Enduring Issues in Psychology
Toni Blake
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Which Type of Psychotherapy Is Most Useful?
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Psychotherapy should focus on unconscious traumas
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Psychotherapy should focus on irrational thought processes
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Psychotherapy should focus on an individual’s potential
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Psychotherapy should focus on changing
What Is Personality and How Is It Measured?
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Unconscious instincts motivate personality
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Social feeling motivates personality
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A hierarchy of needs motivates personality
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Personality is a combination of thousands of traits
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Personality is a combination of five major factors
How Does Psychological Development Occur?
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Development occurs in a series of psychosexual stages
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Development occurs in a series of psychosocial stages
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Development occurs in a series of cognitive stages
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Development occurs in a series of moral stages
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Development occurs through imitation
Does Nurture or Nature Drive Psychological Disorders?
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Alcoholism is a disease
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Alcoholism is not a disease
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Criminal behavior is influenced by heredity
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Criminal behavior is influenced by society
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Genes cause depression
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Psychosocial factors cause depression
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Should Psychological Theory Determine Public Policy?
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Repressed memories are questionable
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Repressed memories may be reliable
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Involuntary commitment of the mentally ill is justifiable
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Involuntary commitment of the mentally ill in not justifiable
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Rational suicide is a valuable practice
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“Rational” suicide is a misnomer
Forty Studies That Changed Psychology
Roger R. Hock
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Biology and Human Behavior
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One brain or two?
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More experience = bigger brain?
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What you see is what you’ve learned (behaviors of the BaMbuti Pygmies)
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Watch out for the visual cliff
Consciousness
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To sleep, no doubt to dream (eye mobility and concomitant phenomena)
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When you wish upon a dream (the influence of a conscious wish on dreams)
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Unromancing the dream (the brain as a dream-state generator)
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Acting as if you are hypnotized (hypnotic behavior)
Learning and Conditioning
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It’s not just about salivating dogs! (conditioned reflexes)
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Little emotional Albert (conditioned emotional responses)
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Knock wood! (superstition in the pigeon)
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See aggression… do aggression!
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Intelligence, Cognition, and Memory
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What you expect is what you get (teacher’s expectancies)
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Making a good impression
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Maps in your mind (cognitive maps in rats and men)
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Thanks for the memories!
Human Development
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Discovering love
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Out of sight, but not out of mind (the development of object concept)
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Born first, born smarter?
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In control and glad of it! (the effects of choice)
Emotion and Motivation
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A sexual motivation (human sexual response)
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I can see it all over your face! (constants across cultures in the face and emotion)
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Life, change, and stress
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Thoughts out of tune (cognitive consequences of forced compliance)
Personality
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Are you the master of your fate?
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How moral are you?
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Learning to be depressed (failure to escape traumatic shock)
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Racing against your heart (overt behavior pattern with cardiovascular findings)
Psychopathology
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Who’s crazy here, anyway? (being sane in insane places)
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You’re getting defensive again! (mechanisms of defense)
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Projections of who you are
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Crowding into the behavioral sink (population density and social pathology)
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Psychotherapy
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Choosing your psychotherapist
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Relaxing your fears away
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Picture this! (explorations in personality)
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A chemical calm (the effects of Diazepam)
Social Psychology
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Not practicing what you preach
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The power of conformity
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To help or not to help (bystander intervention)
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Obey at any cost (behavioral study of obedience)
Taking Sides
Brent Slife & Joseph Rubinstein
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The Study of Psychology
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Can deception in research be justified?
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Should psychologists study memory through controlled laboratory experiments?
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Can experiments using animals be justified?
Biological Processes
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Is our behavior primarily determined by biological processes?
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Is the “Disease” of alcoholism a myth?
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Is our state of mind responsible for our state of health?
Cognitive Processes
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Has science discredited ESP?
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Can computers help us understand the human mind?
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Can intelligence be increased?
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Human Development
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Do gender differences originate from biological factors?
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Is day care harmful?
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Are children of divorced parents at greater risk? (of mental / physical problems)
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Should adolescents be allowed to make decisions about abortion without parental
involvement?
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Mental Health and Psychotherapy
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Should psychotherapists allow suicide?
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Do diagnostic labels hinder the effective treatment of persons with mental
disorders?
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Should psychotherapy include religious values?
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Is electroconvulsive therapy safe?
Social Issues
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Should psychologists be allowed to prescribe drugs?
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Would legalizing drugs have beneficial effects on society?