Good points, David. I believe my student had a genuine curiosity, but within certain limits, about wanting to learn more about being a "good husband." In other words, he was willing to learn, but only if he was learning from material that fit within his worldview. A discomfort with and distrust of psychology is not uncommon among many of my students, and part of my role as a teacher is to challenge them to explore the presuppositions and implications of their worldviews, expose them to new or unfamiliar ideas which lie outside of their worldview, and help them to become active learners and critical thinkers. As someone who is also a Christian, I can probably get away with this better than someone who isn't a Christian, but I still get from my students my fair share of skepticism at best and hostility at worst. Most of the time my students are receptive to the gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) nudging to dive into the intellectual pool and wrestle with new and unfamiliar material, but sometimes (as in the above case) they are not. Fortunately, I have many students who embrace the pursuit of learning and want to learn about their world. I get real excited teaching students who want to be scholars!
______________________________________________ Roderick D. Hetzel, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Psychology LeTourneau University President-Elect, Division 51 American Psychological Association Department of Psychology LeTourneau University Post Office Box 7001 2100 South Mobberly Avenue Longview, Texas 75607-7001 Office: Heath-Hardwick Hall 115 Phone: 903-233-3312 Fax: 903-233-3246 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.letu.edu/people/rodhetzel -----Original Message----- From: David Epstein [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 3:53 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: "I took M&F to be a good husband..." On Tue, 5 Mar 2002, Rod Hetzel went: > Something similar happened to me in my Marriage and the Family class > the other day. Now, remember that I am a Christian psychologist who > teaches at a Christian university. A student raised his hand and > started complaining about the class was a waste of his time because > all we were doing was talking about secular theories when the Bible > has all the answers to our marriage problems.[...] Well, this student > never came to see me individually, but he did send me a lengthy email. > Here is a snippet of his email (with identifying information removed): > "I took M&F in hopes that I could learn more about how to be a good > husband to my wife. So far I have not learned anything that has > helped me in our relationship from the text material, and from the > direction we're taking in class, I don't think I will.[...]" If this student was being honest about the reasons for his dissatisfaction with the course, maybe he would have responded to material about what's been empirically demonstrated to predict marital success or failure. I'm thinking of research by John M. Gottman (which I know about only because it's been popularized), who used brief observation of married couples in order to establish four big predictors of divorce ("four horsemen," he called them, biblically enough). Questions of causation remain open, but if that sort of research isn't enough to pique your ex-student's curiosity, maybe he doesn't have any curiosity. --David Epstein [EMAIL PROTECTED] References to which I didn't actually refer: Gottman, John M; Levenson, Robert W. Marital processes predictive of later dissolution: Behavior, physiology, and health. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 63(2): 221-233, Aug 1992. Carrere, Sybil; Gottman, John Mordechai. Predicting divorce among newlyweds from the first three minutes of a marital conflict discussion. Family Process 38(3): 293-301, Fall 1999. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.325 / Virus Database: 182 - Release Date: 2/19/2002 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.325 / Virus Database: 182 - Release Date: 2/19/2002 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
