Re: [tips] Assessing tolerance of ambiguity

[Deborah S Briihl]

I guess my question is how much ambiguity are you expecting students to 
deal with? I tell my students that there are multiple sides to many 
issues and that they can have an opinion, as long as it is an educated 
one and realize that perhaps it could change with additional evidence 
provided. 
Also, what kind of task would you like them to do? A test? Quick in 
class project? A debate? I do debates in my Senior Seminar class that I 
could send info for. I also have a few quick in-class projects from my 
intro class that might work if I know more of what the department is 
trying to assess.


Frantz, Sue wrote:


>Hi all,
>
> 
>
>Our department is currently planning for next year's assessment of
>student learning outcomes.  Using this document as a reference, we were
>looking to evaluate the ability of our students to tolerate ambiguity:  
>
>http://www.apa.org/ed/governance/bea/curriculum.pdf 
>
> 
>
>After much rousing discussion, we're not entirely satisfied with our
>efforts at designing such an assignment for Intro Psych.  Before we
>throw in the towel or move forward with an assignment none of us are
>very excited about, I was wondering if anyone else had tackled this one.
>If so, how did you measure tolerance of ambiguity? 
>
> 
>
>Replies off-list are fine.
>
> 
>
>Thanks!
>Sue
>
> 
>
>--
>Sue Frantz 
>Highline Community College
>Psychology, CoordinatorDes Moines, WA
>206.878.3710 x3404  sfra...@highline.edu
> 
>
>Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, Associate Director 
>
>Teaching of Psychology Idea Exchange (ToPIX)
>
>APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology
>  
>
> 
>
>APA's p...@cc Committee   
>
> 
>
> 
>
>
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--
Deb

Dr. Deborah S. Briihl
Dept. of Psychology and Counseling
Valdosta State University
229-333-5994
dbri...@valdosta.edu

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[tips] Fw: Memorial day/psychologists

[michael sylvester]

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My intended post was not completed so I resubmit.Ny enquiry was to find out who 
are the famous psychologists who were killed in the wars
why serving their country-Canadians included.Btw,did the work of Victor Frankl 
on logotherapy emanate from his war experience?

Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester.PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida
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Re: [tips] Memorable Summer Reading

[michael sylvester]

 Black rage by Grier and Cobbs
  Prejudice and your child by Kenneth Clark
 Principles of Psychology by William James
If students are not reading those books that we consider classics it is 
probably because this generation is marching to a different drum beat more 
congruent with the reality of our modern era: internet,jobs where the bottoms 
line are tenological savvy to yield maximum profits.
Btw,I do not think that Skinner's ideas are relevavnt to modern youth where the 
oerspective might  be more humanistic in that  what one becomes depend on 
"will" and staying focused instead of behavioral conditioning and parameters 
outlined by Skinner.Remember Thomas Kuhn-there is a changing zeitgist and we 
should  accomodate this current reality.After all  one of the goals of 
psychology is understand and explain behavior-
the behavior that is happening now not in the Walden Two era.
Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida



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re: [tips] Memorable Summer Reading

[Mike Palij]

On Sat, 29 May 2010 07:30:54 -0700, Edward Pollak wrote:
>I, too, was greatly influence by "Beyond Freedom & Dignity" as 
>well as by "Walden II" but I must confess that a number of years 
>ago I reread "Walden II" and found myself tsk tsking about it's naiveté. 

What influenced me most about "Beyond Freedom & Dignity"
was (1) Skinner's concern with social justice and how to address
social problems (i.e., his humanisn) and (2) the promise of a potential 
technology or a framework that could address such problems.  
I think that (1) is still relevant but difficult to achieve while (2) may 
have been somewhat naive.  As implemented, I was not convinced 
that a system like Walden II would work outside of a small 
community commited believers.  A somewhat similar situation
is based on Paolo Soleri's concept of mega-cities which integrated
architecture and ecology; see his Wikipedia entry (SDA):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Soleri

>I had a similar reaction to re-reading Asimov's "Foundation" series. 
>There are so many books that had such a great impact on me as a 
>callow youth that I now dare not reread for fear of disappointment.

I have thought about re-reading the Foundation series but realize
that "one cannot step in the same river twice" or, in other words,
the more time that passes between a first and second reading of
book, the greater the likilihood that one will find that one cannot 
read the same book twice. What one knew before the first reading 
will be different from what one knows before the second time.  
Sometimes this can result in a richer experience but perhaps more
often than not it can result in the realization that the appeal of the 
first reading was because one did not know or realize certain
things at the time of the reading.  The second reading may produce
the realization that maybe people really aren't like that or that certain 
situations can't turn out the way they did.

>So here's the question: Did these books have such a great impact 
>at first reading because they were great eye-opening & mind-expanding 
>books? 

In some cases, yes.  Certainly, in the case of "Beyond Freedom and
Dignity".  But I am older than that now.  

>Or through the jaundiced filter of the intervening decades do we realize 
>that they were embarrassingly naive. 

Not always embarassingly naive, perhaps just naive or just embarassing.
When the movie "The Big Chill" came out, I was taken by the story
of a group of people whose early idealism for changing the world and
leftist politics had turned into bourgeoise/middle-class capitalism.
I had known people who as young adults were Marxist in their
orientation and, when the 1980s came around and they were settled
into their home in suburbia, turned into Yuppies.  How many have
found that Marx or Ayn Rand or the Bible that they embraced in their
youth turned out not to be the guide that they had hoped for?
Then again, I assume that there are those who have had a consistent
perspective throughout their lives -- which can be either a good or
bad thing.

>I like to think they were still great books.

They were great books but I think we thought that they offered more
guidance and insight than they were capable of producing.  That is,
if we read the books not just for their entertainment value.

>Ed
>P.S. This discussion makes me so truly sad for the legions of current 
>students who, when asked if they read books for fun as children, look 
>at me like am a raving lunatic.

Perhaps if you asked them what "graphic novels" or "Manga" they
read, you'd get a more sympathetic response.  Not exactly the same
thing but it could be the equivalent experience for them.

-Mike Palij
New York University
m...@nyu.edu


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[tips] Memorable Summer Reading

[Pollak, Edward]

Mike Palij wrote. ".Looking over these entries (in The NY Times has 
a special section on Summer Reading), I thought back to a couple of books that 
made an impression on me and that stand out in my memory.  They are: (1) B.F. 
Skinner's "Beyond Freedom and Dignity"(2) David Morrell's (1971) 
"First Blood""

I, too, was greatly influence by "Beyond Freedom & Dignity" as well as by 
"Walden II" but I must confess that a number of years ago I reread "Walden II" 
and found myself tsk tsking about it's naiveté. I had a similar reaction to 
re-reading Asimov's "Foundation" series. There are so many books that had such 
a great impact on me as a callow youth that I now dare not reread for fear of 
disappointment.

So here's the question: Did these books have such a great impact at first 
reading because they were great eye-opening & mind-expanding books? Or through 
the jaundiced filter of the intervening decades do we realize that they were 
embarrassingly naive. I like to think they were still great books.

Ed

P.S. This discussion makes me so truly sad for the legions of current students 
who, when asked if they read books for fun as children, look at me like am a 
raving lunatic.



Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/home.htm

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, & bluegrass fiddler.. in 
approximate order of importance.

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