculturist is, check out the
Chameleon Journals MOAC  Database at http://www.chameleonjournals.com/moac/ 

What is "student centered?"

[Pollak, Edward]

It's having the profs available for the students both inside and outside of
class.  
It's picking up a phone to call the registrar and help a student solve a
problem instead of telling the students, "I don't know.  Go schlep across
campus and ask someone else."  
It's going the extra step to let that one last "add" into your crowded
class.  
It's putting your home phone # & e-mail address on your syllabus and urging
students to use them
It's assuring students that you're available more than just your scheduled
office hours to help them with questions on any topic personal,
academic, intellectual. 

I don't think it has anything at all to do with "dumbing down."  In fact,
because I know I'm there to help  any student who asks, I feel less guilty
when I have to flunk those who don't avail themselves of my largesse.
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, West Chester Univ. of PA,
West Chester, PA 19383 Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax:
610-436-2846; [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and
herpetoculturist.  To find out what a herpetoculturist is, check out the
Chameleon Journals MOAC  Database at http://www.chameleonjournals.com/moac/ 

first day of class

[Pollak, Edward]

I hand out the syllabus, go over the syllabus and then proceed to teach a
full class.  The lecture typically revolves around material for which they
need not have read the chapter in advance.  This is usually a
discussion/lecture on dualism vs. materialism and free will vs. determinism.
I don't know about anyone else but I can't afford to give up any precious
lecture time if I'm going to get through the material in one semester.  And
at the risk of ticking off some folks, my eyebrow is raised whenever I hear
of profs who routinely dismiss the class early on the first or another day.
I don't know about anyone else but there's no course that I teach for which
I couldn't use (at least) an extra few weeks! Of course, this could be more
an indication of my lack of organizational skills than of the quality and
quantity of the pearls of wisdom which drop from my lips.  But I like to
think it's the latter!  
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, West Chester Univ. of PA,
West Chester, PA 19383 Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax:
610-436-2846; [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and
herpetoculturist.  To find out what a herpetoculturist is, check out the
Chameleon Journals MOAC  Database at http://www.chameleonjournals.com/moac/ 

Psych Minor

[Pollak, Edward]

We require 18 credits for the minor but there are no specific courses
required except for Intro psych which a prereq for most all other courses.
The reason for this is that different majors want a PSY minor for different
reasons and have different nreeds.  For example: Nursing majors MUST take
intro, lifespan devel. & abnormal for their BSN program.  We highly
recommend other relevant courses such as physiological, S&P, neuropsych
rehab., human sex, etc.For an English major, on the other hand, we might
recommend totally different courses.  Some students want the PSY minor to
keep their options open regarding grad school in Psych.  In such cases I'd
probably recommend yet a 3rd set of courses.  I try to give all minors some
room for choice but I try not to let that choice get too broad. 

Our catalogue say that the Psych minor requires 18 credits "selected with
the approval of the psychology adviser."  This is done for several reasons:

1)If I see a student taking a child devel. course in an education dept. (and
maybe also in the Health Dept) I will NOT permit a devel. psych course to
count toward our minor.  Similarly, human sexuality and other courses can be
taken ion different depts. and I will NOT allow a student to "double dip"
like that for the minor.  I may not have the power to prohibit the student
from receiving university credit for sucvh duplication but I CAN stop such
courses from counting toward the minor. 

2)I would not permit a student to get the PSY minor taking nothing but
"soft" courses.  (Define "soft as you will.")  I believe that they should
have at least a little exposure to some of the more rigorous courses. 


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester Univ. of PAFax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383  www.wcupa.edu/_academics/sch_cas.psy/
~~~
Husband, Father, Grandfather-to-be, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist..  13 days without a cigarette!
~~~

Confrontations with a Volatile student

[Pollak, Edward]

It seems to me that cannot stop the student from screaming but a "screaming
match" takes at least 2 people and you can make certain that you don't allow
yourself to get sucked in.  

You simply say "I could flunk you right now for plagiarism.  I do not plan
to do so at this point but the very next time I find that your work was
copied from (or is otherwise too similar to that of) others you will receive
a failing grade for the course.This issue is not open for debate."  

After she leaves, you right a description of what was said in the meeting
and put it in your drawer for future use if necessary.  You also need to
write down the events (including witness names) preceding the last episode
of plagiarism and, if possible, keep the evidence. 

Good luck.
---
Don wrote:
"I am facing, and dreading, a confrontation with a rather volatile student
> tomorrow, and I'd love to hear any advice you might have to prevent
> an explosion...
> 
> This student is very entitled, if not downright spoiled, has an extremely
> low frustration tolerance, and is a bully.  Her classmates have finally
> come to me to ask me to stop demanding their homework to copy and turn
> in as her own.  I wish they'd stand up to her, but the buck must
> ultimately
> stop with me.
> 
> Most recently this student took a students paper, copied it, and then 
> when I confronted her, lied to me and told me that she had worked with
> that student, which he (the guy whose paper she grabbed) denies.
> 
> How can I get the message across that her antics will no longer be
> tolerated
> in a way that won't cause a screaming match?  Thanks in advance"

ECT and Placebo Effect

[Pollak, Edward]

>  Jeff Ricker wrote:
"oes anyone know if the efficacy of ECT for the treatment of depression
> has ever been tested with a placebo control group? I don't know how one
> would perform such a test..."
> 
I can't put my finger on the reference but 10-15 years ago there was a big
report on ECT (I believe by NIMH) and the conclusion was quite favorable.
One way to look at the placebo effect is to look at instances where the
current is passed but it's not adequate to elicit a seizure.  This can
happen with the use of muscle relaxants, anesthesia and unilateral ECT.
My understanding is that if you don't elicit the seizure, you don't get the
antidepressant effect.  That would seem to be one  answer the placebo
question.  But a better one might be the observation that ECT is just as
effective with anesthesia as when given "eyes-open."  If the placebo effect
was responsible I would expect "eyes-open"
 ECT to be quite effective and ECT given under general anesthesia to be
ineffective.  But in the words of Bix Beiderbeck, "'Tain't so, honey,
'tain't so." 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester Univ. of PAFax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383  www.wcupa.edu/academics/sch_cas.psy/
~~~
Husband, Father, Grandfather-to-be, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
herpetoculturist.
~~~

Oxytocin

[Pollak, Edward]

> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>  
> >  1) Kalat (Biol Psychol, 6th, p. 308), under the heading "effects on
> >  men" says "the body releases enormous amounts of oxytocin during
> >  orgasm, more than tripling the usual concentration in the blood". That
> >  sounds like a lot to me.
> 
There's an obvious snide remark here regarding men's orgasmic burst of
oxytocin being greater than that of women: to wit, men's bursts are higher
because the calculated means only include REAL orgasms. Thank G-d no one on
this list would stoop to such comments. (evil ) 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
www.wcupa.edu/academics/sch_cas.psy/
~~~
Husband, Father, Grandfather-to-be, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist.
~~~

student's question

[Pollak, Edward]

Annettte wrote: 
"Personally, if it was me, I would have put the cortices in the forebrain
> and all the subcortical stuff together in the midbrain to help students,
> at least, understand the distinction between what I see is a way of
> "categorizing" or "organizing" the structures based on related
> phylogeny and function."
> 
I agree that for pedagogical purposes in a physiological psych course it
might be more useful to use a functional division of the brain rather than
the traditional system based on embryology and comparative anatomy.

So I use both.  In addition to the traditional hind-mid-forebrain, I use
Paul MaClean's triune concept, dividing the brain into the Old Reptilian
Brain (hind brain+midbrain+diencephalon), Old Mammalian Brain (limbic
system) and New Mammalian Brain (neocortex).   

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Grandfather-to-be, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist.
~~~

Tenure Track/Social Psych Position

[Pollak, Edward]

Here a copy of the ad that we're currently running.  Please distribute to
any potential candidates.
-
Here is the final draft of the ad that will appear this fall for our Social
position.

West Chester University anticipates hiring a tenure-track faculty member in
Social Psychology at the assistant professor level.  We are looking for a
colleague whose research interests are in the areas of ethnic, racial,
cultural, sexual, or gender diversity.  Preference will be given to
candidates who express a commitment to teaching courses in research methods
in addition to their core area. Candidates must have an active program of
research and will be expected to involve graduate and undergraduate students
in this research.  Finalists will be selected after completion of on-campus
interviews, during which each candidate will present a colloquium to
demonstrate teaching and research excellence.  We are especially interested
in recruiting faculty from under-represented groups.  The department of
psychology is comprised of 19 FTE faculty and serves over 500 undergraduate
majors and 75 master's degree students.  Additional information is available
at www.wcupa.edu.  Completion of the Ph.D. is required before the start of
the Fall 2000 semester.  Applicants should send a letter identifying the
courses they are prepared to teach, a curriculum vitae, 3 letters of
reference, no more than 3 reprints or preprints, and a statement of teaching
philosophy.  Deadline for receipt of applications is November 15, 1999.
Address applications to: Stefani Yorges, Ph. D., Search Committee Chair,
Department of Psychology, West Chester University, West Chester, PA 19383.
West Chester University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Grandfather-to-be, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist.
~~~

Chronic Pain Addiction

[Pollak, Edward]

> Beth Benoit wrote:
"I think this discussion fails to take into account 
> a very real problem that seems especially
> severe for older people:  They're given
> prescriptions for potentially addicting
> medications
> by physicians who are tired of being "bothered" by
> patients who complain of pain.  After
> many refills, with little or no follow-up from
> overburdened physicians, they are (not
> surprisingly) addicted to pain medication."
> 
That just brought to mind another important factor regarding drug use in the
elderly and it rates a footnote on my prior statement that addiction is
uncommon in people who don't raise their dosages over those that are
prescribed.   This factor is drug metabolism and interaction.  Most of these
drugs are metabolized by the liver and it is common for old folks to have
reduced ability to detoxify these drugs.  Because hepatic degradation can be
so much slower in the elderly, a dose that is small for a healthy young
adult could be quite high for old folks.   Add the fact that the elderly are
often on multiple meds that can interact in the liver and on the cellular
level and you have a situation where some very untoward reactions occur.
I'm thinking here of my wife's grandmother who developed full blown
hallucinations and paranoid delusions that only disappeared after had a
gerontologist evaluate ALL her meds and oversee her other physicians.  

On the other hand, I tend to worry more about giving the elderly adequate
pain relief rather than obsess about addiction.  Unless the drugs are
diminishing her quality of life and mental capabilities I don't see the harm
of pain control and even addiction.  Granny's not going to be robbing any
liquor stores to support her habit.  If she's functional and the drugs are
not interfering with her activities and relationships, why care about
whether she's addicted or not?  Of course, her age makes a difference.
Grandmothers can be in their 40s or 80s.  Big difference. 

I think Beth's original complaint however, was about the lack of supervision
of medication in the elderly and she's absolutely right.  I would suggest
that any elderly person who sees multiple physicians and who may have an
iatrogenic condition, get a specialist to keep an eye on the "big picture." 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Grandfather-to-be, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist.
~~~
 

Chronic Pain Addiction

[Pollak, Edward]

Rick asked: "..  Myers cites Melzack (1990) in 
> a Scientific American article as saying that people don't usually become 
> addicted to (or at least develop cravings for) drugs used to control
> chronic 
> pain.  John Graham, .cites Fordyce (1979) in article on 
> the use of the MMPI in assessing chronic pain, as suggesting "that chronic
> 
> pain patients can easily become addicted to narcotics, barbituates, or 
> muscle relaxants." .  Does anyone know the real story here? "
> 
I think the answer is fairly straight forward.  For those pain patients (or
anyone else) who sticks to the prescribed dosages and schedules, addiction
is very rare.  For those who start to double, triple, quadruple, etc. the
prescribed dosages, addiction can be rapid and severe.  Of course, you can
argue that this is useless info because it essentially says that those who
become addicted become addicted (because non-addicts don't "up" their
doses).   On the other hand, it's useful info because it suggests that
useful (albeit addictive) drugs can be prescribed freely as long the
patient's use is carefully monitored.  

Personally, I suspect the risk of addiction is getting greater because we're
now seeing old folks on these meds and these old folks were raised in a
relatively drug free/anti-drug environment.  When my (Woodstock) generation
is in line to get more and more meds (pretty soon now) I suspect that we
will be less likely to fear raising our own doses and will be more likely to
enjoy experiencing the associated side effects of these drugs. But that's
just a guess. 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Grandfather-to-be, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist.
~~~

Looking for some help

[Pollak, Edward]

K. Korek wrote:
"Today my Advanced Placement Psychology class finished going through the
> various parts of the brain and split brain research.  At the end of the
> discussion a student asked (why)  .the left side of the
> brain controls the right side of his body and vice versa.  .. He was
> looking for an
> evolutionary or functional explanation for the phenomenon."
> 
Give the kid a gold star.  I've been asking myself that question for 25
years.  I'm not certain about the possum example that Al mentioned but if I
remember correctly,  animals with less cortex than us (or no cortex) tend
have CNSs that are MORE completely crossed than ours, not less. 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist. in approximate order of importance.
~~~
 

freud, freud, freud

[Pollak, Edward]

".The book's publication also marked the real beginnings of scientific
research
> into the mind and to the development of truer understanding of mental
> health
> problems. ...Because of its influence on scientific
> thinking, The Interpretation of Dreams
> has led to everything from drug treatments for depression and
> schizophrenia,
> to studies of neural networks with PET scans, and to further understanding
> of
> learning, memory, and mental development."
> 
JEEZ.  I want some of what these guys are smoking  

One of my old mentors used to refer to Freud as "a good neurologist gone
bad."  I agree and teach that Freud probably set psychology back 25-50
years. 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist. in approximate order of importance.
~~~
 

Violence and the Brain

[Pollak, Edward]

I had written that 
> > The obvious (albeit older) book is Mark & Ervin's Violence and the Brain
> but
> > I'm sure it's very dated.
> 
To which Stephen Black responded: 
> I'd be cautious in recommending this book, especially if it's the only
> source consulted. Mark and Ervin are enthusiasts of psychosurgery for
> violence and I recall that their evidence in favour is rather slim.
> These are controversial views.
> 
> Elliot Valenstein might provide a more balanced approach.
> 
Stephen is quite correct that Mark and ervin is both dated and
controversial.  I would might also agree that Valenstein's approach is "more
balanced."   I would not, however, want to argue that Valenstein's approach
is "balanced"...  More balanced than Mark and Ervin? Probably.
But is Valenstein's approach unbiased?  I think not.  He's got his own
strong biases.  By all means, have your student read both. 

Violence and Brain Dysfunction

[Pollak, Edward]

>  Jeff Ricker  asked: 
".I had a student ask for information about any possible
> association between brain dysfunctions and criminal violence. Does
> anyone know of any good articles on this that might be understandable to
> an undergraduate (and also to me)."
> 
The obvious (albeit older) book is Mark & Ervin's Violence and the Brain but
I'm sure it's very dated.

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist. in approximate order of importance.
~~~

Hallucinogens again

[Pollak, Edward]

Nancy asked: 
" ...a student has asked for an explanation of how hallucinogens act on
the brain at the cellular level, and how that is different from how
addictive drugs act on brain cells"

The short answer seems to be that most hallucinogens act at serotonergic
receptors but there's conflicting evidence as to whether the major effects
are agonistic or antagonistic.  Most addictive drugs seem to directly (e.g.,
cocaine) or indirectly (e.g., heroin) act as dopaminergic agonists.  But of
course it's much more complicated than this.  Your student needs to get a
good psychopharmacology or physiol. psych book if he/she wants more detail.

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist. in approximate order of importance.
~~~

10% Myth

[Pollak, Edward]

I had always assumed that this myth had its roots in the fact that most of
the neocortex is not strictly either sensory or motor.  Indeed, "association
cortex" was often said to be "silent."  I simply assumed that folks with
other agenda (such as psychics and purveyors "mind improvement tapes, et
al.)  jumped on that, concluding that "if it's 'silent' that means we're not
using it" and the myth just took off from there. 

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist. in approximate order of importance.
~~~

Evolution Column

[Pollak, Edward]

Does anyone still have a copy of that humorous column on evolution?  I seem
to have purged it.  If you could send it to me off list I'd appreciate it.
Ed

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office: 610-436-3151
Department of PsychologyHome: 610-363-1939
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Fax: 610-436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383
~~~
Husband, Father, Biopsychologist, Bluegrass Fiddler and
Herpetoculturist. in approximate order of importance.
~~~

Search and seizure/Taklking in My Sleep

[Pollak, Edward]

Nancy Melucci asked:
".. I thought I would
re-inquire about my questions regarding any actual difference between
"physical" and "emotional" seizures.  I just wanted to confirm that there is
no such thing as an emotional seizure, and give the student a little
information on how seizures are treated/managed"Another student 
inquired about "sleeptalking" and I also wanted to find out
if that phenonmenon was associated with a particular stage of sleep, any
other information would be appreciated.

You are correct.  A seizure is a seizure (to praraphrase Gertrude Stein). 
  Some may be triggered by strong emotion, some by flashing lights but the 
onset of most is idiopathic.Fortunately these days there are many 
excellent meds and most people with epilepsy can can have good enough 
control that they can drive and do everything else as long as they take 
their meds.  Of course, many can't get complete control like that but very 
good control is still possible.   Whenever I discuss seizures I am acutely 
aware that one or more of my students have probably been diagnosed witrh 
seizure disorder so I go out of my way to make these points.  This is 
especially  important when talking about the "weird" cases such as H.M., 
split brains  and others in which surgery was required.   Most of those 
cases occurred when we had little more than bromides, phenobarbitol and 
maybe Dilantin.  Today we have dozens of good meds so surgery is much less 
common. And when surgery is necessary, it's much safer than it was in the 
days of Wilder Penfield.

As for sleep talking: my understanding is that occurs equally in all stages 
of sleep.  There are descending fibers from the pontine region of the 
midbrain that effectively inhinit the spinal motor  neurons and paralize the 
skeletal muscles during REM sleep.  ie., REM or Dream Paralysis.But 
these fibers do not inhibit the motor neurons of the cranial nerves.   This 
means that although sleep walking cannot occur in REM and is a purely 
non-rem (stage 3 & 4) penomenon, sleep talking can occur in any stage.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-3151
Professor of Psychology Home (610)363-1939
West Chester University FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Peoples Building Rm 44www.wcupa.edu

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

student's question

[Pollak, Edward]

Michael Sylvester asked:
are there cases of identical twins separated and adopted by differnt
families where both have developed a homosexual lifestyle?
And if one did and the other did not, would that be evidence of
an environmental influence on homosexual behavior?"

I can't give you a citation off hand but the answer to both questions is 
"yes."   The concordance rate of for homosexuality in MZ twins is about 50%. 
 i.e., large genetic component but room for non-genetic variables.

ONE WORD OF CAUTION:  The fact that the concordance rate is not 100% argues 
for "environmental" influences.  HOWEVER, let us be clear that in this 
context, "environmental" is misleading.  What it really says is that there 
is room for "non-genetic" variables.  For example, exposure to a virus in 
utero or in infancy are environmental (i.e., non-genetic) variables but they 
are not the sorts of things that most students (or clinicians for that 
matter) would readily think of when they hear the word "environmental." 
 Might I also point out that error variance is also "non-genetic."  This may 
or may not be relevant in twin stusdies of homosexuality but it's probably 
very relevant when discuyssing the genetics of schiz. and/or depression: 
i.e., how many twin pairsa are reported as discordant when a better 
nosological system would have found the pair to be concordant?
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-3151
Professor of Psychology Home (610)363-1939
West Chester University FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Peoples Building Rm 44www.wcupa.edu

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

Immediate Tenure Track Position

[Pollak, Edward]

Michael, please re-post your announcement but this time doing a copy/paste 
from the document into your e0-mail..  Many of us get attachments as 
gibberish only.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-3151
Professor of Psychology Home (610)363-1939
West Chester University FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Peoples Building Rm 004   www.wcupa.edu

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

Popular Psychology 101

[Pollak, Edward]

Based on my advisees' queries reharding career paths this list of topics 
MUST include:

Hannibal Lechter and you: profiling serial killers for fun and profit.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-3151
Professor of Psychology Home (610)363-1939
West Chester University FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.wcupa.edu

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

Did Freud die of a morphine overdose?

[Pollak, Edward]

Stephen Black wrote:   "assuming Freud was administered the
sulphate form of morphine, intravenously, he was given a dose 1/3
greater than the maximum recommended for analgesia.This is not a startlingly 
high dose, but it may have been sufficient
for someone in a severely weakened condition. So the answer is:
maybe, maybe not. This is probably a prudent practice when attempting
euthanasia if you prefer not to be accused of it."

Without knowing how much morphine Freud had been taking (and for how long 
he'd been taking it) I think it highly unlikely that dose specified was 
enough to kill him.  Tolerance to morphine builds rapidly and assuming that 
he'd been taking significant doses of morphine for any length of time, it is 
unlikely that a "normal" analgesic dose would do very much.  Addicts can 
easily tolerate 5-10 times the recommended dose...  On the other hand, with 
impaired liver function, etc., a normal dose could be quite toxic.  So as 
the man said,  "maybe, maybe not."
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor of Psychology Home (610)363-1939
West Chester University FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.wcupa.edu

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

Statistics

[Pollak, Edward]

James S. MacDonall wrote:
"My department is considering revamping our current underegraduate 
statistics course.  We are considering going to an SPSS based, 
non-computational approach."

Without commenting on the content I'd like to raise my voice to object to a 
non-computational, SPSS-based course.  We all know that unless you use these 
programs regularly, you have to re-learn them every time you need them.  And 
the fact is that few of our students will bee using SPSS enough to justify 
spending a lot of time teaching it to them.  My argument is that satatistics 
is first and foremost a course in logic and that students to need to get 
their hands dirty with computations to fully understand the logic.  This may 
not be logically true but I have found it to be empirically true.

My thoughts were shaped by my 2 years as a post doc in a Bio dept. where I 
became the ersatz statistician because their idea of a stat course for grad 
students was "tell 'em about measures of central tendency and variance and 
then show them how to use   SPSS."  I had opne Hell of a time trying to 
explain to a poor, beleaguered grad student why I couldn't show him how to 
do an ANOVA when one of his groups only had an N=1 in it.. i.e., that 
you can't analyze variance without variance!!!

Of course in theory, the noncomputational approach might work but in 
practice you need too much time to show students the minutiae of SPSS and it 
necessarily takes away from the time need to actually explkain what 
statistics is all about.  If you want "non-computational" it might be more 
useful to show them how to use an Excel spreadsheet.  They can then ad rows, 
square numbers, etc. without physically adding up columns.  THey come awayt 
from it with knowledge of a useful program (i.e., Excel) and you still have 
time to lecture on statistics.

Just my 2 cents worth.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor of Psychology Home (610)363-1939
West Chester University FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.wcupa.edu

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

Class Size and Faculty Workload

[Pollak, Edward]

Lou Manz asked:
"... is there some "magic number" for class size where you feel it
becomes virtually impossible, from a workload view, to assign papers that
need to be critically evaluated?  And what about exams--is there a point
where short/long essay questions become too much to deal with?"

FWIW, Lou, West Chester's Psych Dept. has dealt with the problem by going to 
large (100 student) sections of intro psych (except in the "majors only" 
sections).  The rationale is that a)once you're over about 30-35 students 
your pretty much talking about multiple choice and lecture format anyway; 
b)we can still keep our upper level classes small; c)we can avoid putting 
people who are expert in small group/collaborative teaching methods into 
large classes and we avoid putting good lecturers (like me) into small, 
interactive classes that magnify their inability to direct small, 
interactive classes.  In other words, it allows us to play to faculty 
members' strngths.

A bonus is that the admin. loves the large numbers of FTE students we cn 
generate and has repaid us with release time for research.  Actually, I 
wrote a paper on this a few years ago.  Let me know off list if you're 
interested in seeing a copy.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor Home (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

Psycchobiology-Putting a course together

[Pollak, Edward]

 Donette Steele wrote:
"I am looking for some help.  I am putting together a proposal for a new
class, at one of the community colleges, where I teach."

I must admit to being a little skeptical as to how many community college 
students you could get to sign up for such a course, Donette.  If you get to 
offer even one section a year I'd be surprised.  (But I'm the huy who 
thought MTV was an idiotic idea that no one would ever watch so don't go by 
me.)

But FWIW:  My students love Jim Kalat's text (Brooks/Cole).  A great 
supplement is Oliver Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat."  I'm 
also going to try a neuroanatomy coloring book that comes as a supplement 
with Pinel's book.  I won't use his textbook but the oloring book looks 
excellent.  Good luck.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

Terminal Degress

[Pollak, Edward]

Bob Newby asked:
"Our faculty senate has recommended that the Master of Fine
Arts, Master of Social Work, Juris Doctorate, along with the Certitified
Public Accountant and a Computing Certification be considered terminal so
that these individuals can be tenured and be eligible for promotion.  What
I would enjoy from the collective membership is how does your university
deal with this issue?"

MSW, MFA & JD are terminal degrees.

 The CPA is not.  My wife is a CPA but her B.A. is in Sociology.  All you 
need for the CPA is any collerge degree plus X # of accounting courses, 
hours in a CPA firm and to pass the exam.My Univ. requires at least the 
Masters.

Similarly,  I see no reason why Computing should not have the doctorate as 
the terminal degree but I would think that an M.S. would be an absolute 
necessity.  To sat that the B.S. + cert. could be a "terminal degree" is 
outrageous.  It MIGHT be marginally adequate but certainly not terminal. 

Terminal Degress

[Pollak, Edward]

Bob Newby asked:
"Our faculty senate has recommended that the Master of Fine
Arts, Master of Social Work, Juris Doctorate, along with the Certitified
Public Accountant and a Computing Certification be considered terminal so
that these individuals can be tenured and be eligible for promotion.  What
I would enjoy from the collective membership is how does your university
deal with this issue?"

~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

Phantom Tastes and Smells

[Pollak, Edward]

Gary Peterson asked " if there are ways to induce phantom sensory 
experiences for classroom demos."

This and the Times article (sorry but I forgot who posted that one) reminded 
me of a paper in Science from around the early 70s. It investigated the 
common observation that after eating artichokes, water yastes sweet.   My 
wife & I were big on artichokes at the time and it really is a powerful 
illusion.  Water tastes like saccharin.  This shouldn't be too tough to 
duplicate in class.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass 
fiddler... not necessarily in order of importance.

Forensic Psychology

[Pollak, Edward]

RJ asked:
"What is the "typical" and/or most constructive route toward such a degree? 
" (i.e., forensic psych)

Has anyone else noticed the dramatic increase in students asking about 
forensic psych lately?  It seems to me that they all want to be "profilers" 
for the FBI.  I trace it all back to "Silence of the Lambs" and "The 
Profiler" TV series.

But to answer the question:  I first disabuse them of the notion that most 
forensic psychologists are "profilers" and that most  do lots of evaluations 
for child custody cases.   Then I tell them that it is my (admittedly poor) 
understanding that gold standard in this area would be program that offers a 
joint J.D./Ph.D. degree.  There are a few. but very few.  Second best is 
a clinical doctorate that advertises a forensic subspecialty.  After that, I 
usually tell them to get a clinical or counseling psych doctorate while 
trying to get as much relevant internship and coursework as possible.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

Urban Legend Web Site

[Pollak, Edward]

Can someone tell me the URL for a web site that lists various urban 
legends. especially of the e-mail variety?
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

Philosophy of Teaching Intro Psych

[Pollak, Edward]

My intro classes range from 35-100 students.  Especially in the larger 
sections but in the smaller ones as well I long ago came to the conclusion 
that you cannot possibly lecture on every topic in the book.  And even if 
you did, you'd just be reiterating the text.. an unpardonable sin in my 
view.  I still remember my frosh history prof who (quite literally) stood in 
fron of 500 students a read the text to us.

Given that you cannot possibly lecture on more than 30% of the topics in a 
given chapter, I've decided that intro psych is better approached as a "dog 
and pony show."   I'm not much on multimedia.  It's a tremendous amount of 
work.  Maybe folks teaching one course with multiple TAs can do it but with 
a 3-4 course load it's pretty tough.  I have some colleagues who do it (God 
bless them) but not me.  Nonetheless, I have cultuivated a large number of 
"gee whiz" lectures that (I hope) gets them enthused.  Instead of lecturing 
on action potentials, I lecture on aphasias and  antipsychotics.  When 
lecturing on learning theory I use examples of placebo effects in rats and 
Mowrer's treatment for bed wetting.  i.e., talk about the weird and/or 
relevant.   And before I get "on stage" I take two minutes to get into my 
"performer/stand up comic" persona.

Of course, getting a good stock of lectures takes time.  Keep the ones that 
work and bag the ones that don't.  I'll be teaching intro for the first in 5 
years this Summer.  It should be interesting. . essentially a new prep. 

~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

"hava tequila"

[Pollak, Edward]

You asked if Jews  would find the T-shirt "hava tequila"  to be offensive.

No offense taken from this yiddische boychik.  Hava Nagillah is not a 
religious/liturgical song, just ethnic.  I can't imagine why anyone would 
take offense (aside from the erroneous implication that Jews actually drink 
tequila  ).
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

Honors Intro

[Pollak, Edward]

Many years ago I, too, taughth an "honors" intro psych class.  On the basis 
of that exprience, I offer these words of warning.  Do NOT assume that these 
students (presumably frosh) have any greater general knowledge of evolution, 
sociology, anthropology, history, etc., etc. than your run-of-the-mill 
student.  They may not even be a lot more motivated. (Maybe a little more 
motivated but not a lot.)  Sad to say but the only difference that I found 
between these and other students is that they do better on tests, especially 
mult. choice tests, and that they write a little better than others.  That 
being said, I'm teaching a "majors only" section of intro in the Fall (after 
not having taught intro psych for 4-5 years) so I, too am looking forward to 
the answers to the original post.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

New Discoveries

[Pollak, Edward]

Pat Cabe wrote:
"I think it is very easy to overlook the incredibly short history of 
psychology as a science. The 150 years of so that we acknowledge is so very 
brief compared to the depth of history behind essentially all the other 
"traditional" sciences."

I've got to strenuously disagree with you on this, Pat.  Biology hasn't been 
 truly "experimental" for much more than 150 years.  Until then it was 
largely descriptive.   Folks have been describing behavior and personality 
for thousands of years.at least as long as they've been describing 
biological phenomena.  What we lack is not a history.  What we lack is a 
comprehensive theory to draw it all together (such as the evolutionary 
psychologists are trying to develop) and the ability to relate behavioral 
processes to biological process  (which the various subtypes of 
physiological psychologists are attempting to do).The physiological 
research has only started to mushroom with the advent of techniques (like 
PET scanners, microdialysis, etc.) so I would argue that the lack of tools, 
rather than the lack of years, is what   has held us back.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

Father-Daughter Psychologists

[Pollak, Edward]

My daughter received her Ph.D. in Social Psych last year.    of 
course, she went into social psych rather than biopsych.  but I 
love her anyway. 
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

New Discoveries/Breakthroughs

[Pollak, Edward]

Rip Piacreta wrote:
"To me, that (i.e.,a  "breakthough")  would be any research that has major 
clinical application, starts a discipline, or generates a reformulation of 
basic tenets of a field."

I agree, Rip.  But the only things I can think of that fit the bill here 
would come from
a) neurochemistry/psychopharmacology (i.e., clinical applications)
or
b) E.O. Wilson, et al. with Sociobiology/Evolutionary Psychology (starts a 
new discipline).
or
c)Garcia's learned aversions (generates a reformulation of basic tenets of a 
field).

But the interesting point is that a, b, & c are all within the realm of 
evolutionary psychology and biopsych as I had originally suggested.I'm 
an unrepentant reductionist who believes that true breakthroughs allow 
psychologists to talk to biologists (i.e., the next level down).  We can 
talk about the "cognitive revolution" but IMNSHO,  The real breakthroughs 
come when cognitive mechanisms can be related to physiological mechanisms , 
e.g., cognitive neuropsych.  Unfortunately for most of us, a fair proprtion 
of the most interesting research comes from research tools like PET scanners 
that are beyond the reach of most of us.  Technological breakthroughs 
powered many (if not most) of the recent breakthroughs in chemistry, physics 
& biology.  Is it possible that breakthroughs in psychology have been 
retarded by our lack of access to big, powerful hardware?  When we think of 
"big science" we think of cyclotrons and PET scanners.  Granted that those 
tools can generate a lot of trivial data but such expensive toys could also 
help us find our "breakthroughs."
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

  

where are the new discoveries?

[Pollak, Edward]

Rip Psacreta wrote:
"It occurred to me recently that the bulk of the classic pubs, studies,
theories are from decades ago. Even a new book I received recently
called something like "20 experiments that shook the world" lists work
from 1890 to about 1967. Why aren't there any giants anymore? Major
breakthroughs that occasion a flood of related research? You just don't
see studies like the Milgram and Zimbardo work, Harlow, Skinner. Or am I
just reading the wrong journals?"

At the risk of sounding too chauvinistic I think I can answer this one: 
 They're in the physiological, biopsych, and evolutionary psych journals! 
 So yes, Rip, you're reading the wrong journals although the signal to noise 
ratios in those is as high as anywhere else.

But that being said, I'll go out even further on limb and question the 
"breakthrough" value of Milgram's and others "classic" studies.  Milgram 
didn't tell us much that we didn't already know from reading history.  True, 
his was a beautiful demonstration that brought the point(s) home as history 
had obviously failed to do.  But a "breakthrough?"   It just isn't up there 
with Darwin or Watson & Crick or Einstein.  That being said, What would 
constitute a true "breakthrough" in modern psychology?   The only  ones I 
can think of would come from understanding brain function and the evolution 
of behavior but, of course, that's probably just my chauvinism showing 
again.

(I'll await replies in my flame-retardant scivvies. )
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.ed

Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

Spiritual Beliefs of Students

[Pollak, Edward]

Sounds like you're saying exactly the right things, Jeff.  The only thing I 
sometimes add is "look, you don't have to believe in evolution but you are 
expectred to understand the theory.  In the same way, I may not believe in 
Christianity but if I'm taking a course in religion, I'd be expected to 
understand the tenets of that religion. It's all part of being well rounded 
and educated."
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

Nicotine, REN & Dreams

[Pollak, Edward]

It is becoming increasingly clear that I've been a Dept. Chair way too long 
and have falling behind in my readiong on this literature.  Thanks to 
Stephen Black for pointing out that I need to update my increasingly archaic 
knowledge in this area.  (No sarcasm intended.. I MEAN it!!)FWIW, I 
have known that some folks were challenging the tight REM/Dream connection 
but I continue to oversimplify for  pedagogical purposes and I guess I 
started to believe my own  oversimplifications.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

Nicotine patch/weird dreams

[Pollak, Edward]

'Tis true, 'tis true.  When I went on the patch I had the most remarkable 
dreams including one fascinating, lucid dream that I still remember.  In 
retrospect, it's not at all  surprising.  We've long known that cholinergic 
agonists (like nicotine) facilitate REM sleep while inhibiting slow wave 
sleep.  Alternately, serotonergic agonists facilitate slow wave sleep at the 
expense of REM sleep.  No surprises here.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

Placebo effects/warts/hypnosis

[Pollak, Edward]

When I was a child I had warts on my hands.  My father took me over to see a 
family friend, Uncle Rudy, who was also a plastic surgeon.  Uncle Rudy put a 
band aid on the warts and on the gauze of the ban aid was a yellow 
"medicine."  Sure enough, the warts disappeared with a few weeks.  Many 
years later my father informed me that the yellow "medicine" was food 
coloring and that placebo effects had been used for many years to treat 
warts.

As for the mechanism: it could be, as oythers have suggested, a system 
increase in immune function.  But it might also be due to a change in the 
regional blood flow to the affected area.  Changes in blood flow could make 
that part of the body more accessible to intervention by the immune system. 
 Alternately, changes in blood flow could affect the average temperature in 
that region and many microorganisms are know to reproduce better within a 
narrow temperature band.

Changes in blood flow (and/or horme secretion) have also been suggested to 
explain the effectiveness of hypnosis in increasing breast size.  I tell my 
students that it is not derogatory to consider hypnosis to be the 
:"grand-daddy of all placebo effects."  Placebo effects are real and 
powerful.  FWIW, I don't mean to imply that hypnosis and placebos are 
exactly the same thing.  For example, placebo-induced analgesia is 
reversible with opiate blockers while (last time I checked the literature) 
hypnosis induced analgesia is not naloxone reversible.

Martin Gross (in The Psychological Society) refers to clinical psychologists 
as the "institutionalized dispensers of placebos" in that they deal with 
treatment modalities that are, by the standard definition, not "biologically 
active."   But as I tell my students, placebo effects are real & powerful 
and cause observable changes in brain chemistry/function.  Being the "master 
of the p[lacebo effect" would be no small thing.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.  Office (610)436-2945
Professor and ChairpersonHome (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler... not 
necessarily in order of importance.

Stuttering

[Pollak, Edward]

Joyce Johnson wrote:
"Dr Ronald Webster at Hollins College in Roanoke Va is a world reknown
expert on stuttering and its treatment.  ..His basic discovery was that 
stutterers have a neuronal/ motoric delay in transmission of internal 
feedback from the vibration of the vocal chords tothe inner ear. (That is 
why stutterers don't stutter when they listen to delayed feedback).He 
facilitates that transmission by an electronic device that sends the 
feedback faster plus teaches a technique of gradual onset of speech sounds. 
Gradual onset explains the curious finding that stutterers don't stutter 
when they sing. The training, based on empirical research and learning 
principles, takes 3 weeks and the combination of "device" plus training 
"cures" over 90% of clients.  It is amazing."

Funny you should mention Webster.  I was on our University's Tenure & Promo 
committee when a fellow from our Speech Pathology Dept. came up for 
promotion.  This fellow was a co-investigator with Webster, assessing the 
efficacy of Webster's device.  He and Webster had given collquia all over 
the country on the technique.  Unfortunately, when we asked to see evidence 
of peer-reviewed articles on the clinical trials we were told that the 
results had not been submitrted because of patent issues.  This was 3-4 
years ago so maybe something has been published thus far but until I see 
peer reviewed articles and replications, I will remain skeptical.

I'm old enough to remember all the hoopla on the Feingold Diet for ADHD, 
then the "too much sugar hypothesis."  I remember when people were hailing 
the finding that flourescent lights caused ADHD.  I even remember the "tight 
underwear" hypothesis.  Stutteruing research seems to be similar in that 
someone "finds the cause/treatment" about once every five years.  I don't 
mean to pick on ADHD or stuttering researchers.  This happens with darn near 
every common problematic condition.  This week it's vitamins.  Next week its 
Eye Movement Desensitzation, Assisted Communication or primal scream.  I 
think it was Martin Gross in "The Psychological Society" who said that "no 
new therapy  is ever introduced without wild claims of fabulous successes 
and no therapy is ever withdrawn because it failed to live up to those 
claims."  An overstatement, to be sure.  But not completely off base.  As 
for Webster's anti-stuttering device, I'll wait for the peer-reviewed 
controlled clinical trials.

BTW, the fellow who was involved in this research DID get promoted but it 
was least  more because of his outstanding contributions in other areas.  I 
do not in any way mean to demean a valued and respected colleague and I do 
understand patent problems, etc.  But it would be nice if they had better 
proof.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945
Professor and Chairperson   Home (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology   FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University[EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
~~~
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler...
not necessarily in order of importance.  AAFOUF#0064

Adjunct Faculty

[Pollak, Edward]

If any adjuncts took offense at anything I said in my previous post I 
certainly do apologize fior giving offense but I cannot say that I retract 
anything and cannot imagine what there was to take offense at.

I said that adjuncts are often better in the classroom than tenured faculty.

I said it was a disgrace that they are badly abused.

I said that they are more flexible in teaching schedule than tenured (often 
prima donna) tenured faculty.  And yes, it's partly because they are in such 
dire straits that they are willing to take an onerous schedule and partly 
because giving them such a schedule doesn't have the sociopolitical 
repercuassions that would ensue from giving the same schedule to a tenured 
person.  Sad but true.  Indignation doesn't change that fact.  The other 
factor is that at my school, only full time temps get benefits.  Therefore, 
I try, when possible, to cobble together a full time schedule for them when 
possible.  This often means that the adjunct will have more preps than a 
tenure-track person and perhaps less convenient times but it's often the 
best I can do.

I said that they do not advise, serve on committees, do research, etc. 
 Granted that there is variablility in the latter duties depending on the 
school or the status of the adjunct as full or part time but it's still (on 
average true).   Besides, as Dave Falcone pointed out, there are those of us 
who wouldn't feel justified requiring such duties of someone we're paying so 
little (and my school pays significantly better than Falcone's)!   (Sorry, 
Dave, I couldn't resist.)

Many of us, myself included, have been in adjunct positions.  We've not 
forgotten what a miserable life that can be.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945
Professor and Chairperson   Home (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology   FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University[EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
~~~
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler...
not necessarily in order of importance.  AAFOUF#0064

Adjunct Faculty

[Pollak, Edward]

How many adjunct faculty is too many?  I would arge that no more than 10-20% 
should be adjunct.  Now don't get me wrong, I've had plenty of adjuncts who 
are better in the classroom than many tenured faculty.  But the fact is that 
adjuncts
a)do not serve on Dept. or university committees.
b)do not advise students.
c)do not/cannot  usually conduct research in which undergraduates can 
participate.
d)do not supervise graduate student research.
e)do not write letters of reference for students (because they often aren't 
at one instition long enough to develop the necessary relationship with the 
students).

Of course, on the plus side, adjuncts
a)teach courses that students need rather than what the instructor wants to 
teach
b)teach at times the students need rather than at times that are convenient 
for the instructor
c)don't get to vote for chairperson. meaning that you can have them 
teach what is needed when it is needed!

All that being said, the abuse of adjunct faculty is a national disgrace, as 
much for the adverse effects on the adjuncts as on the students.   At my 
university we actually used to hire adjuncts at the rank/pay they deserved 
as a result of their credentials and experience.  A few years ago, the 
administration realized that even if we paid adjuncts only at the very 
lowest step for an instructor, we'd still be paying them more than almost 
any other university in the region.. sometimes a LOT more.  So now, 
everyone gets hired at "Instructor, level A."  To make matters worse, the 
State System has declared that no adjunct can teach for more than 4 
consecutive semesters. After 4 semesters, they need to take at least one 
semester off.   This was done to prevent adjuncts from filing a grievance 
 on the grounds that "I've been doing that job for 5 years so now that it's 
turning into a tenure track position, you MUST hire ME.   (Someone actually 
won that grievance at another univerrsity in our system.)

As for being passed over for a tenure track position in the same dept. 
you've been working for:  On the one hand, I sympathize.  On the other, I 
can't blame a dept. for trying to hire the best talent available.  There's 
also the fact that affirmative action requires national searches.  And on 
top of that, I can tell you from sad experience that searches with internal 
candidates are too often politically destructive within a dept.  Unless 
there is near unanimity on the issue, it can be a nasty business.

But none of this is a reason to allow the % of temps to exceed 20-30%  That 
is outrageous for both students and faculty.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945
Professor and Chairperson   Home (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology   FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University[EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
~~~
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler...
not necessarily in order of importance.  AAFOUF#0064

re: Posting grades

[Pollak, Edward]

To those who have chastized me for "posting grades by the last 5 digits of 
the SS#:

 I make no apologies.  It's easy, efficient and reasonably secure.  Besides, 
at my age, "posting by the last 5 digits of the SS#" is as close as I come 
to "living on the edge" ..  although sometimes,   if I'm feeling 
really, really wild,  I let my cholesterol drift up to 199.  And when I get 
a TRULY violent urge to thumb my nose at everything society holds dear, I 
sneak a cigarette in my office. 
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945
Professor and Chairperson   Home (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology   FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University[EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
~~~
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler...
not necessarily in order of importance.  AAFOUF#0064

Posting Grades

[Pollak, Edward]

Linda Woolf rightly chastized me for my sdtatement that I post grades by 
SS#.  Just for the record: I don't post the entire SS#, only the last 5 
digits.   As others have pointed out, this also has problems but I don't 
believe they are particularly grave problems, especially when my classes 
have 40-100 each.
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945
Professor and Chairperson   Home (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology   FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University[EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
~~~
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler...
not necessarily in order of importance.  AAFOUF#0064

Large Class - need help!

[Pollak, Edward]

 [EMAIL PROTECTED] asked:
"I am fairly new to this list serve, but have been enjoying it very
much! I've been in the Psy. Dept. at a PA university for 9 years, and
for the first time ever, last semester our dean started giving us
super-sized classes. I have a 91 student Ed. Psy. this semsester, and
I am puzzeled as to how to do effective testing. (I have no help or
grad assistants. It's a one-woman course!) I guess I'll
do Scantron multiple choice tests. Does anyone have any ideas
about  actual  mechanics for returning the tests, and  having the
students then give them back to me? Or, for that matter, any
ideas / recommendations for handeling such a large group, or
ideas for creating an effective learning environment?"

OK, here's what you do:
1)When you print out your exams, tell your PC to produce 3 or 4 different 
versions.  Scramble the mult. choice answers, NOT the question order.

2)When you get the 3-4 versions reproduced, have them copied on different 
color stock paper.  Each version will, of course, need it's own key.

3)Before the exam, put a colored mark in the upper right hand corner of each 
scantron sheet corresponding to the different colored versoion of the exam. 
 So version A will be on green paper and the answer sheet will have a green 
mark.  Version B will be on yellow paper & the scantron will have a yellow 
mark, etc.

4)Before class, insert the appropriately marked scantron into the 
appropriately colored test.

5)arrive to class 10-15 min. before the exam, having informed the students 
that are to wait outside until you call them in.

6)Before te students enter, distribute the exams, placing them on the 
desks/seats where you wantr the students to sit.  If it's a very large 
auditorium you might want to put them on every other seat in every other 
row, etc.  If the room only holds 100, you'll need to use every seat.

7)As you place the exams on the seats, look around. A student sitting in a 
given seat should not be able to easily see a similarly colored scantron. 
 It doesn't matter if they can see a scantron of a differently colored exam, 
only that they not be able to see the same colored exam.  When students 
enter the room tell them that they MUST sit only at desk with an exam on it. 
   After all students are seated make sure you go around and pick up any 
extra exams.

8)Inform students that when they are  finished they should bring up the exam 
and bring their coats/books, etc. with them as it would too disruptive if 
they try to go back to their seats to collect their belongings.

9)As they turn them in make certain that a green test is accompanied by a 
scantron with a green mark!!!

10)Keep an eye on any back doors, etc. so that a student can't slip out the 
door with test in hand especially during that time when large #s of 
students are turning in their papers.

Personally, I do not have the time or inclination to go over exams in 
 class.  Students who wish to go over their tests are invited to stop by my 
office.  Unfortunately, the ones who show up are those who want to see which 
2 questions they missed (out of 75)!  Those who missed 40/75 NEVER come in 
but all I can do is offer/cajole them to come in.  If they refuse, it's on 
their heads!  I use an EXCEL program to post the grades by student # or SS#. 
 I also have a class distribution list and send out the grades by e-mail as 
well as by posting.

See.. it's a PIECE OF CAKE  
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945
Professor and Chairperson   Home (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology   FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University[EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
~~~
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler...
not necessarily in order of importance.  AAFOUF#0064
  

Academic Dishonesty/10 Commandments

[Pollak, Edward]

The discussion of plagiarism is prompting me to post my "10 Commandments  of 
Paper Writing."  I find that putting everything in black and UP FRONT 
prevents a lot of difficulty on the back end.  i..e., preventing plagiarism 
is easier than dealing with it after tyhe fact.  Please feel free to use the 
following as you see fit.  You also have permission to modify it as you see 
fit.  It is not copyrighted
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945
Professor and Chairperson   Home (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology   FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University[EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
~~~
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler...
not necessarily in order of importance.  AAFOUF#0064

The 10 Commandments of Paper Writing

I. Though shalt not cite directly a paper thou hast not read. Neither shalt 
thou include in thy reference section any paper that thou hast not read nor 
any paper which has not been cited in the body of thy paper.  Such practices 
constitute the  padding  of thy reference section.  They are an abomination.

II. When paraphrasing part of an article, thou must significantly rewrite 
the relevant material.  Failure to paraphrase constitutes plagiarism for 
which you will be cut down.

III. Excessive quotations are to be avoided.  If thou canst not paraphrase a 
thing, thou dost not understand that thing.  If thou dost not understand a 
thing, study it until thou dost understand it and by that understanding, are 
able to paraphrase it.  Excessive quotes are naught more than  filler 
material  used by slothful students who do not have enough material to write 
a decent paper.

IV. In the rare case that thou must use a quotation thou must know that 
short quotations shalt always be enclosed within quotation marks. Quotations 
longer than one or two sentences shall be indented.  All quotations must be 
followed by both the reference and the relevant page number (e.g., Pollak, 
1974, p.322).  Thou shalt include page numbers only for quotations.  For 
paraphrased material though shalt cite only the author(s) and date.

V. Thou shalt use APA style in all things.  Thou shalt consult the APA style 
manual or any current issue of the American Psychologist.  APA style means 
that thou shalt use few (if any) footnotes and that all references will be 
cited in the body of the paper (e.g., Pollak, 1974).  Thou shalt not use 
numbered references.  They are an abomination.

VI. Thou shalt avoid long, flowery, complex sentences in favor of a crisp, 
telegraphic style.

VII. Thou shalt include an abstract at the beginning of thy paper. An 
abstract is a summary of thy paper.  It is not an introduction to thy paper. 


VIII. Thou shalt use only those sources that come from scholarly journals 
and books.  Psychology Today and other popular magazines are not scholarly 
journals. Neither are internet sources and encyclopedias appropriate for 
college-level papers.  These things are an abomination before our eyes.

IX. Thou must know that many of thy resources will not be contained within 
the library of West Chester University and must be sought elsewhere or must 
be ordered through inter-library loan.  Therefore I say unto thee, verily 
must thou begin thy research at the earliest possible time lest the day of 
judgment approach and thou art found wanting before thy professor.

X. Thy professor is a gentle and gracious professor.  Thou shalt consult 
with thy professor at any and all stages of the research and writing process 
that thou might not fall into error.  Thy professor shalt treat thy 
inquiries with helpfulness and charity even unto reading an early draft of 
thy work.  If thou dost listen to my words and do these things that I 
command, thou will be found worthy and thy grade point average will prosper 
even unto summa cum laude.

 

Distinction between different meanings of consciousness

[Pollak, Edward]

Gary Peterson wrote " Explore the problem of reification in psych and social 
sciences; that is, the tendency to treat abstract terms and hypothetical 
process words
as if they are fixed things.  Much of the historical work on consciousness,
mind, etc., implied dynamic, on-going processes more in keeping with what we
may learn from neuro, but it is fascinating to see how our language efforts
promote static images of such ideas.  Again, I think students might benefit
from such discussion of the treatment of these concepts. "

And nowhere does language affect our ability to describe/understand a 
phenomenon as in the case of hypnosis.  That's another concept that is 
better thought of as a functtion (i.e., something we do" rather than a 
"state" i.e., a condition we enter.   It's also another topic that Jaynes 
deals with beautifully in his "Origins of Consciousness"
>~~
>Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945
>Professor and Chairperson   Home (610)363-1939
>Department of Psychology   FAX (610)436-2846
>West Chester University[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
>~~~
>Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler...
>not necessarily in order of importance.  AAFOUF#0064
>

Distinction between different meanings of consciousness

[Pollak, Edward]

Jeff Ricker asked:  "Has anyone ever seen a discussion of this distinction 
between the everyday and psychological meanings of the term "unconscious"? " 


Julian Jaynes' "Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral 
Mind" has a favbulous discussion of consciousness in one of the early 
chapters.   It's especially useful for making a distinction that I favor: 
 i.e., that it's a mistake to think of consciousness as a "state."   You're 
much better off thinking of it  as a process.  In other words, it's 
"something we do" (like addition) rather than a "state you enter" (like 
sleep).
~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945
Professor and Chairperson   Home (610)363-1939
Department of Psychology   FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester University[EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester, PA  19383   www.wcupa.edu
~~~
Husband, father, biopsychologist and bluegrass fiddler...
not necessarily in order of importance.  AAFOUF#0064