Annual Editions: Psychology, 46/e Preface Correlation Guide Topic Guide UNIT 1: The Science of Psychology Unit Overview 1. The 10 Commandments of Helping Students Distinguish Science from Pseudoscience in Psychology, Scott O. Lilienfeld, APS Observer, 2005. Author Scott Lilienfeld contends that beginning psychology students believe that the term psychology is synonymous with popular psychology, a discipline not firmly grounded in science. Lilienfeld continues that students should learn to discriminate good science and sound psychology from pseudoscience and psychology, as presented in the mass media, and be skeptical about popular psychology. 2. Comprehensive Soldier Fitness and the Future of Psychology, Martin E.P.
Seligman and Raymond D. Fowler, American Psychologist, 2011. Psychology has played in pivotal role in the U.S. Army since the early days of World War I with respect to recruit selection and more recently with treatment of psychological disorders among the rank and file. In this article, the authors show how positive psychology is being used to help improve soldiers'' resilience in the face of repeated combat and related stressors in an effort to prevent or reduce anxiety, depression, suicide, and post-traumatic stress disorder. 3. Improving Health, Worldwide, Kirsten Weir, Monitor on Psychology, 2012.
Psychologists have an incredible opportunity to promote health and help prevent disease, writes Weir reporting on recent research. One of the greatest threats to human life is malaria, which killed over 650,000 people worldwide in 2010. This is tragic, because the disease is both preventable and curable. 4. Psychology Is a Hub Science, John T. Cacioppo, APS Observer, 2007. Discussing complex analyses that address scientific publications and relationships between concepts, Cacioppo persuasively makes the argument that psychology could be considered the hub science, just as theology and philosophy were classically believed to be hub disciplines in the Middle Ages. 5.
A Scientific Pioneer and a Reluctant Role Model, Erin Millar, The Globe and Mail, 2012. From the early days of neurosurgery, Dr. Brenda Milner describes her role as both a researcher and a role model for other female scientists who work in male-dominated fields of study. By working, succeeding, and exceling in a male-dominated area such as neuroscience, Milner was able challenge stereotypes and break down barriers for others. 6. That''s So Random: Why We Persist in Seeing Streaks, Carl Zimmer, New York Times, 2014. Humans can have a difficult time in recognizing patterns; sometimes we see patterns that are not present, and other times we miss patterns occurring in front of us. The ability to understand when an event is random (or not) can have momentous influence on how we make decisions.
UNIT 2: Biological Bases of Behavior 7. Reflections on Mirror Neurons, Temma Ehrenfeld, APS Observer, 2011. Only recently have scientists discovered mirror neurons in humans. These neurons depolarize when we perceive particular activities and engage in similar activities. Mirror neurons appear to be important to learning through observation. 8. Does Thinking Really Hard Burn More Calories?, Ferris Jabr, Scientific American, 2012. After a difficult mental challenge (such as completing a cumulative final exam or finishing the ACTs), how does the mental exhaustion relate to the physical exhaustion exhibited by some? In this article, Jabr reports on recent research that characterizes the energy consumption patterns of an active brain.
9. A Single Brain Structure May Give Winners That Extra Physical Edge, Sandra Upson, Scientific American, 2012. Reporting on the outcomes of recent research, Upson describes the brain''s insular cortex (also called the insula) and its role in helping athletes anticipate future feelings A more highly developed insula in athletes may help them with better interoception--the sense of the body''s internal state. Athletes with highly precise interoception may experience a competitive advantage. 10. The New Science of Mind, Eric R. Kandel, New York Times, 2013. The connections between mind and body are becoming more clear with the advent of researchers attempting to better understand the biology of depression or the effects of psychotherapy.
Even at the genetic level, researchers are beginning to understand that small differences in genes can help to explain certain conditions, such as autism or schizophrenia. UNIT 3: Perceptual Processes 11. Uncanny Sight in the Blind, Beatrice de Gelder, Scientific American, 2010. Some people who suffer blindness due to brain damage have the amazing capacity for blindsight. That is, these individuals can detect visual properties of many stimuli, even though they cannot determine what those stimuli are. Blindsight enables otherwise totally blind individuals to detect, among other things, shapes, movement, color, and in some cases facial displays of emotion. 12. Corporeal Awareness and Proprioceptive Sense of the Phantom, Melita Giummarra, et al.
, British Journal of Psychiatry, 2010. Amputees frequently report feeling the continued existence and movement of amputated limbs, which is called phantom limb perception. In a research study with 283 amputees, most amputees report that the phantom limb is normally sized and in its normal position; however, the location of the amputation and the conditions under which it occurred seem to influence the perception of phantom sensation. 13. You Do Not Talk about Fight Club if You Do Not Notice Fight Club: Inattentional Blindness for a Simulated Real-World Assault, Christopher F. Chabris, et al., i-Perceptions, 2011. These researchers asked the question about how paying attention to one aspect of the environment can make us blind to other salient events (called inattentional blindness).
In a real-world experience, 56% of participants noticed a staged fight during the day, whereas only 35% noticed the fight during the night. An event can occur right in front of us that we do not see. 14. Rethinking Motion Sickness, Peter Andrey Smith, New York Times, 2013. Is it that motion sickness causes individuals to lose their balance, or does losing your balance lead you to become motion sick? Interesting motion sickness research is underway both in the lab and on cruise ships. UNIT 4: Learning 15. Psychological Science and Safety: Large-Scale Success at Preventing Occupational Injuries and Fatalities, E. Scott Geller, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2011.
Behavior analyst E. Scott Geller discusses the successful application of behavior analytic methods to reducing injuries and fatalities in the workplace. In particular, Geller describes how employees who are trained to identify dangerous work conditions, including their engagement in risky behavior, enhances the tendency to engage in safe work behaviors. 16. The Perils and Promises of Praise, Carol S. Dweck, Educational Leadership, 2007. Psychologist Carol Dweck explains the positive and negative effects of praise on student learning and how praise can be used as an incentive to produce more learning in students. She contends that students may have one of two mindsets--a fixed mindset that focuses on how others judge them or a growth mindset that centers around learning in general and learning from one''s mistakes in particular.
Her research has shown that praising students for possessing a quality leads to a fixed mindset, whereas praising students for making an effort to acquire that quality contributes to a growth mindset. 17. Will Behave for Money, Sadie F. Dingfelder, Monitor on Psychology, 2011. By using a contingency management system, good behaviors can be reinforced by giving cash, such as getting HIV-positive methadone patients to take their medication, or convincing pregnant smokers to stop smoking. Dingfelder reports on these and other research efforts that optimize the use of contingency management to positively shape people''s behaviors. 18. Phobias: The Rationale behind Irrational Fears, Dean Burnett, The Guardian, 2013.
The author addresses details about phobias, including arachnophobia and agoraphobia, as well as some thoughts about how they develop and treatment options. 19. Incentives for Drivers Who Avoid Traffic Jams, John Markoff, New York Times, 2012. Trying to solve the congestion caused by automobiles often uses the stick approach rather than the carrot, but this researcher is attempting to use game theory to encourage drivers to modify their commute times to less congested times in order to enhance chances at winning an "anti-congestion" lottery. UNIT 5: Cognitive Processes 20. The Secret Life of Pronouns by James Pennebaker: What Do "I" and "We" Reveal about Us?, Juliet Lapidos, Slate, 2011. In this article, Lapidos reports on recent research that examines the role of pronouns as unexpected keys to communication. For instance, certain words, such as "nice" or "weird," are considered content words.
However, this research focuses on function words, such as pronouns, articles, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs. 21. The Epidemic of Media Multitasking While Learning, Annie Murphy Paul, The Brilliant Blog, 2013. This author describes research suggesting that when students multitask during schoolwork, the learning is less effective and more shallow as compared to studying with full attention. Other negative performance effects associated with multitasking, such as more time needed to complete assignments, more mistakes, and lower grades, have also been documented. 22. Pigeons, Like Humans, Can B.