Richard A. Griggs
University of Florida
Cynthia S. Koenig
University of Florida
Given the 1-term nature of introductory psychology courses and the increasing length and encyclopedic nature of introductory textbooks, many psychology teachers may opt to use a brief introductory text. To aid such teachers in the text selection process, we compared 15 brief introductory psychology textbooks presently available for adoption. We analyzed their length, pedagogical aids, and topic coverage. The variability observed in these analyses will help teachers find brief texts that best fit their individual preferences and course needs.
Although the number of introductory textbooks has decreased over the past two decades (Griggs, Jackson, Christopher, & Marek, 1999), the process of selecting the appropriate text for the introductory course is nonetheless far from being an easy task. Not only are there still over 40 regular textbooks to consider (Jackson, Griggs, Koenig, Christopher, & Marek, 2000), but these texts have also increased in length by an average of 117 pages during the past decade (Griggs et al., 1999). This increase is clearly at odds with the one-term nature of the vast majority of introductory courses, usually estimated to be 85% to 95% (e.g., Miller & Gentile, 1998). Numerous recent reviewers of introductory texts have made this point. For example, Nallan (1997) argued that introductory psychology books have "too many chapters, topics, and pages" (p. 446) to cover in a one-semester course. The situation is so problematic that an entire workshop at the 1999 National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology was devoted to this introductory psychology dilemma of so much material but so little time (Hendersen, Goss, & Lebie, 1999).
One option that instructors have is to adopt a brief introductory psychology textbook. These books tend to be shorter in length, abbreviated in depth and breadth of coverage, and less costly to purchase than the regular texts (Griggs, Jackson, & Napolitano, 1994). Thus, brief texts might constitute a better fit to the one-term length of most introductory courses. In addition, there are fewer brief texts, which would also help to simplify the text selection process.
The purpose of this study was to facilitate such text selection by providing comparative analyses of the current brief introductory psychology textbooks. The majority of the brief texts presently available for adoption were not included in or even published at the time of the last examination of such texts (Griggs et al., 1994), and those that were included in that study have typically undergone two or three revisions. This dramatic change in the brief text segment of the introductory text market testifies to the growing popularity of such texts and thus the value of this study to psychology teachers.
We selected 13 books listed as briefer versions of regular length texts in A Compendium of Introductory Psychology Textbooks: 1997-2000 (Jackson et al., 2000) as the initial set of texts.[
We compiled comparative data on three dimensions important in text selection: length, pedagogical assistance, and content coverage. We assessed length by noting the number of text pages, total pages, and chapters and by computing the average number of pages per chapter (see Table 1). Because brief texts vary greatly in length (Griggs et al., 1994), these data should prove beneficial to teachers truly looking for a shorter text.
We next inspected each textbook for its inclusion of the 15 aids (see Table 2) examined in Marek, Gtiggs, and Christopher's (1999) study of pedagogical aids in regular introductory texts. In addition, because almost all texts use end-of-text glossaries, we noted only texts that did not include this feature.
Last, we conducted a content analysis to determine the percentage of text devoted to the 18 traditional chapter topics in introductory texts (see Table 3). The counting process was straightforward for topics given chapter-length coverage. For topics paired together in a chapter but considered as separate topics in the content analysis (e.g., introductory material and methods), we first counted the pages, or portions of pages (in one-quarter page increments), devoted to each topic and then we proportionally allocated the chapter's pages devoted to preview or summary materials among the relevant topics.
The data for the length, pedagogical aids, and content analyses appear in Tables 1, 2, and 3, respectively. With respect to length, the brief texts vary greatly, allowing substantial leeway for instructor preferences. For example, Pettijohn has only 408 text pages compared to 700 for Coon and 737 for Gleitman et al., and Wade and Tavris have only 13 chapters whereas Coon has 18 and Gleitman et al. have 20. Overall, the brief texts average 15 chapters and 550 pages of text. Current regular-length texts average 17.6 chapters and 674 pages of text (Griggs et al., 1999), almost 3 chapters and 124 pages of text more than the average brief text. However, Coon and Gleitman et al. are actually longer than the average regular-length text. Thus, referring to these two texts as brief would seem to be a misnomer.
The number of pedagogical aids used in individual texts varies from 4 in Petrijohn to 11 in Wood and Wood, with a mean of 8 aids per text. Although almost all the brief texts employ chapter outlines, chapter summaries, and boldface and italic type for emphasis, there is considerable variability in the use of the other aids. Surprisingly, there is not much use of chapter review exercises and self-tests (13% and 33%, respectively), two aids that students value (Marek et al., 1999).
Chapter glossaries are essentially nonexistent in brief texts. Only one text (Wallace & Goldstein) has chapter glossaries, and these are not in standard format. Rather than listing terms and definitions, Wallace and Goldstein use an "action" format in which students match items with definitions. Most (73%) brief texts use running glossaries, and 87% (all but Bernstein & Nash and Wallace & Goldstein) provide glossaries at the end of the text.
As with the pedagogical aids data, there is much variability in content coverage for individual brief texts (see Table 3). Particularly noteworthy is the coverage of developmental and social psychology. Coverage of developmental ranges from 6% for Sternberg to 13% for Wallace and Goldstein, and social coverage varies from 6% in three texts to 13% in Gleitman et al. Similarly, whereas eight texts provide only 4% coverage of cognition, Gleitman et al. devote 11% to this topic. In addition, consciousness is not a chapter topic in two texts (Gleitman et al. and Wade & Tavris). Such differences highlight the value of these data to psychology teachers who emphasize specific topics in their respective courses.
In conclusion, our goal in conducting this study was to provide teachers with objective information to facilitate selecting a brief textbook for their introductory psychology course. Our detailed comparative analyses should enable teachers to narrow the number of textbooks they need to examine closely during the selection process. The variability we observed between brief texts will assist teachers in finding texts that best fit their individual preferences and course needs.
1. We thank all of the publishers who supplied us with the texts used in this study.
- 2. Send correspondence concerning this article to Richard A: Griggs, Department of Psychology, PO Box 112250, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611; e-mail: griggs@psych.ufl.edu.
1 We did not include 3 of the 16 brief texts listed in Jackson, Griggs, Koenig, Christopher, and Marek (2000) in our text sample. First, we included only one of the 2 brief versions of Wade and Tavris (2000). For comparative analysis reasons, we opted to include the more traditional version (Wade & Tavris, 1999) with an organizational structure centered around standard chapter topics rather than the atypical version (Tavris & Wade, 1997) with an organizational structure centered around the five major theoretical perspectives in psychology. Second, we did not include the new version of the Rathus (2000) brief text because it is only available in a customized "build your own book" format. Thus, length and content analysis would not be possible. Third, we did not include Santrock (2000) because it was not available at the time of this study.
Note. The full references for the textbooks are in the Appendix.
a Average chapter lengths have been rounded to nearest whole n umber.
b The Wood & Wood text includes 69 pages of built-in study guide material.
Note. The full references for the textbooks are in the Appendix. A bullet indicates the presence of a pedagogical aid in a specific textbook.
a Baron; Bernstein and Nash; Hockenbury and Hockenbury; Morris and Maisto; Wade and Tavris; and Weiten da provide a list of key terms at the end of each chapter.
b This textbook provides an action glossary at the end of each chapter. Instead of listing the terms with their definitions, students must match each term with its definition.
c Given in percentages.
Note. The full references for the textbooks are given in the Appendix. Totals for each row may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
a Applied topics include primarily industrial/organizational and environmental psychology.
Griggs, R. A., Jackson, S. L., Christopher, A. N., & Marek, P. (1999). Introductory psychology textbooks: An objective analysis and update. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 182-189.
Griggs, R. A., Jackson, S. L., & Napolitano, T. J. (1994). Brief introductory psychology textbooks: An objective analysis. Teaching of Psychology, 21, 136-140.
Hendersen, R., Goss, S., & Lebie, L. (1999, January). Roundtable: So much material, so little time: What should be included in introductory psychology? Workshop conducted at the meeting of the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Jackson, S. L., Griggs, R. A., Koenig, C. S., Christopher, A. N., & Marek, P. (2000). A compendium of introductory psychology texts: 1997-2000. Retrieved November 22, 2000 from the World Wide Web:
Marek, P., Griggs, R. A., & Christopher, A. N. (1999). Pedagogical aids in textbooks: Do college students' perceptions justify their prevalence? Teaching of Psychology, 26, 11-19.
Miller, B., & Gentile, B. F. (1998). Introductory course content and goals. Teaching of Psychology, 25, 89-96.
Nallan, G. B. (1997). Introductory psychology textbooks: Four encyclopedic tomes. Contemporary Psychology, 42, 445-446.
Pettijohn, T. F. (1998). Psychology: A connectext (4th ed.). Guilford, CT: Doshkin/McGraw-Hall.
Rathus, S. A: (2000). Psychology: The core. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College.
Santrock, J. W. (2000). Psychology: Brief edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Tavris, C., & Wade, C. (1997). Psychology in perspective (2nd ed.). New York: Longman.
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (1999). Invitation to psychology. New York: Longman.
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2000). Psychology (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Wallace, P. M., & Goldstein, J. H. (1997). An introduction to psychology (4th ed.). Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark.
Baron, R. A: (1999). Essentials of psychology (2nd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Bernstein, D. A., & Nash, P. W. (1999). Essentials of psychology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Coon, D. (2000). Essentials of psychology: Exploration and application (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Feldman, R. S. (2000). Essentials of understanding psychology (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Gleitman, H., Fridlund, A: J., & Reisberg, D. (2000). Basic psychology (5th ed.). New York: Norton.
Hockenbury, D. H., & Hockenbury, S. E. (1998). Discovering psychology. New York: Worth.
Morris, C. G., & Maisto, A: A. (1999). Understanding psychology (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Myers, D. G. (1999). Exploring psychology (4th ed.). New York: Worth.
Pettijohn, T. F. (1998). Psychology: A cennectext (4th ed.). Guilford, CT: Doshkin/McGraw-Hall.
Sternberg, R. J. (2000). Pathways to psychology (2nd ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College.
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (1999). Invitation to psychology. New York: Longman.
Wallace, P. M., & Goldstein, J. H. (1997). An introduction to psychology (4th ed.). Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark.
Weiten, W. (2000). Psychology: Themes and variations, briefer version (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Wood, S. E., & Wood, E. G. (2000). The essential world of psychology. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Zimbardo, P. G., Weber, A., & Johnson, R. L. (2000). Psychology (3rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Pam Marek
St. Michael's College
Richard A. Griggs
University of Florida
Our examination of cognitive psychology texts with copyright dates between 1995 and 1999 revealed considerable differences among the 17 offerings. Beyond deviations in length and recency of reference citations, we noted substantial variability in the proportion of coverage devoted to general and specific content areas. The texts also diverged in the extent to which they incorporated pedagogical devices and in their use of illustrative material. Knowledge of similarities and differences among the available books will facilitate instructors' search for a text that meshes with their specific course objectives.
With 63% of 4-year institutions offering cognitive psychology, it is one of the top 10 courses in the psychology curriculum (Perlman & McCann, 1999). However, extant analyses of cognitive psychology texts are limited to indexes and subheadings (Holley & Stack, 1992) or overlap of references (White, 1985). Paralleling recent analyses of introductory psychology textbooks (e.g., Griggs, Jackson, Christopher, & Marek, 1999), the study reported here facilitates cognitive psychology textbook selection by illuminating comparisons of text length, reference citations, content, pedagogy, and illustrative material.
We obtained copies of all undergraduate cognitive psychology textbooks (N = 17) published in the United States with copyright dates between 1995 and 1999 designed for a broad-based survey course. References appear in the Appendix.
First, we tabulated data concerning authors, edition, number of pages, chapters, references, and reference dates. Our page count excluded front matter (i.e., preface, notes to instructors or students, and visuals) and back matter (i.e., appendixes, glossaries, indexes, references, photo credits, and answer keys). We tallied all references and classified them by publication date. If a reference represented a republication of a previously published work, we counted it as a single entry and classified it using the earlier date.
Second, we designated each topic area receiving full-chapter coverage in at least four texts as a category and calculated the percentage of content allocated to each category.[
Third, we determined whether texts included each of seven pedagogical features: chapter outlines, summaries, glossaries, key term listings, demonstrations, review questions, and suggested readings. If applicable, we determined the location (e.g., at the end of the chapter or the end of the book) of glossaries and key term listings, the number of terms, and the number of demonstrations. The number of key terms was the count of the items in the glossary or, if the text had no glossary, the number of items in the end-of-chapter listings, not counting duplications. If a text did not contain a glossary or key term listing, we summed the boldface terms, not counting duplications. Additionally, if a text included regularly-appearing discussion features (e.g., on applications), we noted the number and types of features.
Fourth, we categorized illustrative material, counting all numbered tables and figures in each text and classifying each figure as a graph, photo/cartoon, or other.[
Table 1 reveals that texts varied considerably in length and inclusion of references. One text included over 1,500 references; five between 1,250 and 1,499; four between 1,000 and 1,249; two between 750 and 999; and five less than 750. The significant positive correlation between the number of references and the number of pages, r(
Some authors appeared to highlight more recent studies, whereas others included more historical material. More than half (51%) of the references in Matlin were from 1990 or later, as were 32% of the references in Ashcraft. In contrast, references from the 1990s comprised less than 20% of all references in six texts. Pre-1970 citations of what might be considered classic works comprised more than 20% of all references in Solso; Jahnke and Nowaczyk; Payne and Wenger; and Benjafield. As further evidence that the distribution of citations coincided with authors' objectives, Matlin emphasized a "very current overview of the discipline" (p. ix) in the preface, whereas Payne and Wenger considered the importance of placing "contemporary research and theorizing in an appropriate historical perspective" (p. xvi). We found no significant correlations between the most recent copyright year and the number or percentage of references in any particular time period.
Given between-text differences in the organization of memory-related and language-related material across multiple chapters, our content analysis included a single category for general memory-related material and a single category for language. Table 2 presents the results of our content analysis for typical and specialized topics to reveal the distinctiveness of various texts. For typical topics, Kellogg (23%) and Payne and Wenger (23%) most emphasized perception, attention, and consciousness; Reed (48%) and Reisberg (47%) most emphasized memory; Kellogg (22%) and Best (21%) most emphasized language; and Medin and Ross (26%) and Benjafield (25%) most emphasized problem solving and reasoning. For specialized topics, cognitive development received full-chapter coverage in six texts (Galotti; Guenther; Kellogg; Payne & Wenger; Solso; Sternberg), neuroscience in five (Ashcraft; Haberlandt; Payne & Wenger; Solso; Sternberg), and intelligence in four (Galotti; Guenther; Kellogg; Sternberg).
From Table 3, Payne and Wenger and Sternberg incorporated all seven pedagogical aids, whereas Guenther, Haberlandt, and Reisberg utilized only two. Most texts included some type of summary (88%) or suggested readings (76%), whereas only about one third (35%) incorporated demonstrations. The number of key terms, typically organized into either a glossary or chapter listing, ranged from 139 (Hunt & Ellis) to 396 (Guenther).
Five texts provided discussion features related to either applications (Reed; Sternberg) or explorations of research (Best; Matlin; Payne & Wenger). Payne and Wenger also included a section about the historical underpinnings of current topics in 10 of the 14 chapters. Five texts (Ashcraft; Haberlandt; Hunt & Ellis; Kellogg; Solso) incorporated boxes (without a specific designation) to emphasize varying types of material. Solso included 48 such boxes, whereas Hunt and Ellis included 18.
Table 4 indicates that Solso included the most illustrative items (
Despite similarities in overall organization, cognitive psychology textbooks diverge considerably in their topical emphasis. Besides content, texts vary in their historical focus and pedagogy and in their balance of figures, tables, and other illustrative material. Knowledge of these differences should assist instructors in narrowing the range of texts that they examine prior to selecting a textbook.
Our study did not extend to an investigation of level of difficulty, a critical factor in the textbook selection process. Developing an index assessing levels of difficulty for cognitive psychology texts remains an area for future research. However, we urge instructors to carefully consider the fit between their assessments of textbook difficulty and student abilities.
Given the cycle of textbook revisions, shifts in coverage and pedagogy will occur. However, consecutive editions of the same text are typically characterized by continuity, heightening the relative stability of cross-text comparisons. Thus, we trust that this study will facilitate instructors' efforts now and in the future to select a textbook based on congruency between course objectives and text content.
Note. The full references for the textbooks are in the Appendix.
a Does not include front matter (i.e., preface, notes to instructor, notes to students, and visuals) or back matter (i.e., appendixes, glossaries, indexes, references, photo credits, and answer keys).
b Guenther included a 12th chapter (an epilogue of 3.3 pp.) excluded from the chapter count because of its brevity.
Note. The full references for the textbooks are in the Appendix. Percentages may not total to 100% due to rounding.
a The memory category includes the categories of short-term memory, memory, imagery, and categorization.
b The language category includes the categories of language, language structure, language comprehension, and language production.
c The titles of "other" chapters are "Personal Cognition" and "Applied Cognitive Psychology" (Benjafield); "Cognition in Cross-Cultural Perspective" (Galotti); "Applications of Cognitive Psychology" (Haberlandt); "Cognition, Emotion, and Memory" (Hunt & Ellis); "Social Cognition" and "Animal Cognition" (Jahnke & Nowaczyk); "Learning (Medin & Ross); and Artificial Intelligence (Solso).
d Guenther included a 12th chapter (an epilogue of 3.3 pp.) excluded from the content analysis because of its brevity.
e The sixth chapter of Guenther, entitled "Physiology of Learning and Memory," contained a major section devoted to neural nets. To maintain consistency with similar coverage related to connectionism, we included the content of this section in the memory category and the content of the remainder of the chapter in the neuroscience/physiology category.
Note. The full references for the textbooks ara in the Appendix. A bullet indicates the presence of key term listing or suggested readings. A dash indicates that a specific aid was not present in the text.
a Each of the following pedagogical aids counted as 1: chapter outline, chapter or section summary, glossary, key term listing, demonstrations, review questions, and suggested readings. Thus, the maximum possible count was 7.
b The number of key terms was the count of the items in the glossary or, if the text had no glossary, the number of items in the end-of-chapter listings, not counting duplications. If a text contained neither a glossary nor key term listing, we summed the boldface terms, not counting duplications.
c In Anderson, 8 of 13 chapters also contained concluding comments. In Best, 6 of 12 chapters also contained at least one section summary. In Medin and Ross, 11 of 16 chapters also contained at least one section summary. d Hunt and Ellis also included 67 multiple-choice and 64 true-false questions. e Reed also included a running glossary.
Note. The full references for the textbooks are in the Appendix.
a Other illustrative material includes all illustrations that were not contained in numbered figures or tables, with the exception of diagrams that were fully integrated in the text flow.
b Multiple graphs within a single figure were counted as one graph.
Griggs, R. A:, Jackson, S. L., Christopher, A. N., & Marek, P. (1999). Introductory psychology textbooks: An objective analysis and update. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 182-189.
Holley, P., & Stack, J. (1992). Do cognitive psychologists share a paradigm? A second look. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 30, 65-66.
Perlman, B., & McCann, L. I. (1999). The most frequently listed courses in the undergraduate psychology curriculum. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 177-182.
White, M. J. (1985). On the status of cognitive psychology. American Psychologist, 40, 117-119.
Anderson, J. R. (1995). Cognitive psychology and its implications (4th ed.). New York: Freeman.
Ashcraft, M. H. (1998). Fundamentals of cognition. New York: Addison Wesley.
Benjafield, J. G. (1997). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Best, J. B. (1999). Cognitive psychology (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Galotti, K. M. (1999). Cognitive psychology in and out of the laboratory (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Guenther, R. K. (1998). Human cognition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Haberlandt, K. (1997). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Hunt, R. R. & Ellis, H. C. (1999). Fundamentals of cognitive psychology (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Jahnke, J. C., & Nowaczyk, R. H. (1998). Cognition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kellogg, R. T. (1995). Cognitive psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Matlin, M. W. (1998). Cognition (4th ed.). Ft. Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
Medin, D. L., & Ross, B. H. (1997). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). Ft. Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
Payne, D. G., & Wenger, M. J. (1998). Cognitive psychology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Reed, S. K. (1996). Cognition (4th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Reisberg, D. (1997). Cognition: Exploring the science of the mind. New York: Norton.
Solso, R. L. (1998). Cognitive psychology (5th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). Ft. Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
James C. Kaufman
Adam S. Bristol
Yale University
We propose using anecdotes to illustrate and emphasize key points, principles, and people in the teaching of psychology. Research findings suggest that different students have different thinking and learning styles, thus necessitating varied teaching approaches. Memory research reveals that people understand and remember information better when it is presented in a social context. We believe that the use of relevant anecdotes, such as the story of when a young Gordon Allport met Sigmund Freud, will not only make a lecture more enjoyable but also help students learn and remember the information.
Teaching introductory psychology is difficult because of the educational diversity of the students and the large amount of material that instructors must cover. One unfortunate consequence of a survey course is that entire topics can be only covered superficially, thus making important theories and experiments appear disjointed and lifeless. Although few professors would favor lectures consisting of dry facts and poorly illustrated ideas, most are not aware of the potential benefits of a well-timed, well-placed anecdote. In this article, we provide theoretical and empirical support for the use of anecdotes as effective teaching tools and illustrate this idea with the story of Gordon Allport's meeting with Sigmund Freud.
The history of psychology contains many interesting characters and poignant events. Recently, Thorne (1999) presented a strong case for the use of humorous and ironic stories in teaching the history of psychology. However, we believe that in addition to understanding psychology's past, the use of anecdotes can help teach psychology's present and future. Although humor and irony are useful ingredients to a good anecdote, they are not essential; many psychology-related stories that do not contain irony can also be instructional. Psychology anecdotes can be educationally useful if they aid in teaching course material and enhancing student interest.
Evidence from cognitive theory and research support the notion that anecdotes can serve as teaching tools. For example, Bruner (1986) proposed that two modes of thought exist: paradigmatic and narrative. Paradigmatic thought is logical and scientific--it focuses on capturing "what is." In contrast, narrative thought is information in the context of a story--it pertains to "what might be" and "what could be." Bruner (1996) argued that the primary goal of education should be the acquisition of cultural "meanings," an understanding of the self and the world in a culture. Furthermore, he suggested that narratives facilitate the acquisition of meanings by conveying aspects of individuals in culture. The use of anecdotes in a lecture appeals to narrative thought and, in Bruner's (1996) framework, promotes the formation of meanings.
In addition, instructors tend to overlook thinking styles as an important determinant of learning. Teachers often over-estimate how much their own thinking styles correspond with those of their students (Sternberg, 1995). In fact, studies have shown that students perform better when taught in a variety of ways (Sternberg & Grigorenko, 1997; Sternberg, Torff, & Grigorenko, 1998). Thus, insofar as different students employ different thinking styles, a subset of students (i.e., those who think narratively) will benefit in particular from the use of anecdotes.
Numerous theoretical and empirical investigations have suggested that information presented through anecdotes may be more comprehensible to students and also better remembered. For example, work by Cosmides (1989) showed that social information is more readily understood and interpreted than context-free information. When she asked participants to solve a logical cognitive puzzle called the Wason card selection task, she found that more participants arrived at the correct solution when the task was posed as a real-life situation (being a bouncer at a bar and checking student identifications) instead of when the task was a standard puzzle (simply turning over cards with letters and numbers).
Additional work has shown that individuals are more likely to remember the interactional content rather that the propositional content of conversations (Keenan, MacWhinney, & Mayhew, 1977; Murphy & Shapiro, 1994). Similarly, Kintsch and Bates (1977) showed that what students remembered best from a lecture were the extraneous asides, such as jokes and announcements. These results further suggest that anecdotes may be easily remembered, but they also point to a potential danger in the misuse of anecdotes. If an anecdote is provided merely for entertainment value and does not also deliver pertinent information, then students may focus on the wrong information and not remember the actual point of the lecture. An anecdote must be relevant to the material at hand.
Collectively, these findings suggest that appropriate anecdotes, as social accounts of lives in context, are more easily understood than isolated facts. Moreover, the interactional quality of delivering anecdotes in a lecture makes them more memorable. We present an anecdote that we believe is interesting and memorable--and one that helps convey an important educational point.
Professors often ask students to compare and contrast competing theories in an area of psychology. However, simply learning who believes what can be devoid of the reasons why the theories came about in the first place. This story describes an early meeting between Gordon Allport and Sigmund Freud, two prominent figures in the history of personality theory. Not only does the description bring to life the individuals behind the ideas, it illustrates the germination ora competing theory.
In 1920, Gordon Allport, a recent graduate in psychology at Harvard, traveled to Vienna, Austria. He assumed that Sigmund Freud would be interested in meeting with another psychologist and contacted him. Although Freud was a renowned figure in psychology at that time, he graciously agreed to meet with the young Allport. When they met, Allport was soon greeted with silence as Freud waited for him to state the purpose of his visit. Thinking fast for something to say, Allport told of a little boy he saw on the tram ride to Freud's office. The boy, he said, seemed to have a fear of dirt and was very concerned with staying clean. The boy's mother, nearby, appeared quite imposing and authoritarian, and Allport quickly made a connection. On the story's completion, Freud leaned forward and asked Allport, "And was that little boy you?" Allport was taken aback by the way Freud had so quickly interpreted his attempt at small talk as being an expression of unconscious personal motivations when, in fact, it was not (Allport, 1967; Evans, 1971).
This anecdote works on several levels. Most basically, it is amusing and entertaining; it evokes an image of the young Allport, nervous in the presence of the eminent Freud. In addition, it reinforces the notion that psychology does not develop in a vacuum legendary psychologists met and interacted with each other. Also, most important for educational purposes, the anecdote provides a vivid illustration of the fundamental differences in Freud's and Allport's approaches to understanding human personality. Whereas Freud searched deep into a patient's unconscious past for answers, Allport preferred to examine manifest motives to interpret behavior. Indeed, Allport later considered his meeting with Freud as being influential to the development of his own ideas (Allport, 1968; Evans, 1971).[
In our experience, we find that effective lecturers frequently use anecdotes, often without being fully aware of the benefits of doing so. Utilizing anecdotes in a lecture may do more than hold an audience's interest; cognitive theory and research support the notion that anecdotes are potentially valuable teaching tools. A short story that provides content as well as amusement can help students remember the facts and help them understand and contextualize the material. Unfortunately, there is no "master source" of psychology-related anecdotes, but we find that introductory textbooks, biographies, psychology history books, and colleagues are good resources. The effort spent compiling useful anecdotes is likely paid back in educational benefits.
Allport, G. W. (1967). Gordon W. Allport. In E. Boring & G. Lindsay (Eds.), History of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 5, pp. 1-25). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Allport, G. W. (1968). The person in psychology. Boston: Beacon.
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cosmides, L. (1989). The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task. Cognition, 31, 187-276.
Elms, A. C. (1972). Allport, Freud, and the clean little boy. Psychoanalytic Review, 59, 627-632.
Evans, R. I. (1971). Gordon Allport: The man and his ideas. New York: Dutton.
Faber, M. D. (1970). Allport's visit with Freud. Psychoanalytic Review, 57, 60-64.
Keenan, J. M., MacWhinney, B., & Mayhew, D. (1977). Pragmatics in memory: A study of natural conversation. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 16, 549-560.
Kintsch, W., & Bates, E. (1977). Recognition memory for statements for a classroom lecture. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human, Learning, and Memory, 3, 150-159.
Morey, L. C. (1987). Observations on the meeting between Allport and Freud. Psychoanalytic Review, 74, 135-139.
Murphy, G. L., & Shapiro, A. M. (1994). Forgetting of verbatim information in discourse. Memory and Cognition, 22, 85-94. Sternberg, R. J. (1995). Styles of thinking in the school. European Journal for High Ability, 6, 201-219.
Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (1997). Are cognitive styles still in style? American Psychologist, 52, 700-712.
Sternberg, R. J., Torff, B., & Grigorenko, E. L. (1998). Teaching triarchically improves school achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 374-384.
Thorne, B. M. (1999). Using irony in teaching the history of psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 222-224.
Todd C. Riniolo
Lorenzo I. Torrez
Adams State College
Louis A. Schmidt
McMaster University
We describe a classroom exercise that emphasizes the subjectivity and complexity associated with generalizing psychological knowledge to different points in time. The exercise used a well. known historical event: the sinking of the Titanic. Specifically, students attempted to determine if previously obtained psychological knowledge (i.e., the characteristics of the survivors) would generalize to the present. Students indicated they found the exercise interesting, and they recommended it for future classes.
Students often perceive psychological knowledge as stable, but relations change as historical context influences human behavior (Baltes, 1987). Thus, psychological knowledge may or may not generalize to future (or past) generations because of changes in such variables as culture, economy, family structure, and societal perceptions. As Cronbach (1975) pointed out: "Generalizations decay. At one time a conclusion describes the existing situation well, at a later time it accounts for rather little variance, and ultimately it is valid only as history" (pp. 122-123). Furthermore, evaluating the stability of psychological knowledge at different points in time is often a subjective and complex process (Campbell & Stanley, 1966)--an important point that is often not adequately emphasized in psychology textbooks. For example, would the psychological knowledge obtained from Milgram's (1963) famous obedience study generalize to a generation having less respect for authority figures?
In this article we present an exercise used in an undergraduate experimental psychology course. We designed this exercise to demonstrate the subjectivity that can accompany generalizing psychological knowledge to different historical eras (i.e., different points in time). Specifically, the demonstration is based on the tragedy of the famous ship, the Titanic.
The Titanic's tragedy provides psychological knowledge obtained from a previous historical era. First, the Titanic provides psychological knowledge of human behavior during a life-and-death situation. As lifeboats were available for approximately one half of the passengers, the characteristics of the survivors provides a quantifiable outcome variable. Survivors (see Table 1) were more likely to be women and children (i.e., adherence to the rule of the sea: women and children first). Also, members of the upper class were more likely to survive (i.e., class precedence prevailed). Thus, the Titanic provides real-life data to an interesting psychological question (i.e., who will survive during a life-and-death crisis?). Second, the passengers of the Titanic were of the Edwardian era. The Edwardian era was characterized by rigid class distinction, formality, a sense of duty, strict adherence to rules and authority, and highly traditional gender roles. As Lord (1956, 1987) wrote, the crew and passengers exemplified Edwardian characteristics (e.g., male role as protector of women and children) as the Titanic was sinking. Thus, the social climate aboard the Titanic in 1912, contrasted with current society, makes the historical era highly relevant when evaluating the generality of psychological knowledge. Specifically, would the characteristics of Table i generalize from the Edwardian era to the present?
We performed the classroom demonstration using the following steps:
We have performed variations of this demonstration in several classes and consistently found that students provide varying answers with justifiable explanations based on their interpretations of the characteristics of current society. For example, answers have included the following: (a) A greater emphasis today would be given to ensure all of the children survive, (b) many of the elderly (independent of gender) would volunteer to stay on the ship increasing the number of young adults (independent of gender) who would survive, (c) families would be kept together, (d) no differences in gender would occur, (e) chaos would ensue and relatively few would survive, (f) chivalry would prevail and primarily women and children would survive, and (g) class would not play as important a role as in 1912.
We examined students' perceptions (n = 20; 15 women) of the classroom exercise using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Results indicate that most found the exercise interesting (M = 4.40; SD = .50), would recommend the exercise for future classes (M = 4.65; SD = .49), and believed the exercise highlighted the complexity associated with generalizing psychological knowledge to different points in time (M = 4.60; SD = .50). Several subsequent evaluations were consistent with these results.
We presented a classroom exercise promoting the lesson that generalizing psychological knowledge to different historical eras can be a subjective and complex process. We believe this demonstration is effective became (a) there is no verifiable answer to the question of who would survive today, (b) many predictions of who would survive today are plausible, and (c) societal changes since the Edwardian era make historical context highly relevant. Many students commented that listening to the wide range of predictions during the discussion emphasized that generalizing psychological knowledge from different points in time is an important issue that can be highly subjective.
We believe this classroom exercise has two primary strengths. First, it is simple to implement. However, we recommend that instructors familiarize themselves with the Titanic and the Edwardian era prior to performing this demonstration (see the Appendix for resources). Second, the exercise is in a format that students enjoy. Many students commented in the course evaluation at the end of the semester that this exercise was the most interesting class of the semester. Creating interest in the subject material is important as many psychology students perceive experimental psychology as uninteresting (Forsyth, 1977).
Finally, we recommend that instructors end this exercise by discussing types of psychological knowledge that traditionally have greater (e.g., classical conditioning) and less (e.g., attitudes toward women in the workplace) stability across time. However, exclusively relying on "obvious" examples may inadvertently mislead some students to perceive that evaluating the stability of psychological knowledge to different eras is straightforward. We believe our demonstration gives instructors an interesting and user-friendly tool to point out the subjectivity inherent in generalizing certain types of psychological knowledge across time.
Note. Results are from the British inquiry cited in Lord (1987).
a Three of the four women who died did se by choice.
b Lorraine Allison was excluded because her family remained together by choice.
Note. See Lord (1956).
Baltes, P. B. (1987). Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology, 23, 611-626.
Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (1966). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Cronbach, L. J. (1975). Beyond the two disciplines of scientific psychology. American Psychologist, 30, 116-127.
Forsyth, G. A. (1977). A task-first individual-differences approach to designing a statistics and methodology course. Teaching of Psychology, 4, 76-78.
Lord, W. (1956). A night to remember. New York: Bantam.
Lord, W. (1987). The night lives on. New York: Avon.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371-378.
Bryceson, D. (1997). The Titanic disaster: As reported in the British national press April-July 1912. New York: Norton.
Caren, E., & Goldman, S. (1998). Extra Titanic: The story of the disaster in the newspapers of the day. Edison, NJ: Castle.
Geller, J. B., & Eaton, J. P. (1998). Titanic: Women and children first. New York: Norton.
Hyslop, D., Forsyth, A., Jemima, S., & Lawrence, J. (1997). Titanic voices: Memories from the fateful voyage. New York: St. Martin's.
Lord, W. (1956). A night to remember. New York: Bantam.
Lord, W. (1987). The night lives on. New York: Avon.
Lynch, D., & Marschall, K. (1998). Titanic: An illustrated history. New York: Hyperion.
Spignesi, S. J. (1998). The complete Titanic: From the ship's earliest blueprints to the epic film. Secaucus, NJ: Carol.
Cameron, J. (Producer & Director). (1997). Titanic [Film]. (Available from Twentieth Century Fox & Paramount Pictures).
Peltier, M. (Producer & Director). (1994). Titanic [Video]. (Available from A & E Home Video).
Catherine McBride-Chang
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Lei Chang
Chinese University of Hong Kong
We describe a technique using short stories about individuals to reinforce students' knowledge of developmental theories. Such vignettes, which promote critical thinking about developmental theories, can he used as lecture tools, homework assignments, or exam questions.
In her life span developmental textbook, Bee (1998) mused: "Students often tell me that they hate reading about theories. What they want are the facts" (p. 26). We have heard similar sentiments among our students in a variety of developmental psychology classes. Because the study of developmental psychology requires that students grasp broad theories of human development, we illustrate these theories within a "real-world" context by using cases.
The style of cases is constant across all stories. Each presentation contains a vignette, and we ask the students to consider which theory is implied by the description. Each case describes an individual who is identified by age and gender. In addition, every case consists of a situation (e.g., Mary, age 17, wants to be a doctor. She studies hard to attain that goal.). It also contains an explanation (e.g., Mary wants to be a doctor because her father is a doctor. Her parents have encouraged her to study medicine, she believes her parents are correct that she should study medicine, and she has never considered alternative occupations.). Each case also has a proposed theory and elaboration.
The students themselves must generate the proposed theory and elaboration. In this case, students should identify our case as an elaboration of Erikson's (1959) theory of psychosocial development, Stage 5 (identity vs. role confusion), specifically the identity status of foreclosure (e.g., Marcia, 1980). We expect students to identify the theory (typically, most students shout it out) and to explain why this theory applies to this story (a few sentences about the fact that Mary has never considered alternative occupations would be key in establishing the status of foreclosure in this case). One full vignette, written to appeal to a Hong Kong audience, appears in Table 1. Other vignettes are available on request.
We use this case illustration approach to strengthen students' ability to distinguish among theories. We have introduced cases relating to a variety of developmental theories, including Freud's (1905/1938) psychosexual theory of development, Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological approach to development, Maslow's (1968) hierarchy of needs, social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1989), a theory of epigenetic programs (Plomin, DeFries, & Loehlin, 1977), and Levinson's (1990) life structure development. Following our discussion of these theories, we present cases representing each of these theories (typically two cases per theory) to the students. Because students need to use their newly acquired knowledge to identify theories and justify their responses, such cases promote critical thinking (McDade, 1995).
We have noted increased participation in the class during this exercise relative to the standard theory lecture. All students can recognize and relate to many of the situations presented. Nearly all students in the class can provide a label for each story (e.g., social cognitive theory). Most students appear fairly comfortable offering an explanation for why they selected the theory that they did once they believe they have the correct answer (based on interstudent agreement as evidenced by shouts and mumbles).
To assess the usefulness of this approach across three classes of adolescent psychosocial development, we administered a postlecture quiz to graduate students in the school of education on four theories relevant to adolescence: Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological approach to development, social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1989), a theory of epigenetic programs (Plomin et al., 1977), and Erikson's (1959) theory of psychosocial development. Catherine McBride-Chang was the lecturer in all classes, which fell on 3 consecutive days. In the first and last classes, 26 and 32 students, respectively, took the quiz; in the second class, 58 students took the quiz. In all classes, we administered the same 5-item, multiple-choice quiz in which the students had to identify the theory that best fit each of the five situations presented. Students from the second class took the quiz following our case-study presentations, whereas students from the other classes took the quiz before we presented the case studies.
Students from the second class scored a mean of 3.2 (SD = 1.5) on the quiz, whereas the other group of students scored a mean of 2.6 (SD = 1.5) on the quiz, a significant difference, t(
Our case-study exercise also serves to highlight the interpretations students bring to the theories. Inevitably, some students will identify one or another vignette as representing a theory that we did not originally intend to portray. In most of these situations, students have reasonable explanations for how this story depicts an alternative theory. Typically, their explanations involve an extreme focus on one detail of the story to the exclusion of other story details (e.g., Mary's case might represent social cognitive theory because she has observed her father modeling the doctor role and because her parents reinforce her for studying to be a doctor). During our lectures, we point out the links between alternative interpretations of each case relative to its theory representation when offered, to reinforce students' recall of as many of the theories presented as possible and to link the concrete details of each vignette to different theories. However, following such discussions, we consistently emphasize the ways in which our interpretation of the case study best illustrates the theory we had originally intended it to represent.
Instructors can use this case-presentation technique in three ways. First, it can facilitate reinforcement of the lecture materials, as we discussed. Second, instructors may assign students to write their own cases and justify how their cases best represent the theory they identify. When we score such homework assignments, we focus particularly on the extent to which the explanation the students write fits with the theory they identify. Thus, critical thinking about developmental theories is central to this assignment, similar to the case-based method described by Cabe, Walker, and Williams (1999). However, in this assignment, students must first create their own cases, rather than finding them other places, such as the newspaper (Cabe et al., 1999). Third, case vignettes may be useful for instructors to use as multiple-choice or short-answer questions in their exams.
This exercise has three major benefits for any class in which theories of development are taught. First, instructors can easily change the vignettes from year to year to maximize their applicability to current events, facilitating student interest. Second, this technique can be used to discriminate both among theories, as described previously, or within theories (e.g., one could write short stories to describe each of Erikson's eight stages). Third, this is a quick and enjoyable exercise that allows students to make an immediate connection between theories and real-world contexts.
Send correspondence and requests for additional vignettes to Catherine McBride-Chang, Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong; e-mail: cmcbride@psy.cuhk.edu.hk.
Bandura, A. (1989). Social cognitive theory. Annuls of Child Development, 6, 1-60.
Bee, H. (1998). Lifespan development (2nd ed.). Sydney, Australia: Longman.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cabe, P. A., Walker, M. H., & Williams, M. (1999). Newspaper advice column letters as teaching cases for developmental psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 128-130.
Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. New York: International Universities Press.
Freud, S. (1938). The basic writings of Sigmund Freud (A. A. Brill, Trans.). New York: Modern Library. (Original work published 1905)
Levinson, D. J. (1990). A theory of life structure development in adulthood. In C. N. Alexander & E. J. Langer (Eds.), Higher stages of human development: Perspectives on adult growth (pp. 35-53). New York: Oxford University Press.
Marcia, J. E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In J. Adelson (Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 159-187). New York: Wiley.
Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a psychology of being (2nd ed.). Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
McDade, S. A. (1995). Case study pedagogy to advance critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22, 9-10.
Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., & Loehlin, J. C. (1977). Genotype-environment interaction and correlation in the analysis of human behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 309-322.
Catherine McBride-Chang
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Unlike traditional cognitive textbook coverage, students' interests in problem solving tend to focus on ill-defined problems that are context dependent. In this article, I present an approach to teaching problem solving that incorporates both cognitive and social approaches to problem solving, thinking, and decision making.
In my first semester as a professor, I found myself teaching a course ominously titled Problem Solving. Hunt (1994) said, "Problem solving is a bit like beauty, morality, and good art. We are in favor of it, we know it when we see it, but we cannot define it" (p. 215). I felt the same way about teaching the course: How could I possibly define the scope of this daunting topic?
I initially opted for the safety of conformity, tailoring my lectures to topics that professors bad covered in previous semesters of Problem Solving according to old syllabi, from syllogisms to schema theory, from nmemonic techniques to decision making. Cognitive psychology (e.g., Mayer, 1992) was the sole focus of the course.
However, I soon discovered two difficulties with the course content as traditionally presented: First, much of the content was a more detailed version of cognitive concepts already covered in other core courses, particularly Memory and Cognition I and II. Problem Solving is an elective course, and the content needed to be altered to attract good students. Second, and more pertinent, the content largely failed to address what the students conceptualized as most central to problem solving as a discipline--solving ill-defined problems.
This lack of fit between course content and student expectations of problem solving is best illustrated by my students' responses when I asked them anonymously to write a problem and pass it in. Problem descriptions varied widely, but only one student presented a well-defined problem of the type traditionally contained in a cognition textbook. Rather, problems tended to be real-life issues relevant to these Hong Kong students (e.g., "How can we settle the Diaoyu Islands dispute peaceably?" "How can I get more money?").
From these problem examples, I began to reconceptualize problem solving more broadly by integrating cognition, social understanding, and context specificity into the course content. The course, available to any student who bas had introductory psychology, consists of discussions and tutorials on problem-solving themes (see the Appendix for a list of readings and themes). Students take midterm and final exams and complete a research project. Although this course is taught in Hong Kong, its content is suitable to college students in any region of the world.
I begin the course by exploring Newell and Simon's (1972) original conceptualization of the problem state and problem-solving strategies (e.g., means--ends analysis, heuristics). The students and I also discuss generalizable steps in problem solving, such as identify, define, explore, act, look at the problem and possible solution strategies (IDEAL) described by Bransford, Sherwood, Vye, and Rieser (1986).
We then talk about problem solving in diverse areas. We note that experts solve problems in and out of their domains of expertise quite differently. We also consider the extent to which computers solve problems in ways similar to human beings, beginning with the breakthrough publication of Human Problem Solving (Newell & Simon, 1972), which brought legitimate status to the discipline of problem solving. Notions of intelligence, including multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983) and tacit knowledge (Sternberg, Wagner, Williams, & Horvath, 1995), stimulate the class to explore problem solving within particular contexts. For example, having a PhD in history (possibly indicating linguistic intelligence) in no way suggests that one may be successful at finding one's way to an unfamiliar location (a mark of spatial intelligence). Gardner's (1983) concepts of personal intelligences segue nicely to the theme of emotional intelligence (EQ), which we discuss in the context of marriage (Gottman, 1994), business (Goleman, 1995), and mediational skills training (Levine, 1994).
Thus, the focus of the course is on problem solving from multiple perspectives. We consider ways to solve various categories of problems (e.g., additive, compensatory, disjunctive) as individuals and in groups. Students practice brainstorming techniques to deal with larger societal issues (e.g., how to prevent teen smoking) and then refine their solutions using techniques described by Ruggiero (1995). Gardner's (1993) chapter on the "Eminent Creator" affords a broad consideration of creativity in reference to ill-defined problems. Throughout the semester, students discover that problem solving is largely domain dependent. A computer genius is not necessarily a good diplomat. A superior mathematician may not be able to program a VCR.
This liberal interpretation of problem solving bas both disadvantages and advantages. One difficulty with this approach is that there is no basic textbook. Thus, students sometimes complain that the readings are too variable in their difficulty levels and coherence from topic to topic. I monitor the readings by having students rate each reading and justify their reactions, for extra credit. Pressure to change the readings somewhat every semester helps keep the problem-solving themes current and dynamic. A second danger in teaching problem solving in this manner is that basic cognitive aspects of problem solving (e.g., Bransford et al.'s IDEAL, 1986) may get lost in the wide variety of topics covered. On the other hand, I am often struck by the extent to which problem-solving themes reemerge and reinforce each other in each lesson. For example, Sternberg's (1998) recent work on intelligence reinforced previously learned concepts about expertise. By identifying the central problem-solving subject in each lesson, students maintain a solid understanding of the basic issues in problem solving.
This way of teaching problem solving bas had benefits as well. First, the class bas profited from nonpsychology majors from disciplines as diverse as business, philosophy, physics, finance, English, and statistics bringing fresh perspectives to the course. Guest lectures by a doctor working in an emergency room and a new Internet company president on problem solving in their respective disciplines enhanced the variety of the course this past semester.
Second, an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving bas afforded students new ways to go about their research projects. Each group of up to four students completes a data-based project on an aspect of problem solving, using computer simulations, case studies, or standard psychological research paradigms. Last year, group projects included the effects of (respectively) aroma, music (Mozart; traditional Chinese), and mood on solving well-defined problems; differences between novice and expert swimmers in their approaches to lap swims; and ways to enhance children's second language learning.
Third, the course bas become more favorably received by students, although the student ratings reported admittedly only cover a 3-year period. The first year I offered this course, the overall evaluation of the course was 3.20, and the "intellectual stimulation rating" was 3.33, on a scale ranging from 1 (poor) to 5 (very good). Over the next 2 years, the average ratings of each were 3.72 and 3.93. Enrollment has also increased from 16 students the first year, when the course bad been offered every other year, to an average of 19 students over the last 3 years, with the course being offered annually.
An additional benefit of changing the course to be fairly broad is that it has become much more fun to teach. I thoroughly enjoy the interaction of social and cognitive themes across lectures, and students' participation has increased as a result of this interaction. A problem-solving course would be a worthwhile addition to the curriculum of any psychology department because it addresses basic issues of critical thinking applicable to students from a variety of backgrounds.
Send correspondence to Catherine McBride-Chang, Psychology Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N. T., Hong Kong; email: cmcbride@psy.cuhk.edu.hk.
Bransford, J., Sherwood, R., Vye, N., & Rieser, J. (1986). Teaching thinking and problem solving: Research foundations. American Psychologist, 41, 1078-1089.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind. New York: Basic.
Gardner, H. (1993). Creating minds: An anatomy of creativity seen through the lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. New York: Basic.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam.
Gottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce: The relationship between marital processes and marital outcomes. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Hunt, E. (1994). Problem solving. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Thinking and problem solving (pp. 215-232). San Diego, CA: Academic.
Levine, M. (1994). Effective problem solving. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Mayer, R. E. (1992). Thinking, problem solving, cognition (2nd ed.). New York: Freeman.
Newell, A., & Simon, H. A. (1972). Human problem solving. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Ruggiero, V. (1995). The art of thinking: A guide to critical and creative thought (4th ed.). New York: HarperCollins.
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). Abilities are forms of developing expertise. Educational Researcher, 27, 11-20.
Sternberg, R. J., Wagner, R. K., Williams, W. M., & Horvath, J. A. (1995). Testing common sense. American Psychologist, 50, 912-927.
Topics covered in the current problem-solving course and assigned readings for each topic (Fall 1999)
1. Introduction to the Study of Thinking and Problem Solving Kahney, H. (1993). Introduction. Problem solving: Current issues (pp. 15-55). Buckingham, England: Open University Press.
Steinberg, R. J. (1996). Problem solving and creativity (pp. 346-384). Cognitive psychology. Tokyo: Harcourt Brace.
2. Adult Problem Solving
Anderson, J. R. (1993). Problem solving and learning. American Psychologist, 48, 35-44.
3. Expert Problem Solving
Bedard, J., & Chi, M. T. H. (1992). Expertise. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 135-139.
Kahney, H. (1993). Developing expertise. Problem solving: Current issues (pp. 82-91). Buckingham, England: Open University Press.
4. The Role of Computers in Problem Solving
Sternberg, R. J. (1996). Simulations of intelligence: Artificial-intelligence approaches. Cognitive Psychology (pp. 481-490). Tokyo: Harcourt Brace.
Thagard, P. (1996). Rules. Mind: Introduction to cognitive science (pp. 43-57). Cambridge, MA: Bradford/MIT Press.
Thagard, P. (1996). Connections. Mind: Introduction to cognitive science (pp. 107-126). Cambridge, MA: Bradford/MIT Press.
5. Teaching Problem Solving
Bransford, J., Sherwood, R., Vye, N., & Rieser, J. (1986). Teaching thinking and problem solving: Research foundations. American Psychologist, 41, 1078-1089.
Halpern, D. F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains. American Psychologist, 53, 449-455.
6. Problem Solving in Context
Mayer, R. E. (1992). Everyday thinking: Thinking as based on social contexts. Thinking, problem solving, cognition (pp. 490-507). New York: Freeman.
7. Individual Decision Making
Halpern, D. F. (1997). Decision making. Critical thinking across the curriculum (pp. 188-217). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
8. Social Decision Making
Plous, S. (1993). Social influences/group judgments and decisions. The psychology of judgment and decision-making (pp. 191-214). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
9. Defining and Using Intelligence
Gardner, H. (1983). What is an intelligence? Frames of mind (pp. 59-70). New York: Basic.
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). Abilities are forms of developing expertise. Educational Researcher, 27, 11-20.
10. Creativity and the III-Defined Problem
Finke, R. A., Ward, T. B., & Smith, S. M. (1992). Creative strategies for problem solving. Creative cognition (pp. 167-187). London: MIT Press.
Gardner, H. (1993). Creativity across domains. Creating minds (pp. 359-390). New York: Basic.
11. EQ and Dealing With Adversity
Goleman, D. (1995). Intimate enemies/managing with heart. Emotional intelligence (pp. 129-163). New York: Bantam.
Stolz, P. G. (1997). A new view of success/the science of AQ. Adversity quotient (pp. 5-35; 53-84). New York: Wiley.
12. Children As Problem Solvers
Bjorklund, D. F., & Green, B. L. (1992). The adaptive nature of cognitive immaturity. American Psychologist, 47, 46-54.
Tracie L. Stewart
Bard College
The "small talk' activity helps students gain a comprehensive overview of course material and encourages them to apply course content to situations outside the classroom. Students in a course on the psychology of stereotyping and prejudice applied their knowledge of course material in generating responses to comments about gender and ethnic bias that ostensibly might be heard at social gatherings (e.g., "Women are all alike"). The comments were related to theoretical and research articles assigned throughout the semester, and students were instructed to respond to these comments from a psychological perspective. Students alternated playing the roles of commentator and respondent. I include a discussion of variations of the activity and an application of the activity for other courses.
Many people have strong opinions on sexism and racism and are eager to discuss them. After an evening conversing about these topics at a faculty gathering, it occurred to me that a dinner party "small talk" simulation might be the end-of-semester teaching tool that I had been seeking for one of my classes. In my advanced undergraduate Stereotyping and Prejudice research seminar, I base students' grades on their class participation and two term papers. Over the course of the semester, students read more than 40 research articles from journals such as Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. I was concerned that, without a final examination, students would not have the opportunity to consolidate what they had learned from the readings. The small talk activity that I introduced on the last day of class proved to be effective in remedying this concern.
I constructed a list of comments and questions concerning stereotyping and prejudice that ranged from the innocuous (e.g., "If people just felt better about themselves, I think that stereotyping and prejudice would go away on their own.") to the politically charged (e.g., "In my company, I am colorblind to race. That's why I don't believe in affirmative action.") to the blatantly rude (e.g., "Women are all alike."). I drew these items in part from my past experiences as a stereotyping researcher at social gatherings. I generated other items by scanning the course syllabus and creating statements that were either consistent or inconsistent with the positions espoused in the course readings. I printed each comment on a slip of paper and placed them in a large envelope.
In the final class session, I informed students that they would be participating in an activity in which they would read comments they might hear at social gatherings on disclosing that they had recently completed a course on stereotyping and prejudice. I instructed them to draw from knowledge gained in the course in formulating empirically based responses to these comments. I explained that the objective of the activity was to assist students in consolidating what they had learned from the readings throughout the semester. I facilitated a low-pressure environment by bringing snacks to the class and by assuring students that they would receive credit for participating in the activity but would not be graded on the quality of their individual answers.
Each student drew three questions and outlined responses to them in the 7 min allotted. I encouraged them to mention specific psychological experiments and theories in their responses whenever possible (even though such tactics might be perceived as arrogant at an actual dinner party). Students had their course syllabus available during the activity. Because the syllabus included a complete reference list of the course readings, students were able to "name drop" researchers and dates in their replies.
In the second phase of the activity, I selected one student to be the first respondent. This student handed one of the comments that she had drawn to another student who played the role of commentator. The student commentator then addressed the comment to the student respondent, often providing a colorful interpretation of the imagined author of the comment in her role-playing. The student respondent then gave her reply. The activity proceeded in this manner with students taking turns playing commentator and respondent (see Table 1).
The activity was even more fun than anticipated. Students played their roles with increasing drama and outrageousness. During occasional instances of students encountering difficulties in their responses, other students in the class joined in the discussion. In general, I was impressed by the insightful and appropriate connections to the course texts reflected in the students' responses. The success of the activity may have been aided by the discussion-oriented nature of the class and the students' experience participating in a few previous class activities.
Since the initial success of the activity, I have employed it in other courses such as an introductory Intergroup Relations course as well as in later sections of my Stereotyping and Prejudice seminar. Table 1 provides samples of activity comments and student responses. It is important to note that the sample student responses are just a few of many possible correct responses to the comments. Whereas the "women are all alike" comment usually elicits mention of the "out-group homogeneity effect," other comments prompt connections to different theories and empirical findings each time the activity is conducted. Students' individual differences and creativity in interpreting and responding to the comments keep the activity exciting for the course instructor as well as the students.
The small talk activity could be adapted for a number of courses in which an entertaining review of course material would be helpful, including courses such as general psychology ("I've never understood how illusions work," "Last night I dreamed my cat was dean of the college. What do you think that means?"), social psychology ("I am always attracted to people completely different from me," "How can I get my roommate to do the dishes?"), and cognitive psychology ("My cousin says that he has photographic memory. Is that really possible?"). In addition, many variations on the activity are possible. I have occasionally conducted the activity in the student union rather than the classroom, and students sometimes invite friends passing by to join in the role, playing (with the change in location enhancing the festive nature of the activity and providing the added bonus of spreading interest in the course to other students who might not previously have considered taking a course in this area). The activity might also be implemented to assess students' comprehension of course material midway through a semester or to help students identify their strengths and weaknesses before preparing for final examinations (Maki, 1996). One variation that I would not recommend is grading students on the quality of their responses, as this might create a stressful environment for students equivalent to that of taking an oral examination in front of a jury of one's peers. Students are generally motivated to showcase their knowledge of course material in this activity, even without the added pressure of performance assessment. However, the activity might be adapted for graded written examinations.
I recently conducted the small talk activity during a mid-term review class session in my Intergroup Relations course. The 12 student participants were White and Latino men and women of diverse urban and rural regional backgrounds (e.g., Baltimore; New York City; small towns in Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Florida). Eleven students were of traditional college age and one was a nontraditional continuing-studies student. On completion of the activity, students anonymously rated their degree of agreement with various statements concerning the activity on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Ten of the 12 students agreed or strongly agreed (i.e., gave ratings of 4 or 5) that the activity was "an appropriate use of class time" and that the activity "should continue to be conducted in the Intergroup Relations class." In addition, 9 students agreed or strongly agreed with the following four statements: "I would like to participate in this activity during the review session for the final examination"; "This activity was worthwhile"; "After participating in this activity, I have a better sense of my strengths and weaknesses in the course"; and "After participating in this activity, I feel more confident about the knowledge that I have gained in this course."
A number of students in other courses have commented positively on the activity on their course evaluations. They often relate that they were surprised at their ready knowledge of the material and that they found the activity to be a confidence-enhancing endeavor. The activity also has benefits for course instructors. It is gratifying to observe students demonstrating their comprehension of the course material and making connections between lessons learned in class and real-world situations.
Brewer, M. B., & Miller, N. (1996). Intergroup relations. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Burnette, E. (1997, June). Talking openly about race thwarts racism in children. APA Monitor, p. 33.
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5-18.
Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491-512.
Jones, J. M. (1997). Prejudice and racism. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Macrae, C. N., Bodenhausen, G. V., Milne, A. B., & Wheeler, V. (1996). On resisting the temptation for simplification: Counterintentional effects of stereotype suppression on social memory. Social Cognition, 14, 1-20.
Macrae, C. N., Milne, A. B., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (1994). Stereotypes as energy-saving devices: A peek inside the cognitive toolbox. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 37-47.
Maki, R. H. (1996, May). Knowing what you know. Presidential address presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.
McConahay, J. B., Hardee, B. B., & Batts, V. (1981). Has racism declined in America? It depends on who is asking and what is asked. Journal of conflict Resolution, 25, 563-579.
Park, B., & Rothbart, M. (1982). Perception of out-group homogeneity and levels of social categorization: Memory for the subordinate attributes of in-group and out-group members. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 1051-1068.
Phillips, S. T., & Ziller, R. C. (1997). Toward a theory and measure of the nature of nonprejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 420-434.
Staub, E. (1989). The roots of evil: The origins of genocide and other group violence. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Williams, J. (1987). Eyes on the prize: America's civil rights years, 1954-1965. New York: Penguin.
Beverly Dolinsky
Endicott College
In this article, I provide practical suggestions on creating a collaborative environment in which to use active learning strategies as the primary method to teach statistics. I describe the use of computer applications and discuss methods of incorporating writing, intensive assignments within a statistics course.
When first teaching statistics, I was a lecturer who emphasized statistical theory. Over time, I found I wanted to shift the focus of the course so students became more involved in their learning. I also wanted students to learn how to interpret the meaning of statistics rather than memorize abstract mathematical concepts. In this article, I provide suggestions to create a collaborative teaching environment in which active learning is the primary method used to teach statistics. The suggestions in this article have come from my own experiences, discussions with colleagues, teaching conferences, and literature on the teaching of psychology (e.g., Becker, 1996; Dunn, 1996; Oswald, 1996; Smith, 1995; Ware & Chastain, 1989, 1991).
For several years I have been moving away from a lecture-based course by refining active learning strategies (as defined in Bonwell & Eison, 1991). One of these active learning strategies is the consistent use of SPSS Base 7.5 for Windows (1997). The course meets in a computer lab and a classroom. I structure the course so that 15 to 30 min of every 75-min session consists of lecture material. The remaining class time is devoted to computer work, group work, verbal and written presentation, and assessment.
I create assignments that require students to discover statistical principles independently. For example, students explore the concepts of central tendency and variation by creating frequency distributions of five ratio variables using data sets provided by SPSS. Students examine their data to estimate the means, medians, modes, and standard deviations. They then calculate measures of central tendency and variation using SPSS. Students describe the statistics' meanings and decide whether their results support their original estimates.
Teaching the concept of an interaction is much easier and more enjoyable using SPSS. Last year, my students enjoyed making predictions about who watches X-rated movies using data sets provided by SPSS. They were shocked to see that the percentage of people having seen such a movie was much lower than they expected. I immediately took advantage of this teaching opportunity and asked the class why this result might be true. Students began to hypothesize how age and gender might influence this result. After a quick lesson on the crosstab option in SPSS, they were able to see that male, college-age students are much more likely to view X-rated films than older men or women of any age. The remainder of the class period was spent having students develop their own interaction hypotheses. The group exercise allowed students to independently explore complex behaviors that interested them. Their interest in the topic led them to enjoy the assignment and spend more time attempting to master the concept.
The students spend a significant portion of class time completing inductive reasoning assignments. For example, I introduce the concepts of correlation and regression by showing students three scatterplots that I create prior to class using SPSS data sets. The graphs clearly demonstrate positive, negative, and zero correlations. By examining the graph, students describe the relations between pairs of variables. I ask them how and why the graphs are different. Students write their answers and then present them to the class. This assignment allows an introduction to predictor and criterion variables, scatterplots, types of associations, Pearson correlation, and regression. Following an in depth presentation of these statistical concepts, students then use other data sets to predict additional linear relations.
Other active learning strategies used include course periods devoted to answering open-ended, student-generated questions (e.g., Why is power important? When do you use the ANOVA instead of the t test?). I avoid the tendency to immediately respond to student questions. Instead, I first attempt to have other students answer the question or to provide questions that guide the students to the correct answer. Initially, my students tend to be frustrated when I do not automatically give them a response. They find the questions difficult, and some believe that I am not teaching because I am not giving them the solution. However, over the course of the semester, students begin to enjoy the challenge of collaboratively finding the answers.
There is significant classroom discussion and debate regarding the use, meaning, and value of statistical tests. I frequently give immediate tests to assess mastery of a day's topic. These tests have little overall bearing on the grade but allow me to adjust the next class period's lesson.
All homework and class assignments, as well as exams, require written interpretation of data. Some of these writing assignments ask students to interpret the meaning of generated statistical data. For example, I have asked students to describe opinions regarding homosexuality by presenting a variety of frequency and crosstab distributions. Other questions ask students to explore the veracity of a hypothesis by performing the appropriate statistical operations. For example, I have asked them to determine whether women believe more in life after death than men, using data from SPSS. Students always provide written interpretations of the data. Simply calculating the correct answer is not sufficient to achieve a passing grade.
I require a second form of writing assignment called the "one-page press release" (Beins, 1993). Periodically, I ask students to read a preselected refereed journal article. The article includes statistical analyses currently being taught in the class. I ask students to summarize the article into a one-page press release using no statistical terminology. The assignment helps to develop students' reading and writing skills as well as their understanding of professional literature.
Another form of writing assignment consists of a learning assessment journal (Qualters & Dolinsky, 1995). The journal assignment asks students to monitor their own learning processes. About every 2 weeks, I assign students a general topic to write about. Topics include their feelings toward statistics, experience with computers, strategies to solve problems, and studying strategies. The journal entries typically range in length from 100 to 250 words. The entries are supposed to be evaluative and demonstrate perceptions of learning in the course. I read and comment on their entries. The purpose of the journal is to allow students to develop self-knowledge of their learning, not only in the statistics course but other courses as well. From my perspective, the journal is also helpful in monitoring student mastery of topics. It allows me to advise students on effective learning strategies and to act as a motivator for students who admit to having frustrations and difficulties.
My goal in creating an active learning environment is to have students become more involved in their learning and develop their critical thinking skills. Is this a better method? Student grades still fit a normal distribution and teaching evaluations remain some of the highest in the college. Student comments, however, are considerably different. Students speak of understanding the material rather than just memorizing facts. They describe feelings of pride and self-confidence at being able to independently solve problems. They also describe insights regarding strengths and weaknesses in their learning styles. I firmly believe these learning achievements were the result of using an active learning approach to teaching statistics.
Becker, B.J. (1996). A look at the literature (and other resources) on teaching statistics. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 21, 71-90.
Beins, B. C. (1993). Writing assignments in statistics classes encourage students to learn interpretation. Teaching of Psychology, 20, 161-164.
Bonwell, C., & Eison, J. A. (1991). Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom (ASHE ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1). Washington, DC: George Washington University Press.
Dunn, D. S. (1996). Collaborative writing in a statistics and research methods course. Teaching of Psychology, 23, 38-40.
Oswald, P. A. (1996). Classroom use of the personal computer to teach statistics. Teaching of Psychology, 23, 124-126.
Qualters, D., & Dolinsky, B. (1995, September). Active learning in a cooperative, reflective classroom environment. Paper presented at the LILLY-New England Conference, Durham, NH.
Smith, P. C. (1995). Assessing writing and statistical competence in probability and statistics. Teaching of Psychology, 22, 49-50.
SPSS base 7.5 for Windows: User's guide. (1997). Chicago: SPSS.
Ware, M. E., & Chastain, J. D. (1989). Computer-assisted statistical analysis: A teaching innovation? Teaching of Psychology, 16, 222-227.
Ware, M. E., & Chastain, J. D. (1991). Developing selection skills in introductory statistics. Teaching of Psychology, 18, 219-222.
Betsy Levonian Morgan
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
I describe the benefits of using a real data set comprised of local obituaries to illustrate a variety of research issues, such as missing data, outliers, comparing means, and hypothesis testing. The inherent flaws in this type of data set give students hands-on experience with the concerns encountered in analysis of actual data.
Illustrating common principles with hands-on activities (e.g., Weaver, 1992; Zerbolio, 1989) and generalizing underlying principles to new situations (Evans, 1976) are two effective pedagogical approaches to promote the learning of statistical concepts. The activity described in this article combines both approaches by having students analyze a data set they constructed from information contained in obituaries. This activity also addresses several areas of concern to faculty who teach statistics, such as illustrating statistical concepts and developing students' skills while reducing their fears (Ware & Brewer, 1999). By collecting obituaries over several days, I created a set of real data that students could easily enter into a computer program, analyze, and interpret. I have used this activity with psychology undergraduates designing independent research projects and with secondary education math teachers as part of a continuing education program. All of these students had completed a course in statistics, but most were new to data sets and statistical software. Students' summary appraisals of the activity were highly positive. Obituaries are rich in detail and represent a wide range of variability. The human-interest factors inherent in obituaries make them salient to students.
Students received a set of obituaries that I photocopied from a local newspaper. They assigned an identification number to each entry and then tried to identify and code the gender, age at death (in years), and the deceased's number of children. Instructors who wish to use this activity should find approximately 50 obituaries, including one for an infant and some incomplete entries (e.g., no age at death or gender). The resulting data set comes rife with selection problems to solve. After resolving these problems and entering the data into SPSS for Windows 8.0 (1997) statistical software, the students answered a series of research questions requiring data analysis. Data entry and analyses took approximately 2 hr and occurred in an instructional computer laboratory.
Using obituaries may upset students. I forewarned students about the activity and gave them the dates of the newspapers in advance so that I could delete entries that a student wished to have removed. However, an instructor could use obituaries from another city or another time period or could change to an alternative data source such as wedding announcements or interest rates.
1. Statistical software is user friendly. Many of my students showed traditional computer hesitancy, but the small sample size and small number of variables simplified data entry and made the entire process hands on. For data analyses, I posed a series of questions (e.g., "What is the average age at death for the women in this sample?") rather than providing step-by-step instructions. The handouts had the questions on one side with detailed instructions on the other side for students who had difficulty.
- 2. Real data are messy. Obituaries give incomplete information. Students realized that they had to take into account the date of the newspaper to calculate the age at death if it was not given. There were duplicate data if a short obituary ran on one day and a fuller one ran the next day. Some obituaries did not include the information necessary to compute an age at death. All of these problems were frustrating to my students. Furthermore, obituaries that did not specifically state gender (by use of pronoun) and included a gender-neutral first name (e.g., Jan) forced students to make decisions. The students individually decided how to handle the gender issue. Most students chose to make educated guesses, but a few coded the variable as missing. Inevitably, these two groups produced different results from their analyses, and we talked about the impact of missing data and the issues involved in guessing.
- 3. Outliers matter. The inclusion of an infant's obituary provided two strong lessons. First, students had to decide how to code the infant's age at death because it was unclear if it was a matter of days or months (we had an obituary that merely stated "the infant daughter of"). After we discussed the issues, students arbitrarily entered the infant's age at death as 1 year. Second, the infant's age skewed the age distribution for this sample. Students calculated the mean and standard deviation for the age at death, with and without the infant, to see how extreme numbers can influence these statistics. Students also calculated the mean and standard deviation of age at death on one half of the obituaries (including the infant) and then repeated the analysis for the whole sample. These results illustrated how a smaller sample is more affected by extreme scores than a larger sample, leading to a discussion of sampling distributions. For hypothesis testing, we dropped the infant as an outlier using the quick rule of thumb of 3 SDs below or above the mean (e.g., Devore & Peck, 1997). The data set also had a young person (20 years old) who affected the analyses, but was not a classic outlier, that provided a nice lesson in variance.
- 4. Real questions are answered. The central analysis for this data set was a gender comparison on age at death. Unlike many research questions, there are population data available on this topic that allowed us to hypothesize that women should be significantly older at death than men. Instructors can discuss null and alternative hypotheses. Students found means and standard deviations for the total sample. They also learned how to use the software to separate the two groups and find the means for women and men separately. Finally, they performed a t test for significance testing and ran a one-way ANOVA to illustrate the relation between t tests and ANOVA. These data also could be used to review one-tailed versus two-tailed tests.
- 5. Correlations can be meaningful or nonsensical. The adage "correlation is not causation" was well illustrated by computing the correlation of the deceased's number of children with age at death. Students enjoyed generating a variety of theories to support either a positive or negative relation. Number of children as a variable also provided another lesson in the problems with missing data or inaccurate data collection: It was unclear whether an individual in an obituary did not have children or whether children were just not mentioned. Finally, students created a nonsensical correlation (e.g., between identification number and age at death) to help show that statistical procedures and the software that compute them are tools that must be used wisely.
- 6. Results are summarized in a variety of ways. As a follow-up project, the undergraduates used the data analyses to write a method section including the handling of missing data and a series of result statements. They wrote two results sections, one with a table and one without, to explore how information in tables should not be redundant with text. They consulted the American Psychological Association (1994) Publication Manual to correctly report statistical results and format their paper.
I encourage instructors who introduce students to data entry, statistical software, and basic statistical analyses to consider obituaries as a data set. I believe that the activity would work well in a variety of teaching situations involving statistical principles. Instructors could reduce, expand, or modify this activity for use in introductory psychology, research design, or statistics courses. Overall, obituaries provide an interesting and flawed data set to help students explore some basic principles in data entry and analysis.
American Psychological Association. (1994). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Devore, J. L., & Peck, R. (1997). Statistics: The exploration and analysis of data (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Duxbury.
Evans, J. S. B. (1976). Teaching statistics: Some theoretical considerations. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 29, 172-174.
SPSS for Windows 8.0 [Computer software]. (1997). Chicago: SPSS.
Ware, M. E., & Brewer, C. L. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook for teaching statistics and research methods (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Weaver, K. A. (1992). Elaborating selected statistical concepts with common experience. Teaching of Psychology, 19, 178-179.
Zerbolio, D. J., Jr. (1989). A "bag of tricks" for teaching about sampling distributions. Teaching of Psychology, 16, 207-209.
William J. Lammers
University of Central Arkansas
In this article, I describe an informal seminar to prepare the best psychology undergraduates for application to and success in graduate school, with particular emphasis on doctoral programs. Student feedback, both formal and informal, suggests that this seminar can be an effective component of an overall advising program.
There are many components to undergraduate advising (Ware, 1992) and a variety of ways that undergraduate students can learn about graduate school and subsequent careers. Psychology departments use different strategies to prepare their undergraduates for graduate school and employment. Some departments rely on tine students themselves, on individual advisors, on meetings and workshops offered by Psi Chi chapters or Psychology Clubs (e.g., Satterfield & Abramson, 1998), on courses or seminars specifically designed to accomplish this task (Buckalew & Lewis, 1982; Buskist, 1999; Davis, 1988; Dodson, Chastain, & Landrum, 1996; Oles & Cooper, 1988; Ware, 1988), and many rely on a mix of strategies.
As noted, several authors have described the type of information that can be presented via informal meetings of a psychology club or via a formal course. A long-term, noncredit seminar for this purpose has not been described in the literature. My department chose this approach for several reasons. Our faculty knew that even our best students were not aware of the highly competitive nature of graduate admission or the factors that strengthen an application. Students with strong academic credentials and tine motivation to pursue a doctoral degree needed specific information before their senior year and needed individualized attention and encouragement to achieve a higher level of involvement in the discipline.
Each method for imparting information about doctoral programs has advantages and disadvantages. Offering a formal course for credit provides much information with structure and incentive for students to learn. Possible shortcomings can include an inability to target the relatively small group of students who can succeed in doctoral study, lack of a long-term mentor, and resistance on some campuses to offering such a course for credit (for a brief discussion of the latter issue, see Ware, 1988). Offering informal sessions hosted by a psychology club provides important information requiring few department resources. However, these sessions are typically infrequent, offer no mentoring, draw few students, and do not produce peer support groups.
I wanted a small, selective, and informal group. Without a formal course, I could personally invite a small number of our best students to become part of a group with common academic ambitions; I could be flexible with meeting times and places; I would not worry about grades; and I could mentor the students for the remainder of their undergraduate years. I hoped that a long-term commitment by such a small group would lead to strong support and friendships among the students, individualized attention to each student's interests, and a system of peer advising whereby upper level students could give advice to lower level students. I did not believe that these goals could be effectively obtained with other modes of advising described in the literature.
At the beginning of the academic year, I review a list of all psychology majors that shows students' classification, American College Testing scores, high school grade point average (GPA), cumulative college GPA, and psychology GPA. Beginning with the best set of scores, I select the top 20 students and send them a letter of invitation describing the purpose of the program.
From among the 20 invitations, several students typically have no plans for pursuing a doctoral degree. Several others are interested but do not follow through by attending meetings. Each year, approximately 6 students, who are primarily freshmen and sophomores, join the 8 to 12 students who are continuing their involvement.
The group meets for 1 hr on two afternoons each month throughout the fall and spring semesters. The meetings for the academic year include the following topics: resources for psychology students, surfing the Internet for information, deciding on a field, deciding on prospective schools, the value of research and ways to get involved, the value of practical experience, preparing for and taking the Graduate Record Exam, getting good letters of recommendation, writing a personal statement, financial considerations, and life in graduate school. In addition, there are often one or two meetings with a topic selected by the students. The last meeting of each semester includes a potluck dinner at my house.
The schedule reflects several objectives. The topic for each meeting represents an issue that is important for ultimate acceptance into a quality doctoral program, and I usually provide a one-page handout that summarizes important points. Discussion topics are issues not typically discussed in formal courses that students might take. There is also time during each meeting to find out what students have been doing to improve their applications to graduate school and to answer questions specific to their interests.
I have enjoyed the long-term mentor relationships, and informal feedback suggests that it is much appreciated by the students. For the last 2 years, I have administered a brief survey to assess student perceptions about the seminar. Although the data are based on a small and select group, students reported on a 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much so) scale that the informal seminar was very effective in preparing them for graduate school (M = 4.74). I have also attempted to track whether students have been successful in entering graduate school and receiving a graduate degree. During the past 8 years, 43 students participated in the program; 11 are currently continuing. Twenty-eight students have received a bachelor's degree from our university. Of those students, 25 (89%) applied to graduate programs, and all were accepted. Of the 25, 8 (32%) were accepted into doctoral programs, including clinical, industrial/organizational, neuroscience, experimental, school, counseling; 17 (68%) were accepted into master's programs, including school, counseling, and student personnel. Only 1 student who applied to doctoral programs was not accepted into a doctoral program. Of the 25, all have either received a graduate degree or are currently in graduate school.
I keep the number of students involved in the informal seminar small to achieve the stated objectives. Some readers may consider the strict selection criteria as elitist, although I have not experienced such criticism. Some students with an interest in doctoral programs, and others interested in master's programs, are not included in the group. Although those students may not receive the personalized attention offered by the informal seminar, they can obtain the necessary information via a system of advising that includes their advisor, psychology club meetings, other students, department resource materials, and the department Web site.
There are a variety of ways to provide career-related information to undergraduate students. The informal seminar described here provides one method for preparing a select group of the best students for graduate application and graduate study. This seminar represents a compromise between more formal courses and less formal sessions with an advisor or student group. Based on personal observations and student feedback over several years, this type of informal seminar has been very effective. I recommend that psychology departments regularly evaluate how they prepare their students for graduate education in psychology and institute programs to provide needed information.
Buckalew, L. W., & Lewis, H. H. (1982). Curriculum needs: Life preparation for undergraduate psychology majors. Psychological Reports, 51, 77-78.
Buskist, W. (1999). Teaching an undergraduate course in preparing for graduate study in psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 286-288.
Davis, S. F. (1988). The professional psychologist: A course designed to introduce students to the profession of psychology. In P. J. Woods (Ed.), Is psychology for them? A guide to undergraduate advising (pp. 75-78). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Dodson, J. P., Chastain, G., & Landrum, R. E. (1996). Psychology seminar: Careers and graduate study in psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 23, 238-240.
Oles, H. J., & Cooper, R. G., Jr. (1988). The professional seminar: A new method for student advisement. In P. J. Woods (Ed.), Is psychology for them? A guide to undergraduate advising (pp. 61-63). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Satterfield, C. D., & Abramson, C. I. (1998). The undergraduate psychology club: Possibilities and suggested activities. Teaching of Psychology, 25, 36-38.
Ware, M. E. (1988). Teaching and evaluating a career development course for psychology majors. In P. J. Woods (Ed.), Is psychology for them? A guide to undergraduate advising (pp. 64-74). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Ware, M. E. (1992). Collegiate career advising: Status, antecedents, and strategies. In A. E. Puente, J. R. Matthews, & C. L. Brewer (Eds.), Teaching psychology in America: A history (pp. 39-69). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
C. D. Fernald
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
A month of psychology internship and travel in Scotland provides students with hands-on experience with people with disabilities and expands their global perspectives. Students assist staff in many aspects of client intervention at a day-treatment center, and daily seminars cover clinical training issues. Evenings and weekends are devoted to cultural events and travel for which students earn credit in a cultural enrichment course. Many students have reported that the experience is life changing in terms of both personal and professional growth.
Psychology internships that provide practical experience for undergraduates are valuable for graduate school applications and for building resumes. As the globe shrinks with increased cross-cultural communication and international travel, students increasingly seek study abroad experiences. In this article, I describe a program that combines a summer psychology internship with study abroad--apparently a rare combination. A review of resources in the teaching of psychology (e.g., Fulkerson & Wise, 1995; Johnson & Schroder, 1997, 1998; Wise & Fulkerson, 1996) revealed no articles on internships abroad. Handbooks on summer internship programs abroad (e.g., Gliozzo & Tyson, 1998; Steen, 1999) listed only two or three programs related to psychology. Started in 1995, this Scotland internship program has been highly successful with the students, the faculty leader, and the internship site.
The idea for this course emerged from several personal experiences. Having spent a semester teaching in Scotland, I was interested in continuing to visit Scotland and in heightening student interest in travel. While in Scotland, I developed contacts at an excellent day-treatment center for adults with mild to severe developmental disabilities. I routinely teach the undergraduate psychology internship course and courses in the University Honors program that require students to complete a community service project and a cultural enrichment course. The plan for this program was to combine the internship experience, community service project, and enrichment activities from my home university and transplant them to Scotland. The psychology department, the study abroad program at the university, and the disability center in Scotland were excited about the plan and have enthusiastically supported the program for the past 5 years. Students can earn 3 course credits in an individualized combination of courses in Honors community service, Honors enrichment, psychology practicum, and Arts and Sciences "nonresidential studies."
Student fees (approximately $2,300 for airfare, local travel, tuition, medical insurance, and lodging for 3 1/2 weeks) cover most expenses with modest additional support from the university. Using group rates for air travel and an inexpensive youth hostel minimizes costs. Program fees cover faculty travel, living expenses, and a small salary.
Enrollment is open to ali students, although most have been from psychology, social work, education, and nursing. I screen students to ensure that they are committed to working with adults with developmental disabilities; open attitudes and an interest in human service are more important to me than specific courses or experiences. We need a minimum of 6 students to make the program financially feasible, and 12 is the maximum that the center and I could handle. Although the program is inexpensive compared to other trips, the cost seems substantial to students accustomed to paying low state tuition. We recruit participants through a campus study abroad fair, and I prepare brochures and place posters around campus. The program is also listed in some national handbooks (e.g., Steen, 1999) on study abroad. Forty-two students have participated during the past 5 years.
Participants enroll by mid-February. During an initial orientation meeting, students meet each other, see slides from previous years, begin to learn about clients with disabilities, and gather travel information. I pass out an itinerary, a list of what to bring, a British-American phrase dictionary that I wrote, and a course pack of readings and instructions for working with clients. At the end of the spring semester, the Office of International Programs conducts an orientation session for all university students studying abroad.
Once in Scotland, tine director of the disability center and I match students and staff. For example, we might pair a dance minor with a dance therapist, and a student athlete might assist the sports director. Students assist staff in a variety of activities: art, music, movement, and gardening therapies; sports and recreation; field trips; and self-help training. The day before work begins, there is an orientation at the center, a tour of the facility, and a buffet reception with the staff.
A van from the center picks up students at the youth hostel each morning. We have brief training sessions before students meet clients, but I emphasize learning by observing and by doing, rather than waiting for detailed instructions. Throughout the day, I float among different areas of the center, monitoring and coaching students. During a midday meeting, we review events of the morning and resolve any problems that are developing.
During evening seminars, we review readings and discuss clinical issues such as ethics and safety, helping and listening skills, positive attitudes toward disabilities, management of seizures, positioning and lifting of immobile clients, causes of mental retardation, behavioral programming, and treatment planning. Students take turns leading discussions of course-pack readings, and I require them to share insights, develop activities to use with their clients, maintain a daily journal of reflections on their experiences, and write a summary paper on the whole experience. Grading is on a credit-no credit basis; all students have received course credit during the past 5 years.
An annual group project at the center involves the students and clients working collaboratively. One year a student artist designed a mural that students completed with clients--even those with profound disabilities. Other client --student partnerships have included creating a minimusical, a wheelchair-friendly garden, and a "day-in-my-life" photography project.
Unlike tours in which participants visit many places briefly, working for 3 weeks at the center allows students to develop friendships with local people. Students may visit homes of individual staff members or clients and will participate in many group social activities. A psychologist (a friend of mine) always hosts a wonderful dinner for students at his home. We have a traditional Scottish ceilidh (pronounced KAY lee) at the center with a live band playing traditional Scottish music for dancing and singing and plenty of food for clients, families, staff, and spouses. Lunch on the last day consists of a barbecue picnic and involves cooking on charcoal grills for over 150 people. On the final evening, staff and students get together for a meal at a local pub.
In addition to the internship course, students earn credit for an Enrichment Seminar, a required course for University Honors students, but open to other students as well. During evenings, students attend and then write critiques of cultural events such as art exhibits, concerts, historical sites, and theater performances. My psychologist-friend, who is also a local politician, gives tours and assists with cultural events. During the last 4 days, we visit the museums, theaters, and tourist attractions of London.
Evaluation of the program has been uniformly positive. Participants often say that the program has been one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives. Students frequently report major positive changes in their attitudes toward handicapped people, in their interest in working in the human service professions, and in their personal values. Course evaluations are quite positive. During the past 3 years, on the course evaluation item, "Overall, this course is among the best I have ever taken," 95% of students have agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. The cumulative mean rating on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) has been 4.48 (SD = .60) versus a comparable mean for all psychology courses at our university of 3.90 (SD = 1.10). On returning home, students regularly stop by my office to visit, attend annual reunions, and encourage their friends to enroll in the program.
Aside from the effects on students, the program has had powerful impacts on the clients and the staff at the agency. Clients are excited about the arrival of students for weeks ahead of time. Staff members usually feel enriched by the presence of students and take pride in mentoring students. The center has received favorable publicity from the media and with local politicians.
Combining study abroad with a psychology internship and an enrichment course has been a fruitful program for students, faculty, and the staff and clients at the Scottish disability center. This program provides a useful model for other faculty members to develop similar programs at other overseas sites.
Fulkerson, F. E., &Wise, P. S. (1995). Annotated bibliography on the teaching of psychology: 1994. Teaching of Psychology, 22, 248-253.
Gliozzo, C. A., & Tyson, V. K. (1998). Directory of international internships (4th ed.). East Lansing: Michigan State University, Career Services and Placement Office.
Johnson, D. E., & Schroder, S. I. (1997). Annotated bibliography on the teaching of psychology: 1996. Teaching of Psychology, 24, 287-293.
Johnson, D. E., & Schroder, S. I. (1998). Annotated bibliography on the teaching of psychology: 1997. Teaching of Psychology, 25, 307-314.
Steen, S. J. (1999). Vacation study abroad, 1999/2000. The complete guide to summer and short term study. New York: Institute of International Education.
Wise, P. S., & Fulkerson, F. E. (1996). Annotated bibliography on the teaching of psychology: 1995. Teaching of Psychology, 23, 257-264.
Adam S. Bristol
Yale University
Jennifer M. Ginis
Hakala (1999) described recent developments in the effort to improve high school psychology education, such as the establishment of a psychology Advanced Placement exam and the efforts of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools. We expand on Hakala's article by describing additional developments in high school psychology education, namely the initiation of the Psychology Partnership Project, the creation of national teaching standards, and the increased usefulness of the Internet and other computer technology. Like Hakala, we advocate a new national survey to evaluate the improvement of high school psychology education and to identify areas that remain deficient.
By current estimates, nearly 900,000 high school students take a course in psychology each year (Ernst & Petrossian, 1996). Despite such substantial enrollment, psychology is not considered a central component of the high school curriculum (Ragland, 1992). In addition, past reports on high school psychology have cited deficiencies in areas such as teacher training and course content (Ragland, 1992; Ware & Johns, 1990).
When recent efforts are considered, however, it seems that today's high school psychology education might be better than the available literature suggests. Hakala (1999) identified two important examples: the introduction of the Advanced Placement (AP) exam in psychology and the organization of the Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS), each in 1992 (Ernst & Petrossian, 1996). Additionally, continuing education for high school psychology teachers has improved with the growth of teaching workshops sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA), TOPSS, and other institutes (Ernst & Petrossian, 1996; Hakala, 1999; Nelson & Stricker, 1992).
In this article, we describe an additional development in high school psychology education, the Psychology Partnerships Project (P3), and elaborate on two issues that Hakala (1999) underempbasized, the establishment of national teaching standards and innovations in computer technology. Lastly, we join with Hakala in recommending a new national survey to assess the current state of high school psychology.
Teaching a high school course in psychology requires an extensive knowledge base and an adeptness for presenting diverse subject matter. Unfortunately, the most recent surveys on high school psychology noted that teachers were not well-trained in psychology (fewer than 20 college credit hours), devoted more of their time to teaching other subjects, and were often the only member of faculty teaching psychology (Ragland, 1992; Ware & Johns, 1990). Thus, eliminating professional isolation, providing opportunities to develop ideas, and improving course content appear to be necessary steps toward improving high school psychology education.
As Hakala (1999) noted, the success of TOPSS has done much to address these issues by connecting high school psychology teachers nationwide, providing teaching materials, and organizing teaching conferences. More recently, the APA initiated P3, a large-scale effort to establish collaborations among psychology instructors working at different educational levels and among psychology teachers and professionals (Clay, 1997;
We believe that the structure of P3 will be particularly beneficial for high school psychology teachers. One way in which high school psychology instructors will benefit from P3 through interactions with college instructors. Collaborations linking high school and college teachers have proven to be an effective way of enhancing high school curricula in other disciplines, primarily by providing a source of continuing education and insight into course construction (Di Sibio & Gamble, 1997; Henderson, 1994; Weiten et al., 1993). In fact, the American Association for Higher Education has actively promoted programs that unite local college instructors with high school teachers (Weiten et al., 1993). High school--college teacher collaborations in psychology have been successful, but few. Two notable examples are the North Carolina Association of Psychology Teachers, a collaboration between Western Carolina University psychologists and area high school teachers (see Henderson, 1994), and the Syracuse University Project Advance course in psychology (
Hakala (1999) correctly identified the advent of the AP course and exam in psychology as a definitive improvement in high school psychology education; AP course content is qualitatively similar to that of a first-year college psychology course and is comparable in difficulty. Although the number of students taking the AP exam in psychology has grown dramatically, it still represents a small fraction of the total number of students who take a high school course in psychology annually (i.e., in non-AP courses; Ernst & Petrossian, 1996; Hiller & Collins, 1996). For this reason, the success of TOPSS and APA in establishing national teaching standards is also an important development (Sleek, 1999). At the urging of TOPSS members, the APA commissioned a Task Force on National High School Psychology Standards in 1995 to devise a comprehensive program for the teaching of high school psychology. Recently adopted in August 1999 and now available through the APA Education Directorate or the APA Web site (
The importance of the national teaching standards cannot be overstated. The comprehensive and carefully reviewed national standards program provides a framework for current high school psychology teachers, AP or not, to expand their course content. In addition, future high school psychology teachers will be able to use the standards when they construct their courses. Thus, the national standards have the potential to affect the majority of high school psychology students. For students interested in pursuing a career in psychology, the breadth of the national standards will provide an accurate introduction to the field and allow for a smoother transition to the study of psychology at the college level. However, it remains to be seen how quickly and widely the standards are adopted by high school instructors.
The past 20 years have seen computers become a central part of education (Beins, 1989; Moulder, Maarse, Sjouw, & Akkerman, 1991). More recently, the Internet and the Web have become essential communication and information tools. In theory, effective use of computer technology could allow high school psychology teachers to maintain contact with colleagues and to access a wide variety of teaching resources (Trapp, Hammond, & Bray, 1996). For example, as Hakala (1999) mentioned, high school psychology instructors can now utilize Internet mail, message boards, and news groups to maintain contact with colleagues. Additionally, the Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, an initiative of the APA's Division Two (Society for the Teaching of Psychology), now offers peer-reviewed teaching materials that are accessible directly through their Web site (
With significant developments in high school psychology education over the last 10 years, it is important to determine the effectiveness of these initiatives with the administration of an updated national survey. A new national survey could also gather information necessary for shaping future initiatives, such as assaying computer use among high school teachers. Lastly, it might be possible to use a national survey to alert high school teachers of the new national teaching standards and P3, thus collecting valuable data and promoting new initiatives simultaneously.
Azar, B., & Martin, S. (1999, October). APA's Council of Representatives endorses new standards for testing, high school psychology. APA Monitor, 30, 11.
Beins, B. C. (1989). A survey of computer use reported in Teaching of Psychology: 1974-1988. Teaching of Psychology, 16, 143-145.
Clay, R. A. (1997, November). New project seeks to foster collaboration among teachers. APA Monitor, 28, 34.
Di Sibio, R. A., & Gamble, R. J. (1997). Collaboration between schools and higher education: The key to success. College Student Journal, 31, 532-536.
Ernst, R., & Petrossian, P. (1996). Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS): Aiming for excellence in high school psychology instruction. American Psychologist, 51, 256-258.
Hakala, C. M. (1999). Some observations of the current state of high school psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 122-123.
Henderson, B. B. (1994). The role of psychology departments in supporting secondary school teachers of psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 21, 107-108.
Hiller, R. B., & Collins, D. (1996). School district wealth and participation in college preparatory courses. The High School Journal, 80, 49-59.
Moulder, L. J. M., Maarse, F. J., Sjouw, W. P. B., & Akkerman, A. E. (Eds.). (1991). Computers in psychology: Applications in education, research, and psychodiagnostics. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.
Nelson, P. D., & Stricker, G. (1992). Advancing the teaching of psychology: Contributions of the American Psychological Association, 1946-1992. In A. E. Puente, J. R. Matthews, & C. L. Brewer (Eds.), Teaching psychology in America: A history (pp. 345-364). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Ragland, R. G. (1992). Teachers and teacher education in high school psychology: A national survey. Teaching of Psychology, 19, 73-78.
Sleek, S. (1999, February). Board favors broader high school curriculum. APA Monitor, 30, 45.
Trapp, A., Hammond, N., & Bray, D. (1996). Internet and the support of psychology education. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 28, 174-176.
Ware, M. E., & Johns, R. L. (1990). Teaching psychology in high school: The Nebraska experience. Psychological Reports, 67, 984-986.
Weiten, W., Davis, S. F., Jegerski, J. A., Kasschau, R. A., Mandel, K. B., & Wade, C. (1993). From isolation to community: Increasing communication and collegiality among psychology teachers. In T. V. McGovern (Ed.), Handbook for enhancing undergraduate education in psychology (pp. 123-159). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Edward W. L. Smith
William D. McIntosh
Georgia Southern University
We introduced a humanistic and transpersonal psychology course into a traditional undergraduate curriculum. The course addressed metaneeds, consciousness, altered states of consciousness, Eastern and Western meditative practices, mytho-poetic wisdom, and metaphoric epistemology. Classes included both didactic and experiential teaching methods. Quantitative data from standardized course evaluations and qualitative data from open-ended questionnaires provided converging lines of evidence of high student satisfaction. In addition, quantitative data from the Personal Orientation Inventory (Shostrom, 1963) provided evidence that students grew personally from the course. With all 14 scales changing in the predicted direction, 6 reached significance.
Humanistic and transpersonal psychology, the "third" and "fourth" forces in psychology, offer a view of the person that goes beyond that offered by behavioral theory or by classical psychoanalytic theory. They were created not as replacements for behaviorism and psychoanalysis, but as positions that add a dimension lacking in behaviorism with its mechanistic and partitive view of the person and also in psychoanalysis with its maladjustment bias.
Humanistic psychology draws on the long tradition of linking psychology with the humanities and sees the necessity of studying the person from a holistic perspective. It explores people's potential for psychological growth and happiness, whereas transpersonal psychology extends this exploration by focusing on the contour between psychology and spirituality. Humanistic and transpersonal psychology bring the ideas from many ancient traditions into a psychological language and scientific framework. According to Maslow (1971), transpersonal psychology addresses "the farther reaches of human nature."
It is not uncommon for undergraduate psychology majors to have little or no exposure to humanistic and transpersonal psychology unless they are in one of the few psychology departments that specializes in these approaches. This omission is unfortunate for a number of reasons. First, humanistic and transpersonal approaches to psychology are important and influential perspectives. The existence of the Division of Humanistic Psychology (Div. 32) within the American Psychological Association, representing humanistic and transpersonal interests, reflects this importance. Second, humanistic and transpersonal psychology afford students a unique opportunity for self-exploration and personal growth. Third, based on our experience, students are eager to learn about humanistic and transpersonal psychology.
One of the challenges that may face an instructor who wishes to teach a course in humanistic and transpersonal psychology is skepticism from colleagues. The proposed course may be criticized as lacking substance or rigor. Although any course can lack substance and rigor if the instructor makes it so, a course in humanistic and transpersonal psychology is no more likely to suffer these faults than any other course. Although the course did provide students with the opportunity for personal growth, students reported in their course evaluations that it was also an intellectually challenging course. Lectures and readings addressed such issues as the historical and theoretical underpinnings for a humanistic and transpersonal approach to psychology, the connection between psychology and existential philosophy, and the distinctive research approaches often used. Research in humanistic and transpersonal psychology tends to rely on qualitative methodology. It is a rigorous methodology, but it sometimes faces bias in a field dominated by quantitative methodology (Giorgi, 1992).
We developed a course in humanistic and transpersonal psychology in our department and team taught it for the first time in the fall semester of 1998. It was offered as a midlevel, 3-credit elective course, and 30 students enrolled.
In designing the course, we sought a balance of scholarly content and opportunities for personal growth. Thus, our goals were to (a) familiarize students with the history and basic philosophy of both humanistic and transpersonal psychology as well as with various content areas within these schools of thought, (b) expose students to Eastern and Western methods of personal and transpersonal growth, and (c) present the course in a style consistent with the content. We attempted to cultivate a positive and supportive environment in the class, and we relied heavily on experiential approaches to teaching and learning.
The class format included lectures, theme-centered discussions (e.g., comparing and contrasting Maslow's, 1971, hierarchy of needs and the chakra model from the Hindu tradition, and the costs and benefits of using hallucinogenic drugs in a spiritual context), and experiential exercises both in and out of class. Often, we reserved the second half of the class period for experiential exercises to bring the material to life in a personally relevant manner. When students did experiential exercises out of class, we used the second hall of the class period to discuss their experiences.
The topics covered in the course appear in Table 1. Students read Joseph Campbell's (1990) Transformations of Myth Through Time, plus 17 shorter readings from journals and books. These readings included a diverse array of material, including articles on consciousness and its alterations (Huxley, 1954; James, 1890/1973; Ludwig, 1966; Smith, 1992), meditation (Hanh, 1988), near-death experience (Wren-Lewis, 1994), enlightenment (Kapleau, 1965), spiritually guided sexuality (Watts, 1968), and a humanistic perspective on psychology (Schneider, 1998). We chose to cover foundational thinkers such as Maslow, Rogers, May, Bugenthal, and Heidegger in lecture rather than through readings so that students could spend their time reading more specific or advanced material.
A major component of the course was a term paper. Students could choose any appropriate topic, subject to our approval. Because transpersonal psychology involves the psychological study of spirituality and religion, it lends itself to a wide range of interesting and interdisciplinary topics. This breadth was reflected in the topics our students chose, which included "sex and the Christian faith," "altered states of consciousness in Norse mythology,' "yoga," "the Egyptian afterlife," "templates of consciousness," "shamanism and psychotherapy," "origins of the Arthurian legend," and "the use of hallucinogenic drugs." Of course, students had to address all topics from a psychological perspective.
A vital component of humanistic and transpersonal psychology is ah emphasis on lived experience in addition to traditional intellectual exploration. Therefore, the course included approximately 20 experiential exercises. Students tried a number of different types of meditation: Zen Buddhist sitting meditation, mandala meditation (gazing at geometric patterns) and mantra meditation (chanting) from the Hindu tradition, a guided visualization meditation, and listening to joik (chanting) from the Western Sarai (Lapp) tradition. On a temperate afternoon, students participated in Zen walking meditation outdoors. Also outdoors in a wooded setting, students participated in a "journey" mediated by traditional shamanic drumming in the Native American tradition. We also used a strobe light and repetitious taped auditory input to induce an altered state of consciousness. Students formed pairs and took turns being blindfolded and led around campus by their partners in the classic humanistic exercise known as the "blind walk" (Stevens, 1971). Students always had the option to decline to participate if they were not comfortable, but most were willing if not eager to take a chance in the supportive environment we created. After each exercise, we allotted time to process the experience.
On the standard evaluation form used by our university, students rated the course 4.80 (SD = 0.58) on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). The average rating for the 38 undergraduate psychology courses offered during the same semester was 3.80 (SD = 0.53). Students' open-ended comments included on the course evaluation form were consistent with the positive quantitative evaluation. Some of the comments were "by [taking] this course, my life has changed;' "this class teaches you to think for yourself;' "it has been a wonderful, eye-opening experience;" "it changed my perspective on some life-long beliefs;" "(it) has opened my mind in a very good way;" "my grades in other courses have increased this semester because of the new insight I have on life;" "I've never had a class interest me so much while also pushing the limits of my way of thinking;" "I was faced with a lot of great intellectual readings;' and "this course actually made me think."
We were interested in whether the course had any growth effect on the students. To assess this question, we administered the Personal Orientation Inventory (Shostrom, 1963), a scale designed to measure "self-actualizing tendencies," at the beginning and again at the end of the course. Scores on all 14 of the subscales changed in the direction indicating greater self-actualizing tendencies; 6 were statistically significant, reflecting focus on the present, independence from others' views, inner directedness, sensitivity to one's feelings, spontaneity, and capacity for intimate contact. Of special interest, the subscales Inner Directed and Capacity for Intimate Contact were not only significant but showed movement from outside the optimal range to inside the optimal range of actualization. None of the subscales on posttesting were above the self-actualizing range, which suggests that the results do not reflect an attempt to "fake good."
Based on student response, we would not make any major revisions to our course. Both the quantitative and the qualitative course evaluations reflect high student satisfaction. In addition, the Personal Orientation Inventory (Shostrom, 1963) provided evidence for personal growth on the part of the students. From our experience, we conclude that an elective course in humanistic and transpersonal psychology is a viable option in the undergraduate psychology curriculum.
Send correspondence to Edward W. L. Smith, Department of Psychology, Box 8041, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460-8041; e-mail: esmith@gasou.edu.
Campbell, J. (1990). Transformation of myth through time. New York: Harper & Row.
Giorgi, A. (1992). The idea of human science. The Humanistic Psychologist, 20, 202-217.
Hanh, T. N. (1988). The sun my heart. San Francisco: Parallax.
Huxley, A. (1954). The doors of perception. New York: Harper & Row.
James, W. (1973). The stream of consciousness. In R. Ornstein (Ed.), The nature of human consciousness (pp. 153-166). San Francisco: Freeman. (Original work published 1890)
Kapleau, P. (1965). The three pillars of Zen. New York: Doubleday.
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Schneider, K. J. (1998). Toward a science of the heart: Romanticism and the revival of psychology. American Psychologist, 53, 277-289.
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By Richard A. Griggs, University of Florida; Cynthia S. Koenig, University of Florida; Pam Marek, St. Michael's College; Richard A. Griggs, University of Florida; James C. Kaufman, Yale University; Adam S. Bristol, Yale University; Todd C. Riniolo, Adams State College; Lorenzo I. Torrez, Adams State College; Louis A. Schmidt, McMaster University; Catherine McBride-Chang, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Lei Chang, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Catherine McBride-Chang, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Tracie L. Stewart, Bard College; Beverly Dolinsky, Endicott College; Betsy Levonian Morgan, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; William J. Lammers, University of Central Arkansas; C.D. Fernald, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Adam S. Bristol, Yale University; Jennifer M. Ginis , State University of New York, Binghamton; Edward W.L. Smith, Georgia Southern University and William D. McIntosh, Georgia Southern University
