Worth Video Anthology for Introductory ... - Worth Publishers

FACULTY GUIDE for use with the

Worth Video Anthology for Introductory Psychology

FACULTY GUIDE for use with the Worth Video Anthology for Introductory Psychology

© 2013 by Worth Publishers All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America The Worth Video Anthology for Introductory Psychology and its accompanying Faculty Guides are protected by the copyright laws of the United States. These laws prohibit duplicating the enclosed programs and/or preparing derivative works based on these programs. The contents or parts thereof may be reproduced for use with the Worth Video Anthology for Introductory Psychology but may not be reproduced in any other form for any other purpose without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Pre-loaded flash drive ISBN-10: 1-4641-1096-4 ISBN 13: 978-1-4641-1096-2 DVD ISBN-10: 1-4641-1097-2 ISBN 13: 978-1-4641-1097-9

Worth Publishers 41 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10010 www.worthpublishers.com

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Worth Video Anthology for Introductory Psychology This anthology contains over 250 of our best video clips, including the new Introductory Psychology videos co-produced by Worth Publishers, Nature Publishing Group, and Scientific American; all three volumes of the Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology; the Scientific American Frontiers Teaching Modules for Introductory Psychology, Third Edition; and both Digital Media Archives. These videos are available on pre-loaded USB flash drive and storage DVD in MP4 format. The MP4 video files on the USB flash drive and storage DVD can be easily imported into preexisting PowerPoint lectures or run in a video player application such as QuickTime or Windows Media Player. Captioned files are included for your convenience on the DVD version. Due to the volume of clips within the Anthology, the Faculty Guide consists of one file per topic included within each folder that houses the videos.

CONTENTS Introduction to Psychology Postpartum Psychosis: The Case of Andrea Yates The History of Psychology Why Do People Help? Explaining Behavior Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology: Psychology in the Workplace Brain Transplants in Parkinson’s Patients Correlation and Causation Does Self-Confidence Intimidate Others? Experimental Design Research Methods Schachter's Affiliation Experiment Ethics in Animal Research: The Sad Case of Booee the Chimp Ethics in Human Research: Violating One’s Privacy Biology, Behavior, and Mind The Neuron: Basic Units of Communication Neural Communication Neural Communication: Impulse Transmission Across the Synapse Chemically Induced Hallucinations: Studies of Anesthetic Drugs Parkinson’s Disease: A Case Study The Runner’s High Treating Parkinson’s Disease: Deep Brain Electrode Implantation The Central Nervous System: Spotlight on the Brain Achieving Hemispheric Balance: Improving Sports Performance Brain and Behavior: Phineas Gage Revisited Brain Imaging

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Brain Plasticity: Rewiring the Visual Cortex Brain Structures Compulsive Gambling and the Brain’s Pleasure Center Language and Brain Plasticity Mapping the Brain Through Electrical Stimulation Neuroimaging: Assessing What’s Cool Planning, Life Goals, and the Frontal Lobe Rewiring the Brain Self-Stimulation in Rats The Brain’s Reward Center The Split Brain: Lessons on Cognition and the Cerebral Hemispheres The Split Brain: Lessons on Language, Vision, and Free Will Understanding Neuroscience Methods: ERP Consciousness “Blindsight”: Seeing Without Awareness Attention Automatic Skills: Disrupting a Pilot’s Performance Consciousness and Artificial Intelligence Hidden Prejudice: The Implicit Association Test Neisser’s Selective Attention Test Visual Attention: Piecing Things Together Visual Attention: There’s a Gorilla on the Court Circadian Rhythms Narcoleptic Dogs Sleep and Sleeplessness: The Current Scene Sleep Terror Disorder Sleep: Why We Sleep The Effects of Sleep Deprivation: Three Brave Souls Hypnosis: An Altered Mental State? Hypnosis: Medical and Psychological Applications Experimenting with Alcohol and Drugs The Medical Use of Marijuana The Nature and Abuse of Ecstasy (MDMA) Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity Behavior Genetics 100 Years Old and Counting: Psychological and Biological Factors Nature Versus Nurture: Growing Up Apart Designer Babies? The Nature-Nurture Issue Evolutionary Psychology Evolutionary Psychology and Sex Differences Openness to Casual Sex: A Study of Men Versus Women Activity, Exercise, and the Brain

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Are Today’s Girls Academically Superior to Boys? Gender Development Sexual Identity Goes Awry The Art of Listening: Males Versus Females Developing Through the Life Span Prenatal Animation Prenatal Brain Development: From Conception to Birth Prenatal Development Reflexes in the Newborn Testing Competency in the Newborn Body Part Counting System Childhood Disorder: Understanding Autism Cognitive Development Cognitive Development: Overcoming Attentional Inertia Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development—Trust Versus Mistrust Harlow’s Studies on Dependency in Monkeys Morelli’s Strange-Situation Test Object Permanence Piaget’s Conservation Experiments Stranger Anxiety The Scale Errors The Strange Situation and Attachment The Two Faces of Autism Theory of Mind: Taking the Perspective of Others Today’s Overscheduled Children Do Adolescents Lack Empathy? Echo Boomers: Understanding Today’s College Students Moral Development: The Heinz Dilemma Moral Thinking and Emotion: A Challenging Dilemma Teen Boys: Emerging Sexuality Teen Girls: Emerging Sexuality Aging and Memory: Studying Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s Family Case Study Can the Immune System Be Used to Combat Alzheimer’s Disease? Healthy Aging: The Power of Positive Thinking Old Age: Thinking and Moving at the Same Time The Development of Tangles and Plaques in Alzheimer’s Disease Sensation and Perception The Man Who Cannot Recognize Faces A Variety of Visual Illusions Depth Cues Müller-Lyer Illusion

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Seeing the World Upside Down The Visual Cliff Vision: How We See Visual Information Processing: Elementary Concepts Hearing: From Vibration to Sound Coping With Pain Losing One’s Touch: Living Without Proprioception Phantom Limb Sensation Pickpockets, Placebos, and Pain: The Role of Expectations "Supertasters" Synesthesia: The Man Who Tastes Words The “Red Hot” Chili-Eating Contest: Sensitivity to Taste Learning Classical Conditioning and the Immune System: Combating Lupus Classical Conditioning: Pavlov and His Legacy Overcoming Fear Pavlov’s Discovery of Classical Conditioning Watson’s Little Albert B.F. Skinner Interview Operant Conditioning: Learned Behaviors The Research of Carolyn Rovee-Collier: Learning and Memory in Preverbal Infants Thorndike's Puzzle Box Cognitive Maps Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment Do Video Games Teach People to Be Violent? Memory An Amazing Memory Memory in Everyday Life Models of Memory A Pill for Forgetting Clive Wearing: Living Without Memory Enhancing Memory: The Role of Emotion Living Without Memory Memory Loss: A Case Study Aging and Memory Memory Retrieval Retrieval: A Journey Into Memory Creating False Memories: A Laboratory Study Thinking and Language Can Chimpanzees Plan Ahead? How Intelligent Are Animals?

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Problem Solving in Genus Corvus (Crows, Ravens, and Magpies) Chomsky's View of Language Development Gleason's Wug Test Learning Language: Language Development in Infants and Toddlers Animal Language Teaching Language to Chimpanzees Learning Through Visualization: A Gymnast Acquires New Skills Intelligence Savant Art Skills: In Autism and Dementia Savant Music Skills Locking Away the "Feebleminded": A Shameful History Pros and Cons of Intelligence Tests Psychologist Ellen Winner Discusses "Gifted Children" Hothouse Babies: Mother Tries to Teach Her Two-Year-Old Multiplication Motivation and Work What Is Motivation? Hunger and Eating Eating and Weight Gain: A Role for Fidgeting Eating and Weight Gain: Genetic Engineering Love: The Mind-Body Connection Sexual Dysfunctions and Their Treatments Homosexuality and the Nature-Nurture Debate Sexual Orientation and Activity Emotions, Stress, and Health Emotion = Arousal Plus Interpretation What Is Emotion? Brain Fingerprinting: Memory, Recognition, and Lie Detection The Physiology of Emotions Ekman’s Studies on Facial Expressions of Emotion Emotions and Facial Expression Reading Nonverbal Communication A Happiness Trait? Do Body Smells Reveal Fear and Happiness? Rage: One Man’s Story and Treatment Rage: One Woman’s Story and Treatment The Development of Disgust The Search for Happiness Fighting Cancer: Mobilizing the Immune System Measuring Stress While Running With the Bulls Selye’s Stress Response Studies Stress

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Stress and the Immune System: Caretakers and Risk Stress on the Job The Stress Response What Is Stress? Companionship and Support: Pets Fill the Void Experience and Exercise: Generating New Brain Cells Stress Management: The Relaxation Response Personality Personality Structure: Id, Ego, and Superego Psychodynamic Theories of Personality Repression: Reality or Myth? Genes and Personality Personality and the Brain Personality Traits Trait Theories of Personality Social Psychology The Actor-Observer Difference in Attribution: Observe a Riot in Action The Stanford Prison Experiment: The Power of the Situation Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment Liking and Imitation: The Sincerest Form of Flattery Milgram’s Obedience Studies Obedience and Authority: A Laboratory Demonstration Social Influence The Wisdom of Groups Attitudes and Prejudicial Behavior Being Gay: Coming Out in the 21st Century Bystander Apathy: Failing to Help Others in Distress Competition and Aggression: Testosterone at Work Interpersonal Attraction: Clothes Make the Man Prejudice Takooshian’s Psychology of Bystanders Whom Do We Help? Psychological Disorders ADHD and the Family Gender Identity Disorder Anxiety Disorders Experiencing Anxiety Fear, PTSD, and the Brain Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Young Mother’s Struggle Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Vietnam Combat Veteran PTSD: Returning from Iraq

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Those Who Hoard Three Anxiety Disorders Depression Mood Disorders Suicide: Case of the “3-Star” Chef A Case Study in Schizophrenia John Nash: “A Beautiful Mind” Schizophrenia: New Definitions, New Therapies Schizophrenia: Symptoms The Schizophrenic Brain Multiple Personality Disorder Beyond Perfection: Female Body Dysmorphic Disorder Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa Purging Food Self-Image: Body Dissatisfaction Among Teenage Girls The Mind of the Psychopath Trichotillomania: Pulling Out One’s Hair Therapy Early Treatment of Mental Disorders Outpatient Commitment: Forcing Persons into Mental Health Treatment Problems in Living Treatment of Drug Addiction City of Gheel: Community Mental Health at Its Best Cognitive Therapies Dealing With Panic Mentally Ill Chemical Abusers: A Community Problem Psychodynamic and Humanistic Therapies Therapy in the Real World: The Use of Real-Life Exposure to Treat Phobias Treating OCD: Exposure and Response Prevention When Treatment Leads to Execution: Mental Health and the Law Therapeutic Effectiveness: The Placebo Effect Electroconvulsive Therapy Schizophrenia Schizophrenia: New Definitions, New Therapies The Therapeutic Effect of Antipsychotic Drugs Undesired Effects of Conventional Antipsychotic Drugs

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--- Credits ---

Worth Publishers Elizabeth Widdicombe President Kevin Feyen Publisher Jessica Bayne Associate Publisher Andrea Musick Executive Media Editor John Philp Video Producer for Worth Publishers Nathan Ryan Video Editor for Worth Publishers This Anthology contains 30 new Worth Introductory Psychology Videos, which were coproduced with Scientific American and Nature Publishing Group: Scientific American Films Diane McGarvey Executive Producer Lisa Pallatroni Executive Editor Nature Publishing Group Adam Rutherford Executive Video Producer Kerri Smith Executive Video Editor

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Michael Battaglia Mary Hart Fact Checkers Couple 3 Films Noah Hutton Director Natasha Newman Producer Mimi Bai Art Director Editor Jonathan Rosenblit Animation Anthony Kraus, Creative Director Joshua Korenblat, Lead Illustrator Noisy Neighbor Nathaniel Klein, Innovation Director Andrew Swift, Art Director Iso-Form Narration Joanne Tucker On-Screen Experts Kelly Brownell Director, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University Tyrone Cannon Staglin Family Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, UCLA Daniel Cervone Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago Marvin Chun Professor of Psychology and Neurobiology, Yale University

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Susan Courtney Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Louis Cozolino Professor of Psychology, Pepperdine University Janet DiPietro Associate Dean or Research, Johns Hopkins University Howard Egeth Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Robert Epstein Founder and Director Emeritus Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies Jonathan Flombaum Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University Daniel Gilbert Professor of Psychology, Harvard University Jeff Greenberg Professor and Director of the Social Psychology Program, University of Arizona Eric R. Kandel University Professor, Director, Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Senior Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Philip Kellman Professor and Cognitive Area Chair, Department of Psychology, UCLA Ellen Langer Professor of Psychology, Harvard University Joseph LeDoux Professor of Neural Science and Psychology, New York University Paul Levy Professor and Chair Department of Psychology, University of Akron Elizabeth Loftus Distinguished Professor, Psychology and Law, University of California Irvine Michael Lyons Professor and Chair, Psychology Department, Boston University

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Richard Masland Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School David Myers Professor of Psychology, Hope College Susan Nolen-Hoeksema Professor of Psychology, Yale University Steven Potkin Director, Brain Imaging Center, University of California, Irvine Scott Plous Professor of Psychology, Wesleyan University William Revelle Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University Daniel Schacter Professor of Psychology, Harvard University Marlene Schwartz Deputy Director, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University Barbara Shinn-Cunningham Director, Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University Robert Stickgold Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School David Uttal Professor of Psychology and Education, Northwestern University Sandra Waxman Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University Peer Review Jackie Adamson Del Mar College Hal Arkowitz University of Arizona

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Randy Badler City College of San Francisco John Bickford University of Massachusetts Amherst Beth Bigler Pellissippi State Technical College Joan Bihun University of Colorado, Denver Jennifer Breneiser Valdosta State William Brown Naugatuck Valley Community College Jenel Cavazos Cameron University Steven Christensen St. Louis Community College Pam Costa Tacoma Community College David Devonis Graceland University Lisabeth DiLalla Southern Illinois University Stephanie Ding Del Mar College Celeste Doerr Florida State University Evelyn Doody College of Southern Nevada Kimberly Duff Cerritos College

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Gary Dunbar Central Michigan University Chris Dyszelski Madison Area Technical College Stephanie Federspiel University of Wisconsin-Madison Jennifer Fiebig Loyola University Chicago James Foley The College of Wooster Tony Fowler Florence-Darlington Technical College Beth Freeman University of South Carolina-Upstate Arthur Gonchar University of LaVerne Lisa Hagan Metropolitan State College of Denver Crystal Hill-Chapman Francis Marion University Mark Hurd College of Charleston Stephanie Hyberger Jefferson Community and Technical College Kiesa Kelly Tennessee State Shelia Kennison Oklahoma State University Chris Kliethermes Drake University

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Kristin Larson Monmouth College Mark Laumakis San Diego State University Kris Leppien-Christensen Saddleback College Jacquelyn Loupis Rowan-Cabarrus Community College Greg Loviscky Penn State University Mike Mana Western Washington University Jim Matiya Florida Gulf Coast University Elizabeth Matys-Rahbar Greenwich High School Michelle Merwin University of Tennessee at Martin Melissa McCeney Montgomery College Kyla McKay-Dewald Bristol Community College Kevin Moore DePauw University Paulina Multhaupt Coastal Bend Arthur Olguin Santa Barbara City College Julie Piercy Central Virginia Community College

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Kelly Rea Macomb College Michelle Robison Saddleback College Meghan Shapiro Bluegrass Community and Technical College Vivian Shyu University of Colorado, Denver Nancy Simpson Trident Technical College Steve Truhon Austin Peay State University Beth Tuckwiller Florida State College at Jacksonville Marc Turner Texas State Martha Weaver Eastfield College Judith Wightman Kirkwood Community College Image Credits Attention Multiple MRI scans of brain: Brandon Broll/Science Photo Library/Corbis The Brain Single MRI scan of brain: Visuals Unlimited/Corbis Multiple MRI scans of brain: Brandon Broll/Science Photo Library/Corbis Neural cells: Visuals Unlimited/Corbis Behavior Genetics Identical Twin Sisters: Robert Recker/Corbis Twin babies: Mecky/Getty Thomas Bouchard: Paul Shambroom/Photo Researchers* Classical Conditioning

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Ivan Pavlov, arms folded at 1:40: Time Life Picures/Getty Ivan Pavlov, with dogs at 1:50: Time Life Pictures/Getty Ivan Pavlov, looking left at 1:55: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis John B. Watson: Underwood & Underwood/Corbis Sigmund Freud with cigar: Corbis Cognitive Development Jean Piaget, looking right: Bettman/Corbis Jean Piaget, facing front: Bettman/Corbis Jean Piaget teaching: Bill Anderson/Photo Researchers* Jean Piaget art class: Bill Anderson/Photo Researchers* Evolutionary Psychology Charles Darwin: Bettman/Corbis Edward Titchener: Fotosearch/Getty History of Psychology Marble head of Aristotle: Dea Picture Library/Getty Marble head of Plato: Sigmund Freud editing paper: Corbis Sigmund Freud’s office: Peter Aprahamian, Corbis Sigmund Freud with cigar: Corbis Paul Broca: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis Phrenology Head with Capacities: Bettman/Corbis B.F. Skinner with Skinner box: Joe Wrinn/Getty Thomas Hobbes: Bettman/Corbis Charles Darwin: Bettman/Corbis Franz Joseph Gall: Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis Gordon Allport: Bettman/Corbis Max Wertheimer: Bettman/Corbis Ivan Pavlov: Popperfoto/Getty John B. Watson: Underwood & Underwood/Corbis Noam Chomsky: Deshakalyan Chowdhury/Getty Pierre Flourens: Apic/Getty Edward Titchener: Fotosearch/Getty William James: Museum of the City of New York/Getty Wilhelm Wundt: Hulton Archive/Getty Rene Descartes: Frans Hals/Getty Donald Broadbent:  1989. Anita Corbin & John O'Grady* Emotion statue, Skinner box: Filmed at the Center for the History of Psychology, Akron, OH. Used with permission. Hunger Multiple MRI scans of brain: Brandon Broll/Science Photo Library/Corbis

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The Neuron Neural cells: Visuals Unlimited/Corbis Operant Conditioning B.F. Skinner, head shot: Bettman/Corbis B.F. Skinner at desk: Bettman/Corbis B.F. Skinner with Skinner box: Joe Wrinn/Getty Edward Thorndike: Bettman/Corbis Skinner box: Filmed at the Center for the History of Psychology, Akron, OH. Used with permission. Prejudice African Americans Protesting Segregation: Corbis Hitler: dpa/dpa/Corbis Women’s Suffrage Parade: Bettman/Corbis Single MRI scan of brain: Visuals Unlimited/Corbis Psychodynamic and Humanistic Therapies Sigmund Freud editing paper: Corbis Sigmund Freud’s office: Peter Aprahamian, Corbis Psychodynamic Theories of Personality Sigmund Freud editing paper: Corbis Sigmund Freud with cigar: Corbis Schizophrenia: New Definitions, New Therapies Multiple MRI scans of brain: Brandon Broll/Science Photo Library/Corbis Sleep: Why We Sleep Multiple MRI scans of brain: Brandon Broll/Science Photo Library/Corbis Social Influence Abraham Lincoln’s address: Bettman/Corbis Stanley Milgram test: Apic/Getty Excerpts from Stanley Milgram’s “Obedience”: Penn State Media Sales, Alexandra Milgram* Footage of shock machine: Filmed at the Center for the History of Psychology, Akron, OH. Used with permission. Trait Theories of Personality Gordon Allport: Bettman/Corbis Multiple MRI scans of brain: Brandon Broll/Science Photo Library/Corbis What Is Emotion Charles Darwin: Bettman/Corbis

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Emotion statue: Filmed at the Center for the History of Psychology, Akron, OH. Used with permission.

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An Introduction to Psychological Science Postpartum Psychosis: The Case of Andrea Yates Length: 7:00 minutes File Name: 002_Andrea_Yates.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Why Did She Do It?” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description The well-known case of Andrea Yates can be used not only to introduce mood disorders and their treatment but also to discuss the important issue of legal insanity and criminal responsibility. Whom should we hold responsible? Andrea’s legal defense raises important questions about how society should treat people who have disorders and have committed crimes. The program opens with home video footage of a happy Andrea Yates who has just given birth to her fifth child, Mary. Only seven months later, she would murder all her children. Her husband, Rusty, describes his wife as a loving mother who cared deeply for her children and who would never have hurt them. He explains her actions as the product of a “sick mind.” Although Andrea never gave any indication that she would hurt her children, after her arrest she reported to authorities that she had been hearing voices that the devil was after her children and that she needed to save them. The murders occurred on a June morning after her husband had left for work. About 10 A.M., Andrea called him to tell him that he needed to come home. She had drowned the children in the bathtub and then called 911. Andrea’s problem began two years earlier after the birth of her fourth son, Luke. Twice she threatened suicide. She was hospitalized with the diagnosis of postpartum depression with psychosis, sometimes also called postpartum psychosis. Although many new mothers experience the “baby blues” and some experience postpartum depression, the disorder of postpartum psychosis is extraordinarily severe and affects less than one percent of women. Some with postpartum psychosis may either kill themselves or their children. Treated with medication after the birth of her fourth child, Andrea’s symptoms lifted almost immediately. She returned home and again seemed happily devoted to raising her children. She home-schooled her older sons and cooked and cleaned the house. She ignored recommendations to get household help. For more than a year after her hospitalization, life was normal in the Yates household. Despite a doctor’s warning that Andrea might again be susceptible to the symptoms of postpartum depression and psychosis, the Yates decided to have another child. Rusty explains that the forewarning of new symptoms had been accompanied by the assurance that treatment would again be effective. Months after the birth of Mary, Andrea’s symptoms returned with a vengeance and severity that, Rusty concludes, killed the children.

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Interpretive Comments Andrea Yates was tried twice. In the first trial, the jury rejected her insanity defense, and she was sentenced to serve life in a psychiatric prison. In January 2005, a Texas Appeals Court overturned her conviction because a psychiatrist for the prosecution had falsely testified that he had consulted for a Law and Order episode. The Appeals Court stated that the false testimony may have contributed to the jury’s rejection of Yates’ insanity defense. Retried in the summer of 2006, Yates again entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. On July 26, a jury acquitted her by reason of insanity, and she was sent to a hospital. She could be released if found mentally competent and no longer a danger to herself or others. Discussion Questions 1. What do you think were the causes of Andrea’s actions? 2. Was Andrea responsible for the killing of her children? Why or why not? 3. How should society determine whether disturbed persons who commit crimes should be punished or provided therapy?

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The History of Psychology Length: 9:30 minutes File Name: 003_History_of_Psychology.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description This video provides an overview of the history of psychology and introduces the key figures that have influenced the discipline to become what it is today. The story of psychology, the study of mind and behavior, begins in the 4th century B.C. with the philosophers Plato and Aristotle. These early thinkers provided powerful insights into the theoretical structure of the human mind and sparked questions about nature versus nurture. Seventeenth century French philosopher Rene Descartes’ dualist position marked the beginning of modern psychology by considering the brain to be a discrete entity. He concluded that the mind and body were fundamentally different but interacted through the pineal gland. Descartes’ theories were challenged by his contemporaries Thomas Hobbes and Franz Joseph Gall, who argued that not only were the mind and body linked, but so too were mind and brain. The work of Pierre Flourens and Paul Broca set the foundation for future examination of mental processes. During their time, interest had shifted to understanding what the brain was made of and whether mental material was stored in its mass. Major contributions from Hermann von Helmholtz and William Wundt helped psychology emerge as a distinct field, and by the mid-1800’s the first university psychology department was founded. The first schools of psychology, structuralism and functionalism, sought to explain mental processes in terms of the elements and purpose of consciousness. These schools eventually lost their dominance but paved the way for behaviorism, humanism, and psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis, developed by Sigmund Freud, emerged in the late 1800’s as a form of therapy aimed at exploring the intricacies of the unconscious mind. Although Freud’s work was influential, it was difficult to test. Behaviorism, however, did provide a method of testability through empirical research on animal and human behavior. Nonetheless, its scope was limited and ignored earlier evolutionary theories. Cognitive psychology surfaced in the 1960’s to focus on internal mental processes, which can’t be observed. Pioneers of this field explored language acquisition, learning and memory, and the brain’s role in these processes. The field of psychology is one that continues to grow and today includes many subfields, infuses various disciplines, and encompasses a vast range of topics.

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Discussion Questions 1. Why does psychology’s historical timeline begin with early Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle? 2. In what ways does each successive field of psychology act as reaction against its predecessor? 3. What are the current trends in psychology today? What field of psychology defines the current period?

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Why Do People Help? Explaining Behavior Length: 5:25 minutes File Name: 004_Why_People_Help.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Natural Born Heroes” Human Instinct (BBC Motion Gallery) Description A vivid example of human behavior that prompts the question “Why?” can provide an effective introduction to psychology as a discipline. For example, the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 demonstrated the worst and best of human nature, both human aggression and human helpfulness. The extremes of behavior inevitably raise the question that is central to psychology: Why do people behave as they do? Do we find the causes of behavior in our biology? In our perceptions, thoughts, or emotions? In our social-cultural setting? In this clip, Mike and John, two World Trade Center office workers, risk their lives to help Tina escape from the 68th floor of the north tower. Located just below the point of the aircraft’s impact on the 81st floor, Mike and John can see the horror unfolding around them. They exit by way of the fire escape. As they pass the 68th floor, they can see Tina in a wheelchair through glass doors. Without hesitation they decide to carry her down to safety. On the 18th floor the men decline a fireman’s offer to take Tina. Although falling debris block the stairwell and the lights go out, the rescuers continue the difficult path to the street. Tina is driven away in an ambulance just two minutes before the building collapses. Ask your students: Why did these two office workers risk their lives to save another person? Do we have a biological instinct to help? Do powerful emotions such as empathy prompt helping? How does the social environment—for example, our parents, our schools, and our communities—foster helping? A biopsychosocial approach recognizes the influences of biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors in explaining behavior. Interpretive Comments Contemporary psychology assumes a biopsychosocial approach to human behavior. The biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis are complementary rather than competing perspectives. Integrating information on biological, psychological, and social-cultural influences provides a more complete understanding of behaviors and mental processes than would be available from any one viewpoint. In answering the why of behavior, psychologists apply the scientific method. To discover cause-effect relationships, psychologists conduct experiments.

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Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology Length: 7:00 minutes File Name: 005_I-O-Psych.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Industrial and organizational psychologists help identify factors that improve motivation, efficiency, and employee satisfaction in the workplace. In this scientific study, research methods are combined with psychological theories and principles to examine employee attitudes and behaviors and evaluate training and hiring practices. In this video, Paul Levy distinguishes organizational psychology from industrial psychology, explaining that organizational psychology focuses on the social context of the workplace (employee well-being and behaviors), while industrial psychology studies an organization’s actual infrastructure (recruiting strategies, for example). Therefore, the goal of an I-O psychologist is to save organizations money by enhancing the quality and efficacy of the interviewing process and employee selection. The likelihood that employees are satisfied is greater when they are placed in positions that suit their skills and personality. But, what motivates employees to work hard? Expectancy theory, also called V.I.E. (value, instrumentality, expectancy) theory, maintains that behaviors are motivated by what we assume or expect the outcome of doing that behavior will be. If the outcome is desirable, motivation is expected to increase. Advancements in neuroscience have led to more insight into what parts of the brain are involved in emotions and motivation. Other areas of psychology—experimental, quantitative, and social psychology—have also offered important contributions to the application and study of I-O psychology.   Discussion Questions 1. What is V.I.E. theory? What does it say about employee motivation? 2. What are some practices companies use to improve the health and well-being of its employees? 3. How does having low employee turnover benefit an organization?  

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Brain Transplants in Parkinson’s Patients Length: 11:09 minutes File Name: 006_BrainTransPark.mp4 Original Worth Collection: The Brain Teaching Modules, Second Edition Source: Worth Publishers/The Annenberg/CPB Multimedia Collection) Description This video, featuring Lars Olson and Curt Freed, explains how a lack of dopamine relates to Parkinson's disease. It also exemplifies the use of the double-blind procedure, illustrates the benefits of animal research, and illuminates the controversial issue of transplanting fetal tissue. Please note: It is advisable to alert students that they may experience some discomfort in viewing the actual operation as described by Dr. Freed. Discussion Questions 1. How are double-blind control techniques used in this example of medical research? 2. What role has animal research played in the advancement of treatment options for people suffering from Parkinson’s disease?

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Correlation and Causation Length: 10:00 minutes File Name: 007_CorrelationCausation.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Our brains are hard-wired to look for causal relationships between occurrences and actions. But, that two things occur together does not imply that one has caused the other. In this program, students learn that one of the most common errors found in the news media regarding scientific and health-related studies is the confusion between correlation and causation. In some cases it seems obvious that one action will cause another, whereas at other times it is not as clear. Many studies are designed to test a correlation using statistical tools to measure two variables over time. As Daniel Gilbert points out, a perfect correlation occurs when both variables change by a fixed amount. Correlations, tracked by using the correlation coefficient (represented by lowercase r), can be positive or negative and vary in strength. A strong positive correlation occurs when both variables increase equally, whereas in a negative correlation, one unit increases while the other decreases. Establishing causality can be more challenging, so researchers conduct controlled studies using two comparable and randomly-chosen groups. Each group performs a task under different circumstances than that of the other group. The outcomes are then compared to determine whether the different outcomes are caused by having different experiences. The narrator then guides the viewer through an experiment on exercise and memory performance, demonstrating how sometimes the presence of a third variable can cause differences to occur. Some variables are impossible and unethical to control for, such as asking a subject to smoke cigarettes. Therefore, psychologists and other scientists must adhere to a strict code of ethics when conducting research. Discussion Questions 1. Explain the dangers of publicizing causal conclusions that may not be positively correlated. 2. What are some ethical limitations of controlled studies? 3. Why is it important to use random, matched samples and avoid revealing to subjects the group to which they are being assigned?  

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Does Self-Confidence Intimidate Others? Length: 3:25 minutes File Name: 008_Self-confidence.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Will to Win” Human Instinct (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This video is useful for reviewing basic experimental design. It can also be used to introduce attribution theory; that is, how we come to make judgments about other people. Finally, the segment provides an opportunity to introduce a common thinking error, namely, the illusion of control or the idea that chance events are subject to our influence. How does the way we present ourselves influence other people’s reactions to us? In this study, Todd (a professional actor) plays a simple game of chance against unsuspecting research participants. In the game, Todd and the participant bet against one another. All are allowed to keep whatever they win. The study begins with Todd and his opponent completing a survey in each other’s presence. Todd presents himself as a winner. He appears competent and in control. Finishing his form quickly, well before his opponent, Todd communicates self-confidence. Next, the two engage in a card game of chance. The highest card drawn wins. Although skill is irrelevant, Todd’s opponents place low bets. To other research participants, Todd presents himself as a loser. Along with a change in clothes and hairstyle, he acts in a submissive manner. He assumes a hunched and unthreatening posture and avoids eye contact. In short, he does everything to make his new opponents feel superior. While playing the card game, these opponents make much larger bets. Although it is still a game of chance and Todd cannot affect the outcome, the naïve research participants act as though they are playing against a loser. Interpretive Comments This simple study provides an excellent opportunity to review basic experimental design. The independent variable is the behavior of the professional actor; that is, whether he behaves confidently or submissively. The dependent variable is the wager made by the research participants while playing the card game. In comparison to playing against a confident opponent, research participants place larger bets when playing against a submissive opponent. Although the program does not refer to the random assignment of research participants to the independent variable conditions, you will want to highlight its importance in assuring control of other possible influences on the dependent variable. The finding that research participants are willing to bet more while playing against a submissive opponent illustrates our vulnerability to an illusion of personal control. The research participants are involved in a chance task in which the personal characteristics of the opponent are irrelevant. Still, they see a greater likelihood of winning when the opponent appears incompetent. Psychologist Ellen Langer demonstrated the illusion of control in similar gambling experiments. When playing a game of chance against an awkward and nervous person, research participants bet significantly more than when playing against a dapper, confident opponent. Similarly, in a study using lottery tickets, people who selected their own number demanded four times as much money when asked to sell their ticket as compared to those given an assigned lottery number. 9   

Discussion Questions 1. What are the independent and dependent variables in this study? Why is the random assignment of research participants to the independent variable conditions important to a well-designed experiment? 2. What do the results of this study reveal about human rationality/irrationality? 3. What does this study indicate about the way we make judgments or draw conclusions about other people?

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Experimental Design Length: 7:24 minutes File Name: 009_Experimental_Design.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems) Description This clip applies the experimental method by posing the question/hypothesis: “Does playing violent video games lead to aggressive behavior?” The experimental method is comprised of three main components: manipulation of variables, the use of control groups, and random assignment. Specifically, the clip explains the two types of variables involved in experimental design. In this case the independent variable was whether the video game that the participants play is violent or non-violent. The dependent variable is what the experimenter measures. In the illustrated study, the principle dependent variable was aggression as measure by the level of noise subjects used to punish another (fictional) player. Random assignment refers to the importance of each participant having an equal chance of being assigned to the experimental or control group. Random assignment is one tool used to ensure that differences do not exist between the experimental and control groups other than those manipulated by the experimenter (the independent variable). After the experiment, the data were analyzed. Participants who played the violent video game (those in the experimental group) were indeed more likely to respond aggressively than were those who had played a non-violent video game (those in the control group). Discussion Questions 1. Why is the experiment the only way to prove cause and effect? 2. Do people base conclusions on scientific evidence to the extent that they should? Do you think that there are other valid ways to understand and draw conclusions about the world? Are there questions that scientific investigation cannot address?

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Research Methods

Length: 9:30 minutes File Name: 010_Research_Methods.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Psychologists study mental processes and behavior by observing, interpreting, and recording how humans and animals relate to one another and the environment. To do this, psychologists look for patterns that will help them understand and predict behavior using scientific methods and principles to test their ideas. David Myers provides an example of how one might conduct a study on the causes of human happiness. First, he explains, we would formulate a theory and create a hypothesis. In this case, we may theorize that human connection is an important factor in happiness, so we may predict that married couples are happier than never-married people. We would then observe behavior either in the lab or real life and record, analyze, and report the findings. Although scientists look for validity and reliability in their findings, sometimes neither is present. In order to test a hypothesis, researchers use various methods, including surveys, naturalistic observation, and case studies. Robert Epstein explains that while observation tends to be the simplest method, it can be somewhat limited in terms of how much we can actually understand about human nature. The experimenter has no control over the composition of control groups, as in case studies, and therefore cannot randomize subjects. The next scene provides an example of an experiment in which researchers are testing the effects of gingko biloba on memory. Daniel Gilbert points out the importance of designing experiments that take ethical guidelines into consideration. A well-designed experiment will also take into account the confounding variables and tease them out. Experiments that get results can be replicated, and when the results are consistent through continual replication, people begin to accept the theory. Discussion Questions 1. Is there a place for intuition in science? 2. Why is relying only on self-reported data when doing research problematic? 3. What are some qualities of good scientific research?

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Schachter’s Affiliation Experiment Length: 7:00 minutes File Name: 011_Schachter.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: CRM Films Description Stanley Schachter’s study of the need to affiliate provides a very good illustration of psychology’s use of the experiment. This clip can be used to introduce the experiment or to provide students with the opportunity to apply what they have learned about experimental design. The program can also be presented in the context of the need to belong. In the opening clip, the investigator introduces himself to a small group of college women who have obviously volunteered to serve as research participants. He explains that as a member of the medical school’s department of neurology and psychiatry he is conducting an experiment on the effects of electric shock. The second clip presents Schachter’s experimental manipulation of the independent variable. In one condition, the experimenter tells participants that they will be receiving painful shock. The experimenter displays an ominous looking shock generator and forewarns the women that the shocks will be intense. In the second condition, the same experimenter presents a quite different message to a different group of college women. The shock generator has been removed and the experimenter suggests that the participants will be subjected to very mild shock that will resemble a tickle or a tingle rather than something unpleasant. In summary, the experimental manipulation was designed to create differences in fear. In the following scene, the experimenter explains that there will be a 10-minute delay before the study begins. The participants are told that they can either wait alone in small, comfortable rooms or wait together in a larger classroom. The participants are then asked to indicate on a questionnaire their preference for waiting alone or with others as well as the intensity of their preference. The responses to the questionnaire represented the experiment’s dependent variable. In the fourth clip, the experimenter debriefs the participants. He explains that the experiment is finished and that no electric shock will be administered. He indicates that he is a social psychologist who is only interested in the participants' responses to the questionnaire. In the final scenes, Stanley Schachter states his experimental hypothesis that people who are anxious or fearful will demonstrate a strong need to affiliate. Moreover, he carefully explains the need for the experiment to test the hypothesis. Many variables impact our everyday behavior. Only the isolation of the critical variables, careful manipulation of these variables under controlled conditions, and measurement of the effects of the manipulation can provide an adequate test of the hypothesis.

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Ethics in Animal Research: The Sad Case of Booee the Chimp Length: 5:00 minutes File Name: 012_Booee.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Chimps on Death Row” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This video raises important questions about the ethics of research on animals. If we share important similarities with other animals, should we not respect them? The case study also reveals the chimpanzee’s amazing cognitive skills. As a participant in research on animal communication, Booee mastered sign language. When funding for the study in which he was involved ended in the early 1980s, the chimp, then 13 years old, returned to the harsh world of biomedical research. Although Booee experienced a dramatic change in lifestyle, he seemed to settle in quite satisfactorily with 40 other chimps. All the animals were involved in research on serious physical illnesses. Booee was placed in his own cage. To break the boredom of solitary confinement, staff provided the animals with combs, toothbrushes, and mirrors. In their fascination with these objects, the chimps demonstrated human-like qualities. One animal even seemed to develop skill with a harmonica. When timed permitted, the investigators held parties to entertain the animals with music, games, and balloons. After 16 years, Booee was reunited with the researcher who had taught him sign language. Remarkably, Booee immediately recognized the researcher and together they picked up communication where they had left off. The chimp even remembered and signed his former teacher’s nickname. Booee seemed crushed when the researcher signed that it was time for him to leave. The narrator states that, in the 40 years chimps have been used in research, their living conditions have noticeably improved. They are now typically allowed to live in social groups, at least until they are used as participants in specific experiments. Interpretive Comments Clearly, our compassion for animals varies based on their perceived similarity to us, as psychologist Scott Plous has noted. Booee’s participation in language studies highlights that similarity and thereby also likely heightens our concern for his well-being. Booee’s participation in medical experiments led to a deterioration in his living conditions. More importantly, this participation put his health and life at risk. Most researchers today feel ethically obligated to enhance the well-being of captive animals and to protect them from needless suffering. Many professional associations and funding agencies have guidelines for the humane use of animals. The British Psychological Society’s guidelines call for housing animals under reasonably natural living conditions with companions for social animals. Similarly, the American Psychological Association’s guidelines call for ensuring the “comfort, health, and humane treatment of animals” and for minimizing the “infection, illness, and pain of animal subjects.” Those who use animals in medical research would note that animal experiments have led to successful treatments for human diseases—for example, insulin for diabetes, vaccines to prevent polio and rabies, and transplants to replace defective organs. 14   

The chimpanzees featured in this video highlight the species’ remarkable capacity for thinking. They form concepts, exhibit insight, and use tools. Careful observation of chimpanzees has indicated that they are natural tool users, even selecting different tools for different purposes. Researchers have discovered more than three dozen customs related to chimp tool use, grooming, and courtship. Booee has not only mastered the ability to sign, he also demonstrates an exceptional memory. Discussion Questions 1. Should Booee have been used in medical experiments after participating in the study of animal language? Why or why not? 2. What does the case of Booee indicate regarding the intelligence of animals? 3. Do you support the use of animals in research, including medical experiments? Why or why not?

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Ethics in Human Research: Violating One’s Privacy? Length: 7:00 minutes File Name: 013_Ethics_Privacy.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Genes” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description Research with human participants involves important ethical issues. Both the American Psychological Association and the British Psychological Society urge researchers to obtain the informed consent of participants, to treat information about individual participants confidentially, and to protect all those involved in a study from harm and discomfort. In showing this video, ask your students whether they think these guidelines were followed. This program presents research on the genetic basis for physical disorders. Iceland, a country with a relatively small, isolated population of citizens with a very similar genetic makeup, provides an excellent laboratory for study of this important issue. By studying the family histories of those with specific disorders, deCODE, a private Icelandic research firm, hopes to discover the genetic predispositions to a variety of specific illnesses. In order to do this, the company has sought access to the medical records of all citizens. These records provide important insights into the lifestyle factors—for example, drug use and sexual habits—that may interact with genes to produce a disease. In 1988, Iceland’s parliament provided such access. Only those residents who request in writing to be excluded are exempt. deCODE may market its research databank to others, including health-care organizations that could deny medical coverage to those at high risk for illness. One Icelandic resident who suffers from multiple sclerosis joins a vocal minority who objects to the potential invasion of privacy. She is concerned that members of her family may be denied medical insurance because of their genetic susceptibility to illness. Although deCODE aims to protect the confidentiality of individuals, director Kari Stefansson acknowledges that such confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. Other residents of Iceland are willing to assume the personal risk in order to reap the potential benefits of the research. The program interviews two members of one family with a long history of osteoarthritis. They express their hope that the cause of their family illness will be identified and that future descendants will be spared suffering from the disorder. A critic in the United States recognizes the important contribution that deCODE’s efforts can make to promoting human good. At the same time, he expresses concern that it fails to show adequate sensitivity to ethics and human rights. Interpretive Comments This example illustrates how knowledge can be used for good and/or evil. Both the American Psychological Association and British Psychological Society have established ethical guidelines for research that urge investigators to (1) obtain the informed consent of potential participants, (2) protect them from harm and discomfort, (3) treat information about participants confidentially, and (4) fully explain the research afterward. deCODE’s effort to identify the genetic predispositions to illness demonstrate the challenge that faces researchers in following these guidelines. 16   

Discussion Questions 1. Would you ask that your medical records be excluded from deCODE’s databank? Why or why not? 2. Is increased understanding of human behavior always beneficial? Why or why not?

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Biology, Behavior, and Mind The Neuron: Basic Units of Communication Length: 10:15 minutes File Name: 014_Neuron.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Everything we do, think, and feel is the result of activity in the body’s nervous system. Neurons, the basic units of the brain, are highly specialized nerve cells that communicate through an electrochemical process. There are an estimated 100 billion neurons in the human brain. In the first part of the program, students learn about the physical structures of the neuron and how each component works. The main portion of the neuron, the soma, or cell body, contains the nucleus. Off of each neuron are two kinds of extensions called dendrites, which receive information from other cells, and axons, which carry information away from the neuron to other cells. As information comes into the cell, it is gathered and held until it reaches its threshold. Once that happens the cell fires, sending a chemical signal to the next neuron. Between the end of the axon and the dendrite of the next neuron is a space called the synapse. Sometimes chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters, are needed to help the signal get across the synaptic gap. Agonists are drugs that work like neurotransmitters to facilitate the communication between neurons. Other drugs are designed to either mimic neurotransmitters or block the reuptake of excess neurotransmitters from re-entering the firing neuron. These drugs are called SSRI’s and are commonly used in the treatment of depression. Our brains are constantly forming new connections and pathways. It is this plasticity that allows us to learn and adapt to our environment. In the last scene, Steven Potkin explains how exciting it is to be able to integrate what we know from molecular science with more macro-level research to see how that translates into function. Discussion Questions 1. What are SSRIs and how do they work? 2. What is the myelin sheath and why is it so important? 3. What is meant by the term “brain plasticity”?

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Neural Communication Length: 0:35 seconds File Name: 015_Neural_Communication.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This clip depicts how neural communication works. It illustrates simulated action potentials traveling from one neuron to another. How an action potential from an excitatory neuron can create an excitatory postsynaptic potential in the target neuron is demonstrated. Also illustrated is how an excitatory postsynaptic potential depolarizes the target cell. The clip explains that if depolarization reaches the excitation threshold of the target neuron, the neuron will fire. Both temporal summation and spatial summation are also described. Another principle discussed in this clip is how an inhibitory postsynaptic potential causes hyperpolarization of the target neuron, thereby causing the membrane potential to decline further from the excitation threshold. The clip then illustrates what an axoaxonic synapse is and how it can function.

Interpretive Comments This video segment is well suited for lectures dealing with the nervous system, particularly on the cellular level. It describes a number of the essential neuronal processes. It is also useful as a preface to lectures on the effects of drugs, since these pathways are the site of drug action. The portion that deals with depolarization and hyperpolarization is particularly helpful in explaining the agonistic and antagonistic nature of drugs.

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Neural Communication: Impulse Transmission Across the Synapse Length: 1:45 minutes File Name: 016_Neural_Communication_Synapse.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Animated Biomedical Productions Description Your classroom discussion of neuroscience and behavior is likely to begin with the consideration of neural communication. Using this animation will help students to understand this basic and important process. The clip opens with a brief synopsis of neural transmission. The billions of neurons that compose our nervous system communicate with one another through the transmission of electrical signals or impulses. A synaptic gap separates the axon of the message-sending neuron from the dendrite of the receiving neuron. When impulses reach the axon terminal of the message-sending neuron, neurotransmitters are released and cross the synapse to receptor sites on the dendrites of the receiving neuron. A computer-generated image displays the process. A green ball of light represents the electrical impulse. The impulse travels along the axon until it reaches the terminal and releases neurotransmitters represented by red balls of light. The neurotransmitters cross the synaptic gap and bind to receptor sites on the dendrites of the receiving neuron. Interpretive Comments Everything psychological is simultaneous biological. Underlying all our thoughts and actions is the body’s information system, which is constructed from billions of interconnected cells called neurons. To understand human experience one must first understand how neurons work and communicate. You might note that most of the signals neurons receive are excitatory; some are inhibitory. When excitatory signals minus inhibitory signals exceed a minimum intensity, called the threshold, the combined signals trigger an action potential. The neuron’s reaction is an all-or-none response. Discussion Questions 1. What is the relationship between biology and psychology? 2. What do you think might occur if the transmission of neurotransmitters across the synapse is blocked? What if it is facilitated?

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Chemically-Induced Hallucinations: Studies of Anesthetic Drugs Length: 3:40 minutes File Name: 017_Chemically_induced_hallucinations.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “The Final Mystery” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description You may choose to use this brief video in your discussion of how nerve cells communicate and how drugs can alter neurotransmission and thus mood and behavior. This clip examines Franz Vollenweider’s research on how the anesthetic drug ketamine affects the brain. The drug enhances mood and can even lead to feelings of euphoria. Ketamine impacts all the sensory modalities especially hearing and sight. Hallucinations are its most dramatic effect. One of the challenges for any theory of consciousness is to explain how minute dosages of an anesthetic can produce such distorted experiences. Under the influence of the drug, a volunteer describes his greatly altered experience, highlighting how his visual and auditory senses interact and even meld. Normally, input from the senses impacts the brain. The drug ketamine weakens the signals coming from the senses and replaces them with a jumble of activity spontaneously generated in the brain. This activity produces the hallucinations. Volunteers have undergone brain scans while they are hallucinating. Over several minutes, the scans have indicated slight changes in activity in the front of the brain. However, consciousness is too fleeting for the underlying subtle and transient changes in brain cell activity to be detected by such an approach. Vollenweider suggests that ketamine directly interferes with communication between nerve cells. Sometimes communication is even blocked. The drug may lead to new assemblies between nerve cells so that a different neural network gets established. Interpretive Comments Neurotransmitters carry messages from a sending neuron across the synapse to receptor sites on a receiving neuron. Each neurotransmitter travels a designated path in the brain and has a specific effect on behavior and emotions. Various drugs, including ketamine, affect communication at the synapse, often exciting or inhibiting neurons’ firing. Agonists excite by mimicking the action of a neurotransmitter. Antagonists block or inhibit the action of a neurotransmitter. Ketamine is a NMDA receptor antagonist, which is often used as an anesthetic in reconstructive plastic surgery and in burn victim treatment. It is a preferred anesthetic for emergency patients with unknown medical history because it depresses breathing and circulation less than other anesthetics. Ketamine comes in either a clear liquid or an off-white powder form. It emerged as a recreational drug in the 1970s. Known as “Vitamin K” in the 1980s, it resurfaced in the 1990s rave scene as “Special K.” Higher dosages of the drug produce an effect referred to as “K-Hole,” an “out of body” or “near-death” experience. Use of the drug can cause hallucinations, delirium, amnesia, depression, and long-term memory difficulties. Due to its dissociative effect, it is reportedly used as a date-rape drug.

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Discussion Questions 1. What does this video teach us about the links between biology and human experience? 2. What psychological and social-cultural factors foster recreational drug use? 3. What do you think are some important channels of influence for drug prevention and treatment programs?

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Parkinson’s Disease: A Case Study Length: 4:10 minutes File Name: 018_Parkinsons_case_study.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Unlocking Parkinson’s” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description The neuroscience perspective focuses on the relationships between brain, mind, and behavior. The value of studying the specific connections between brain and behavior becomes apparent in the recent development of an effective intervention for Parkinson’s disease. The video titled “Treating Parkinson’s Disease: Deep Brain Electrode Implantation” describes the treatment in greater detail. Dale is a 55-year-old man who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. He describes his illness as having “a sharp mind in a body that does not work.” It has left him feeling hopeless. Dale was diagnosed with the disease 14 years ago and it has grown progressively worse. His frozen muscles leave him immobilized. Medication temporarily relieves these symptoms, but at times it also produces uncontrollable, wild movement. Each morning Dale waits to regain some limited ability to control his body. In the last three years, as the disease has progressed, Dale has become housebound and his medication has become less effective. His wife provides daily care. Dale reports that strangers stare as if he is mentally as well as physically ill. He longs to be viewed as a normal human being. The next scene shows Dale dramatically improved after treatment (see “Treating Parkinson’s Disease: Deep Brain Electrode Implantation” for coverage of deep brain electrode stimulation). Playing pool, he demonstrates his regained mobility and body control. He explains how he is again able to care for his own basic needs. With his wife at his side, he attends church for the first time in nearly three years. Old friends welcome him back. Dale describes himself as a new person with renewed hope. Interpretive Comments Dale suffers from Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. It is marked by muscle rigidity, tremors in hands, arms, legs, and face, reduced physical movement, and impaired balance and coordination. As these symptoms become more severe, patients may have difficulty walking, talking, and completing other simple tasks. Early symptoms of Parkinson’s are subtle and occur gradually. The disorder usually strikes people over the age of 50 and results from the deterioration of a neural tract that runs from the brainstem into the basal ganglia. The tremors exhibited in Parkinson’s result from the death of nerve cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. Giving the person dopamine does not work because of the presence of the blood-brain barrier, which enables the brain to keep out unwanted chemicals circulating in the blood. Some chemicals, including L-dopa, manage to cross the barrier. Once in the brain, L-dopa is converted to dopamine and enables many patients to regain better muscular control. Deep brain stimulation is currently the most effective surgical means of treatment.

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Discussion Questions 1. What does Dale’s case tell us about the relationship between brain and behavior? 2. How does society view persons with special physical challenges?

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The Runner’s High Length: 3:00 minutes File Name: 019_ Runners_high.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Natural Highs” Body Hits (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Your class discussion of neurotransmitters can include consideration of the “runner’s high.” Research indicates that the brain contains types of neurotransmitter molecules that are similar to morphine. They are released in response to pain and vigorous exercise. In this clip, Helen, an obviously experienced athlete, describes how she runs to make herself feel alive. Her brain, she explains, transforms her vigorous exercise into a wonderful experience. The euphoria, however, comes only with practice and a strong commitment to running. The narrator provides an evolutionary perspective on the runner’s high. In hunting or being hunted, our early human ancestors who felt rewarded by the chase were likely to run faster and harder and thus to survive. Although we no longer need to run to survive, the feeling persists. Helen explains that nothing quite compares to the elation that comes with running. Endogenous opioids in Helen’s brain, explains the narrator, produce her high. While Helen exercises, pain receptors in her body, especially from her muscles and joints, send electrical signals to her brain. In response, her pituitary pumps out natural opiates called endorphins that numb the pain receptors in Helen’s body and also reduce the pain messages that are being sent to her brain. She explains how, in spite of her legs working very hard, they feel fresh, and she feels like she could “conquer the world.” Interpretive Comments Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that traverse the synaptic gap between neurons. Released from the sending neuron, they bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron. They influence moods, memories, and mental abilities. The 1970s discovery that the opiate drug morphine binds to receptors in areas linked to mood and pain sensations suggested that the brain might have its own naturally occurring opiates. Subsequent research confirmed that the brain does contain neurotransmitter molecules similar to morphine. Called endorphins (short for “endogenous morphine”), they are released in response to pain and vigorous exercise. Discussion Questions 1. Have any of your students experienced the runner’s high? If so, can they describe its effect and the conditions under which they experience it? 2. How does the narrator use the evolutionary perspective of psychology to explain the runner’s high?

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Treating Parkinson’s Disease: Deep Brain Electrode Implantation Length: 5:25 minutes File Name: 020_Treating_Parkinsons.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Unlocking Parkinson’s” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description Dale suffers from Parkinson’s disease (as shown in the video “Parkinson’s Disease: A Case Study”). In this clip, Dale learns that he will receive a revolutionary new treatment at the Cleveland Clinic. In deep brain stimulation, electrodes are implanted in both sides of the brain and linked to two small generators comparable to heart pacemakers. The electric charge that is delivered is expected to relieve Dale’s symptoms. A computer, MRIs, and CAT scans guide the surgeon to the target, about the size of a small olive, deep within Dale’s brain. The surgeon describes the route as a labyrinth. Two dime-sized holes are drilled in Dale’s skull. It is important that he remain conscious and communicative throughout the procedure to make sure that the surgery does not disrupt his speech and vision. A tiny microphone at the end of the probe enables surgeons to hear the brain activity essential to locating the target. A test charge of electricity delivered to Dale’s brain produces the desired muscle control. As the tiny electrodes are permanently implanted deep within his brain, Dale demonstrates restored capacity to open and close his hand. The surgeons express confidence that the surgery has been successful. Dale returns to the Cleveland Clinic a month after surgery. Clearly the intervention has been a huge success. He is able to walk, his facial muscles are relaxed, and his speech is much improved. He reports that he again intends to play music, shoot pool, and enjoy “wild, passionate sex.” The power system that delivers impulses to the electrodes is adjusted. Turning the small pacemakers on and off dramatically demonstrates the difference that stimulation makes in terms of Dale’s ability to control his body. He describes the experience as comparable to turning a light switch on and off. The surgeons report that the outcome is representative of the new procedure’s impact on Parkinson’s victims. Interpretive Comments In 2002, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved deep brain stimulation as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease. At present, the procedure is used only for patients whose symptoms cannot be adequately controlled through medication. As this video illustrates, the neurosurgeon uses MRI or CAT scanning to locate the exact target within the brain, where electrical nerve signals generate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Generally, the targets are the thalamus, subthalamic nucleus, and globus pallidus. The system for deep brain electrode stimulation (DBS) consists of the lead or electrode, the extension, and the neurostimulator. The electrode is inserted through a small opening in the skull and positioned within the targeted area. The extension consists of an insulated wire that is passed under the skin of the head, neck, and shoulder and is connected to the neurostimulator. The battery pack is implanted near the collarbone, in the chest, or under the skin over the abdomen. Electrical impulses, sent along the extension and into the brain, interfere with and block the electrical signals that cause Parkinson’s symptoms.

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The DBS system does not destroy nerve cells or damage healthy brain tissue. Thus, if improved treatments are found in the future, the procedure can be reversed. If the patient’s condition changes, stimulation from the neurostimulator is easily adjusted (often referred to as “programming”) without additional surgery. Discussion Questions 1. How does this case demonstrate the importance of the neuroscience perspective in psychology? 2. What does this case tell us about the structure and function of the human brain?

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The Central Nervous System: Spotlight on the Brain Length: 12:30 minutes File Name: 021_Central_Nervous_System_Brain.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description The brain, considered the control center of the nervous system, receives and sorts millions of nerve impulses and is in charge of every movement, reflex, and bodily function. In this program, students are taken on a tour of the beautifully complex human brain and along the way are introduced to its various anatomical regions and their functions. The first stop on the way from the spinal cord to the brain is the hindbrain. This region controls most bodily functions and contains the cerebellum, the area involved in fine motor function. Above the cerebellum is the forebrain, which is divided into two regions: the subcortical structures and the cerebral cortex. The subcortical region, which in an evolutionary sense is older than the cerebral cortex, houses the limbic system, whose structures are involved in memory, emotion, and motivational drives. An overview of these specific structures is then provided. The cerebral cortex is divided into four lobes: the occipital lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and frontal lobe, each of which coordinates different kinds of functions and processes. The narrators describe each of these areas in detail. Despite the fact that each brain region has its own unique responsibility, there is constant communication among all of them. New neurons and connections are formed all the time. Joseph LeDoux encourages us “to think more about how systems interact because we aren’t our thoughts, our emotions, and our motivations. We are all of those things together.” Discussion Questions 1. What is the frontal lobe responsible for? What might happen to someone with a frontal lobe injury? 2. How is information encoded in neural activity? 3. What is gray matter?

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Achieving Hemispheric Balance: Improving Sports Performance Length: 5:19 minutes File Name: 022_Hempispheric_Balance.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Scientific American Frontiers Video Collection for Introductory Psychology, Third Edition Description For decades, clinical observations have indicated that the brain’s hemispheres serve different functions. Contemporary research on people with a severed corpus callosum has refined our understanding of each hemisphere’s special functions. In this program Debbie Crews of Arizona State University explains how establishing balance between the left and right hemispheres may be one important key to success in sports. Her hypothesis is that the analytical, verbal left hemisphere which tells us what to do must be calm, while the right hemisphere which controls rhythm, timing, and balance must increase its activity. In the last second before we move, say, to swing a golf club, the two hemispheres achieve a balance. Crews uses Alan Alda to illustrate her theory. After donning a cap that assesses his brainwaves, Alda begins to putt, rating his shots on a one-to-10 scale. Then Crews puts him on a board that forces him to balance his body and hopefully the activity in his cerebral hemispheres. An EEG reveals that Alda’s use of imagery in which he imagines himself as a cloud helps him to establish the intended balance. Once he stops trying to figure out how to balance—a predominantly left brain activity—and lets his body take care of itself—aided by right-brain imagery—the task becomes possible. His putts show noticeable improvement. In the final scene, Alda explains that the Crews’ research program at Arizona State University is best known in professional golfing circles for its work on imaging. Crews gives Alda mental rehearsal instructions before he drives. After first picturing his golf ball reaching the intended target, Alda drives successfully. Interpretive Comments The program provides the opportunity to review the special functions of the cerebral hemispheres. Each makes unique contributions to the integrated functioning of the brain. Crews’ research clearly illustrates how we have unified brains with specialized parts. The segment also highlights the value of thinking in images. Athletes in many different sports now supplement physical work with mental practice. Research indicates that such mental rehearsal can improve performance. Discussion Questions 1. What are special functions of each cerebral hemisphere? 2. What does Debbie Crews’ research suggest regarding the relationship between the hemispheres? 3. Can mental rehearsal improve academic as well as athletic performance? Why or why not?

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Brain and Behavior: Phineas Gage Revisited Length: 5:33 minutes File Name: 023_Phineas_Gage.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Scientific American Frontiers Video Collection for Introductory Psychology, Third Edition Description The program reviews the classic case of Phineas Gage. With Phineas’s skull on display before him, narrator Alan Alda describes the day of the railroad worker’s accident when a tamping iron exploded through his left cheek and out the top of his skull. Amazingly, Gage was immediately able to sit up and speak, and upon recovery, returned to work. However, as observers noted, he was “no longer Gage.” He was impatient, obstinate, and unable to make plans for the future. Alda explains how this famous case was the first to explore the relationship between personality and the frontal lobes of the brain. Jordan Grafman of the National Institute of Disorders and Stroke explains the specific nature of Gage’s injury. Grafman notes that while Gage was able to return to work, he could no longer function as a foreman because of his loss of executive skills. Nineteenth-century thinking about the relationship between the brain and personality was unsophisticated. Grafman introduces a phrenology skull and describes how Sir Franz Gall attempted to link specific “faculties,” or traits, to different parts of the brain. He mistakenly thought that bumps on the skull could reveal our mental abilities and traits. The program concludes that although Gall was wrong in the details, he was right in suggesting that various brain regions have particular functions. Furthermore, no part of the brain is more important in distinguishing us from the rest of the animal world than the prefrontal cortex. Grafman notes that the frontal lobes serve as “the central executive, the chairman of the board” that helps us reason, plan, and achieve long-term goals. Interpretive Comments The program illustrates how everything psychological is simultaneously biological. Our study of the human brain is essential to understanding human behavior. The case of Phineas Gage illustrates the oldest method of studying brain–mind connections, that is, to observe the effects of brain diseases and injuries. Although Franz Gall was mistaken in arguing that bumps on the skull reveal our personality, his theory of phrenology correctly anticipated recent research findings that show that various brain regions have particular functions. The program also raises fundamental questions about biological contributions to personality. Discussion Questions 1. Why is it important for psychologists to study the human brain? What other strategies do psychologists use in studying the brain? 2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of case studies in helping us to understand the causes of human behavior? 3. Does nature or nurture shape adult personality?

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Brain Imaging Length: 0:26 seconds File Name: 024_Brain_Imaging.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description The first clip in the series, clip 3a, depicts a simulated imaging room where PET, MRI and CT machines are located. Clip 3b demonstrates what is done during an MRI scan. The simulation shows a subject being presented with two types of visual stimuli. The first visual stimulus is a series of lines, while the second stimulus is a figure-like image. The different areas of the brain that each of these stimuli activate are depicted in a simulated MRI scan of the brain. The series of lines in different orientations activates the central areas of the occipital lobe, while looking at the figure-like stimuli activates the lateral and inferior parts of the occipital and temporal lobes. The final clips (3c and 3d) both show actual MRI scans of the brain from two different viewpoints. Clip 3c is a coronal MRI (brain is divided into the front and back part of the brain) and clip 3d is a sagittal MRI (brain is divided into left and right hemispheres). Interpretive Comments This segment is useful for lectures dealing with the nervous system, since brain imaging techniques are critically important methods for studying the functions of different portions of the nervous system. It is also helpful when used with material from cognitive psychology. This is due to the fact that researchers in a field of psychology known as cognitive neuroscience employ these methods more than any other researchers. Cognitive neuroscience is concerned with determining what structures of the brain are involved in cognitive processes like memory or language.

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Brain Plasticity: Rewiring the Visual Cortex Length: 6:53 minutes File Name: 025_Brain_Plasticity.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Scientific American Frontiers Video Collection for Introductory Psychology, Third Edition Description The program provides a vivid example of the brain’s capacity for modification. Michelle Geronimo volunteers to wear a blindfold for more than four days in Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone’s experiment investigating whether, when we are temporarily blinded, our visual cortex will begin to process information coming through our fingertips. Prior research indicates that the visual cortex comes to process the sense of touch in people born blind. The program shows that when the visual cortex of a blind person highly skilled in reading Braille is temporarily disabled through magnetic shock, his ability to read is significantly impaired. Clearly the brain has rewired itself to process touch in the area normally reserved for sight. Pascual-Leone’s research asks whether a sighted person’s brain will rewire itself in the same way. Michelle spends much of the 100 hours that she is blindfolded studying Braille. At the end of the four days, an MRI reveals that when Michelle’s finger is stimulated, her visual cortex lights up. And, as was true for the blind person, when Michelle’s visual cortex is temporarily impaired, efficiency in reading Braille declines. Michelle’s experience provides dramatic confirmation for Pascual-Leone’s hypothesis that the brain can reorganize itself in a few days, let alone a lifetime. Interpretive Comments The program demonstrates that different brain regions have particular functions. Thus sight and touch are normally processed in different parts of the brain. Brain plasticity refers to the brain’s capacity for modification as evident in brain reorganization following damage, as well as in experiments on the effects of experience on brain development. The brain is not as hardwired as once thought. You might note that our brains are most plastic when we are young children. If one hemisphere is damaged early in life, the other will pick up many of its functions. In extreme cases, an entire brain hemisphere has been removed and children function well, retaining both memory and personality. Discussion Questions 1. What does this program tell us about the structure and function of the human brain? 2. What do the findings involving Michelle Geronimo suggest about the nature/nurture issue? 3. What are the implications of brain plasticity for those who suffer brain damage as a result of injury or disease?

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Brain Structures Length: 0:44 seconds File Name: 026_Brain_structures.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This series of clips shows an animated three-dimensional model of the brain and rotates the animation so that the student is able to see various brain structures in relation to each other. Clip 2a shows how the optic nerve connects the eyes to the brain. The brain rotates a full three hundred and sixty degrees, starting from the left side view of the brain. Clip 2b illustrates the same connection between the eyes and brain via the optic nerve, while rotating the brain from a ventral view to a left-side view. Clips 2c-2f each depict the different lobes of the brain (frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes). Each clip rotates the brain differently to give a different view of each of the lobes. Clip 2c rotates the brain from the left side to the front, clip 2d rotates from the backside to the right, clip 2e rotates from the top to the left-side view, and clip 2f rotates from the bottom to the left-side view. Clips 2g-2i all depict lower level brain structures. Clip 2g shows the limbic system and rotates the brain from the back to the left-side view. Clip 2h depicts the brainstem and thalamus, while rotating the brain from the left side to back view. The brainstem and thalamus are shown in clip 2i and the brain is rotated from back to left-side view. Clips 2j (rotates the brain from back to left-side) and 2k (rotates the brain from the left-side to the back view) both illustrate the cerebellum. Clips 2i (rotates the brain from the front to the right-side view) and 2m (shows the brain rotating from the right-side view to the front) both depict the remaining brain structures when the cerebral cortex is removed.

Interpretive Comments These segments are helpful for lectures dealing with the nervous system from a gross anatomical perspective. They show the brain from different perspectives. On some of these clips it is possible to see the subcortical structures of the brain, such as the thalamus and basal ganglia, since the animation highlights these structures that are found deep within the brain. On others, it is possible to see structures that lie on the surface of the brain, like the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex. Some of the segments could also be used with lectures on sensation, to point out primary and secondary sensory cortices, and with lectures on language abilities, since it is possible to point out cortical regions such as Broca’s or Wernicke’s areas.

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Compulsive Gambling and the Brain’s Pleasure Center Length: 5:20 minutes File Name: 027_Compulsive_Gambling.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Seeking Perfection” Obsession (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This video provides an opportunity to introduce the fascinating research on reward centers located in or near the hypothalamus, which have been discovered in many species. Addictive disorders, including compulsive gambling, may stem from a reward-deficiency syndrome. This segment also illustrates how the brain and experience interact. University of Minnesota research findings on compulsive gamblers like Theodore may provide insight into a variety of obsessions. They all seem to share similarity in brain circuitry. Theodore’s casino visits release chemicals that stimulate the brain areas that process pleasure and urge. All people share this underlying process for recognizing and enjoying pleasurable experiences. However, for those who become obsessed, the process seems to physically change their brains and pleasure pathways begin to dominate. In Theodore’s case, any reminder of the casino sets off the uncontrollable urge to gamble. Researchers believe that the brain changes produce a variety of obsessions. In each case, compulsive behavior takes on an uncontrollable life of its own. Theodore notes that, while his gambling is exciting, it is also destroying his life. He enrolls in an experimental treatment that uses medication to block the pleasure-giving chemicals in his brain. The therapist assures Theodore that the drug will not dampen his more general pleasure. It should only dampen the pleasure associated with his compulsive behavior. The medication normally treats drug addiction. A higher dosage is used to treat Theodore’s gambling. Initially, he still has an urge to gamble and, on at least one occasion, visits the casino. However, as he increases the dosage of the drug, the urge and even the thoughts associated with gambling dissipate. Five weeks later, while still on medication, Theodore searches for an activity that will produce the pleasure once associated with gambling. At one time he enjoyed piloting helicopters in the military and begins flying again. He frankly wonders whether the activity will ever restore the thrill of gambling. Returning to the casino, Theodore finds that his gambling obsession is gone. He is amazed at the success of the treatment.

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Interpretive Comments Research suggests that a variety of addictive disorders may stem from a reward-deficiency syndrome. A genetically-disposed deficiency in the natural brain systems that regulate pleasure and well-being leads people to crave whatever provides that missing pleasure or relieves negative feelings. A low number of receptors for dopamine, a pleasure-rewarding neurotransmitter could be one important reason why people engage in binge-eating, drug abuse, or, as in this specific case, compulsive gambling. In short, impaired dopamine reception may make people feel they have to eat, drink, or gamble more. When drugs block the pleasure that Theodore gets from gambling, the obsession clearly weakens. More constructive activity— for example, flying helicopters—may eventually restore the pleasure that he gleaned from gambling.

Discussion Questions 1. What does this program reveal about the nature of human motivation? 2. Are compulsive gamblers responsible for their obsession? Why or why not? 3. What does this video teach us about the relationship between the brain and experience?

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Language and Brain Plasticity Length: 4:00 minutes File Name: 028_Language_and_Brain_Plasticity.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: First Among Equals (BBC Motion Gallery) Description A century ago, scientists believed that language depended on two key areas in the left hemisphere. Wernicke’s area was thought to handle word selection and sentence construction, while Broca’s area was thought to control the last stage of generating speech sounds. Today, we understand that language is far more complex. The program explores an award-winning nuclear physicist’s significant loss in the ability to use language. Researcher Nina Dronkers explains that he has great difficulty understanding anything that is said to him, or what he reads, as well as great difficulty producing language. He can speak but what he says lacks coherence. A brain scan reveals that the physicist has suffered severe damage to his brain, including total destruction of Wernicke’s area. Brain scans of patients experiencing various language disorders reveal that they have often experienced damage to the two classic language areas. However, research also reveals a network of many different brain areas that handle specific aspects of language. Dronkers reports that some patients have difficulty naming objects, while others have difficulty understanding grammatical rules. Clearly, language is a complex process involving many different brain regions that each serve a specific function. Patients often recover some basic aspects of language such as their capacity to recognize word sounds. This finding suggests that some aspects of language do not require their own specialized brain structure. However, patients with aphasia rarely show full recovery. It is difficult for brain areas that have long performed one function to assume a new one. Interpretive Comments The study of the brain areas involved in language illustrates how complex abilities result from the intricate coordination of many brain areas. Norman Gershwind explains that words read aloud first register in the visual area. They are then relayed to the angular gyrus, which transforms the words into an auditory code that is received and understood in nearby Wernicke’s area. From here the code is sent to Broca’s area, which controls the motor cortex as it creates the pronounced word. Which form of aphasia occurs depends on which link in this chain is damaged. Damage to Wernicke’s area, as in the case of the physicist, disrupts understanding. Damage to Broca’s area disrupts speaking. Damage to the angular gyrus leaves the person unable to read. Discussion Questions 1. What does this case study teach us regarding the brain’s functioning? 2. What is meant by the term brain plasticity? What advantages does it provide?

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Mapping the Brain Through Electrical Stimulation Length: 2:40 minutes File Name: 029_Mapping_brain_electrical.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “All in the Mind” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Your discussion of brain-mind connections will likely begin with a consideration of the strategies investigators have used to study the brain. Sometimes researchers electrically, chemically, or magnetically stimulate its various parts and note the effects. In this clip, a young woman undergoes surgery to remove a brain tumor. The surgery is delicate because the tumor is near a region of the brain that controls language. Damage to the region could destroy the patient’s capacity to speak. To identify the precise areas controlling speech the surgeon electrically stimulates various regions of the patient’s brain. In some cases, the patient speaks (counts) clearly and easily. In other cases, the electrical stimulation interferes with speech. The surgeon explains that the patient has difficulty transforming thoughts into words when the critical language areas are stimulated. Electrically stimulating different areas of brain can temporarily shut down complex mental processes. In this way, researchers can establish a brain map and identify the role that different parts of the brain play in human experience and behavior. Interpretive Comments Manipulating the brain through electrical stimulation is one of several techniques that researchers have used to study the human brain. The oldest method of studying brain-mind connections was to observe the effect of specific brain diseases and injuries. More recently, investigators have recorded the brain’s surface electrical activity and have displayed neural activity with computer-aided brain scans. All these strategies show that specific brain systems serve specific functions. Discussion Questions 1. What does this research suggest regarding brain structure and function? 2. Why is the neuroscience perspective important in psychology? 3. What are some of the other techniques investigators use to study the brain?

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Neuroimaging: Assessing What’s Cool Length: 6:36 minutes File Name: 030_Neuroimaging.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Scientific American Frontiers Video Collection for Introductory Psychology, Third Edition Description How does our brain respond to objects “cool” and “uncool?” And what’s the hidden motive behind the quest to be cool? Steven Quartz of Cal Tech describes his efforts to answer these questions through neuroimaging techniques. Using an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan, Quartz peers into Alan Alda’s brain as he views a variety of consumer products including purses, watches, and small kitchens appliances. Do our brains react differently to objects we rate as cool versus those not thought to be cool? Quartz argues that how we decide what is cool requires the most highly evolved parts of the brain. After completing the 30-minute brain scan, Alda rates the objects he has just seen on a six-point scale from “not cool” to “very cool.” Like most research participants, he rates relatively few as cool. In reviewing the results, Quartz suggests that the front of Alda’s brain was significantly more active in response to objects he rated as “not cool” than in response to those he rated as “very cool.” Interestingly, he indicates that a third of all his participants demonstrate this pattern and may be strongly oriented toward avoiding objects that are not fashionable. The next largest percentage of respondents show just the opposite brain pattern, that is, the front part of their brain responds very strongly to those objects they rate as cool. In addition, the part of their brain controlling movement becomes active, perhaps revealing the intended effort to reach out to favorite products. The program concludes that the new efforts to peer inside our brain to study what we covet has captured the attention of marketers. The new field of “neuromarketing” is using brain imaging to understand our buying habits. Interpretive Comments Neuroimaging techniques enable researchers to look inside the brain without lesioning it. This program examines one of those techniques, namely, the MRI. More generally, the program highlights how the brain enables the mind. The mind, argues neuroscientists, is what the brain does. Individual differences in brain activity predict differences in emotion, motivation, and behavior. Finally, for some who watch this program, the new field of neuromarketing may raise questions about whether psychology is sometimes used to manipulate people. Discussion Questions 1. What does this program suggest regarding the relationship between the brain and behavior? 2. What other strategies do psychologists use in studying the brain? 3. Is psychology potentially dangerous? Might its findings be used to manipulate people?

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Planning, Life Goals, and the Frontal Lobe Length: 6:20 minutes File Name: 031_Planning_Life_Goals.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “First Among Equals” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This case study introduces students to the oldest method of studying mind-brain connections: observing the effects of specific brain diseases and injuries. The program also highlights the role of the frontal lobes in judgment, planning, and the processing of new memories. Michael was wounded in combat. He experienced damage to the front of his brain that transformed him from a bright, assertive young man to someone who has difficulty holding a job and is lacking in social skills. Discharged from the army, Michael now works as a hospital janitor under close supervision. He seems aimless; his life lacks direction. Researcher Jordan Grafman assesses how the damage to Michael’s frontal lobes has affected his mental abilities. A gambling task assesses his capacity to weigh the consequences of his actions. The task presents research participants with a string of wins followed by a series of losses. Most players stop before losing all their winnings. Michael does not, although he offers what seems to be a rational explanation for his continued gambling. Michael's explanation makes it clear that his everyday behavior is also self-defeating. Michael’s personal life is marked by an inability to sustain relationships. He has suffered a series of failed marriages, which he describes in detail. Each partner seems to have significant problems of her own. Michael’s injury also seems to have destroyed his ability to work toward a long-term goal or think through the consequences of his actions. Grafman notes that Michael can perform quite well in wellstructured situations. However, he has difficulty in less-structured situations, in which he must formulate and execute plans. Interpretive Comments The oldest method of studying brain-mind connections is to observe the effects of brain diseases and injuries. Some brain regions perform specific functions. Thus, specific changes in the brain produce predictable changes in behavior. Michael’s frontal lobe damage has clearly impacted his judgment and particularly his ability to plan ahead and to consider the consequences of his actions. Research indicates that people with damaged frontal lobes may score high on intelligence tests, have intact memories, and be able to perform basic tasks such as those of a janitor. Still they may be unable to plan ahead. Frontal lobe damage may also change personality (as in the famous case of Phineas Gage), impair social relationships, and even destroy one’s moral compass.

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Discussion Questions 1. Why is the study of the brain and brain damage important to psychology? 2. What role do the frontal lobes play in behavior? 3. Do you think Michael is responsible for his self-defeating behaviors? Why or why not?

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Rewiring the Brain Length: 3:00 minutes File Name: 032_Rewiring_the_brain.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: CBS Evening News (CBS News) Description This video provides a dramatic example of how the brain can be rewired so that stimulation of the tongue enables a blind person to see. Roger has been blind since he was a young man. Now BrainPort, an amazing new experimental technology, is enabling him to regain his sight. The technology swaps eyes for tiny cameras that transform visual images to electrical signals that Roger feels on his tongue. Roger compares it to the feeling of having someone draw a picture on one’s back. In normal vision, the eye sends signals to the brain’s visual cortex for interpretation. BrainPort retrains the brain to process information by first stimulating the tongue. The signals are sent via the brainstem to the area of the brain that processes touch. Eventually, the blind person learns to interpret touch as sight in the visual cortex. Wearing a small camera on his forehead, Roger carefully and accurately navigates the corridors of the office and, at one point, even spots the logo on a football jersey. Other blind persons are able to recognize numbers. The trainer explains how the process is much like learning a new language that eventually becomes automatic. Wearing a blindfold, the narrator tries out the new technology and, with some practice, is able to see the orientation of straight lines. Over the next several months, refinements in the technology will enable the blind person to see objects with greater clarity. BrainPort dramatically illustrates how the human brain can be rewired. Interpretive Comments Brain plasticity refers to the brain’s capacity for modification. In this case, the brain uses sensory information normally perceived as touch to enable a blind person to see. Both genes and experience mold the brain. Other lines of research demonstrate how an enriched environment can foster a heavier, thicker brain cortex in young rats. Moreover, repeated experiences modify a rat’s neural tissue at the very spot in the brain that processes the experience. Most notably, new research evidence indicates that adult mice and humans can generate new brain cells. The video also demonstrates how perception, which involves the organization and interpretation of sensory experience, is ultimately accomplished in the brain. Discussion Questions 1. What does this case tell us about the structure and function of the human brain? 2. How do both nature and nurture contribute to our perception of the world?

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Self-Stimulation in Rats Length: 0:45 seconds File Name: 033_Rats.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description One factor that influences an organism’s behavior is the brain. The lateral hypothalamus is a brain structure that has been implicated in the reward system. This clip demonstrates how the lateral hypothalamus can affect behavior. In this clip, a rat is seen in a chamber with an electrode placed in the lateral hypothalamus region of its brain. Eventually, the rat presses a lever that sends a weak electrical current that stimulates the lateral hypothalamus. Once the lateral hypothalamus is stimulated, the reward system is activated, which reinforces the rat’s behavior. Then the rat is shown pressing the lever constantly, at the expense of other critical activities such as eating and drinking. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful with lectures on motivation since it deals with excitation of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB), or reward pathway, in the brain. This structure mediates the experience of pleasure. All events or stimuli that organisms find pleasurable cause the neurons in this part of the brain to become active. Thus, we are motivated to engage in behaviors that will cause activation of the MFB. Olds and Milner did the research to uncover the existence of this structure. The technique they used, which is shown in the clip, is called intercranial self-stimulation (ICSS). This clip is also useful with lectures on abnormal psychology, particularly depression, since the assumption that has been behind the development of anti-depressant drugs is that people who are depressed have an insufficient amount of activity in the reward pathway. Also, the clip is useful with lectures on nature vs. nurture, because the reward pathway is an evolutionarily engineered brain structure designed to enhance an individual’s chances of survival. Behaviors such as eating, drinking, and sexual activity all cause the MFB to become active.

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The Brain’s Reward Center Length: 04:52 minutes File Name: 034_Brain_reward_center.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: The Secret Life of the Brain “The Teenage Brain: A World of Their Own” (David Grubin Productions) Description This segment takes a physiological look at the effect of addictive drugs and alcohol on the brain’s reward center. According to addiction research, drugs such as cocaine mimic the neurotransmitters of the brain that lead to feelings of pleasure. The segment takes a close look at the effect of dopamine which, in a normal brain, stimulates the dopamine receptors of a neuron in response to pleasurable stimuli. Computer graphics show dopamine being released into the synapse and then “vacuumed” back up into dopamine transporters. We are then shown the neural synapse in a brain on cocaine. Millions of cocaine molecules flood the dopamine transporters, preventing dopamine from being reabsorbed. Therefore, cocaine artificially floods the synapse with more dopamine and for a longer period than the body would ever experience naturally. The segment then follows speaker James C. Berman, of the Caron Foundation, as he speaks with high school teenagers about the effects of drugs. He explains that cocaine raises the level of dopamine higher than even the most pleasurable natural experiences (i.e. orgasm, food, exercise, etc.). However, he also describes how repeated use of addictive drugs causes “down-regulation,” where the things which made us feel good before no longer provide even natural pleasure. The segment interviews recovered teenage drug addicts about their experiences with cocaine. They describe how eventually nothing in their lives gave them pleasure except the drug. A few contemplated suicide. Finally, the segment returns to the computer image of the reward center of the brain. With prolonged use, the brain begins to fight back against the unnatural surge of dopamine in its synapses by destroying the dopamine receptors. Without these receptors, dopamine can no longer elicit pleasurable sensations, even from natural pleasures. The segment ends with the suggestion that it is something in the genes and temperament of certain people which makes them vulnerable to addiction. Interpretive Comments This segment can be used with a number of neuroscience topics, but is best suited to the topic of drugs and behavior which is often part of a chapter on consciousness. The fact that drugs like cocaine and amphetamine cause excitation in the reward pathway makes this segment particularly important to the topic of drugs and behavior, however, the normal functioning of the reward pathway is of interest as well and that fits under the heading of the nervous system and motivation. Both of these topics would be well served by this graphic.

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Discussion Questions 1. Describe the normal reward pathway. How is this disrupted by drug use? 2. What is addiction? When is someone “addicted” to drugs or alcohol? 3. Is drug use a problem in our country? Why or why not? How might drug addiction be combated? 4. Is addiction a choice?

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The Split Brain: Lessons on Cognition and the Cerebral Hemispheres Length: 3:50 minutes File Name: 035_Split_Brain_1.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “First Among Equals” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This video provides an opportunity to introduce the remarkable ways in which the findings from research with split-brain patients inform our understanding of the human brain. To control his epileptic seizures, Joe underwent surgery in which his brain was severed. His split brain now allows researchers to explore the workings of his left and right hemispheres. His “party” trick is to draw two separate objects (one with each hand) simultaneously. More than thirty years of research with divided-brain patients has convinced researcher Michael Gazzaniga that asymmetry is the key to understanding our mental capacities. Gazzaniga maintains that intelligence comes from the left hemisphere. The preoperative IQ and problemsolving skills of the split-brain person are the same as that of his left hemisphere after surgery. In contrast, states Gazzaniga, the right hemisphere is “sort of dumb.” However, in comparison to the right hemisphere, the left hemisphere is poor at recognizing visual patterns. Even a mouse brain is able to discriminate between the two visual patterns that Joe’s left hemisphere fails to distinguish. Gazzaniga speculates that, as part of the process of evolution, the left hemisphere mutated to develop language. As a result, its complex, perceptual processes were squeezed out and became the province of other brain areas. In the course of evolution, he concludes, our left hemisphere acquired more complex cognitive functions, while our right hemisphere remained largely unchanged. Interpretive Comments Split-brain surgery leaves people with “two separate minds.” Joe can comprehend and follow instructions that tell him to simultaneously copy different figures with his left and right hands. You might ask your students to try this task themselves, simply to appreciate its difficulty. Experiments with split-brain patients provide an important key to understanding the respective, complementary functions of each brain hemisphere. The left hemisphere has superior linguistic ability, while the right has superior spatial ability. In addition, the left hemisphere is more active when a person deliberates over decisions and the right hemisphere is more engaged when quick, intuitive decisions are needed. Gazzaniga suggests these hemispheric differences can be understood as part of the evolutionary process. Research with people who have intact brains confirms that each hemisphere makes unique contributions to the integrated functioning of the human brain.

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Discussion Questions 1. How does this program demonstrate the importance of the neuroscience perspective in psychology? 2. What does research with Joe tell us about the human brain? 3. What are the specific strengths of each hemisphere? In what ways do the hemispheres work together?

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The Split Brain: Lessons on Language, Vision, and Free Will Length: 6:50 minutes File Name: 036_Split_brain_2.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “The Final Mystery” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Classroom coverage of the structure and function of the human brain should include some discussion of Michael Gazzaniga’s pioneering research on split-brain patients. Twenty years ago, Joe underwent surgery to split his brain. Surgeons severed the corpus callosum, the bundle of fibers connecting the two hemispheres. As a result, information no longer travels from one side of Joe’s brain to the other. He became an important participant in neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga’s continuing study of hemispheric differences. The video suggests that studying split-brain patients such as Joe could provide valuable insights into the source of the illusion of conscious free will. Gazzaniga tests the linguistic abilities of the right and left hemispheres of Joe’s brain. Words presented on the right side of Joe’s visual field go to his left hemisphere and he calls them out easily. Words flashed on the left side of his visual field go to his right hemisphere and Joe says he sees nothing. Nonetheless, he draws a picture of the word that was presented. Because speech comes from the left hemisphere, Gazzaniga also believes that the left hemisphere may be dominant in generating consciousness. Joe reports that he feels unchanged by his surgery. If the conscious feeling of self-identity comes from both hemispheres, Joe would likely feel quite different. Thus, Gazzaniga’s bold conclusion is that Joe’s inner voice must come from only one side of his brain. Because our inner thoughts are all in words, that voice must come from the left linguistic side. In another experiment Joe sees two words simultaneously. After seeing the word “hour” in his left visual field and “glass” in his right visual field, Joe draws the picture of an hourglass. Using his left hemisphere, he names the hourglass immediately. However, when asked, he reports only having seen the word glass. When asked why he drew an hourglass, he invents an explanation. Joe seems to have been fooled by his own left hemisphere. Gazzaniga notes that this tendency to offer after-the-fact explanations for behavior is not unique to splitbrain patients. Rather, it is what we all do as we seek to understand and explain some of our own automatic behaviors. Interpretive Comments We have unified brains with specialized parts. Split-brain research provides the opportunity to review the special functions of the cerebral hemispheres. This program confirms that in most people the left hemisphere is the more verbal; the right hemisphere excels in visual perception and the recognition of emotion. From his research with split-brain patients such as Joe, Gazzaniga concludes that the conscious left hemisphere is an interpreter that instantly constructs theories to explain our behavior. In general, the left hemisphere seems more active when a person deliberates over decisions. Obviously, the research with Joe also highlights a core principle of behavior: Sometimes the unconscious brain controls our behavior without our conscious effort or will. 30   

Discussion Questions 1. What does split-brain research reveal regarding the nature of the brain? 2. What are specific functions of each cerebral hemisphere?

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Understanding Neuroscience Methods: ERP Length: 2:30 minutes File Name: 037_ERP.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Description This video shows an ERP procedure being conducted in the laboratory of Debra Mills. The objective of the procedure is to determine differences in an infant’s brain activity when she hears words she understands versus words she doesn’t understand. In this particular trial, the 15-month-old infant hears the words being recited by a hand puppet. Discussion Questions 1. In what regions of the brains can differences between words an infant understands and ones she doesn’t be identified? 2. What appears to drive changes in brain activation in response to language listening?

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Consciousness “Blindsight”: Seeing Without Awareness Length: 4:00 minutes File Name: 038_Blindsight.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “The Final Mystery” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This clip is helpful in introducing the phenomenon of parallel processing. Psychologist David Miler explains the two visual systems as “one that gives us our conscious perceptions, and one that guides our actions.” He refers to the latter as “the zombie within.” Blindsight, the focus of this clip, is indeed “sight unseen.” Graham Young’s brain is of special interest to neuroscientists. When Graham was a child, he was hit by a car. As a result of the accident, he lost sight in the right visual field of both eyes. Twelve years after the accident, while undergoing an eye examination, investigators discovered that Graham can process visual information in both left and right visual fields. However, he is not aware of it. He demonstrates the phenomenon of blindsight, the condition in which people can respond to visual events without being aware of them. Graham has experienced damage to his visual cortex. When researcher Lawrence Weiskrantz projects moving lights in his right field of vision, Graham reports he cannot see them. However, he can accurately report the direction in which they are moving. Brain scans indicate that when Graham responds to the moving dots without being aware of them, a very primitive visual pathway is active. When he sees them, another brain region lights up. The parts of the brain underlying consciousness and our ability to communicate awareness are different and quite far removed from those that actually receive the sensory information. Interpretive Comments Parallel processing refers to the tendency of the human brain to work on many aspects of a problem concurrently. For example, the brain divides a visual scene into subdimensions such as color, movement, depth, and form and works on each aspect simultaneously. We then construct our perceptions by integrating the processing of distant brain areas. Blindsight vividly demonstrates the brain’s two visual systems. More generally, it illustrates that we often know much more than we know we know. Our thinking is partly controlled (reflective, deliberate, and conscious) and partly automatic (impulsive, effortless, and without our awareness). Often, we refer to our automatic thinking as intuition.

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Discussion Questions 1. How is a computer’s information processing different from that of our brain? 2. Can you provide other examples of how human thinking may be partly controlled (that is, reflective, deliberate, and conscious) and partly automatic (impulsive, effortless, and without our awareness)?

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Attention Length: 9:09 minutes File Name: 039_Attention.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description What is attention and why do we need it? Is it possible to multi-task effectively? Is the modern world too distracting and over-stimulating for our brains? The answers to these questions are revealed in this engaging video that explores various aspects of attention, including distraction, divided attention, joint attention, and enhancing cognition. Essentially all organisms, including human beings, rely on attention as a means of survival. In the video, Jonathan Flombaum states that attention is “the way we’re preset to focus in on what seems to be just the kind of information that we need to get around and survive in the world.” While it is possible and often necessary to multi-task, the brain cannot focus completely on more than task at a time. The example of driving while talking on the phone is introduced to show how attention is vulnerable to distraction. An experiment is then presented in which individuals are asked to count the number of times team members pass a ball around. More likely than not, viewers fail to notice a gorilla that enters the scene for several seconds. Joint attention, which occurs when humans or animals use signals or eye-gazing to communicate, is often studied by developmentalists. This capacity typically develops within the first year of life in humans and is thought to be a precursor to language. Problems with joint attention and other attention disorders are likely caused by disturbances in the prefrontal cortex and thalamus areas of the brain. Although medications and other activities have been shown to enhance cognition, Howard Egeth says that “equally important is crafting the world to fit the human.” Discussion Questions 1. Why do developmentalists study attention? 2. What are the roles of the prefrontal cortex and thalamus when it comes to attention? 3. How has our attention and ability to focus been challenged in our fast-paced, technology-driven world? Are the impacts all negative? In what ways do we cope with “information overload”? Does it exist, or are we simply becoming less efficient with filtering out non-useful information? 4. What are some possible explanations for why attention disorders have been on the rise over the past few decades?

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Automatic Skills: Disrupting a Pilot’s Performance Length: 4:00 minutes File Name: 040_Disrupting_pilot.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Are You Superhuman?” (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This video provides a helpful introduction to the different levels at which we process information. It can also be presented in a discussion of successful encoding. Tasks that initially require attention and effort become automatic with experience and practice. Flight simulators are typically used for training purposes. In this video, researchers use a simulator to assess how interference with pilots’ unconscious thought processes affects their performance. Novice as well as veteran pilots are research participants in the study. In the first part of the study, the novice pilot flawlessly handles a routine run. Next, he is asked to perform the same task while counting backwards to the tick of a metronome. In spite of the additional mental load, he flies well and reports that the task was not as difficult as he had anticipated. The conscious task of counting did not seriously interfere with the unconscious task of flying. In the next assignment, the novice pilot must fly the plane while describing what he is doing—that is, he must describe his automatic, unconscious thought process. This task proves more disruptive than the one in which he had to count backwards. It interferes with his unconscious processing. Interestingly, when the experienced pilot attempts to explain what he is doing while flying, he finds the task even more distracting and disruptive. After 11 years in the cockpit, his flying skills are so imbedded in his unconscious mind that explaining what he is doing significantly slows him down. However, this is precisely what makes him a great pilot. To veteran fliers, piloting a fighter aircraft is like driving a car. Interpretive Comments Research indicates that we process information on two levels. Our conscious processing is serial and quite slow. The focused state of awareness enables us to solve novel problems and to communicate with one another (even while counting backwards to the tick of a metronome!). Unconscious processing occurs simultaneously on many parallel tracks. It allows us to perform well-learned tasks automatically. The pilots perform the well-learned flying task automatically, much as we type on a keyboard without consciously attending to the location of the letters. For the pilots, trying to explain how they fly produces the same interference that we would experience if we had to verbalize the location of specific letters as we typed them. Discussion Questions 1. What tasks that once required conscious effort do you now perform automatically? 2. What are the possible benefits and limits of unconscious processing?

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3. How is the unconscious processing described in this video different from Freud’s notion of the unconscious?

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Consciousness and Artificial Intelligence Length: 4:58 minutes File Name: 041_Consciousness_AI.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: Mind over Matter: Advances in Brain Research, 2004 (Films for the Humanities and Sciences) Description In this segment, we are shown a humanoid robot, COG, created by Dr. Rodney Brooks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The roboticists working on this project hope to one day make COG or one of its descendants into a conscious machine. But what is “consciousness”? This is the fundamental question asked in this segment. The first interview shown is with Dr. Daniel Dennett, a philosopher from Tufts University. Dennett notes the unease many people feel when confronted with COG. He believes the reason is that humans, in general, underestimate how easily we equate the speed and grace of human movement with our sense of conscious thought. Therefore, COG appears to be conscious, and we find this unnerving. The second interview is with Brooks himself. He attempts to define their goals in making COG “conscious.” In a few years, he hopes that people will feel badly about turning COG off, and this empathy for the robot will equal “consciousness.” To Brook most humanlike is the meaning of consciousness. When questioned, he explains that humans and animals are just extremely complex chemical machines and we have created this idea of “consciousness” to more easily explain this level of complexity. Therefore, if COG can reach a level of speed and grace rivaling that of a human (as Dennett suggests), then we can only describe this as being conscious. Interpretive Comments This segment is appropriate for use with material on thinking and consciousness. The issues addressed in this segment question the definition of consciousness. It might also prove useful in fostering discussion regarding ethics in psychological research, particularly regarding what it means to be “human” and defining the limits of acceptable research. Discussion Questions: 1. What is your definition of consciousness? Do you agree with Dennett and Brook, that robots can someday be “conscious”? Why or why not? 2. What are some characteristics of humans that a robot would need to achieve or imitate for you to consider it “conscious”? 3. Are there any ethical issues in this area of research? If so, what are they?

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Hidden Prejudice: The Implicit Association Test

Length: 6:10 minutes File Name: 042_Hidden_Prejudice.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Scientific American Frontiers Teaching Modules for Introductory Psychology, Third Edition Description In the Harvard lab of Mahzarin Banaji, Alan Alda takes a test designed to measure his attitudes toward women in the workplace. Having always thought of himself as a feminist, Alda anticipates the outcome of his own performance. Banaji’s test is the Implicit Association Test which measures the strength of associations we have often unconsciously formed between such things as men and career versus women and career. Actually, as the program explains, the key to assessment is the time it takes to make the association. Results of Alda’s test suggest that he harbors a slight bias against the association of women and career. Surprisingly, Mahzarin admits that the test shows that she has an even stronger bias again women in the workplace. Next Brian Nosek, one of the creators of the test, assesses his own associations between Europeans and African Americans with the characteristics of “good” and “bad.” In spite of his conscious and expressed tolerance of all ethnic groups, he shows a hidden bias against African Americans. While admitting his hidden bias, Nosek suggests that it need not control his actions. He also notes that when he thinks about positive African American exemplars such as Michael Jordan and Colin Powell, his performance on the test improves. Banaji also suggests that exposure to positive models is one way in which we can effectively combat implicit prejudice. In short, our environment can successfully intervene in combating bias whether it is overt or hidden and automatic. Interpretive Comments The program provides an excellent opportunity to introduce current information-processing research that indicates that access to all that goes on in our minds is very limited. Consciousness is only the tip of the information-processing iceberg. Prejudice can be blatant and overt but also subtle and automatic. People who deny harboring gender or racial prejudice still may carry negative associations. Researchers must continue to study strategies for reducing prejudice at both levels. Discussion Questions 1. Do you think the test is a reliable and valid measure of prejudice? How would researchers determine its validity and reliability? 2. What do you believe may be the sources of subtle, automatic prejudice? 3. Do you share the researchers’ optimism that subtle, automatic prejudice can be reduced or even overcome? Why or why not?

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Neisser’s Selective Attention Test Length: 0:48 seconds File Name: 043_Neisser.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This clip is a portion of the actual tape Neisser showed to subjects in his selective attention test. Selective attention is a person’s ability to only pay attention to certain aspects of an experience. In Neisser’s selective attention test, subjects were shown images of three men in black shirts passing a basketball to each other superimposed on images of three men in white shirts passing a basketball. The subjects were instructed to press a key each time they saw a man in a black shirt pass the ball.

Interpretive Comments This segment is useful for lectures on perception, particularly the segment on attention. Selective attention is often studied using the dichotic listening technique. In this technique participants listen to two separate streams of information coming in to their right and left ears through a set of earphones. It is this technique that has helped to make us aware that we do not perceive much of the content of the unattended ear. Ulrich Neisser has developed a different task for testing selective attention. This task requires individuals to watch, rather than listen, but measures the same ability.

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Visual Attention: Piecing Things Together Length: 4:00 minutes File Name: 044_Visual_Attention_1.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: The Mind’s Eye (BBC Motion Gallery) Description You might introduce perception with the topic of selective attention. At any moment, we focus on only a limited aspect of everything that we experience. Thus, people often show a surprising lack of awareness of changes in their visual environment. Daniel Simons and Chris Chabris of Harvard University conduct an experiment in which research participants approach a counter where a male experimenter hands them a consent form. After they sign and return it to the experimenter, he takes it and ducks behind the counter. A different male experimenter stands up, hands the participants a packet of information, and directs them to a hallway where they are asked a series of questions. In most cases, the research participants fail to notice the change in experimenters. They report their experience in some detail without any reference to the different men. Even when they are specifically asked if they noticed anything unusual, they report that they did not. When the participants are finally told about the change in experimenters, they express amusement and genuine disbelief. Why do only a minority of people notice the change? So far, research has not answered that question. Daniel Simons speculates that it may reflect an important individual difference variable but it may also be sheer coincidence. That is, at any given time, some people happen to attend to a feature that changes, perhaps an aspect of the experimenters’ clothing, while other participants’ attention happens to be focused elsewhere. Interpretive Comments The demonstration of change blindness provides a vivid illustration of selective attention. We process a very limited aspect of our total experience. Selective perception extends to our other senses. The cocktail party effect refers to our ability to attend to only one voice among many. Of course, some stimuli do attract our attention regardless of our current focus. For example, if another voice at a party speaks our name, that voice immediately comes into awareness. Discussion Questions 1. In what ways might selective attention be beneficial? In what ways might it be detrimental? 2. What individual differences might lead some people to notice changes that others do not?

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Visual Attention: There’s a Gorilla on the Court Length: 3:10 minutes File Name: 045_Visual_Attention_2.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Vision” Human Senses (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This clip provides an excellent opportunity to introduce students to the process of perception. More specifically, it illustrates the principle of selective attention, namely, the idea that at any moment our awareness focuses on only a limited aspect of all that we experience. The program reenacts a clever study of inattentional blindness conducted by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris of Harvard University. A group of observers watch a videotape of three yellowshirted players tossing a basketball. Three blue-shirted basketball players are also on the court. Observers are instructed to count the number of times the yellow-shirted men toss the ball. Midway through the tape a gorilla-suited confederate walks across the court, at one point stopping briefly to thump its chest. At the conclusion of the tape, the narrator asks the observers for their count of the tosses. Then he also asks whether anyone saw something unusual. Only a few hands go up. When the videotape is replayed without the request to count tosses, the observers express genuine disbelief that they could have missed the gorilla. Interpretive Comments Perception is an active process in which we organize and interpret sensory information. Selective attention vividly illustrates that activity, given that we select just a few visual stimuli to process and ignore the rest. The inattentional blindness that is apparent in this clip is also evident in research that finds we may be unaware of changes in the very objects we have been responding to (called change blindness). Change deafness can also occur. People may fail to notice a change in the person speaking. Discussion Questions 1. What does this simple study tell us about the nature of human perception? 2. What are some of the important everyday implications of our tendency to focus on only a very limited aspect of experience?

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Circadian Rhythms Length: 3:58 minutes File Name: 046_circadian_rhythms.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems) Description This clip introduces a firefighter whose job demands conflict with his natural circadian rhythms. A psychologist discusses how shift workers may have difficulty getting enough restorative sleep. Circadian rhythms are a built-in component of our daily functioning. While one can resist these to some extent, ignoring these rhythms for a prolonged period leads to disruption of performance and to exhaustion. Employers need to understand human circadian rhythms, for both the safety of their employees and for maximum efficiency. Discussion Questions 1. Circadian rhythms are known to produce “highs and lows” of mental acuity that vary throughout the day. In what ways can you use this information to improve efficiency in your lives? 2. Does our North American “nine to five” model fit what we now know about circadian rhythms? Do other cultures handle this better?

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Narcoleptic Dogs Length: 1:18 minutes File Name: 047_Narcoleptic_Dogs.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Description This segment illustrates narcolepsy in two different dogs. In the first segment, a longhaired dachshund is shown being taken for a walk. Out of nowhere, the dog falls to its side, asleep. Very soon following, the dog awakens and gets up as if nothing has happened. In the second segment, an English cocker spaniel is shown being fed. Soon after it begins eating, the dog falls asleep with its head in its food dish. The owner tries to wake the dog, but it remains asleep until finally awoken by the smell of food. Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder caused by the brain’s inability to regulate the sleep cycle, and REM sleep in particular. In dogs, narcolepsy and cataplexy are often induced by excitement—in the case of this segment, by the prospect of going for a walk or food. Interpretive Comments Narcolepsy is a form of sleep pathology and thus this segment is best used with material about sleep and dreaming. The comic nature of this segment belies the serious nature of this disorder. The use of amphetamines to treat narcolepsy makes this segment useful to some degree with lectures on drugs and behavior. Discussion Questions 1. How can we utilize this research on narcolepsy in dogs to better understand and treat the disorder in humans? 2. Why do we need a regular sleep cycle? What effect might its disruption have on your body’s mental and physical well-being? 3. What is the function of REM sleep?

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Sleep and Sleeplessness: The Current Scene Length: 5:45 minutes File Name: 048_Sleep_and_Sleeplessness.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Sleepless in America” Sunday Morning (CBS News) Description The functions of sleep and risks that accompany sleep deprivation are the focus of a program that is certain to capture your students’ interest. Today, Americans average only seven hours of sleep each night. In earlier times, they slept nine hours. Sleep researcher David Dinges indicates that, on average, humans need a full eight hours. Although it is clear we need sleep, its specific function remains unclear. When people are deprived of sleep, explains Dinges, attention and memory wane. The National Sleep Foundation reports that 42 percent of American adults indicate that they are not getting the amount of sleep they need. Many are seeking help from sleep disorder clinics throughout the country. Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders. Doctors face a challenge in getting people to recognize that failing to get adequate sleep can be a serious medical condition. Currently, sleep researchers are investigating how the lack of sleep may affect our bodies as well as our minds. For example, might inadequate sleep be linked to the current epidemic of obesity and diabetes? One study found that healthy young males who received only four hours of sleep per night for six days were in a prediabetic state. Dinges suggests that there is relentless pressure in industrialized societies to have more people awake more of the time. Thus, sleep researchers also study how to keep people awake. For example, the drug Modafinil works on specific neurotransmitters to fool the brain into a state of wakefulness. The hope is that some day the drug may be used to help shift workers maintain alertness in performing their jobs. The U.S. Army is also studying the effects of Modafinil on helicopter pilots who must maintain wakefulness for long periods of time. Killer whales are able to sleep with one-half their brain alert while the other half is resting. Researchers study their sleep patterns with the hope that this investigation may provide important insights into human sleep disorders and their possible control. Interpretive Comments Although there are individual differences in the need for sleep, most people who are allowed to sleep as long as they want average about nine hours. Going without sleep impairs concentration, creativity, and communication. It fosters irritability and vulnerability to accidents. Chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk for obesity, hypertension, and memory impairment. At Stanford University, sleep expert William Dement estimates that 80 percent of students are dangerously sleep deprived. Approximately 10 to 15 percent of adults complain of insomnia. They report persistent problems in falling or staying asleep.

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Discussion Questions 1. What accounts for the high level of sleep deprivation among college students? 2. Some people claim to be larks (morning persons). Others say they are owls (evening persons). What advantages or disadvantages might each pattern have in contemporary society?

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Sleep Terror Disorder Length: 4:20 minutes File Name: 049_Sleep Terror_Disorder.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Night, Night” The Trouble with Sleep (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This video provides a good introduction to the general topic of sleep disorders, especially night terrors and sleepwalking. Every night, six-year-old Holly’s screams bring her mother to her bedside. An hour after the little girl goes to sleep, her cries signal the onset of a night terror. Although her eyes are open, she remains fast asleep. She will not remember the event in the morning. Holly’s parents describe the experience as predictable yet frightening for them. Holly invariably cries out for them. And although they cuddle and comfort their daughter throughout the experience, she does not seem to know they are there. Night terrors affect a small percentage of children. Unlike nightmares, they occur during a deep phase of sleep and are not a sign of psychological disturbance or fear. Her father reports that sometimes he and his wife can understand what Holly is saying during the night terror. At other times, she is unintelligible. Clearly, the parents find their daughter’s sleep disorder to be distressing. Each night, as they wait for their daughter’s cry, they are distracted from their conversation with each other and even from watching TV. They have little time to spend with each other. An hour after Holly’s night terror, she cries again. However, this time she is awake and eager to get in her parents’ bed. Although both mother and father will try to return their daughter to her own bed, sometimes she ends up in her parents’ bed and remains there for the night. Her parents finally feel they have some time for themselves. Interpretive Comments Night terrors and sleepwalking are sleep disorders that occur primarily in childhood and typically disappear by adolescence. A night terror is often accompanied by a blood-curdling scream that brings parents rushing into the child’s bedroom. The dazed and groggy child cannot report what is wrong and generally goes back to sleep more quickly than the parents. Parents who worry about the psychological significance of the episodes probably suffer more than their children, who typically wake up the next morning unaware that anything unusual has happened. Laboratory studies indicate that these episodes occur in the first deep Stage 4 sleep of the night. They are generally associated with body movements and intense autonomic activation. Brain-wave recordings indicate that both sleepwalkers and night terror victims are moving rapidly back and forth between wakefulness and sleep. In contrast, nightmares, like other dreams, typically occur during early morning REM sleep.

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Discussion Questions 1. Have you known anyone who has suffered from sleepwalking or night terrors? What are the dominant characteristics of these disorders? 2. How should parents deal with children who refuse to sleep in their own beds? How should Holly’s parents deal with her?

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Sleep: Why We Sleep Length: 11:17 minutes File Name: 050_Sleep.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Why do we sleep? What happens during sleep that is so important that we spend approximately one-third of our adult life doing it? Does sleep serve one primary function or many related functions? One way scientists explore these questions is by conducting studies to examine the outcomes of sleep deprivation. These studies have proven that sleep deprivation leads to weakened immune function, negative moods, and decreases in performance on attention and memory tasks. Robert Stickgold points out that brain imaging technology allows us to understand the role of sleep in memory processing. One primary function of sleep is to allow time for our brains to process information from our waking life. The program then moves into a discussion on the five stages of sleep. Use of the electroencephalogram (EEG) allows researchers to measure and record changes in the electrical activity of the brain during the various stages of sleep. Sleep consists of two basic states: rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep and nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, which is made up of four stages. The entire sleep cycle, the progression from stages one to four, to REM, and back to stage one, takes approximately 45 minutes to an hour to complete. Stickgold describes what happens in each sleep stage before bringing up the topic of dreams. What we dream about, says Stickgold, typically has some connection to our lives. Researchers today tend to rely on the activation-synthesis model to explain how dreams are formed. This theory suggests that dreaming is the result of various parts of the brain—those involved with memory, emotions, and sensations—being activated. Essentially, dreaming allows the brain to organize and consolidate information to make space for more. Sleep serves both medical and psychological functions and is essential to the regeneration of the brain and body’s systems. The amount of sleep one should get varies by age and individual needs. Sleep disorders, like insomnia, can negatively impact our overall health. Discussion Questions

1. What is the role of sleep in memory processing? 2. Do modern scientists view dreams as holding as much relevance as Freud thought they did? 3. What causes sleep disorders?

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The Effects of Sleep Deprivation: Three Brave Souls Length: 6:00 minutes File Name: 051_Sleep_Deprivation.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Are You Superhuman?” (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Before or after showing this program, ask your students if they often feel sleep-deprived. What are the major symptoms and consequences of sleep deprivation? Three young adults, two males and one female, agree to participate in a study of sleep deprivation. In the 60 hours that they will go without sleep, researchers will assess their judgment and ability to concentrate. The electrical activity of the brain as measured by the electroencephalograph (EEG) will also provide information on the participants’ level of alertness. A simulated driving test will assess their ability to stay on the road. As the participants watch television the first night, a security guard and a student team make certain they remain awake. A variety of activities keep the volunteers going. As morning breaks, the volunteers are feeling the effects of a sleepless night. Vigorous exercise helps them to stay awake and keep warm. The participants do not look forward to the second night. They plan to help each other stay awake. Together, they again engage in stimulating physical activity. During the middle of the night, they appear exhausted. Dawn breaks and one volunteer describes the night as “absolute hell.” For the last four hours, the participants could only stay awake by standing up and walking around. During the last round of tests, the volunteers are nodding off. Brain electrical activity as assessed by the EEG indicates that one volunteer is in “micro” sleep. While taking the simulated driving test, another volunteer drives off the road. Sixty hours have passed and the participants can finally sleep. They do so in the laboratory so that the researchers can assess their rate of recovery. After twelve hours, the alarm rings and the volunteers report having enjoyed restful sleep. All three are revitalized and tests suggest that two of the three are virtually back to normal in terms of reaction time and judgment. Interpretive Comments Sleep researcher William Dement reports that 80 percent of students are “dangerously sleep deprived.” He bluntly states that a large sleep debt “makes you stupid.” Sleep deprivation results in college students having greater difficulty studying and being more prone to error. Those who suffer sleep loss show diminished productivity, irritability, and fatigue. As this demonstration suggests, sleep deprivation leads to slower reaction times, and thus drivers become more susceptible to accidents. Sleep loss seems to suppress the disease-fighting immune system and may help explain why people who sleep 7 to 8 hours per night tend to outlive those who are chronically sleep-deprived. Chronic sleep debt also changes metabolic and hormonal functioning in ways that mimic aging, and it predisposes us to a variety of health problems including obesity and hypertension. 18   

Discussion Questions 1. What factors in contemporary society make people vulnerable to suffering from sleep deprivation? 2. Are you sleep-deprived? If so, how does it affect your daily living? 3. Are you a morning person (a lark) or an evening person (an owl)? In what ways does being a lark or an owl make a difference?

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Hypnosis: An Altered Mental State? Length: 4:00 minutes File Name: 052_Hypnosis_1.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Hypnosis” Sunday Morning (CBS News) Description Class discussion of consciousness and information processing might include a consideration of hypnosis. Your discussion could address the important question of whether hypnosis represents an altered mental state. This clip explores David Spiegel’s research on hypnosis at Stanford University. Utilizing brain scans, he reports that under hypnotic suggestion research participants may process a black-and-white stimulus as color. Although hypnosis is not as magical or dramatic as sometimes portrayed in the popular media, it can produce alternative perceptions through quiet persuasion. Using hypnotic suggestion, Spiegel has been able to reduce pain associated with everything from chronic muscle aches to cancer. He has also helped Parkinson’s patients remain calm before surgery. Although hypnosis does not make discomfort disappear, it does help victims of pain to focus their attention elsewhere. The posthypnotic suggestion that one will not notice pain only works for some people and then only temporarily. Helping people to put themselves in a hypnotic state can increase its beneficial effects. A woman who experiences lower jaw pain from clenching her teeth in her sleep reports that the strategy is effective for her. Not everyone can be hypnotized. Tests can reveal one’s level of suggestibility. The narrator, who reports being skeptical of hypnotic effects, proves susceptible to Spiegel’s suggestion that her one arm will feel heavier and less controllable than the other. Interpretive Comments Although hypnosis can contribute to significant pain relief, claims that it can enhance recall of past events seem unfounded. In fact, it may evoke false memories. And although posthypnotic suggestions have helped to alleviate headaches, asthma, and certain skin disorders, they have not been effective in treating addictions. Psychologists continue to debate whether hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness. As the program reveals, brain scans of hypnotized people told to see things that are not present (such as color) show activity in brain areas that usually light up only when we are sensing real stimuli. Those who reject the idea that hypnosis is an altered state believe that hypnosis is a by-product of normal social and cognitive processes.

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Discussion Questions 1. What makes some people more hypnotizable than others? In what other respects might they be different? 2. Why do you think hypnosis contributes to pain relief?

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Hypnosis: Medical and Psychological Applications Length: 5:40 minutes File Name: 053_Hypnosis_2.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Hypnosis” Sunday Morning (CBS News) Description Before showing this video segment, you might ask your students if they have had any experience with hypnosis. Have they reached any conclusions about this state of consciousness? Although old feature films may portray hypnosis as hocus pocus, the technique has become an important part of modern medicine. For example, surgeons may use hypnosis to relax patients who are undergoing minor but often very painful surgery. General anesthetic is not an option and local pain medication has its limits, especially with patients who are very anxious. Although hypnosis has long been used to help people lose weight and quit smoking, typically it has not been a part of traditional hospital medicine. However, this is changing. Research has indicated that hypnosis makes surgical procedures safer, more comfortable, and more efficient. Hypnotized patients need much less medication and experience fewer side effects. Billy was burned in a gasoline fire. A psychologist uses hypnosis to help him tolerate the pain of bandage removal. Excellent success in treating burn victims with hypnosis led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support research on virtual reality hypnosis. Just before bandage change, patients put on headsets and travel through a three-dimensional canyon in which all is cool and peaceful. Early research findings suggest the technique is as effective as actual hypnosis in relieving pain. A majority of doctors now refer patients for hypnosis when they believe it to be appropriate. Pregnant women are taught to use hypnosis on themselves in preparation for labor. Finding that the technique is effective, the women are now bringing the strategy to the attention of their doctors. New mother Jody reports that, with her husband Larry helping her to remain hypnotized during labor, the experience was pain free. Hypnotist advocate David Spiegel hopes that hypnosis will become the first, rather than the last, strategy that doctors and patients turn to in alleviating pain. The technique is easy to perform, effective, and makes patients feel good about themselves. Interpretive Comments Hypnosis is a heightened state of suggestibility that clearly can relieve pain. In fact, approximately 10 percent of us can become so deeply hypnotized that major surgery can be performed without anesthetic. Furthermore, research suggests that 50 percent of us can gain at least some pain relief from hypnosis. Because of the inhibition of pain-related brain activity, patients who are hypnotized recover from surgery more quickly, require less pain medication, and leave the hospital sooner. Posthypnotic suggestions have helped to alleviate headaches and to reduce obesity. On the other hand, hypnosis has been far less successful in treating drug, alcohol, and smoking additions. 22   

Some explain hypnotic pain relief in terms of dissociation—that is, a split between different levels of consciousness. Presumably hypnosis dissociates the sensation of the pain stimulus from the emotional suffering that defines our experience of pain. An alternative explanation argues that hypnotic pain results from selective attention and thus from distraction. For example, some research indicates that relaxation and distraction work as well as hypnosis in relieving the pain associated with childbirth. Discussion Questions 1. What does this program tell us about the nature of pain? 2. Is hypnosis a more effective strategy than simple distraction for managing pain? 3. Do you believe hypnosis may be more effective with some forms of pain than others? Why or why not?

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Experimenting with Alcohol and Drugs Length: 2:49 minutes File Name: 054_Experimenting_alcohol_drugs.mp4 Source: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Description In this video, teens discuss their own and other teens’ decisions to experiment with alcohol and other drugs. Discussion Questions 1. According to the teens in this video, why do adolescents experiment with drugs and alcohol? 2. What reason do they give for doing drugs as a response to boredom? 3. Do any of the teens in this video appear to understand the long-term consequences of the decisions they have made, and of those they will be making?

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The Medical Use of Marijuana Length: 3:00 minutes File Name: 055_Medical_Marijuana.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Legalizing Marijuana” Sunday Morning (CBS News) Description Introducing students to the controversy over the medical use of marijuana highlights the need for careful research on both the positive and negative effects of drugs. The program notes that California was the first state to legalize the medical use of marijuana for people who are seriously ill. However, the federal government responded with raids, arrests, and injunctions in an effort to close the clubs supplying the drug. Angel began taking marijuana after her prescribed pain-killing drugs made her sick. To avoid the dangers of marijuana smoke, she uses a medical inhaler to take the drug. She reports that marijuana enabled her to abandon her wheelchair and resume her duties as a mother. She purchased her first supply of marijuana from the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative. However, in a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government put the organization out of business. Angel’s family has gone to federal court in an effort to obtain an order that will protect Angel and the unnamed growers who supply her with marijuana. In an emotional on-camera appeal, she argues that the federal government’s actions could send her back to a wheelchair. Drug czar John Walters argues that the claims about the beneficial effects of marijuana are unsubstantiated. In fact, he claims, people are being conned into believing that marijuana is harmless. He further suggests that it is a highly addictive substance that causes great harm, particularly to the young people of our country. The narrator laments that court cases and politics rather than scientific research are deciding whether marijuana can be used for medical purposes. Interpretive Comments In presenting this video, you might note that California and at least nine other states have approved the medical use of marijuana. Moreover, national polls of both the American people and of doctors and nurses indicate that these groups overwhelmingly favor making marijuana available to reduce pain and suffering. Angel continues her court battle to win the right to use marijuana. In 2005, the Supreme Court rejected her argument that the application of the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to the personal cultivation, possession, and use of state-authorized cannabis for medical purposes was unconstitutional because it exceeded the power of Congress to “regulate commerce among the states.” More recently, she went back to court to claim that the ban on the medical use of marijuana violated her fundamental right to preserve her life. In March 2007, the court rejected this appeal but held out some hope that, if criminally prosecuted, Angel might qualify for the defense of “necessity.”

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Discussion Questions 1. Do you favor the medical use of marijuana? Why or why not? 2. How do you think that society should resolve this important controversy?

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The Nature and Abuse of Ecstasy (MDMA) Length: 2:50 minutes File Name: 056_Ecstasy.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Ecstasy” 48 Hours (CBS News) Description Ecstasy, a street name for MDMA (methylendioxmethamphetamine), is both a stimulant and a mild hallucinogen. Young adults at an all-night rave describe how the drug produces feelings of euphoria. Scott, an engineer, explains how the drug helps him to explore his inner self. His girlfriend, Jen, a healthcare worker, relates how Ecstasy makes her feel more secure in who she is. Users also claim it makes them more tolerant of others and more insightful. Ecstasy produces body warmth and tingling but it also causes jaw clenching and a dry mouth. Because the body becomes especially sensitive to stimulation, massage often proves especially pleasurable. The drug works by flooding the brain with serotonin, a chemical that regulates mood and memory. It also intensifies the perception of color and light. Despite its pleasurable effects, the drug Ecstasy is dangerous. Interpretive Comments During the late 1990s, Ecstasy became a popular “club drug.” In addition to producing euphoria, it may foster feelings of intimacy in a social setting. The clip recognizes that the drug may be dangerous, and you will want to expand on its harmful effects in class: it produces dehydration and, particularly when combined with prolonged dancing, it increases the risk of severe overheating, high blood pressure, and even death. By damaging serotonin-producing neurons, its long-term use can lead to reduced serotonin levels and depression. The drug may also disrupt sleep, suppress the immune system, and impair memory. Discussion Questions 1. What factors make a person vulnerable to drug abuse? 2. How can society best prevent the abuse of drugs?

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Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity Behavior Genetics Length: 7:06 minutes File Name: 057_BehavioralGenetics.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Decades of research in the area of behavior genetics suggest that both genes and environment play an important role in determining individual differences in human behavior. Information stored in our DNA influences not only our hair color or height, but also our intelligence, temperament, and predisposition to psychological disorders. But, what do we get from our environment? This program explores the delicate relationship between nature and nurture, and ethical implications of genetic testing and manipulation. Twin studies that compare identical and fraternal twins are valuable tools used by behavioral geneticists because of the genetic and environmental similarities that exist between them. The narrator cites a study conducted by University of Minnesota researcher Thomas Bouchard on identical twins raised apart in different environments. Despite the environmental differences, the twins proved to be more alike than not in terms of personality traits, intelligence, and interests. Similarly, results from adoption studies indicate the power of genes over environment. Scientists have been able to use statistical analyses to estimate the heritability of particular traits. Therefore, the study of heritability reveals how much variation among individuals is due to genetics, the environment, and the interaction of the two. In recent years, technology has allowed scientists to study genetics on a molecular level and pinpoint precisely which genes are responsible for predisposing us to certain outcomes such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and substance abuse. Michael Lyons, however, raises this important question: If given the opportunity to reduce risk and select favorable traits in your offspring, would you? Discussion Questions 1. Why are twin studies important in understanding environmental and genetic influences on individual traits and behaviors? What are some general findings from studies on identical and fraternal twins? 2. Discuss the ethical implications for allowing future parents to screen their fetuses for genetic problems or select favorable traits. 3. Explain how diversity within a population influences heritability of a particular trait.

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100 Years Old and Counting: Psychological and Biological Factors Length: 6:30 minutes File Name: 058_100-years-old.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Volume 2 Source: “The First Hundred Years” Sunday Morning (CBS News) Description This video suggests that both nature and nurture—that is, both heredity and environment—contribute to longevity. At the age of 101, Ray works daily in his chemistry laboratory at Messiah College. He continues to study the complex effects that toxic metals have on the environment. He hesitates to call what he finds so fascinating to be “work” and describes his ability to keep going as inherent. “I just do it,” he claims, “and don’t think about it.” Those who reach the age of 100 tend to be happy-go-lucky, assertive, and good at stress management. In addition, they have strong interests that motivate them to get up in the morning. 101-year-old Alva is motivated by baking a favorite recipe, sampling a box of chocolates, and, most importantly, painting—a hobby that she has enjoyed for almost 90 years. Alva also values her social connections and goes out with friends three times a week. She reports that she never felt as though she were growing old. Longevity seems to run in Alva’s family. Her father lived to nearly 100, her grandfather to 95, and a cousin reached the age of 111. Researcher Thomas Perls believes that centenarians hold some important genetic secrets. More than half of the participants in his study have family members who also enjoyed long lives. After careful examination of the DNA of centenarians and their siblings, Perls and geneticist Louis Kunkel reported success in identifying the region of a chromosome they believe contains the genes responsible for longevity. The next step is to identify the specific gene or genes that underlie longer life. Perls expresses the hope that such identification might eventually lead to the development of longevity drugs. More than genes, however, foster a long life. Good health habits could extend everyone’s life. Interpretive Comments Both nature and nurture (genes and experience) contribute to successful aging. The fact that longevity tends to run in families suggests that genes may play a vital role in how long we live. As this video highlights, the search for the specific genes that underlie long life is progressing rapidly. At the same time, you might note to your students that some evolutionary biologists maintain that we pass on our genes most successfully when we raise our young and then stop consuming resources. That is, once we have completed our gene-producing task, there are no natural selection processes against genes that cause degeneration in later life. Obviously, good health habits extend our lives. In addition, life attitudes seem to be important to successful aging. In a study of 180 Catholic nuns, those who expressed hope, happiness, love, and other positive feelings in early adulthood lived an average of seven year longer than those with more negative attitudes. This held true in spite of similar lifestyles and the same social status. 2   

Discussion Questions 1. How does this program highlight the importance of both nature and nurture in understanding successful aging? 2. Which personality characteristics do you believe are associated with longevity? 3. What are the most important aspects of lifestyle that foster successful aging?

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Nature Versus Nurture: Growing Up Apart Length: 1:48 minutes File Name: 059_Twins.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “In the Genes” 48 Hours (CBS News) Description Psychologists use twin studies to help sort out the relative contributions of nature and nurture to human development. Jerry and Mark are identical twins who share the same profession, same interests, and even the same mannerisms. As children they watched the same television programs. All of this is surprising because they were separated at birth, were raised by different families, and did not meet until they were age 31. First and most obvious is their striking physical resemblance. As they spend time together and share their life stories, similarities of behavior also become evident. How they walk and even hold a beer are the same. They learn that they share the same hobby of white-water rafting and even the same occupation. Why do we have these striking similarities, ask the twins? They conclude it must be the result of shared genes. Indeed, studies of identical twins separated at birth have helped shift scientific thinking toward a greater appreciation of genetic influences. Jerry and Mark are not unique in demonstrating startling similarities of personalities, abilities, interests, and even fears. Interpretive Comments The biggest and most persistent issue in psychology concerns the relative contributions of nature and nurture to human behavior. Do we come equipped with our traits or does our environment shape us? Twin studies help researchers tease apart the influences of both heredity and environment. Comparisons of identical twin pairs reared apart are particularly informative. Research has shown rather remarkable similarities in such twins and lends support to the claim that genes influence personality. As students watch this video they should be aware that some critics remain unconvinced that such case studies establish the importance of genetic influence. They argue that any two strangers who spend considerable time together comparing their behaviors and life histories are likely to discover many coincidental similarities. Discussion Questions 1. Does nature play a more significant role than nurture in shaping certain human characteristics? If so, which ones? 2. What are some important ways in which both nature and nurture contribute to our development?

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Designer Babies? Length: 6:50 minutes File Name: 060_Designer_Babies.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Volume 2 Source: “Designer Babies” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Molecular genetics represents the new frontier of behavior-genetics research. It aims to identify the specific genes that influence behavior. This case study illustrates important advances in the field, as well as the highly controversial issues that these new developments raise. The program will stimulate a lively classroom discussion. Thousands of children are born annually with devastating genetic diseases that eventually prove fatal. For example, Maigon was only a few months old when doctors told her parents that she suffered from TaySachs disease and had only a short time to live. The disorder led to Maigon’s loss of all her motor skills, her ability to speak, and finally her life. Fearing that another child might suffer the same fate, Maigon’s parents decided to remain childless. However, a year after Maigon died, doctors presented them with the hope of bearing a child free of TaySachs. Researchers had discovered the precise genetic abnormality underlying the disorder. Also, in vitro fertilization techniques enabled doctors to handle early embryos more effectively. These advances were critical in the development of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a strategy that could permit couples to have children free of Tay-Sachs. Some of Renee’s eggs were fertilized with her husband’s sperm in the laboratory. The tiny embryos were tested for the Tay-Sachs gene. The embryos that proved free of the disease were implanted in Renee. One developed into a baby. Brittany proved to be the successful culmination of the dreams of nearly a decade of research. In recent years, hundreds of babies have been conceived through PGD, free of a variety of deadly genetic diseases. The potential for people to use the developing technology to select for more than health poses a significant moral dilemma. Parents could possibly choose genes not only for health but also for cosmetic reasons—for such characteristics as height or even eye or hair color. PGD was intended to enable parents to have children free of deadly genetic diseases, not to provide them with the opportunity to produce designer babies. Interpretive Comments Molecular genetics is the subfield of biology that studies the molecular structure and function of genes. Genetic tests can now reveal people at risk for many diseases. Molecular geneticists work with psychologists to identify genes underlying learning disabilities, depression, schizophrenia, aggressiveness, and alcoholism. Molecular geneticists increasingly seek links between certain genes or chromosome segments and specific disorders.

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Medical personnel may soon be able to give potential parents a read-out on how their fetus’ genes differ from normal and what this might mean. Parents may not only select for health but also for intelligence, beauty, and athleticism. Such screening poses ethical dilemmas. For example, in China and India, where males are favored, testing for an offspring’s sex has resulted in selective abortions resulting in millions of missing women. A new strategy for sorting sperm carrying male and female chromosomes can provide parents with a reasonable chance of success at choosing a child’s sex before conception. Discussion Questions 1. What does the research suggest about the role of nature and nurture in shaping human behavior? 2. Should parents be given the opportunity to choose the specific physical and psychological characteristics of their children? Why or why not? 3. What, if any, specific guidelines or limits do you think should be placed on parents’ capacity to design their own babies?

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The Nature–Nurture Issue Length: 5:05 minutes File Name: 061_Nature-Nurture-Debate.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Volume 2 Source: Profile: Steven Pinker (BBC Motion Gallery) Description In discussing the nature–nurture issue, you will want to include a consideration of the evolutionary perspective. In this video, evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker challenges the assumption that the human mind is a blank slate. Pinker argues that, to explain human nature, one must understand how humans evolved. The principle of natural selection determines our deepest strivings, including why we love our children, enjoy sex, and seek to survive. Such strong inclinations are the product of Darwinian evolution. Pinker rejects the notion that at birth our minds are blank slates and that culture shapes our character. The notion of the blank slate assumes that the mind has no inherent structure and that personality is a product of the environment. Parents and the larger culture shape us through socialization. Richard Dawkins notes that the idea of the blank slate has been influential in the social sciences and has led to neglect of the role of genes in understanding human behavior. The notion that we are products of nurture rather than nature has been popular for political and moral reasons. If we are born as blank slates, that means we are equal. Pinker explains that the opposite view, that we have innate traits, was horrendously perverted in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, perhaps most notably in Nazism which assumed some races were superior. Inferior races were to be eliminated. However, Pinker notes that the blank slate was a driving force in other twentieth century atrocities including the Marxist regimes of Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, and Pol Pot. China’s cultural revolution killed millions in an effort to remold its people. Chairman Mao, who led the revolution, stated that the most beautiful words could be written on a blank sheet of paper. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge captured the spirit of the blank slate in its slogan that only the newborn baby is spotless. The notion that the mind is totally malleable, suggests Pinker, opens the door to the practice of totalitarian social engineering. Ironically, Nazism and Marxism share the idea that human nature can be reshaped. Nazism assumes it can be reshaped through biological means, Marxism through social means. Interpretive Comments The nature–nurture debate is psychology’s biggest and most persistent issue. The ancient Greeks debated this question, as did philosophers in the 1600s. John Locke suggested that the human mind is a blank slate on which experience writes. Descartes counter-argued that some ideas are innate. Today, evolutionary psychology studies how the principles of natural selection have shaped the human mind and behavior. Nature selects behaviors that increase the likelihood of sending one’s genes into the future. Contemporary psychology recognizes that we are the product of nature and nurture—that is, we are products of both our genes and our environments. Moreover, they interact. Steven Pinker highlights how the assumptions that we make about human nature can shape important social and political attitudes. 7   

Discussion Questions 1. How might evolutionary psychology’s explanations of human behavior shape social and political attitudes? 2. Provide some examples of how both nature and nurture contribute to specific human behaviors.

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Evolutionary Psychology Length: 7:30 minutes File Name: 062_Evolutionary_Psych.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Evolutionary psychology relies on principles from evolutionary biology to understand the roots of behavior. It is through this theoretical lens that evolutionary psychologists study how cognition has evolved over time. Evolutionary psychologists believe that the process of natural selection, as identified by the famous naturalist Charles Darwin, provides humans with psychological adaptations in the same way that other organisms adapt anatomically. The narrator explains that homologous and analogous characteristics are reliable indicators of common ancestry among species and, therefore, are important tools for evolutionary psychologists. In this video, wing structure in birds and insects is presented as an example of analogous characteristics. Both species have adapted wings to fly (and therefore to survive), although they do not share common ancestry. So, if evolution is about survival, then what can be said about altruism? Kin selection theory and reciprocity theory contend that altruistic acts contribute to survival by preserving the gene pool. Critics of evolutionary psychology argue that the model is incomplete in terms of explaining where all behavior comes from. As Cervone puts it, “evolutionary psychology often explains why in a particular situation a particular behavior occurs because that pays off evolutionarily. However, much of psychology involves other questions that just aren’t touched by the evolutionary psychologist.” Discussion Questions 1. Do human emotions have an adaptive value? How does evolution play into the development of human emotions? 2. What is the relationship between evolution and learning? Are they opposite models? Are there certain adaptations required to develop the capacity to learn? 3. What are some common criticisms about evolutionary psychology?

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Evolutionary Psychology and Sex Differences Length: 4:10 minutes File Name: 063_Evolutionary_Psych_sex_differences.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Volume 2 Source: Profile: Steven Pinker (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This program is useful for introducing the evolutionary perspective and the critic’s frequently expressed concern about its negative personal and social consequences. Both Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins speak directly to the question of whether genetic determinism undermines moral responsibility. Pinker notes that, although men and women are overwhelming similar in most mental traits, they differ in sexuality. Helena Cronin adds that the different environmental challenges that face the sexes have contributed to significant differences in psychological makeup. Some feminists fear that highlighting gender differences may promote inequality. Science, notes Cronin, seeks only to describe reality. Morality prescribes how we ought to live. Thus, in describing men as more promiscuous than women, evolutionary theory is not sanctioning such male behavior. Pinker rejects the notion that explanations of behavior get “people off the hook.” The fact that people have desires, and that scientists have explanations for those desires, does not mean that people must act on those desires. In fact, in his own life, Pinker has chosen not to act on the most fundamental evolutionary urge—namely, the desire to have children. People make many decisions that do not carry out the dictates of evolution. Pinker describes his personal choice as “telling his genes to go jump in the lake.” Richard Dawkins concludes that one can be a scientist who understands human nature, including the reality of selfish genes. At the same time, one can acknowledge that we have a brain (it, too, a product of natural selection) that enables us to do the unexpected—namely, to tell our genes to go jump in the lake. Interpretive Comments Evolutionary psychologists suggest that explaining how we came to be need not dictate how we ought to act. In fact, understanding our predispositions may help us overcome them. Rather than undermining personal and social responsibility, evolutionary psychology may enhance it. This argument, of course, would apply to research that is generated by psychology’s other theoretical perspectives as well. In showing this clip, you may also want to note that psychological science does not seek to answer ultimate questions such as the meaning or purpose of human life. The naturalistic fallacy is the error of defining what is observable as necessarily good. For example, no survey of sexual practices logically dictates what is “right” behavior.

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Discussion Questions 1. Does the understanding of human behavior undermine personal responsibility? Why or why not? 2. Do you think that psychology is free of value judgments? Why or why not? 3. What is the relationship between the different theoretical perspectives on human behavior and experience? Are they competing or complementary? Explain your answer.

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Openness to Casual Sex: A Study of Men Versus Women Length: 3:25 minutes File Name: 064_Casual_Sex.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Deepest Desires” Human Instinct (BBC Motion Gallery) Description The research on casual sex described in this program can generate a lively discussion of gender differences and their underlying causes. It can also provide a useful review of the evolutionary perspective. To identify differences in how men and women view potential sex partners this clip visits a university campus in London. Two actors, one male and one female, are equipped with hidden cameras and microphones. Each will approach individual students on campus with the same proposition, “I have been noticing you on campus and find you very attractive. Would you sleep with me tonight?” How many students will agree to the request? When the male actor approaches the first female student, she says, “Are you kidding? Is this a joke?” Subsequent female students all decline the male’s request. The study was first carried out at Florida State University to see whether men and women have fundamentally different attitudes toward casual sex. The results were clear-cut. Women refused the man’s proposition. In contrast, men readily accepted the woman’s offer to have sex. As you’ll see, the findings in London are similar. Interpretive Comments Russell Clark and Elaine Hatfield first conducted this study at Florida State University in 1978. All the women who were asked to have sex declined, but three-quarters of the men agreed. In some cases, the men wondered why they had to wait until evening. Clark and Hatfield repeated their study in 1982 and again in the late 1980s with similar results. In explaining this difference, evolutionary psychologists would argue that men increase the likelihood of sending their genes into the future by mating widely. Because women incubate and nurse babies, they increase their children’s chances of survival by mating wisely, that is, by searching for mates with economic resources and social status, and who will make a long-term investment in their offspring. Discussion Questions 1. What do you think accounts for the differences between men and women in this study? 2. Do men and women differ in other attitudes and values? If so, what are they and what may cause these differences?

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Activity, Exercise, and the Brain Length: 05:01 minutes File Name: 065_Activity_Exercise_Brain.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Description In the past, it was believed that human brain development remained relatively stable once we hit adulthood, with no further growth and only deterioration with age. Current research, in contrast, suggests that an enriching environment can both increase the number of nerve connections and extend the vascular system of the brain even during adulthood. In other words, brain growth and development continues throughout the human life span. In this segment, Dr. Greenough explains current research being done with rats at the University of Illinois. Adult rats are either housed in a complex, changing environment with other rats or are isolated in a small cage. Rats experiencing the “enriched” environment show a more developed brain than those in the control condition. In another experiment, rats are either trained on an obstacle course which evokes learning but requires little physical effort, or they run on a wheel, providing exercise but little learning. Both groups showed improvement, but in different areas, with mental exercise resulting in increased neural connections and physical exercise yielding an increase in the vascular supply. Therefore, environment plays a key role in brain development throughout the life span. The results with rats reveal significant insight into human brain development, structure, and cognitive functioning. Interpretive Comments This film segment can be used in a variety of contexts. First, it is germane to material that concerns the nature/nurture issue. The topic of intelligence is frequently brought up when discussing this matter. It is also relevant to the topic of learning. In a related fashion, it is an important part of coverage of neuroscience, especially the research on long-term potentiation. The changes that occur in the brain when we learn new information continue to be an important research topic in psychology. Discussion Questions 1. Why do we use the animal model in experiments like these? 2. What does the role of environment in these studies tell us about nature versus nurture as it applies to cognitive development? 3. What do these results tell us about the structure of cognitive functioning in the human brain? How does the brain change when we learn new information? 4. How might these findings be applied to serve the general population? 5. What does this say about humans raised in enriching versus unenriching environments? 6. 13   

Are Today’s Girls Academically Superior to Boys? Length: 5:40 minutes File Name: 066_Girls_Superior.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: 48 Hours: “Boys” (BBC Motion Gallery) Description The program provides a useful classroom example of the importance of the environment in the development of gender roles. Across the country boys invest less in school performance than girls do. In fact, notes school psychologist Michael Thompson, girls now outperform boys at all levels of formal education. Why? Thompson argues that our society encourages girls to pursue academic excellence. In contrast, boys are taught that success comes through the pursuit of athletics. Being a good student is simply not masculine. The feminist movement has encouraged girls to excel in school, while boys have received no such support. Interestingly, when fathers do encourage their sons, for example, by attending PTA meetings, their sons achieve better grades. Employing more male teachers, suggests Thompson, might reverse the pattern. He cites the example of a male teacher who served as a school football coach but also taught poetry. His male students learned to appreciate poetry as well as master their favorite sport. At Jefferson Academy in Long Beach, California, Franklin Goodman coaches as well as teaches math and science. The school has an even ratio of male and female teachers. During academic periods, the genders are separated. Boys study in one room, girls in another. Boys report that they learn more and feel less embarrassed about their mistakes with no girls present. Instructors use more competition and physical activity in the male classrooms than in those with all females. Course content is also more male-oriented. Test scores for boys at the school have increased dramatically. Thompson argues that our society tolerates boys’ academic difficulties because they eventually get good jobs regardless of their problems in schools. This is not true for girls. Although they may achieve greater academic success, women continue to receive less pay. This may eventually change as women now greatly outnumber men in medical, law, and business schools. Interpretive Comments In discussing this program you may want to remind your students that males and females do not differ in intelligence. Although both nature and nurture shape our differences and commonalities, differences in academic achievement, as this program emphasizes, largely reflect the importance of the environment. Social learning theory highlights the significance of models as well as rewards and punishments in shaping gender-linked behaviors. Gender schema theory suggests we learn a cultural “recipe” of how to be male and female, which influences our behavior and our understanding of what is gender appropriate. Both theories may help explain the difference in academic achievement.

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Discussion Questions 1. Is the gender difference described in this program consistent with your own experience? Do you agree with Thompson’s analysis? 2. In what other ways does nurture shape gender?

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Gender Development Length: 6:40 minutes File Name: 067_GenderDevelopment.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Theorists once believed that gender identity was influenced solely by the environment in which we are brought up. Today, however, it is widely recognized that gender differences are influenced by our biology. Men and women think, act, and feel differently because of differences in brain structure and function. These differences, due to chromosomal patterning and hormones, emerge early in utero and affect a range of masculine and feminine behaviors. But, despite these differences, males and females— biologically—are actually very similar. Does that indicate that gender role stereotypes are perpetuated by society and culture? Male and female embryos are indistinguishable until the male Y chromosome begins promoting the production of testosterone and male sex hormones. The presence of these sex hormones causes the male brain to develop differently than the female brain, especially in areas where sex hormone receptors are abundant. Genetic abnormalities can sometimes cause genital ambiguities when features from both sexes are present. Besides affecting the functioning and development of sex organs, sex hormones also appear to impact behavior. Testosterone, which is produced in greater quantities in males, is believed to effect physical aggression—a behavior regarded as “typically male” in our society. David Uttal states that “we tend to overemphasize gender differences,” which may have to do with the human need to categorize our experiences to make sense of the world. Early in life, when children discover that two gender types exist, they too look for clues to help them discern the group to which they belong. Gender differences are diminishing as women today increasingly enter professions traditionally occupied by men. The degree to which we conform to gender-role stereotyping ultimately depicts how our world will look. Discussion Questions 1. Is it possible to transcend gender stereotypes? What kind of messages do we receive from media regarding how men and women should look and behave? Provide some examples. 2. How is gender related to culture? Is gender behavior the same across cultures? 3. What is gender equality? Is it a concern for men? How might it be beneficial to categorize male and female behavior?

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Sexual Identity Goes Awry Length: 6:30 minutes File Name: 068_Sexual_Identity.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: 48 Hours: “Trapped” (BBC Motion Gallery/CBS News) Description This case study provides an excellent opportunity to discuss the role of nature and nurture in shaping one’s sense of being male or female. In this case, a young, single mother faces the challenge of dealing with a young daughter who desperately wants to be a boy. The 11-year-old girl claims she neither thinks nor feels like a girl. From being an outstanding student to one who was nearly failing, she became depressed and complained of having nightmares in which she dreamed of being a boy. Her mother took her to several counselors and therapists. When the 11-year-old reported to them that she felt she was gay (being strongly attracted to another girl at school), they suggested that she was merely going through a phase. Although she stopped talking about her internal conflict, the 11-year-old remained deeply troubled. Finally, a physically explosive episode led the mother to bring her daughter to a gender disorder specialist who concluded that the 11-year-old should grow up as a male. After this, the mother supported her daughter’s journey to becoming male. Her feminine bedroom was transformed. She received a boys’ haircut. Finally, she changed her name. Initially, classmates and teachers rejected the transformed 11-year-old. The mother called an emergency meeting with the school staff and asked for their understanding. The staff responded with support, even providing the 11-year-old with a private bathroom and excusing him from gym class. The development of secondary female sex characteristics has fostered the 11-year-old’s desire for surgery. Although still too young to undergo a physical sex change, he is a candidate to begin hormone therapy. An intensive psychological evaluation leads the psychiatrist to recommend the therapy. Interpretive Comments This case raises important questions about the importance of nature and nurture in shaping gender. Although society assigns us to the male or female category, gender is not written on a biologically blank slate. The specific cause of the 11-year-old’s masculine interests and sense of being a male are not discussed. However, prenatal conditions do seem important to both sexual differentiation and sexual orientation. Females exposed to excess testosterone tend to act in more tomboyish ways; they dress and play in ways more typical of boys than of girls. Abnormal prenatal hormone conditions have also altered a fetus’ sexual orientation. For example, when pregnant sheep are injected with testosterone during a critical period of fetal development, their female offspring will later show homosexual behavior.

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Discussion Questions 1. What do you think this case suggests about the role of nature and nurture in shaping gender identity? What are the advantages and disadvantages of case studies in understanding human behavior? 2. Do you approve of the course of action followed in this case? Why or why not?

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The Art of Listening: Males Versus Females Length: 1:50 minutes File Name: 069_Art_of_Listening.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Brain Sex” Secrets of the Sexes (BBC Motion Gallery) Description In discussing gender differences, you may want to include this brief program examining sex differences in the human brain and how those differences may be linked to differences in men’s and women’s abilities. Researcher Steve Gentleman observes that in overall appearance the surface structures of male brains and female brains are very similar. Although the male brain tends to be a bit larger than the female brain, this may merely correspond to an average difference in body size. However, suggests Gentleman, some studies indicate that specific areas of the male brain differ from those of the female brain. For example, two regions that seem to vary are the language processing area and an area of the frontal lobe that is important in visual spatial processing. Do these differences predict gender differences in abilities or behaviors? Tim is shown listening to “made-up” words. Different sounds are delivered to each ear at the same time. Tim reports that he hears only one sound. In contrast, when the sounds are delivered to Clair’s ears, she reports hearing both. The narrator explains that because women use both sides of the brain to process sound, they can hear both words. In contrast, men use one side of the brain to process sound, and so Tim hears only one word. Interpretive Comments In showing this program you will want to highlight the continuing controversy over the relationship between possible brain differences between men and women and their links to behavior. Although research does indicate that average brain differences between the sexes exist, the linkage to differences in behavior remains uncertain. Some popular writers have been hasty in assuming that brain differences necessarily explain sex differences in behavior and abilities. Discussion Questions 1. What are some biological and psychological differences between males and females? 2. Do you think gender differences in behavior are primarily due to nature or nurture? Explain your answer.

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Developing Through the Life Span Prenatal Animation Length: 2:25 minutes File Name: 070_Prenatal_Animation.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Worth Publishers Description This segment shows a rapid-time animation of the cell division and development of a fetus from conception to birth. The sperm fertilizes the egg, which continues to develop through rapid mitotic cell division. The zygote attaches itself to the wall of the uterus and, as in the previous segment, we can see the neural tube forming first into what will become the central nervous system. Throughout the first trimester, the cells continue to specialize and we see rapid growth and development of the head. By the end of the third month, the heart and blood vessels, most of the internal organ systems, and the sex organs have developed. At this point, we can hear a faint heart beat and see spontaneous movement in the limbs. Beyond the first trimester, bones begin to form and the lower parts of the body show rapid growth. As the cells continue to specialize, we can make out limbs and the sensory organs of the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. During the second trimester, the fetus really begins to look like a human infant, with fully developed eyes, finger and toenails, and instinctive movements such as kicking. In the final trimester, the cerebral cortex of the brain is developing most rapidly and the baby quickly gains weight. By the ninth month, the internal organs have begun to fully function, and the fetus positions itself for birth. Discussion Questions: 1. Notice the sequence of development in the human embryo. What must be highly developed before the cerebral cortex can begin significant growth? When do the sensory organs develop? 2. A human infant is born essentially helpless, while other species bear more independent young. What are the evolutionary advantages and/or disadvantages of an extended childhood in human development?

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Prenatal Brain Development: From Conception to Birth

Length: 5:29 minutes File Name: 071_Prenatal_Brain_Development.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: Three-dimensional modeling by Animated Biomedical Productions: www.medical-animations.com. Description This segment provides a descriptive animation of the process of prenatal brain development. The animation follows the developing nervous system of the fetus from conception to birth, showing the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain as they grow and specialize, and as the cerebral cortex expands. In weeks 28–40, the fetus’ brain develops gyri and sulci: wrinkles and folds that allow a vast increase in the surface area of the cortex. The brain continues to grow by forming new nerve cells, a process called neurogenesis. The oldest cells remain close to their place of origin and newer cells migrate continually outward, expanding the brain layer by layer. New nerve cells are guided to their final destination by glial cell fibers which form the underlying structure of the nervous system. Upon reaching their destination, these new cells change form to match the characteristics and functions of that area of the brain and begin developing axons and dendrites, the structures needed to communicate with surrounding nerve cells. Because the creation of new synapses is rapid throughout the first year of life, it is often called exuberant synaptogenesis. As the brain continues to develop through adolescence, some newly formed synapses are removed, a process called synaptic pruning. This is thought to create a more efficient brain and to tailor the cognitive processing of the brain to fit each individual’s nervous system, in response to their learning and life experiences. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful both for the topic of neuroscience and for developmental psychology. Texts that have a section of their coverage of the nervous system devoted to ontogenetic development will be particularly well accented by this film. Also, texts that have a portion of their coverage of developmental psychology devoted to physical development will also be complemented by this segment. Discussion Questions 1. The cerebral cortex is the largest area of the human brain and the last to develop. What might this say about the importance of this area in human life? 2. What is the purpose of synaptic pruning? Why might this be adaptive in human development? 3. What might the process of synaptic pruning imply about the nature versus nurture debate in cognitive development?

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Prenatal Development Length: 8:19 minutes File Name: 072_Prenatal_Development.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012)

Description The story of life begins in the womb, where much of whom we will become when we enter the world is influenced. While it is estimated that over half of all zygotes never reach the implantation stage, which occurs within the first two weeks after conception, successful implantation is typically followed by normal development. But, genetic and environmental factors can sometimes cause deviations in the developmental process. This program provides an overview of the three main stages of prenatal development while highlighting the major events in each stage. Students will gain an understanding as to why psychologists include prenatal development in their course of study on the human mind and behavior. Implantation occurs during the germination stage—the earliest stage of prenatal development. Between the second and eighth weeks, the mass of cells, now called an embryo, starts to become a human being. The neural tube, which will later become the spinal cord and central nervous system, forms and sex differentiation begins. By the eighth week, says Janet DiPietro, the embryo has formed 95% of the basic organs and body parts. The last three months of gestation are marked by dramatic growth, especially in the brain. In the weeks prior to birth, the digestive, respiratory, and nervous systems mature and prepare the fetus for life outside of the womb. The next section of the program focuses on how genetic and environmental factors influence prenatal development. Epigenetics refers to the interaction between the environment and genes. The placenta enables maternal blood to pass oxygen and nutrients to the developing fetus while taking waste, like carbon dioxide, from fetus to be disposed of. Teratogens, like alcohol and cigarette smoke, which are also carried across the placenta and through the maternal bloodstream to the fetus, can damage the process of development. DiPietro points out that the primary reason the human gestational period is so long is so the developing brain can be prepared to absorb the immense amount of information it will receive, especially in the early years of life. Discussion Questions 1. What is a teratogen? How can these affect prenatal development? 2. Why is the period of gestation in humans so long? 3. Why do psychologists study prenatal development?

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Reflexes in the Newborn Length: 2:37 minutes File Name: 073_Reflexes_Newborn.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description Babies are born with reflexes that are crucial to survival in the world. Some of the automatic responses that babies are born with are discussed in this clip. Very basic reflexes include: breathing, blinking, swallowing, sucking, rooting (turning of the head when the cheek is touched in order to suck), and the Babbinsky reflex (toes curl under when the bottom of the foot is touched). As the narrator suggests, some researchers believe that these reflexes were critical during an earlier stage of human evolution when infants had to cling to their mothers. Interpretive Comments This segment is very helpful in a number of contexts. First, when discussing the field of ethology, the infant reflexes are excellent evidence for the existence of innate behavior patterns. Some of the reflexes, namely the grasping, Moro, and Babbinsky reflexes, are examples of vestigial behaviors (responses that were at one time in our evolution crucial to our survival, but now are not so). The clip can also be used with lectures on physical development in children. During development these reflexes are lost when higher brain centers take control of these responses. For this reason, the clip can also be used for lectures on physiological psychology.

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Testing Competency in the Newborn Length: 1:05 minutes File Name: 074_Testing_Competency.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description At the time of birth, newborns are checked for anything that might warrant medical attention. This clip discusses the most common scale used for assessing newborns, called the Apgar scale. Using the Apgar scale, infants are given a rating of zero, one or two for each of five different vital signs (color, heart rate, muscle tone, respiration and reflex responsiveness). The newborns are given ratings at the time of birth and then again at five minutes. The narrator also explains that, while a total score of ten is rare, a score of 7 is average for a normal, healthy baby. Interpretive Comments This segment is appropriate for lectures dealing with physical development. The issue of neonatal health is of great importance due to the vulnerability of newborns. The Apgar scale is used to diagnose any physiological warning signs directly after the child’s birth. Any maladies at this period of development can have severe consequences later in life. For this reason the Apgar tests are standard procedure in all delivery rooms.

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Body Part Counting System

Length: 1:54 minutes File Name: 075_Bodypart_Counting_System.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This clip discusses the unique twenty-seven body part counting system that is used by the Oksapmin people of Papua New Guinea to represent numbers. Geoffrey Sachs, who has studied the counting system of the Oksapmin, is featured in the clip and explains the system. The clip also explains the interesting adaptation of the system in response to western culture. When western culture was introduced to the Oksapmin, the children developed strategies for solving western type of arithmetic problems using the existing counting system. This way of using the counting system had not previously existed in the Oksapmin culture and therefore was an original historical invention of the children. The clip then concludes with an example of a child using the system to solve a simple addition problem. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful with lectures on cultural psychology. The counting system of the Oksapmin is an invention of their culture. It influences the way that they think and communicate. It is an example of a unique cultural adaptation. The clip could also be used with lectures on cognitive development, especially those that cover the innate properties of cognitive development. This is due to the fact that this unique adaptation is evidence for the role of environment in the development of thought.

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Childhood Disorder: Understanding Autism Length: 7:18 minutes File Name: 076_Childhood_Disorder.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Autism, reports narrator Alan Alda, is disturbingly common, affecting one of every 700 to 800 children born. Many children suffering from the disorder are mentally retarded and without language. Geraldine Watson of the University of Washington suggests that the key feature of the disorder is difficulty in social relationships. Six-year-old Alex suffers from autism. An EEG assesses his neural responses as he views his mother’s face and that of a stranger’s. Most children show a very different response to a parent than to someone they do not know. Alex does not. He responds in the same way to both images. In general, notes Watson, autistic children do not show a normal response to social stimuli. One important therapeutic goal is to foster attention on such stimuli at a very early age in those suffering from the disorder. Failure to establish eye contact at critical times in the course of communicating with others, suggests Watson, is the most significant diagnostic sign of autism. Andrew Meltzoff suggests that imitation is an even higher order activity than establishing eye contact. Typically children are great imitators of adults. Autistic children are not. Meltzoff suggests that this failure is symptomatic of the autistic child’s inability to relate to others at a meaningful level. Very likely it is at the root of the difficulty that autistic children have in seeing other people as beings like themselves. Early intervention programs now aim to teach autistic children the simple skill of imitation. Interpretive Comments The program describes the variety of symptoms that mark the troubling disorder of autism. It explores how its central characteristics may have a neurological basis. The segment also shows the goals and strategies of therapy with children suffering from the disorder. The program suggests that early intervention is critical, perhaps even in shaping the course of brain development, thus highlighting the interaction of nature and nurture. Discussion Questions 1. What does this program suggest about the causes of autism? 2. Why do you think those with autism are typically unable to infer others’ states of mind and what are the likely consequences of this difficulty? 3. What does the study of autism presented in this program tell about the relationship between nature and nurture?

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Cognitive Development Length: 7:00 minutes File Name: 077_Cognitive_Development1.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012)

Description The fields of psychology and education credit Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget for pioneering the study of cognitive development. Piaget believed that children think and reason differently in various stages of life and that cognitive growth is the result of our need to make sense of our experiences. This program explores the concepts of schemas, assimilation, accommodation, conservation, and concrete and abstract thinking, while taking the viewer through Piaget’s fourstage model of cognitive development. Schemas, according to Piaget, are mental structures that help us categorize and interpret our experiences. As experiences happen and new information is presented, we create new schemas and change or modify the old ones using the processes of assimilation and accommodation. Piaget may be best known for his four stages of cognitive development. During the sensorimotor stage from birth to age 2, children are mainly concerned with the mastery of concrete objects. An infant considers an object that is no longer in sight to be gone completely. Children then occupy the preoperational stage from about age 2 to age 7 and begin mastering symbols, but only when the object’s properties don’t change shape. In this stage, egocentrism persists but the child becomes more aware of others’ feelings and perspectives. Children are in the concrete stage from ages 7 to 11, and in that stage, children become capable of logical thought and reasoning. Finally, children enter the formal operational stage at around age 12 and begin thinking abstractly, solving hypothetical problems, and deducing consequences. When asked where Piaget’s work stands today, David Uttal states that “there’s a tremendous respect for Piaget for founding the field and knowing why knowledge has to be built up.” Discussion Questions 1. What are the implications of the findings on early competence for Piaget's theory? 2. Why has Piaget’s theory endured so long? 3. According to Piaget, what promotes development? What is the relationship between learning and development?

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Cognitive Development: Overcoming Attentional Inertia Length: 6:21 minutes File Name: 078_Cognitive_Development2.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description This segment opens with a 3-year-old learning to sort cards by color, ignoring shape, and then by shape, ignoring color. As she performs each task, a blue star appears above one sorting bin and a red truck above a second sorting bin. The researcher or child restates the rule before each card is presented and the 3-yearold performs flawlessly. Next, in a critical test, the child must reverse what she has just been doing (sorting by shape), and sort once again by color. Interestingly, she fails to make the reversal and continues to sort by shape, placing blue trucks into the bin under red trucks, and red stars into the bin under blue stars. Researcher Adele Diamond refers to the phenomenon as “attentional inertia,” that is, the child is unable to redirect her attention from one dimension to another. Narrator Alan Alda suggests that the tendency to stick with the “tried and true” is controlled by lower, more primitive regions of the brain. In adults, the prefrontal cortex overrides this tendency, enabling us to make correct choices. However, in young children, the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed. Adele Diamond hypothesizes that if the child verbalizes the categorizing rule before choosing, she may achieve greater accuracy. Such a strategy can provide a “verbal scaffold,” suggests Diamond, that shifts attention to the relevant dimension. In the final scene Alda is challenged with an adult version of the sorting game. He, too, has difficulty. However, in his case it is speed, not accuracy, that’s the problem. Interpretive Comments The segment provides remarkable insight into the inner workings of the child’s mind and provides a helpful extension of the text’s description of cognitive development. As Piaget suggested, the mind of the child is not that of a miniature adult. This program also links cognitive development to physical development. It suggests that, to some extent, cognitive development is a matter of maturation and not merely experience. Finally, the laboratory demonstrations reveal the creative ways in which researchers study the child’s thought processes. Discussion Questions 1. What do these findings suggest about the nature of the child’s thought process? 2. Is nature or nurture more important in understanding cognitive development? 3. What is the relationship between language and thought?

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Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development—Trust versus Mistrust Length: 0:58 seconds File Name: 079_Erikson.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory of development consists of eight stages. During each of Erikson’s stages, the person’s task is to successfully resolve the specific conflict that characterizes that stage. This clip discusses he first stage of development, which is concerned with the resolution of the conflict of trust versus mistrust. The type of caregiving that produces both trust and mistrust in infants is explained. Erikson believed that if caregiving is predictable and consistent, an infant will feel as though the world is reliable and this feeling will foster trust. However, if caregiving is erratic or incompatible to their needs, infants develop mistrust, as they feel the world around them is unsafe and unreliable. Interpretive Comments This segment can be used with two different lectures. First, it is a very good companion to material on social development. Obviously, this clip complements lectures on Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development. In this theory, the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson attempted to explain the critical events in a person’s social development. The clip can also be used with lectures on abnormal psychology due to the fact that, according to Erikson, unsuccessful resolution of his first stage leads to a lack of development of a conscience. Later in life individuals without a conscience are referred to as psychopaths or sociopaths. In the parlance of the DSMIV, these individuals have anti-social personality disorder.

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Harlow’s Studies on Dependency in Monkeys Length: 6:12 minutes File Name: 080_Harlow.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description Developmental psychologists once thought that infants develop attachments to their mothers primarily because their mothers satisfy the infants’ need for food. Harry Harlow and his experiments on infant monkeys demonstrated other important factors in attachment development. Clips 12a, 12b, and 12c show footage from Harlow’s original experiments. In clip 12a, a monkey is given two “mothers”: one mother made of wire that provides food, and the other mother made of cloth that does not provide food. The monkey only goes to the wire mother to eat and spends the rest of the time with the cloth mother. In fact, each day the monkey spends 17 to18 hours with the cloth mother and less than 1 hour with the wire mother. Clips 12b and 12c are both concerned with the monkey’s reaction in fearful or threatening situations. In clip 12b, when the monkey is exposed to a mechanical robot that moves and makes loud noises, the monkey runs directly to the cloth mother and ignores the wire mother. In another threatening situation, depicted in clip 12c, the monkey is placed in a novel environment. When the monkey is first placed in the environment, there is no mother in the room, and the monkey is very cautious and does not explore the new environment. In the next segment, when the wire mother is placed in the new environment, the monkey acts much the same as when no mother was in the room and does not go to the mother. In contrast, when the cloth mother is placed in the room, the monkey runs to the mother immediately. Harlow describes that the contact comfort that the cloth mother provides helps the monkey to feel secure in the novel environment. After the monkey feels secure he is able to relax and explore the environment. Interpretive Comments These segments are very useful for lectures dealing with attachment, which is a topic covered in social development. Harlow’s work was initially an attempt to test the two theories of attachment that existed. These were the psychoanalytical theory and the behavioral theory. Both of these theories agreed that children become attached to their mothers because their mothers are sources of nourishment. Harlow’s work shows that nourishment is not the only factor in attachment. His monkey babies showed a preference for the ‘mother’ in his study that was soft, rather than the ‘mother’ that supplied nourishment. He used the term ‘contact comfort’ to explain why the babies preferred the terry-cloth mother. The babies also show ‘safe-base behavior’ in the latter two clips. Freud, Erikson, and Ainsworth have also done important work on attachment.

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Morelli’s Strange Situation Task Length: 3:12 minutes File Name: 081_Morelli.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Worth Publishers Description Researcher Gilda Morelli describes the results of research on attachment with mothers and children of the Efe, in the Congo region of Africa. Among the Efe, a large number of people interact with infants in their first years of life. This clip demonstrates the universality, though, of infants’ reactions to the Strange Situation test (which measures attachment in infants). Discussion Questions

1. How does the Strange Situation test measure a child’s attachment to his or her caregiver? 2. What behaviors are of particular interest to researchers who conduct this test?

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Object Permanence Length: 1:10 minutes File Name: 082_Object_permanence.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This clip discusses the concept of object permanence, defined as the knowledge that objects exist even when they are out of view. The video shows children of different ages in order to demonstrate how object permanence develops during the first year of life. After a child has developed object permanence, the child will look for an object even if it is hidden. One common mistake that young children make after they develop object permanence is called the A not B error, and is also discussed in this clip. The A not B error is demonstrated when a child is shown looking for a toy where he originally found it rather than where he observed it being hidden. Interpretive Comments This segment is a strong addition to lectures on cognitive development. Since the essential figure in the area of psychology is Piaget, and the behavior that defines the first stage of his theory is object permanence, this clip is very helpful. Children in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage are unable to grasp this concept. The segment can also be used with lectures on research methods. Piaget’s methods were critical to his understanding of cognitive development. Today there is some controversy regarding these methods, particularly as to whether they caused Piaget to overestimate how long it takes a child to pass from one stage to the next.

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Piaget’s Conservation Experiments

Length: 4:40 minutes File Name: 083_Piaget_Experiments.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description In this series of clips, several delightful children (ages four to eight years old) participate in Piaget’s conservation-of-liquid and conservation-of-number experiments. These experiments demonstrate the principle of conservation—the understanding that changing the shape or form of an object or group of objects doesn’t change the amount—and the approximate age at which children begin to grasp it.

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Stranger Anxiety

Length: 1:21 minutes File Name: 084_Stranger_Anxiety.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description At approximately six months of age, infants begin to display stranger anxiety, which is the topic of this clip. Stranger anxiety is evident in the apprehension a baby often displays when confronted with an adult. This video shows footage of infants’ adverse reactions to strangers. The child’s reliance on a caregiver when confronted with a stranger is evidence of the bond between a parent and child. When babies encounter strangers, they often look to their parents—their most trusted social partners—for reassurance and clues on how to respond. Interpretive Comments This segment is well-suited for lectures on social development. Stranger anxiety is a product of the process of attachment. Once a child is fully able to identify their mother (or other caregiver), the child then realizes that others aren’t his/her mother. At this point, the child develops a highly adaptive uncertainty regarding others and seeks the safety of the mother when encountering them. This phenomenon first appears at about 9 months of age and usually continues past the child’s second birthday.

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The Scale Errors Length: 1:35 minutes File Name: 085_Scale_Errors.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Source: Footage given by permission of Judy S. DeLoache, University of Virginia Description Taken from the DeLoache, Uttal, and Rosengren (2004) study, this segment includes three segments of young children between one and three years of age who make serious attempts to utilize miniature models in spite of the impossibility due to size. It is presumed that, for all three clips, the child was exposed to a full-scale model of the various stimuli and then later given the miniature model. −

In the first clip, an infant girl is given a toy model of a slide. When asked to play with the slide, she attempts to sit on it and “slide” down. She appears confused when she is obviously unsuccessful.

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In the second clip, a young boy is trying to fit himself into a small toy car. He continues to repeat that he wants to get “in” and attempts to force his foot into the door unsuccessfully.

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In the final clip, the male child prepares for “story time” by attempting to sit on a miniature sofa chair. When he falls off, he tries to get back on rather than sit on the floor.

Each of these children demonstrate what DeLoache, et al. (2004) refer to as a “scale error,” a sign of immaturity in perceptual and inhibitory processes during normal child development. The authors propose that scale errors occur when perceptual information (the miniature size of the object) fails to inhibit the motor action (sliding down the slide, getting in the car, or sitting on the chair) associated with the normal sized versions of these objects. Interpretive Comments This material is best used when covering the topic of cognitive development. Similar to Piaget’s work, DeLoache has discovered a specific cognitive limitation that occurs during the early stages of human cognitive development. This inability sheds light on how our cognitive abilities take shape and why such gaps occur at certain ages. Discussion Questions: 1. What do these findings suggest about the cognitive processing of visual information in this age group? What thought processes have the children developed when they no longer make these errors of scale? 2. What do the perceptual mistakes made by these children tell us about the way in which we learn and incorporate new information at a young age? 3. Deloache has also performed experiments exploring children’s understanding of symbolic representation. She tested their ability to find a hidden object in a real room when shown where the object was hid, using a miniature scale model of the room. Do you predict that the children shown in the Scale Error segment would be successful in this task? Why or why not? 16   

The Strange Situation and Attachment Length: 12:21 minutes File Name: 086_Strange_Situation.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Description This segment contains a series of video clips taken during Ainworth’s Strange Situation experiments. Each participant is a parent and child who go through the same scenario. First, the mother is allowed to play with her child for three minutes in a room of toys. Then, a “stranger” (an experimenter whom the child has never met) enters the room and sits next to the mother for three minutes. The mother then leaves the room for three more minutes, allowing the stranger to interact with the child. For the next three minutes, the mother returns and the stranger leaves, followed by the mother again leaving the room for three minutes. This time, the child is left alone. When three minutes is up, it is the stranger that returns and attempts to comfort the child. Finally, the mother enters for a last time, the stranger leaves, and the mother attempts to re-interest the child in playing with the toys. The child’s reactions during these various “strange situations” have been organized by Dr. Mary Ainsworth into three attachment styles in Developmental Psychology: A child with Secure Attachment will feel comfortable exploring and playing even with strangers, as long as their mother is present. They will be visibly upset when the mother leaves and just as visibly relieved when the mother returns. This is the desired attachments style for developmentally healthy children. A child displaying an AnxiousAmbivalent Attachment is wary of strangers even when the mother is present, and is visibly upset when the mother leaves. When she returns, the child is often both resentful and relieved, resisting her attempts to re-instigate play, but wanting physical comfort. In contrast, a child displaying an Anxious-Avoidant Attachment style shows little difference between his or her reaction to the mother, the stranger, or being left alone. This child may ignore the mother completely and typically avoids much exploration regardless of whether or not she is present. Example of Secure Attachment The young boy in this clip is initially playing peacefully with his mother. When the stranger enters, he watches her enter, but shows little distress and with his mother’s encouragement, continues playing comfortably. When the mother leaves, the child stops playing, but interacts with the stranger and visibly relaxes upon the mother’s return. When left alone, the boy becomes very upset, crying and unable to be comforted by the stranger. However, when the mother returns, he is quickly comforted and responds well to her attempts to play. Example of Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment This clip begins with mother and child playing comfortably. When the stranger enters, the girl is wary and moves away. When her mother leaves, she warms up to the stranger slowly and ignores her mother upon her return. When left alone, the child becomes very upset and is unable to be comforted by the stranger. When the mother returns, the child is no longer crying and stays by her side, but does not quickly resume interaction with the mother.

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Example of Anxious-Avoidant Attachment In this clip, there is little interaction between the mother and her daughter even initially. Throughout each change in situation, there is little to no change in emotion. The child never becomes visibly upset, although she’ll pause and assess her environment before continuing to play on her own. There is little change in reaction to the stranger but, when prompted, the child does show the stranger her doll. She explores very little throughout the session. Interpretive Comments This segment is particularly helpful when discussing childhood development. The three clips can be used, along with research by Harlow, to supplement discussions of attachment. It might also be helpful in discussing the long-term effects of deficiencies in physical and/or psychological well-being during infancy and childhood. The clips are also useful when discussing research methods due to the fact that Ainsworth employed a two-way mirror to view the mother-child-stranger interactions. Thus this study is an example of one way to get around demand characteristics in psychological research. Discussion Questions: 1. Why is attachment style an important aspect of our development? 2. What factors in the parent-child relationship lead to each attachment style? What advice would you give parents who want to know how to develop a secure attachment style with their children? 3. What effects might a nonsecure attachment style in childhood have on our psycho-social development later in life?

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The Two Faces of Autism Length: 4:20 minutes File Name: 087_Two_Faces_Autism.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Does the MMR Jab Cause Autism?” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This clip of two 11-year-old boys who have autism provides the opportunity to highlight a childhood disorder that is marked by an impaired theory of mind. You may choose to introduce the disorder in the context of cognitive, social, or language development. James’ father explains that he has known that his son has suffered from autism since James was 2 years old. James suffers a severe form of the disorder. He has no language and significant learning difficulties. Typically, he is happy and affectionate. However, when frustrated, he responds aggressively. Lawrence, who also suffers language impairment, showed evidence of autism at age 3. Frustrated and clearly upset with a malfunctioning video screen, he shouts gibberish and finally leaves the room. The narrator notes that autism likely represents a spectrum of disorders that vary in severity. Common to all forms of autism, however, are three central features. The first characteristic is an inability to form meaningful social relationships. James seems interested, claims his father, only in what others can do for him. Similarly, Lawrence’s mother notes her son’s failure to make eye contact and his lack of interest in what anyone else is doing. A second common feature of autism is language impairment. In severe cases, such as that of James, the person is unable to form or use any language. The first manifestation of this inability was James’ failure to point to or show people anything in his immediate environment. The third characteristic of the disorder is a lack of imagination. As a result, explains Lawrence’s mother, her son is unable to role-play. Autism has no cure and is lifelong. Unfortunately, an increasing number of children are being diagnosed with the disorder. Interpretive Comments Children with autism have altered brain circuitry that seriously impairs communication among different brain regions. The cause of the disorder is unclear, although it appears to involve a number of genes interacting with the environment. Normally, preschool children develop an ability to infer others’ mental states when they begin forming a theory of mind. The capacity to read others’ intentions is critical to forming meaningful social relationships. Children with autism lack a theory of mind. They have difficulty understanding that another person’s state of mind differs from their own.

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Discussion Questions 1. Why do people with autism have difficulty inferring others’ thoughts and feelings? 2. What factors might account for the increased diagnoses of autism in recent years?

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Theory of Mind: Taking the Perspective of Others

Length: 1:40 minutes File Name: 088_Theory_of_Mind.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Will to Win” Human Instinct (BBC Motion Gallery) Description In discussing Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and particularly his concept of egocentrism, you will want to introduce your students to research on “theory of mind.” A very simple game of “hide the candy” reveals the inability of very young children to take the perspective of others. An adult hides candy in her left or right fist and the child must guess the location of the candy. Even young children quickly understand the simple challenge and obviously enjoy the game. However, when it is the children’s turn to hide the candy, they divide into two groups. The older ones can do it, but the younger ones just do not get it. The young children are unable to imagine what their opponent can and cannot see; they simply cannot play a simple game of deception. For example, one young boy presents the adult with only the fist that contains the candy. Another eats the candy. A third switches the candy from her one fist to the other in view of the adult. The narrator suggests that seeing into the mind of one’s opponent and thus achieving mastery of the game is a matter of maturation. Interpretive Comments The term theory of mind refers to people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and about the behaviors these might predict. Imagining what another can and cannot see requires the ability to take another’s perspective and is essential to playing the simple game of “hide the candy.” Piaget referred to the preoperational child’s difficulty in taking the perspective of another as egocentrism. Being able to take the perspective of another is an important milestone in cognitive development. Our theory of mind also enables us to infer others’ feelings and thereby fosters our capacity for empathy, which is important to social and moral development. Discussion Questions 1. How do the findings with the game of “hide the candy” support Piaget’s claim that a child’s mind is not a miniature model of an adult’s? 2. What implications does a theory of mind have for understanding social and moral development?

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Today’s Overscheduled Children

Length: 5:50 minutes File Name: 089_Overscheduled_Children.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Overscheduled Children” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description This segment provides a good extension to the literature on child-rearing practices. What are the benefits and costs of filling a child’s days with a variety of after-school activities? In this video, children report their busy involvement in various activities including soccer, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, and babysitting. Twelve-year-old Johnny reports that on Tuesdays and Thursdays going from baseball to lacrosse to soccer causes him to miss dinner. On Wednesdays, Catherine and Carolyn rush from community service to softball to homework time. Parents, like Terry and John, try to keep up with their children’s schedules. Terry maintains a monthly calendar by child and by week. Alvin Rosenfeld, author of The Over-Scheduled Child, describes “hyperparenting” as both an action and an anxiety. He admits that even he is ambitious and wants his children to do well. Hyperparents attempt to fill their child’s day with enriching activities. As a result, children have no time for themselves, no time to imagine, and often become exhausted. Johnny’s father suggests that scheduled activities keep kids out of trouble. Without regret, he accepts the label of hyperparent. Johnny enjoys sports with his friends, but admits he has little free time to hang out or watch television. Terry worries that if she does not schedule her daughter’s participation in a sport, she will lose her competitive edge. Terry’s daughter Sarah excels in both soccer and drama and seems to enjoy her hectic life. However, families rarely schedule time to eat dinner together. Rosenfeld reports that families who do spend time together tend to have children who flourish. Both parents and children need time to enjoy the pleasure of being together. In the past, children’s time was their own. Their activities were not scheduled or supervised by parents. Today’s parents worry that children left on their own may be unsafe. The tragedy, claims Rosenfeld, is that in trying to be good parents we steal childhood. We schedule every moment of a child’s time because we think we know what’s best. Interpretive Comments Some professionals argue that play that involves unstructured, child-driven activity contributes to optimal cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development. For example, the American Academy of Pediatric’s Clinical Report entitled The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds suggests that free play fosters healthy brain development, allows children to develop their imagination and creativity, and provides practice in decision-making skills. Furthermore, undirected play allows children to learn to work in groups, share, negotiate, resolve conflicts, and develop self-advocacy skills. The report argues that, when activity is structured and controlled by adults, children are less likely to develop creativity, leadership, and group skills. 22   

In this video, Rosenfeld argues that both parents and children need time to enjoy the pleasure of being together. When parents participate in child-driven play, they are given an opportunity to see the world from their children’s perspectives. As a result, parents may learn to communicate more effectively with their children. The interactions also tell children that their parents care about them, which may help to build enduring relationships. Discussion Questions 1. What do you think motivates parents to structure all of their child’s activities? 2.

Is it important for children to have unscheduled “free” time? Why or why not?

3. How would you characterize the parenting style that calls for so many scheduled activities for children?

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Do Adolescents Lack Empathy?

Length: 3:20 minutes File Name: 090_Adolescent_Empathy.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Teen Species: Adults (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Discussion of physical development in adolescence may include some reference to the maturation of the brain. This program traces the challenge of interpreting emotions to frontal lobe development. Researchers at Harvard Medical School have studied the ability of teenagers and adults to read facial expressions of emotion. Adults have no difficulty correctly interpreting the emotions reflected in photographs of faces. Do teens? Patrick, a 16-year-old, views facial expressions of fear as researchers use functional MRI to view his brain. Patrick reports the faces as reflecting anger, surprise, or sadness. He does not see a single face as showing fear. Indeed, most of the teens studied did not recognize the emotions reflected in other people’s facial expressions. Research has indicated that the brains of teens are not fully mature. The emotional centers of the teen brain light up when they view fear. However, the front of the brain shows little response. In adults the front of the brain lights up. The frontal lobes—which control planning, insight, and judgment—are still maturing in teens. Researcher Deborah Yurgelun-Todd concludes that, in contrast to adults, teens may respond to fear faces on a gut level rather than with insight. Interpretive Comments Research indicates that, until puberty, brain cells increase their connections. Adolescence brings a selective pruning of unused neurons and connections so that neural traffic moves more efficiently. Adolescence is also marked by significant frontal lobe development that lags the emotional limbic system. This may help explain teens’ occasional impulsiveness, risky behaviors, and inability to make long-term plans and decisions. Findings suggest that the brain continues maturing until about age 25. Research demonstrating the teen brain’s immaturity is one reason the U.S. Supreme Court has recently declared juvenile death penalties unconstitutional. Discussion Questions 1. What are the implications of this research for understanding adolescents’ decision making? 2. To what degree should adolescents be held responsible for delinquent or criminal behavior? 3. At what age should one be declared a “legal adult”?

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Echo Boomers: Understanding Today’s College Students

Length: 5:20 minutes File Name: 091_Echo-boomers.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Echo Boomers” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description As part of your consideration of lifespan development, this video’s provocative discussion of the values and attitudes of today’s college students is likely to generate lively classroom discussion and debate. From the moment they get up in the morning, technology like cell phones, iPods, and the Internet connects today’s college students to a global community. Nick and Andy, college seniors and editors of their school’s newspaper, note that today’s college generation is over-achieving, over-managed, and pressured. From early childhood, their lives have been carefully scheduled by parents who believed that their children needed structure and a sense of mission. Pediatrician Mel Levine states that today’s college students have been heavily programmed. Their time has been scheduled and their lives reflect compliance with what adults have told them to do. Rules have replaced rebellion. Convention has won out over individualism, and students’ values tend to be conventional. Protected since childhood, they do not know what to do when left on their own. Nick and Andy note that everyone is “above average.” Every college student is used to getting a trophy at the end of the year. Parents, claims Levine, seem to feel their children are fragile. They inflate their children’s egos and fight their battles. Because children are rewarded for participation and not achievement, they do not have a good sense of their own strengths and weaknesses. When today’s young adults arrive in the workplace, claims Levine, they expect to be immediate heroes and heroines. They want to be told they are doing a great job. Furthermore, they have difficult thinking long range. Rewards need to be immediate. Levine refers to the phenomenon as visual motor ecstasy— that is, anything that does not produce immediate gratification is boring. A group of college student admits that they have come to expect outcomes to be immediate. At the same time, the group is proud of who they are. Interpretive Comments Emerging adulthood, the period from age 18 to the mid-twenties, represents the more gradual transition from adolescence to adult independence that now occurs in industrialized societies. Today’s adolescents take a longer time to finish school and establish careers. Emerging adults engage in more self-focused exploration of different possibilities for work, relationships, and worldviews. In the United States, the age at which both men and women might embark on a first marriage has increased significantly. They will often continue to live in their parents’ home, remaining parentally-dependent into their late-twenties or even early-thirties. In earlier times (as well as in some of today’s developing countries), the responsibilities of adulthood came sooner. Shortly after reaching sexual maturity, the new adult worked, married, and had children. 25   

This video raises important questions about the merits of the self-esteem movement—and particularly about the notion that simply telling children they are “wonderful” pays personal and social dividends. Perhaps the benefits of feeling good only follow doing good. Some psychologists argue that genuine selfesteem comes as a result of meeting challenges and overcoming difficulties. In fact, critic Roy Baumeister argues, “Forget about self-esteem and concentrate more on self-control and self-discipline. Recent work suggests this would be good for the individual and good for society.” Discussion Questions 1. Do you agree with this analysis of college students’ attitudes and values? Why or why not? 2. How well are colleges preparing students for the workplace? In what ways might they improve? 3. What are important sources of stress in the lives of today’s college students?

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Moral Development: The Heinz Dilemma Length: 13:18 minutes File Name: 092_Heinz.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Description The Heinz Dilemma experiment led to Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. Participants are read a scenario in which a man’s wife is dying of a rare disease that can only be cured by a special, very expensive medicine produced by a pharmacist. The man cannot afford the medicine, but offers to pay the pharmacist a significant down payment and to continue to repay him over time. The pharmacist refuses to sell the drug, so the man breaks into the pharmacy and steals the drug as a last-ditch effort to save his wife. −

Clips A, B, and G, all interviews with young girls, demonstrate reactions to the Heinz Dilemma typical of children at the pre-conventional level of moral reasoning. Consisting of stages one and two, pre-conventional thinking judges the morality of an action based on the consequences, particularly to oneself. An action is morally wrong if the person will be punished. All three interviewees state that stealing is wrong no matter what the conditions. The young girl in Clip H even gives jail time as the reason why the man made the wrong decision to steal the drug for his wife.

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Clips C, D, F, and H are representative of the responses typical in the conventional level of moral reasoning. In stages three and four, right and wrong are based on social roles and society’s laws. The interviewees in these clips judge the morality of the man’s decision to steal based primarily on his good intentions. They all agree that he made the right decision, a decision they likely would have made themselves. However, none of the adolescents in these clips claim his stealing the drug is morally right. “Stealing is stealing,” says the young man in Clip D. In Clips F and H, the interviewees agree that stealing is a sin, and therefore never morally the right thing to do. Each of the adolescents in these clips also feel that the punishment—jail time—for this man is justified, but should be mitigated because his intentions were noble.

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Finally, Clip E represents a response typical of the post-conventional level of moral reasoning. The young woman in this clip believes that the man was morally right in taking the drug because an individual’s right to life should be upheld above all else. She mentions social contracts, laws and rules that can bend to uphold individual and universal rights.

Interpretive Comments Kohlberg’s work is an important part of any series of lectures pertaining to cognitive development. Kohlberg was a student of Piaget, who had previously put together his own framework on moral development. Kohlberg furthered his mentor’s work with a more elaborate scheme for the development of the understanding of how rules are determined, and how and when they are to be adhered to. The Heinz dilemma is the most-often-used example from Kohlberg’s methodology. Differences in the answers elicited from the experimental participants gives a view into how humans think about authority and conformity.

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Discussion Questions: 1. How/Where do you think each child in this segment learned the morals they cite when explaining their answer to the Heinz Dilemma? 2. How is Kohlberg’s theory of moral development related to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development? 3. Who makes the moral “rules” cited by each child in these clips? How does the personification of authority change with each stage of moral development? 4. Which stage do you think you are in? Why?

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Moral Thinking and Emotion: A Challenging Dilemma Length: 5:35 minutes File Name: 093_Moral_Thinking.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description This program opens with a description of the structure and function of the anterior cingulate cortex, a structure above the corpus callosum. It plays a critical role in helping us to resolve inner conflict. Joshua Greene of Princeton University poses the moral dilemma of a train headed for five people. All will be killed unless you throw a switch that diverts the train onto another track where it will kill one person. Should you throw the switch? Most people say yes. Now consider the same dilemma with this slight alteration. Your saving the five depends on pushing a large stranger onto the tracks where he will die but the five will live. What should you do? Although the logic is the same, most people say no. When Greene’s research team used brain imaging to study people’s neural responses as they considered the second dilemma, they found that the brain’s emotion areas lit up. The dilemma engaged emotions that lengthened the time people considered the dilemma and they changed their moral judgment. The Princeton team also used the last episode of the popular television series Mash to study how people wrestle with moral dilemmas. As a bus load of people hides from enemy soldiers, a baby onboard begins crying. The mother, in trying to quiet the baby, smothers her. In such a case, is it all right to kill the baby? This dilemma also generates strong conflict between moral feeling and moral thinking. After studying neural processing while people consider such a dilemma, the research team believes that the anterior cingulate plays a critical role in receiving information from different parts of the brain to help us make a final judgment. Interpretive Comments The Princeton research program poses important questions about the role of the brain in moral decision making. It also raises questions about the relationship between moral thinking, moral feeling, and moral behavior. Clearly, moral judgment involves more than moral thinking. Sometimes moral feelings precede moral reasoning and our reasoning attempts to convince us and others of what we intuitively feel. Discussion Questions 1. What is the relationship between moral thinking and moral feeling? 2. On what should parents and schools focus in fostering the development of morality? 3. Are people who suffer brain damage responsible for their actions? Why or why not?

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Teen Boys: Emerging Sexuality

Length: 2:05 minutes File Name: 094_Teen_boys.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Hormonally Yours” Body Chemistry (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This clip is appropriate to use while either discussing adolescent development or considering gender differences in sexual motivation. It highlights the role of hormonal influences on sexual behavior. This video explores the importance of testosterone in the sexual development of teenage boys. Both teen boys and girls report that the rush of testosterone leads boys to focus on their physical development, and sometimes to propose inappropriate sexual activity. Clips from old feature films capture teenage boys’ aggressive sexual behavior. An expert in teenage development suggests that we fail to teach teen boys how to deal appropriately with their emerging sexuality. Erections, she notes, happen at inappropriate and embarrassing times, something that rarely occurs by the time males reach college age. Another expert notes that, in the teen years, males and females are very different. High levels of testosterone drive males to seek sexual activity, while females are most concerned with protecting themselves. Female teens are moving into a period of high fertility, and having children at an early age endangers their health and their future. Thus, at a time when boys are most interested in sex, girls are most interested in planning a successful life. Interpretive Comments Testosterone is the most important of the male sex hormones. Although both males and females have it, a male’s additional testosterone stimulates growth of male sex hormones in a fetus as well as development of male sex characteristics during puberty. Beginning at approximately age 13 in boys, the surge of hormones during puberty stimulates two years of rapid development. Both primary sex characteristics (reproductive organs and external genitalia) and secondary sex characteristics (facial hair, deepened voice, pubic and underarm hair) develop dramatically. Interest in sex also increases. Sexual arousal seems to be a cause as well as a consequence of increased testosterone levels. For example, research indicates that heterosexual male testosterone levels increase more significantly after a conversation with a female student than after a conversation with another male student. Compared to hormones in nonhuman animals, hormones in humans more loosely influence sexual behavior. In fact, in men, normal fluctuations in testosterone levels have little effect on sexual drive. Large hormonal variations over a lifetime have a greater effect.

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Discussion Questions 1. How do evolutionary psychologists explain the differences found in the sexual behavior of males and females? 2. How would a biopsychosocial perspective account for male-female differences in sexual behavior?

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Teen Girls: Emerging Sexuality

Length: 2:15 minutes File Name: 095_Teen_girls.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Hormonally Yours” Body Chemistry (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This video parallels the program entitled “Teen Boys: Emerging Sexuality” and thus you may choose to show them at the same time. Both segments examine hormonal influences on sexual development and motivation. Teen girls describe how their physical development often elicits embarrassing sexual comments and reactions from boys. Some girls attempt to find clothes that conceal their emerging sexuality. The narrator notes that, unlike testosterone, the sex hormone estrogen is less directly linked to sexual behavior. In contrast to other animals, human females have lost their period of heat. In fact, most women do not know when they ovulate. One of the hallmarks of human female sexuality is that women may copulate at any time in the menstrual cycle. The hormonal factors that drive women to have sex are complex and not just related to estrogen. Researchers now believe that testosterone plays an important role in both the female and male sex drive. At about eight years of age, girls produce a weak form of testosterone from their adrenal glands. But clearly estrogen plays some role in female sex drive because, when deprived of estrogen, women experience a loss of sexual interest and response. However, research also suggests that testosterone is the key hormone in determining female sexual motivation. Interpretive Comments For girls, puberty starts with breast development, which often begins by age 10. The first menstrual period, called menarche, usually occurs within a year of age 12. Almost all adult women recall it with some ambivalence—that is, with feelings of excitement and pride, but also with some embarrassment and apprehension. The sequence of physical development is more predictable than the actual timing. For example, some girls have already started their growth spurt by age 9. Although early maturation seems to benefit boys, it is often stressful for girls. An early maturing girl’s physical development may run ahead of her emotional maturity. In addition, she may begin associating with older adolescents rather than with her more slowly maturing peers and friends. As a result, she may experience teasing or even sexual harassment. Clearly, people react differently to early maturing girls that to early maturing boys. Heredity and environment interact in shaping sexual attitudes and behaviors. As this video suggests, women’s sexuality differs from that of other mammalian females in that human women are more responsive to testosterone level than to estrogen level. If a woman’s testosterone level drops as a result of removal of the ovaries or adrenal glands, her sexual interest often declines. Testosterone-replacement therapy often helps to restore sexual motivation.

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Discussion Questions 1. In this program, which theoretical perspective is emphasized in the explanation of human sexual behavior? 2. Does early maturation impact adolescent boys and girls in the same ways? Explain. 3. How do nature and nurture interact to shape female sexual motivation and behavior?

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Aging and Memory: Studying Alzheimer’s Disease Length: 6:53 minutes File Name: 096_Aging_and_Memory_Alz.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Lola Crosswhite is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, a devastating illness that gradually robs its victims of their memory. It affects 4 to 5 million Americans. Lola reports that the first indication of a problem came when she had completed a telephone conversation and moments later was unable to recall any of its content. Mark Tuszynski of the University of California, San Diego, reports that in the early stages of the illness, sufferers have problems forming new memories. Lola reports that she would often become confused in the course of performing simple daily activities. This problem, continues Tuszynski, is often followed by an inability to recognize the familiar, by impairment in speech, and by difficulty in manipulating common objects. The middle stages of the illness often last a few years until a final, more global decline in cognitive functioning occurs. Neuroimaging of the progression of Alzheimer’s clearly indicates deterioration of the brain which initially involves destruction of the hippocampus followed by the neural areas involved in emotion and reasoning. Spared to the very end are those centers controlling sight, hearing, and touch. Gary Small of UCLA demonstrates how Positron Emission Tomography (PET) technology is detecting subtle changes in the brain before Alzheimer’s symptoms occur, thereby enabling earlier treatment. Dennis Selkoe of Harvard Medical School explains that the clustering of the molecule amyloid beta is likely responsible for the illness. Indeed, an antibody that removes this molecule has been effective in preventing Alzheimer’s in mice. However, when tried in humans, the vaccine was stopped after one patient died from a brain inflammation. The Selkoe research team is hopeful that administering the vaccine nasally will be less dangerous and more effective. Interpretive Comments The program vividly demonstrates why Alzheimer’s is the most feared of all brain ailments. It also illustrates what many regard to be the discipline’s most important principle, namely, that everything psychological is simultaneously biological. Recent developments in neuroscience foster hope that Alzheimer’s can be effectively treated and even prevented. You might note that other lines of research suggest that we can all decrease our risk of Alzheimer’s by eating well, reducing stress levels, and engaging in significant physical and mental exercise.

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Discussion Questions 1. What are potential benefits and limits of animal studies in psychology? 2. How does this program illustrate the important principle that everything psychological is simultaneously biological? 3. Apart from physical intervention, what might be some behavioral strategies for decreasing the risk of getting Alzheimer’s?

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Alzheimer’s Disease

Length: 8:40 minutes File Name: 097_Alzheimers_Disease.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “A New Day” Sunday Morning (CBS News) Description The physical changes that may occur in later life, as well as memory’s centrality to our life, are important topics of this video segment. Elderly residents of a Brooklyn nursing home suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, an illness that has stolen their memories. Eventually they will even be unable to remember their own identities. Roy, a 54-year-old male, was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Although he is a decorated Air Force Colonel, every three months he must endure what he calls the “stupid” test, an assessment of his memory. Roy and his wife Susan hope for a cure, or at least an intervention, that will slow progression of the disease. Four million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. Those who reach the age of 85 have a 50 percent chance of having the disease. One prominent researcher expresses hope for treatment. He sees light at the end of the tunnel, but obviously we are not yet through the tunnel. In 1907, Alois Alzheimer, a German neuropathologist, stated that the disorder was a disease and not just a function of aging. His autopsy of Frau Auguste D. revealed parts of brain cells twisted into weird tangles and deposits of sticky protein gunk now known as amyloid plaques. A vaccine that dissolves amyloid plaques is being tested on mice. Hopefully, test trials with humans will begin soon. Scientists are also studying how a variety of substances including inflammatory medications may impact Alzheimer’s. Two drugs that temporarily relieve symptoms in some people are already marketed. Happier, healthier persons may decline more slowly. A variety of environmental factors may influence disease progression. Every time we stimulate our minds we form new brain connections that will delay the onset of symptoms. Roy and Susan are volunteers in a study that examines how caregiver support impacts disease progression. For example, will Roy do better if Susan is doing well emotionally and physically? The couple intends to live fully as long they can. There is much that they still enjoy doing together.

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Interpretive Comments Alzheimer’s disease strikes about 3 percent of the world’s population by age 75. This video suggests that people who reach age 85 have a 50 percent chance of developing the disease. Alzheimer’s represents a progressive and irreversible brain disorder marked by slow deterioration of memory, reasoning, language skills, and finally physical functioning. More specifically, the disorder is characterized by a loss of brain cells and a deterioration of the neurons that produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Without this critical chemical messenger, memory and thinking suffer. The clip indicates that researchers are attempting to develop drugs that will dissolve the amyloid plaques that characterize the disease, as well drugs that will block proteins from aggregating into plaques. It can take 5 to 20 years for the disease to run its course. Following impairment in thinking and memory, the person becomes emotionally flat, disoriented, and finally mentally vacant. Eventually, the loss of personal identity results in a kind of living death. Those who remain physically and mentally active are at less risk for developing this most feared brain ailment. Discussion Questions 1. How does a biopsychosocial perspective contribute to an understanding of Alzheimer’s disease? 2. What do you believe to be the most challenging or painful aspect of this disease? 3. What would life be like for you without memory?

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Alzheimer’s Disease: A Family Case Study Length: 2:32 minutes File Name: 098_Alzheimers_Case_Study.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Description Clip A: This clip shows photographs of a woman during her early, middle, and late adulthood as younger generations of her family describe symptoms that led them to understand she had Alzheimer’s disease. Clip B: In this clip, the deterioration that occurs in stage 4 of Alzheimer’s disease becomes apparent. Younger family members lovingly care for an older family member with Alzheimer’s disease, but the patient can barely respond, if at all. Discussion Questions 1. Identify the stage(s) of Alzheimer’s disease through which this patient has progressed. What symptoms helped you identify the stages? 2. Based on the comments of the individuals in these clips, how do you think this disease affects the loved ones of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease?

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Can the Immune System Be Used to Combat Alzheimer’s Disease? Length: 2:14 minutes File Name: 099_Alzheimers_Immune.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: THE SECRET LIFE OF THE BRAIN “The Aging Brain: Through Many Lives” David Grubin Productions Description This segment takes a look at research being done to find a cure or preventative measure for Alzheimer’s disease. The segment begins with an interview with Dr. Dennis Selco, who has begun research based on the hypothesis that lowering the amount of Beta Amaloid (the protein that leads to plaque formation) in the brain may help reduce the effects of Alzheimer’s, much like lowering cholesterol can prevent heart disease. The second section of this segment leads us to San Francisco where neuroscientist Dale Shank is using research with rats in an attempt to utilize the immune system to lower the amount of Beta Amaloid in the brain. He created a vaccine which reduced the amount of plaque formations in adult mice to near-normal levels when treated with the vaccine throughout their development. These promising findings led him to treat adult mice with the vaccine, which also caused a significant decrease in the amount of plaque formations compared to rats in the control group. The next step in this process might be to test this vaccine on human subjects with Alzheimer’s. However, reducing Beta Amaloid to cure Alzheimer’s is still only a hypothesis and, as Selco warns, there could still be potentially dangerous unknown side effects. Interpretive Comments As with the previous segment, this segment is also useful with lectures that cover the topic of adult development, but this one goes into detail regarding the putative cause of the illness. The physiological details are thoroughly covered, and for that reason it might also be useful in lectures about the nervous system. Discussion Questions: 1. How does a vaccine, like that developed by Shank, work? 2. What struggles might Shank and Selco come across when moving from testing their hypothesis on rats to testing with human subjects? How might the experiment be designed?

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Healthy Aging: The Power of Positive Thinking

Length: 7:35 minutes File Name: 100_Healthy_Aging.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “70 is the New 50” Sunday Morning (CBS News) Description What fosters healthy aging? What promotes longevity? Worldwide, life expectancy has increased dramatically over the past several decades. This clip opens with elderly male residents of St. George, Utah engaged in a lively game of softball. Their active involvement, mobility, and optimism suggest that attitudes toward aging are changing. A New Yorker cartoon captures this change by suggesting that age 70 is the new 50. Robert Butler, President of the International Longevity Center, describes the aging population as healthier, more robust, and more vigorous than in the past. The 78-year-old Butler puts in an 80-hour work week and works out with a physical trainer. The program suggests that new drugs to combat high blood pressure and high cholesterol have helped promote longevity. Anita provides an impressive model for living the golden years. Her action-packed day begins with a swim in the pool and continues with an art class. She then returns home to care for her horse Goldie, serenades her husband at the piano, and finally fixes dinner for both of them. Although 72-year-old Anita has serious heart disease, she feels young and is determined to show that “getting older means getting better.” 84-year-old Jack and 76-year-old Marie maintain their youth by ballroom dancing three times a week. Marie claims she has the same energy she had 40 years ago. Jack, who has a history of heart problems, describes the activity as a delightful way to exercise. His physician believes that, in addition to regular visits to the doctor, high self-esteem, love, spirituality, and physical exercise promote healthy aging. Staying physically active seems to be essential to a full and healthy life. Research suggests that exercise also wards off mental decline. Interpretive Comments Regular physical exercise provides a variety of benefits. It strengthens muscles and bones and enhances energy. By helping to prevent obesity and heart disease it promotes longevity. Physical exercise also stimulates brain cell development and new neural connections, which are very likely the result of increased oxygen and nutrient flow. Small wonder that active older adults tend to be more mentally agile. It also helps to explain why, across many studies, sedentary older adults assigned to aerobic exercise programs have shown enhanced memory and sharpened judgment. Researchers have found that physically active, non-obese people are at less risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Studies of well-being across the life span indicate that positive feelings grow after midlife, while negative feelings tend to subside. Older adults are more likely to use words that convey positive emotion and to pay less attention to negative information. Most older people find that, on balance, life has been good. 40   

Studies find that seeking work and leisure activities that engage our skills, exercising regularly, giving priority to close relationships, being grateful for what we have, and nurturing spirituality promote wellbeing and life satisfaction. Discussion Questions 1. What are the important factors that contribute to a long life? 2. What do you think are the most important factors that contributed to the psychological well-being of the older adults featured in this video? 3. Why is physical exercise so important in later life?

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Old Age: Thinking and Moving at the Same Time

Length: 2:40 minutes File Name: 101_Old_age.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Volume 2 Source: “Growing the Mind” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description This video provides a good introduction to the physical and cognitive changes that occur in later life. It examines whether the aging process changes the way people allocate their mental resources. In a study conducted in Berlin, adults over the age of 60 navigate an obstacle course while memorizing a list of words they hear through headphones. Lines on the track and handrail assess how steadily research participants walk. After they complete the course, volunteers must remember the words in the order in which they heard them. Researcher Paul Baltes describes how he the conceived the design of the study. Observing older people walking up a hill in the Swiss Alps, he noticed they stopped conversing when they approached some rocks on the path. They started talking again once they had successfully navigated around the obstacles. When we are young, Baltes reasoned, our physical movements are automatic. However, as we age these same movements require more cognitive support. In his laboratory study, Baltes compares the volunteers’ ability to walk and memorize simultaneously with their ability to simply memorize. When they are walking, older people have much greater difficulty remembering the words. When they are only memorizing, and thus have nothing to distract them, their recall is almost perfect. Younger adults easily perform both tasks simultaneously. If older people want to optimize walking, suggest Baltes, they need to allocate their mental resources to walking. On the other hand, if they want to memorize, they need to allocate their resources to memorizing. The worst strategy, he concludes, is to switch back and forth. In that case, neither activity will be performed well. Interpretive Comments The finding that older adults allocate more mental resources to automatic skills is consistent with research findings on the physical and cognitive changes that accompany aging. Aging slows neural processing. This lengthens reaction time and older people become more prone to accidents. Muscle strength and stamina diminish noticeably, and thus the navigation of obstacles while walking becomes more challenging. Older people require a bit more time to solve perceptual puzzles and even to remember names. Research on cognitive changes suggests that the ability to recall new information declines during early and middle adulthood. However, the ability to recognize new information does not. Fluid intelligence—the ability to reason speedily and abstractly—declines in later life, but crystallized intelligence—accumulated knowledge and skills—does not. 42   

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Discussion Questions 1. What does this program reveal regarding our different levels of information processing? 2. In addition to walking, which automatic skills may require more mental resources as we age? 3. Why might “use it or lose it” be particularly sound advice for older adults?

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The Development of Tangles and Plaques in Alzheimer’s Disease

Length: 1:20 minutes File Name: 102_Alzheimers_tangles_plaques.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Source: THE SECRET LIFE OF THE BRAIN “The Aging Brain: Through Many Lives” David Grubin Productions Description This segment shows a computer-generated image of the ill effects of Alzheimer’s disease on the brain. The segment describes the long chain of molecules which carry nutrients across the cell. These chains depend on a protein called TAU for stability. In Alzheimer’s, these proteins twist and become tangled, breaking these necessary molecule chains apart. In addition, an Alzheimer’s brain contains a suspicious protein molecule called Beta Amaloid. This molecule is sticky and clumps together to form plaques. These plaques attach themselves to neuron cells like barnacles. The neurons fight back by releasing powerful chemicals, but these chemicals set off a series of reactions which eventually destroy the neuron. In this way, the brain of an Alzheimer’s patient deteriorates with time, affecting memory, thought, and speech. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful when lecturing on adult development. In particular, when covering illnesses that are particular to older adulthood. The fact that the information in the film segment has much to do with neurons and the pathology that occurs to them in patients with Alzheimer’s also makes it useful for coverage of the nervous system, particularly the cellular level analysis. Discussion Questions 1. What did you learn about the normal adult brain from watching this segment? 2. What types of research tools and technology are being used in research involving Alzheimer’s disease? 3. What special considerations might be needed when doing research with Alzheimer’s patients, in order to meet IRB and ethical guidelines?

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Sensation and Perception The Man Who Cannot Recognize Faces Length: 6:50 minutes File Name: 103_Man_cannot_recognize_faces.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “The Mind’s Eye” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This remarkable case study can be used to introduce and distinguish between the processes of sensation and perception. It highlights how perception is ultimately accomplished in the brain. Lincoln is unable to recognize faces. Thirty years ago, a car accident produced isolated brain damage that left him “face” blind. Lincoln reports that at times the inability to recognize those who should be familiar to you is scary. Because he is not blind, Lincoln reports that others have difficulty understanding his inability to recognize faces. Typically, we seem to think that to see is to understand. Lincoln’s wife reports that at times it may seem that her husband recognizes her, but that is only because they have scheduled to meet at a specific place and time. Lincoln agrees. Sitting alone in the house together is quite different from locating his wife in a supermarket where there are dozens of different female faces. When they are projected on a screen, Lincoln has no difficulty recognizing common objects like a key, an apple, or a kitchen place setting. In contrast, the picture of a famous female face baffles him. In fact, he cannot tell whether the female is young or old. Only after given additional biographical information does he successfully guess who she is. Faces do not all look the same to Lincoln. Rather, no face is recognizable. He sees individual features of faces, but fails to see the totality. His brain does not allow him to put the puzzle pieces together. Even when shown a picture of his own face, Lincoln does not recognize himself. Lincoln’s case reveals how our brains process faces. Each time we look at another person, a special facial recognition system is activated. Recognizing faces seems to be such a demanding and important part of our lives that an entire subsystem of the brain is devoted to the task. This part of the brain seems to play no role in our recognition of other objects. Interpretive Comments Lincoln’s case demonstrates how perception is ultimately accomplished in the brain. Sensory information is received, but it is not interpreted accurately. Lincoln’s face blindness is known as prosopagnosia, which generally results from damage to a particular part of the lower temporal cortex. Some people with this disorder are unable to even distinguish different faces.

Clearly, Lincoln is able to tell whether photos of people’s faces are the same or different. But, he cannot identify specific individuals. While some who suffer from prosopagnosia may have difficulty recognizing other visual objects, some show a relatively normal ability to recognize individual members of other object categories. Peter Gray cites the example of one sheep rancher who could not recognize people by face after he suffered a stroke. However, this rancher could still recognize individual sheep. This finding, as well as the fact that different people may demonstrate different types and levels of impairment in facial recognition, has led some researchers to theorize that there may be a specific face perception system in the brain. Discussion Questions 1. What is the relationship between sensation and perception? 2. What does this case tell us about the brain’s role in perception? 3. What specific challenges is Lincoln likely to encounter because of his inability to recognize faces? How do you think he can best compensate for his limitation?

A Variety of Visual Illusions, Clips A-H Length: 6:16 minutes File Name: 104_illusions.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: Illusions from Michael Bach’s Visual Illusions Web site: www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html Description The clips in this series are from Michael Bach’s Visual Illusions Web site. These visual illusions, which often seem like malfunctions of the visual system, are actually the result of adaptations of our visual pathways to efficiently process typical, everyday visual stimuli. Each illusion not only provides insight into visual processing in humans, but also lends insight into the features of our environments that are most common and most important to human life, leading to the evolutionary development of these visual heuristics. Café Wall Illusion (courtesy of Michael Bach www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html) This clip shows several rows of black and white checkered tiles. Each alternating row of tiles is moving in the opposite direction. When the tiles are “half-shifted,” the horizontal lines between tiles appear skewed, so that each row looks wedge-shaped. When the tiles align top-to-bottom, either to create columns of black and white or to alternate in a checked pattern, we see that the rows are actually completely horizontal, with all tiles the same size. Lilac Chaser (courtesy of Jeremy Hinton) This illusion consists of a circle of lilac-colored dots. The participant must look at the X in the center of the circle as the lilac dots disappear and return, one at a time, in order around the circle. While staring at the X, the participant begins to see the missing lilac dot as a green dot, which then appears to be moving around the circle. If you hold your gaze at the center, the lilac dots will disappear all together, leaving only the appearance of the green dot rotating around the now empty circle. This effect illustrates a “negative retinal after-image,” where we begin to see a color’s complement after keeping our gaze steady. Shading and Faces (courtesy of Richard Gregory www.richardgregory.org) This clip shows a hallow face mask rotating on a rod. When the mask turns, revealing the back of the mask, the negative image instantly becomes a positive image, looking exactly like the face on the front. This illusion is related to our extreme sensitivity to facial stimuli. Because the face in its normal configuration is such a salient and common stimulus for humans, any stimuli which approximate a face in its normal configuration will often be processed as a face. Motion Blindness (courtesy of Michael Bach www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html) This clip shows a square grid of blue Xs. There is a flashing green dot in the center (observers should look here) and three yellow dots in a triangle around it. The grid of blue Xs spins around the center, and as observers attend to the flashing green dot, the yellow dots seem to disappear. This effect is related to the Troxler Effect, a phenomenon in which objects in our visual field seem to disappear when we hold our gaze steady.

Reverse Spoke (courtesy of Michael Bach www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html) This clip shows a circle with gray, wheel-like spokes which divide the wheel into sectors. Each sector is on a grayscale from light to dark, and this gray scale moves clockwise. The clockwise change in contrast makes the spokes appear to move counterclockwise, although in actuality they remain stationary. The apparent movement of each spoke in this illusion occurs when the matching gray sector blends with that spoke on its clockwise rotation. When we look at the wheel as a whole, we see each spoke blending and then contrasting (thus, appearing to move) together, in Gestaltist fashion, creating the illusion of movement. Stepping Feet (courtesy of Michael Bach www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html) This illusion is related to luminance or how bright a stimulus will appear to the eye. The clip begins with one blue and one yellow bar moving at a constant and equal speed across a gray screen. Observers should not look directly at the bars. The gray background then becomes a black and white grid. The motion of the blue and yellow bars does not change. However, with the black and white striped background, an effect called isoluminance occurs in which the blue bar and the black stripe, and the yellow bar and the white stripe have equal luminance. Therefore, when the edge of the yellow bar crosses that of the white stripe, the visual cues for motion are no longer present, making the blue bar appear to continue moving while the yellow bar is at rest. The same is true for the blue bar crossing the black stripe. This creates the appearance of “feet” walking across the screen. Thatcher Illusion (original illusion created by Peter Thompson and animated illusion by Michael Bach) This illusion shows two faces side-by-side which, at first, appear identical. However, upon rotation, we see that the eyes and mouth of the face on the right have been inverted. This effect illustrates our visual preference for faces shown in their natural orientation. Motion Aftereffect (aka Waterfall) (courtesy of Michael Bach www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html) In this illusion, the participant must begin by keeping a steady gaze on a central X. This X is surrounded by a black and white checked circle which appears to be sinking towards the center. After a short time observing the sinking motion, a stationary (non-animated) image of Buddha replaces the circle. Looking at the Buddha, it appears to grow larger and move toward the participant. This illusion is described as a “motion aftereffect” and involves fatigue of the visual processing of motion. Interpretive Comments Visual illusions are an important aspect of the topic of perception, particularly visual perception (obviously). These illusions give us hints as to how the perceptual system works by fooling us, or getting around our perceptual mechanisms. The illusions help students to understand that our awareness of our environment is based on more than simple sensory information. The necessity to process sensory information in order to make sense of the world is highlighted. Discussion Questions 1. What areas of the brain and/or visual sensory system result in each of these illusions? In other words, what do these apparent “malfunctions” in visual perception tell us about how our visual system operates? 2. How might the processes which lead to these illusions be adaptive in everyday situations? 

 

Depth Cues Length: 0:30 seconds File Name: 105_Depth_Cues.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Worth Publishers  Description Depth cues are demonstrated in this clip by using the moon illusion (which occurs when the moon appears to be smaller when it is high in the sky as opposed to when it is close to the horizon). The actual path along which the moon travels is depicted in this clip. Then, the lunar path as perceived by subjects is shown.

Discussion Questions 1. What are the two main explanations for the moon illusion? 2. Can you think of any other ways our visual system can be “fooled”?  

The Müller-Lyer Illusion   Length: 0:20 seconds File Name: 106_M-L_illusion.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Description The classic Müller-Lyer visual illusion is demonstrated in this clip. In the Müller-Lyer illusion an individual looks at two lines that are identical in size. One of the lines is enclosed in an outward pointing arrowhead, while the other is enclosed in an inward pointing arrowhead. An individual who observes this illusion will report that the line with the outward pointing arrow is longer than the other, when the two lines are actually identical in length. This clip shows a variation of this classic illusion. The illusion is demonstrated inside a building, where the line in the corner of the building (outward pointing arrow) appears longer than the line drawn for the ticket booth window (inward pointing arrow).

Discussion Questions 1. Why are optical illusions important to the field of perception? 2. Why do you think we are misled by the Müller-Lyer illusion?

Seeing the World Upside Down   Length: 7:00 minutes File Name: 107_Upside_Down.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Are You Superhuman?” (BBC Motion Gallery)  Description Consideration of perceptual interpretation can include the fascinating research on perceptual adaptation, that is, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field. Tracy, a 29-year-old psychology student from England, will wear glasses that turn the world upside down for one week. Archival footage of psychologists’ past efforts at wearing inverting goggles suggests that researchers have long wondered whether the brain rewires itself so that the inverted world is eventually seen as normal. Over the week that she wears the distorting glasses, Tracy takes a series of tests designed by researcher Oliver Braddick to assess changes in her perceptions as well as in her ability to adapt her actions to a distorted world. An important question is whether she will eventually see her visual world as normal. In viewing the world through Tracy’s glasses, we see that her initial experience is indeed disorienting. As the week progresses, she reports that navigating the upside-down world is getting easier. She pours hot water into a cup and walks more naturally. On the fifth day, Tracey reports having had strange dreams of people she had encountered the previous day. She recognizes them even though she sees them as upside down. Over the seven days, Tracy gradually adapts to her upside-down world. It is not always clear to her, however, that she perceives people and objects accurately. Tests indicate that certain abilities, such as moving blocks around on a table top, are much improved. On the other hand, she still has great difficulty picking an object from the investigator’s outstretched hand when it is held in different locations. It would be incorrect to say that Tracy has converted her strange world to a “normal” view. Clearly, an inverted world requires many separate adaptations, which may someday successfully unify. On removing the glasses after seven days, Tracy again reports some disorientation. Interpretive Comments Research with distorting goggles demonstrates that perception is an active process in which we organize and interpret sensory data. Research participants who wear goggles that shift the perceived location of objects typically experience some initial disorientation but quickly adapt. (Chicks fitted with distorting lenses do not. They keep pecking where the food seems to be!) Although some have claimed that people adjust by perceptually converting their distorted view to a “normal” view, the findings indicate that in reality they adapt by moving about their environment and thereby learn a new relationship between the perceived and actual locations of objects. Discussion Questions 1. What does this case study teach us about the nature of perception? 2. What are the practical implications of perceptual adaptation? 

The Visual Cliff   Length: 3:43 minutes File Name: 108_Visual_Cliff.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Description This segment on perception development demonstrates Campbell’s visual cliff, a design which explores whether the fear of heights is innate or learned in young infants. The visual cliff is a Plexiglas board, painted on one side and left clear on the other, giving the illusion of a large drop. The parent places the infant on the painted side and calls to them from the opposite end. An infant who has just begun to crawl will cross the “cliff” without any fear and seemingly without any awareness of the apparent drop at all. In contrast, an infant who has been able to crawl for a month or more will show an interest in reaching the parent but will not cross the drop. A fear of heights is now apparent. −

In Clip A, Campbell himself explains the visual cliff and his theory. He suggests that beginning to crawl activates an innate but latent fear of heights in infants.

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Clip B is another demonstration of a child crossing the visual cliff without fear.

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Clip C shows another demonstration of a child now afraid to cross.

Interpretive Comments The work done using the visual cliff is classic research in the field of perceptual development. This topic area is often found in a chapter on cognitive development because perceptual abilities are subsumed under that more general heading. This segment gives the student insight into the development of depth perception in humans. Discussion Questions 1. What does the visual cliff phenomenon suggest about the nature versus nurture debate in human development? 2. Why is this “latent fear” expressed only upon learning to crawl? 3. What special considerations must psychologists make in performing research with infants and young children? 4. Using your knowledge of human visual perception, what cues, signaling a drop in height, have the crawling children in this segment learned to avoid? (Hint: The “floor” is a checkered pattern.)

Vision: How We See Length: 8:40 minutes File Name: 109_Vision.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012)

Description What humans see is only a small part of what exists out in the world, says Richard Masland. As complex as the human visual system is, we are only designed to see a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum— the same part that is required for photosynthesis. Does this tell us something about the evolutionary history of the visual system? This program provides an overview of the human visual system, including the basic structures and functions of the eye and nervous system that are involved in visual processing. Philip Kellman explains that we use light to see the material world. Visible light is electromagnetic energy that travels as waves of varying lengths and amplitudes. The properties of these waves determine how we will perceive the light as it enters our visual system. The wavelength (the distance of the wave) will influence what color we see, while the amplitude (the wave’s height) will influence how bright or intense that color will appear. A wavelength enters the eye through the cornea and, through a chain of events, delivers information to the central nervous system (the brain) to be processed. The cornea, pupil, iris, and retina are all parts of the eye involved in helping the information reach the central nervous system where the wave energy then triggers the release of neurotransmitters that signal the brain’s response. The processing of visual information occurs in the thalamus. According to Kellman, an interesting fact is that information may also come into the thalamus from higher parts of the brain, suggesting that the brain may start processing information before it actually leaves the eye. Cells sending different kinds of messages to the visual cortex tell us what color we are seeing, whether the object is moving or not, and how sharp its edges are. At the highest level of processing, we are able to see whole objects, such as faces.

Discussion Questions 1. What is color blindness and where does it originate? 2. What parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are unavailable to the human visual system? 3. What are rods and cones and how do they work?

 

Visual Information Processing: Elementary Concepts   Length: 9:11 minutes File Name: 110_Visual_Info.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: The Brain Teaching Modules, Second Edition (Worth Publishers/The Annenberg/CPB Multimedia Collection)    Description This video illustrates how visual information moves along visual pathways from the eye to the visual cortex and features the Nobel Prize-winning work of David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel. It also introduces Russell DeValois's findings about spatial frequencies.

Discussion Questions 1. How are visual images interpreted by the brain? 2. How did Drs. Hubel and Wiesel discover “feature detectors” the cat’s brain? 3. How do Drs. Devalois, Hubel, and Wiesel’s interpretations of how the brain interprets orientation, edge, and spatial frequencies of visual stimuli compare?

Hearing: From Vibration to Sound   Length: 7:25 minutes File Name: 111_Hearing.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012)   Description Hearing is an important aspect of communication and survival in animals and humans. The human auditory system contains highly evolved, complex mechanisms that allow us to detect and interpret information that is carried through sound waves. In this program, students learn about the various components of the auditory system, how hearing works, and what causes hearing loss. David Myers explains that sound waves are simply the jostling of molecules making contact. He uses the analogy of people bumping into one another while moving through a stadium tunnel to describe this process. These sound waves enter the ear, initiating a motion that then vibrates the cochlea and sends impulses to the brain. The process of these impulses reaching the brain begins when hair cells in the cochlea are electrically charged, causing an impulse that fires a neuron to the brain. Barbara Shinn-Cunningham adds that vibrations in the air are actually linked to vibrations of the hair cells, influencing the tone and frequency of the sound we hear. Two streams of auditory processing occur in the auditory cortex, which tells our brain what to do with the impulse coming in. Our auditory system is fragile and can be easily damaged. Hearing loss caused by heredity, illness, or injury is the result of cell death and is irreversible.

Discussion Questions 1. What role does hearing play in language development? 2. Describe the physical mechanisms of the inner ear. 3. How does our culture respond to deafness? What kinds of challenges do deaf people face?

Coping with Pain Length: 5:40 minutes File Name: 112_Coping_with_pain.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Pain” Sunday Morning (CBS News)

Description Pain has often been poorly managed. Today medical facilities are required to assess and control patients’ pain or risk losing their accreditation. Pain is difficult to define. Ultimately, it is whatever the experiencing person claims to be painful. Anesthesiologists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) hospital attempt to eliminate postoperative pain. Indeed, some patients come out of surgery pain free. If patients remain in pain, recovery occurs more slowly. Those who resist medication must be encouraged to take it. The failure to treat pain may result in it becoming permanent. Untreated pain can produce changes in the spinal cord, which then continues to send pain signals to the brain long after the distress should have ended. The goal is to eliminate pain messages being sent to the spinal cord before this process gets started. Pamela Palmer, director of UCSF’s Pain Management Center, reports that those who experience chronic pain are often most distressed by how it interferes with normal living. Bob, a former physical education instructor, describes how the harrowing pain that followed surgeries for his deteriorating spine disrupted every aspect of his life—from his relationship with his wife to getting dressed in the morning. Dozens of pain medications provided Bob with little relief. Dr. Palmer took him off from most of the medications and implanted a pain pump under his skin. The pump delivers a pre-programmed level of morphine directly to the site of his pain. Now, Bob remains clear-headed and gets more relief with less morphine. Management of excruciating spinal pain may demand not only a morphine pump but also other strategies like spinal nerve blocks, physical therapy, psychotherapy, biofeedback, and acupuncture. Ironically, friends and relatives may not always be supportive. Susan reports losing her marriage over her use of morphine and other pain management techniques. Her husband viewed her reliance on these techniques as evidence of weakness. Interpretive Comments The function of pain is to inform us that something has gone wrong. Those few who are born without the ability to feel pain may experience severe injury without knowing and attending to it. In fact, such people usually die by early adulthood. Chronic pain, however, is like an alarm we cannot turn off. Both a physical and psychological phenomenon, it is treated with drugs (for example, the morphine pump described in this video), surgery, acupuncture, electrical stimulation, massage, exercise, hypnosis, relaxation training, and thought distraction.

Gate control theory provides one explanation for pain. It states that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that either blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The “gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or in information coming from the brain. This theory recognizes that the pain system is not located in a simple neural cord running from a sensing device to a specific area of the brain. Nor is there simply one type of stimulus that triggers pain or one special receptor for pain. Research indicates that, at low intensities, the stimuli that produce pain also produce other sensations such as warmth, coolness, smoothness, or roughness. Discussion Questions 1. Would feeling no pain be a good or bad thing? Explain your answer. 2. How does society view people who complain of chronic pain? 3. This video clip suggests that psychotherapy is one strategy for treating pain. What does that suggest about the nature of pain?

Losing One’s Touch: Living Without Proprioception   Length: 3:50 minutes File Name: 113_Proprioception.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “A Head Full of Steps” Dancer’s Body (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description Students are familiar with the five senses of vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. They may not be familiar with proprioception, a term often used interchangeably with kinesthesis. This program will introduce them to a sense they may take for granted. The clip features the unusual case of a middle-aged man who, 30 years ago, lost his ability to control bodily movement. He can guide his motions only by looking at his body. He has no sense of touch below the neck and thus lacks awareness of the location of his limbs and their movement. The condition of having no proprioception is extremely rare. With the help of neurophysiologist Jonathan Cole, the man has learned to regain his mobility. Normally, when we stand or move, we do not consciously think of where we are in time or space. In this case, the man found that when he deliberately looked at his limbs and willed them to move, he regained control of them. He reports that it took him a long time simply to learn to stand and, even today, it takes a great deal of effort to maintain a single position. The use of mirrors failed to help him. He needs to look directly at his body parts. When he walks, he needs to think about each step he takes. Today, he is finally able to close his eyes and freeze his position, something he could not do earlier. Jonathan Cole explains that normally sensory and motor nerves in the skin, muscles, and joints send and receive messages that enable body position and movement. In this man’s case the sensory but not the motor nerves have been destroyed. Thus, while he can send messages, he does not receive the feedback that the rest of us do. Interpretive Comments Our bodies come equipped with millions of position and motion sensors. They are found in our muscles, tendons, and joints and are continually sending information to our brain. If we bend our arm even slightly, the sensors immediately report it. To shake another person's hand, we need to know the current position of our arm and our hand and then be aware of their changing position as we move them. People without the kinesthetic sense often report feeling disembodied, that their body is not real or their own. A companion vestibular sense monitors the head’s (and thus entire body’s) position and movement. It enables us to maintain our balance and relies on semicircular canals and vestibular sacs in our inner ear. Discussion Questions 1. What does this case study suggest about the relationship between the various sensory systems? 2. Which of the senses do you think would be most troubling to lose?

Phantom Limb Sensation

Length: 3:20 minutes File Name: 114_Phantom_limb.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: All In the Mind (BBC Motion Gallery) 

Description In discussing influences on pain, you may want to introduce your students to the phenomenon of phantom sensations. Clearly, pain is a property not only of the regions where we feel it but of our brain as well. Phantom sensations also provide the opportunity to reinforce the principle of brain plasticity, that is, the brain’s capacity for reorganization. Five years ago a blood clot led to the amputation of Angela’s right arm. Remarkably, she reports that she retains feeling in her nonexistent hand. In fact, the hand feels as though it is attached to the remaining stump. For some phantom limb patients, the experience is so real that they will actually attempt to use the missing leg or arm, for example, trying to scratch their nose with the missing hand. As researcher Peter Halligan stimulates different spots on Angela’s stump, she reports specific sensations in the fingers of her missing hand. Halligan explains that the brain area that once received sensations from her missing fingers is still intact and thus can still represent the experience of stimulation. Our brain contains a map of our body. In Angela’s case the map has changed. As the investigator touches Angela’s face, she reports vivid sensations in her hand. As a result of the loss of the right arm, the brain has restructured itself. The brain area receiving signals from Angela’s face has actually spilled over into the brain area that once received signals from her hand, clearly demonstrating that the brain modifies itself after certain kinds of damage. Interpretive Comments Phantom limb sensations vividly demonstrate how our sense of touch is not merely a function of the region where we feel it but of the brain itself. The sensory cortex (this term is not mentioned in the program) is the area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body sensations. The more sensitive a body region, the greater the area of the sensory cortex devoted to it. This clip also highlights the brain’s plasticity. If a body part is removed, sensory fibers that terminate in adjacent areas of the sensory cortex may invade the brain tissue that is no longer receiving sensory input. Thus, when Angela’s face is touched, she reports the sensation in her hand. Discussion Questions 1. What do phantom sensations suggest about the source of our pain experience? 2. What do the findings about Angela’s condition indicate regarding the nature of the human brain?

Pickpockets, Placebos, and Pain: The Role of Expectations

Length: 4:20 minutes File Name: 115_Pickpockets.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: Pickpockets, Placebos, and Pain: The Role of Expectations   Description This video provides an excellent demonstration of how our expectations influence our sensations and perceptions, particularly our experience of pain. It also introduces student to the placebo effect. The clip opens with a magician who is able to remove the wristwatches of passersby without their detecting the loss. In each case, he focuses their attention on a card trick he performs using his left hand, which they grasp with their right hand. With his right hand, the magician removes the victim’s watch without their feeling it. All the victims are amazed when he returns the watch they never realized was missing. Clearly, at any one moment our attention focuses on only a limited aspect of all we are experiencing. Researcher Tony Dickenson conducts a laboratory experiment assessing research participants’ experience of pain. In one condition, the participants receive a tablet (actually a sugar pill) that they are told will make them more sensitive to electric shock. Results indicate that they report pain even at low levels of shock. In a second condition, participants are told that the tablet is a painkiller. In contrast to the first groups, they are able to tolerate significantly higher levels of shock. Expectations, concludes Dickenson, play a significant role in our experience of pain.

Interpretive Comments Selective attention means that at any given moment our awareness focuses on only a limited aspect of all we are experiencing. By focusing the observers’ attention on a card trick, the magician is able to remove their watches without their noticing. Selective attention is also evident in studies of inattentional blindness (failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere) and studies of change blindness (failing to recognize changes in faces and clothing after brief interruptions). The experience of pain can vary widely, depending not only on our physiology but also on our expectations. Told that a medication will make them more or less sensitive to electric shock, research participants actually report experiencing more or less pain. More generally, believing we are getting treatment can boost our moods, relax our bodies, and relieve our symptoms. Similarly, distracting people from a noxious stimulus may prove to be an effective strategy for reducing pain. The placebo effect refers to any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition that is assumed to be an active agent. In drug evaluation studies, a double-blind procedure is typically used. In it, both the research participants and research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo.

Discussion Questions 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of selective attention? 2. What do Tony Dickenson’s research results tell us about the nature of pain? 3. How can researchers tell whether new drugs have real or only placebo effects?

“Supertasters” Length: 1:50 minutes File Name: 116_Supertasters.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Taste” Human Senses (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Taste researcher Linda Bartoshuk of Yale University notes that people live in different taste worlds. By painting the tongue with a blue food coloring, she is able to determine a person’s sensitivity to taste. The dye causes the structures that hold individual taste buds to stand out as pale dots against a dark background. The appearance of more dots indicates greater taste sensitivity. Those with the most dots are called “supertasters.” They can have up to 100 times more taste buds than other people. Supertasters tend to dislike the taste of alcohol because it is both bitter and burns the tongue. Similarly, they dislike many vegetables because their tongues are especially responsive to bitter tastes. Because of their heightened taste sensitivity, supertasters tend to be pickier about what they eat. Things do genuinely taste different. A non-taster’s and a supertaster’s facial reactions to a bitter chemical reveal this difference. Whereas the non-taster shows little response, the supertaster finds the substance intolerable and immediately spits it out. Each of us, claims the narrator, seems to have a built-in limit to how strong a taste we can tolerate in our food. Interpretive Comments Heightened sensitivity to taste seems to be due, at least in part, to a greater number of the mushroom-like structures called fungiform papillae on the tongue. Each little bump houses hundreds of taste receptor cells. There are more receptors at the tip of the tongue than at the middle. Some of these receptors respond mostly to sweet-tasting molecules, others to salty-, sour-, or bitter-tasting ones. The blue food dye reveals differences in papillae density. One of the best-documented genetic effects in taste involves people’s ability to taste the bitter substance phenylthiocarbamide, or PTC. People who can taste PTC are described as “tasters” and those who cannot are called “non-tasters.” More recent studies have substituted PROP (6-n-propylthiouracil) for PTC in assessing taste sensitivity. In part, this is because it lacks the sulfurous odor of PTC. Using PROP, Linda Bartoshuk divides people into supertasters (25 percent find PROP extremely bitter), medium tasters (50 percent report PROP as moderately bitter) and non-tasters (25 percent find PROP to be tasteless). Discussion Questions 1. What are the possible advantages and disadvantages of being a supertaster? 2. What implications of this research might there be for parental instructions to young children to “clean their plates”? 3. Are our taste preferences “hard-wired” or learned? Give some examples. 

Synesthesia: The Man Who Tastes Words Length: 6:45 minutes File Name: 117_Synesthesia.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Derek Tastes of Ear Wax” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description This clip is a case study in synesthesia in which stimulation of one sense leads to the experience of another. James not only hears words, he tastes them. He runs a pub and the names of different customers elicit different flavors. James has no control over the links he experiences between specific words and specific tastes. Interestingly, the foods that customers order can elicit tastes different from that that of the food itself. In everyday conversation, James is bombarded with flavors. As he cooks food for his customers, its odor may compete with the flavors elicited by the words of their ongoing conversation. For example, while frying sausage and eggs, James may find that the conversation elicits the taste of yogurt. Clearly, James finds the conflict to be distressing. He escapes to fresh outdoor air. The narrator reports that synesthesia has baffled the scientific community for decades. No one could believe it was real. After establishing a genetic basis for the phenomenon, researchers are now searching for environmental influences that may shape each person’s synesthesia. Neuropsychologist Jamie Ward has been studying James for two years. He has found that James consistently links the same words to the same tastes. Ward searches for a pattern that might explain how the links were first formed. In his study, he finds that similar sounding words elicit much the same taste in James. For Ward, this structure provides clues to how the synesthesia formed. He discovers that the links James has formed between words and tastes are of tastes James experienced in childhood. James does not have linkages between words and foods he tasted only in adulthood. In short, the associations he has formed seem to be part of the process of vocabulary acquisition in early life. Ward suggests that an unusual chaining occurred between the sounds of words and both the names and tastes of food in James’ childhood. Interpretive Comments Synesthesia is the extraordinary sensory condition in which a stimulation of one modality leads to the perceptual experience in another. Literally, the term means “to perceive together.” Although estimates vary, one of the most recent estimates places the occurrence at 1 in 2000, with females outnumbering males 6 to 1. The phenomenon seems to run in families, which leads some researchers to conclude it has a genetic basis. Seeing specific letters or numbers within specific colors is the most common form of synesthesia. In contrast, tasting sounds (or words) is extremely rare. Neurologist Richard Cytowic describes the case of Michael Watson who feels shapes when he tastes or smells food. Do most synesthetes find their experience to be distressing? Simon Baron-Cohen states, “If you ask synesthetes if they’d wish to be rid of it, they almost always say, ‘no.’ For them, it tells what normal experience is like. To have that taken away would make them feel like they were being deprived of one sense.”

Discussion Questions 1. Do you think James would choose to be free of his synesthesia? 2. Would you like to experience synesthesia? Why or why not? 3. How might a biopsychosocial perspective be important in understanding this phenomenon?

 

The “Red Hot” Chili-Eating Contest: Sensitivity to Taste   Length: 4:35 minutes File Name: 118_Chili_Contest.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Taste” Human Senses (BBC Motion Gallery)   Description A chili-eating contest in the American Midwest raises important questions about our taste preferences as well as individual differences in taste sensitivity. This program can also be used in a classroom discussion of sensation- or thrill-seeking. Researcher Paul Rozin has studied why we return to foods that are innately unpleasant. For example, the champion of the contest is back to defend his title. He reports his record is 22 chili peppers. The contest begins and the narrator reports how the first bite stimulates pain receptors in his tongue. The bitter chemical capsaicin produces a burning sensation that seems to radiate through other parts of the body. An increase in blood flow turns face and neck red. Perspiration flows freely. Yet people repeatedly return to eat the peppers. This time the winner eats a total of 24. Paul Rozin reports that people in every culture perform activities that are painful or innately unpleasant. For some, it is a roller coaster ride. The thrill of such activities, suggests Rozin, may convince you that you are above your body. Ultimately, however, thrill-seekers must feel safe or they will not enjoy the activity. We may come to like chili peppers because they allow us to push our limits without doing any lasting harm to our bodies. Rozin reports that people show their greatest liking for the pepper that falls just below the one they find intolerable. Interpretive Comments Capsaicin is the active component in chili peppers that produces their burning sensation. As the video suggests, supertasters are likely to experience the sensation more acutely (see the video “Supertasters”). Capsaicin is sometimes added to foods to give them greater pungency or spice. Many people experience pleasure and even euphoria while eating capsaicin-flavored foods. Some have linked this thrill to a possible release of endorphins. Marvin Zuckerman has argued that individuals differ in the amount of stimulation they need or want, and hence in their “sensation-seeking” behaviors. Researchers have identified thrill-seeking, experienceseeking, disinhibition, and susceptibility to boredom as different forms of sensation-seeking. Frank Farley has applied the term “Type T personality” (for thrill-seeking) to those who seem to need a life filled with constant stimulation and risk-taking. Sensation- or thrill-seeking people have distinctly different brain chemistry.

Discussion Questions 1. What other activities are similar to chili-eating contests? 2. What are the benefits and risks of thrill-seeking? 3. How does the social setting impact chili eating?  

Learning Classical Conditioning and the Immune System: Combating Lupus Length: 3:50 minutes File Name: 119_Classical_Conditioning_Lupus.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Mind Over Body” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Classical conditioning principles have wide application to improving human health and well-being. This program provides a vivid example. The clip presents the case of Merritt, a young girl who suffered from lupus. In this illness, the immune system becomes overactive, and antibodies begin to attack the person's body and tissues. Powerful steroids prescribed for Merritt’s illness produced troubling side effects. Merritt’s mother relates her concern over the psychological and physical effects that the steroids were having on her daughter. As a clinical psychologist, she was familiar with Robert Ader’s work with white mice suffering from lupus. Ader had used classical conditioning to teach the mice to suppress their overactive immune systems. After he associated sweetened water with the drug that causes immune suppression, the inert substance alone triggered the conditioned immune response. As a result, the mice survived longer. Might the same strategy help humans suffering from lupus? Merritt had to learn to associate a strong taste or smell with the steroid drug that slowed down her runaway immune system. The conditioning worked. Soon, just the taste or smell of the steroid enabled her to reduce her drug dosage. Merritt’s mother reports that her daughter died in 1995 of a heart attack. However, the conditioning very likely lengthened her life by 10 years. Interpretive Comments Robert Ader’s study demonstrated the impact of classical conditioning on the immune system. A drug (US) elicited immune suppression (UR). After sweetened water was paired with the drug, the water (CS) alone eventually triggered the immune response (CR). In Merritt’s case, the conditioning followed a similar pattern except that a taste or a smell rather than sweetened water served as the CS. The findings raise fascinating questions about possible ways to harness the healing potential of the immune system. Current research seeks to determine whether we can condition the enhancement as well as the suppression of the immune system. Discussion Questions 1. Identify the US, UR, CS, and CR in Robert Ader’s study of immune suppression. 2. What does this research suggest regarding strategies for promoting our physical health?

Classical Conditioning: Pavlov and his Legacy

Length: 9:00 minutes File Name: 120_Classical_Conditioning_Pavlov.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012)

Description Have you ever noticed that certain stimuli, such as the smell of perfume or a certain song, trigger intense emotions? It is not the smell or the song itself, but rather what that smell or song has been paired with, that causes the emotion. These pairings shape our behavior and are the premise of classical conditioning. Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov accidently discovered this learning phenomenon while doing research on the digestion patterns in dogs. During his experiments, he would put meat powder into the dogs’ mouths and measure their bodily responses. What he discovered was that the dogs would salivate before the meat powder was presented to them. Then, the dogs began salivating as soon as the lab assistant entered the room. Pavlov’s experiments support the idea that we have the tendency to develop responses to stimuli that are not naturally occurring. This program describes the four basic elements of classical conditioning identified by Pavlov. The meat powder was the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the salivation was the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell and salivation are not naturally occurring because the dog was conditioned to respond to the bell. Therefore, the bell is considered the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the salivation upon hearing the bell, the conditioned response (CR). Pavlov’s studies inspired behaviorist John B. Watson to determine if classical conditioning could be used to condition the fear of a rat on a nine-month old boy called “Little Albert.” This controversial study showed how emotions can become conditioned responses. Discussion Questions 1. How can classical conditioning be used to overcome fear and phobias? 2. What are some of the limitations to the study of behaviorism? What other concepts does behaviorism dismiss? 3. Why was Watson’s “Little Albert” experiment considered controversial?

 

Overcoming Fear  Length: 2:15 minutes File Name: 121_Overcoming_Fear.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Phobias” (CBS News)

Description Classroom discussion of classical conditioning principles might well include their application to the treatment of psychological disorders. For example, counterconditioning uses classical conditioning techniques to pair new responses with old stimuli that have triggered maladaptive behaviors. In this segment, Bill, a participant in group therapy, has an intense fear of elevators. The therapist suggests that, with the support of the other group participants, Bill ride an elevator the next morning. He agrees. Bill has not been on an elevator in years, and the next morning he reports having had a sleepless night. Greeted by the therapist and his fellow clients, he prepares to board the elevator. He is given a “survival pack” that includes lemonade to drink if he feels his throat closing. Bill notes that he has his prayers memorized. Entering the elevator he reports that he believes he will get stuck and die in the elevator. The others promise their support. On the elevator, Bill sings to himself in an obvious effort to distract himself on a ride that takes mere seconds. Surviving the trip he exits both shaking and smiling. The next week, reports the therapist, Bill will take many more elevator rides. Exposure therapy, a form of counterconditioning, treats anxieties by exposing people to the things they fear and avoid. Interpretive Comments Behavior therapy applies learning principles to the treatment of psychological disorders. Because we normally avoid those objects or situations we fear, we never learn an alternative response. With repeated exposure, fear is countered by a relaxed state that cannot coexist with fear. In Bill’s case, his conditioned response (fear) to the conditioned stimulus (elevator) will eventually be replaced by a new conditioned response (relaxation). Discussion Questions 1. How can classical conditioning help us understand the acquisition of a specific fear? 2. What specific classical conditioning principles are applied in treating Bill’s fear of elevators? 

 

Pavlov’s Discovery of Classical Conditioning  Length: 3:08 minutes File Name: 122_Pavlov.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: BBC Motion Gallery  Description This clip provides a useful introduction to Pavlov’s classic work on classical conditioning. In studying salivation in dogs, Pavlov observed that dogs drooled automatically when their tongues touched food. He called the response the salivation reflex. As the dogs became familiar with the laboratory routine, Pavlov found that they began to salivate before he presented the food. The dogs had learned to anticipate the food. So he constructed screens to obstruct their view. Moreover, before presenting the food, he introduced an unrelated stimulus, for example, a ticking metronome. At first the dogs drooled only to the meat. However, after a number of trials, the sound alone triggered salivation. Pavlov called this new response the conditioned reflex. He found that his dogs could be conditioned to produce saliva to a variety of stimuli. Pavlov believed that he had discovered how animals learned. Interpretive Comments We learn by association. In classical conditioning, an organism comes to associate stimuli. In this study, the unconditioned stimulus is food, and the unconditioned response is salivation to the food. The conditioned stimulus is a ticking metronome, and the conditioned response is salivation to the metronome. Through his work Pavlov demonstrated that a process such as learning can be studied objectively. Pavlov’s principles of classical conditioning apply to human behavior. For example, irrational fears can be explained in terms of classical conditioning. Important behavioral techniques to treat emotional disorders also incorporate Pavlov’s principles. Discussion Questions 1. In Pavlov’s study, what is the US? UR? CS? CR? 2. Can you provide an example of classical conditioning in human behavior?

Watson’s Little Albert Length: 0:50 seconds File Name: 123_Little_Albert.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive   Description All three clips are scenes from Watson’s famous experiment on emotional conditioning with Little Albert. This series of clips demonstrates basic principles of conditioning and generalization. Clip 7a shows Little Albert prior to being conditioned to fear a rat. In this clip Little Albert is not fearful when a rat is presented to him. The second clip (7b) depicts Little Albert after he had experienced the conditioning phase of the experiment, in which the presence of the rat was paired with a loud noise. In this clip Little Albert cries and tries to crawl away when the rat is presented, a reaction that is very different from the response that was seen in the first clip. The final clip demonstrates how Little Albert’s fear of rats is also generalized to other similar animals (rabbit). Interpretive Comments These segments are appropriate for use with lectures on learning, particularly classical conditioning, because together they show how Watson was able to pair a neutral stimulus (a laboratory rat) with an aversive stimulus (a loud noise) to produce conditioning in ‘Little Albert.’ In addition, the clips can be used during lectures dealing with ethics in research methods. This experiment would never be approved by an internal review board in any university today due to the trauma that ‘Little Albert’ was put through. Experiments such as this one harmed psychology’s reputation early in its history. Finally, the clips could be used with lectures on abnormal psychology or treatments of psychopathology. The pairing of the rat and the loud noise by Albert shows the process that behavioral psychologists believe underlies the formation of phobias. This information is important for lectures on exposure therapies, a part of the behavior therapies topic.

 

B. F. Skinner Interview

Length: 5:25 minutes File Name: 124_BF_Skinner.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This footage from Skinner’s lab shows pigeons in a Skinner box responding to words and other stimuli by spinning or pecking. The narrator explains that the pigeon has learned the desired responses by being reinforced with food. Just as pigeon behavior can be shaped by reinforcement, so too can human behavior. In an interview with B.F. Skinner, Skinner discusses how a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement is used in gambling machines and argues that individuals gamble because of the type of reinforcement they receive. In the interview, Skinner also discusses his opinion that free will is an illusion and that behavior can be explained by other causes. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful for lectures on learning, especially operant conditioning. Skinner is a dominant figure in the study of learning. He is the founder of the field of operant conditioning. His views on animal and human behavior have been very influential throughout the entire field of psychology. In this segment, viewers can see operant conditioning at work in the lab setting (pigeon responding for food reinforcement); Skinner discussing how a laboratory manipulation (schedules of reinforcement) can be seen as an analog of a human behavior (gambling); and Skinner discussing one of the most basic tenets of his philosophical and scientific position regarding human behavior—that all behavior is determined and free will is an illusion.

Operant Conditioning: Learned Behaviors

Length: 9:02 minutes File Name: 125_Operant_Conditioning.mp4 Original Worth Collection: 125_Operant_Conditioning.mp4 Source: New (2012)  Description A reward can be as simple as seeing light when we turn on a light switch. When we learn that turning on a light switch gives us light, the likelihood that we try the switch the next time we need light increases. This is the premise of operant conditioning: a behavior is strengthened when it is followed by a reward and weakened when it is followed by punishment. In this program, students learn the basic principles of operant conditioning and are introduced to experimental and real-life examples of this learning method. Edward Thorndike and B.F. Skinner were key figures in the discovery and research on operant conditioning. In studying cats’ responses to consequences, Thorndike concluded that learning occurred automatically, incrementally, and identically in all animals. His theory paved the way for B.F. Skinner and the field of behaviorism. Skinner spent decades trying to understand the relationship between certain behavioral outcomes and schedules of reinforcement. He believed that in real life we are not rewarded for every single behavior. Rather, reinforcements are delivered on fixed and variable schedules. As the narrator explains, reinforcements can be delivered in positive and negative doses. Behaviors that are positively reinforced are more likely to be repeated then those which have negative consequences. In terms of extinction, there are some distinct differences between what happens in classical versus operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, extinction occurs when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus. However, in operant conditioning, extinction can occur if the reinforcement is either terminated or no longer rewarding. In the final scene, Robert Epstein illustrates how operant conditioning occurs often (and subtly) in the real world. He emphasizes the importance of learning how to effectively program consequences as a way to receive desirable results from our interactions with others. Discussion Questions 1. How does one teach a rat in a Skinner box to press a bar for reinforcement? 2. How might operant conditioning enable superstitious behaviors? 3. How does extinction differ in operant conditioning versus classical conditioning?  

 

The Research of Carolyn Rovee-Collier: Learning and Memory in Preverbal Infants Length: 2:15 minutes File Name: 126_Rovee_Collier.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Description This segment illustrates the research of Carolyn Rovee-Collier on learning and memory in young infants. Rovee-Collier narrates the segment as she leads you through one experimental trial. The participating infant is placed in a crib with two stands. One stand remains empty and the other holds the stimulus mobile. Rovee-Collier ties a ribbon to the infant’s right ankle and connects the other end first to the empty stand. To create a baseline, Rovee-Collier counts the number of times the infant kicks (defined as a movement of the leg fully outward and back in) for two minutes. She then ties the end of the ribbon to the stand holding the mobile so that the stimulus is moved when the infant kicks her leg. Rovee-Collier then counts the number of kicks for nine minutes. The segment shows the infant increase the frequency and intensity of her kicking in order to move the mobile. Finally, Rovee-Collier once again ties the ribbon to the empty stand, this time to see if the infant displays the learned behavior. Interpretive Comments The segment describing Rovee-Collier’s research is very useful for discussion of operant conditioning, which is part of learning. The fact that the child learns to increase the rate of the kicking behavior when the ribbon is tied to the mobile shows, in a very similar way to Thorndike’s cats, that behaviors that lead to a desired outcome increase in frequency. Also, this research is helpful in punctuating lectures on perceptual development, which as previously mentioned is a topic often found under the larger heading of cognitive development. Discussion Questions 1. What type of conditioning is exhibited by infants in Royee-Collier’s experiment? 2. How did Royee-Collier operationalize learning and memory in preverbal infants? Do you feel this was an appropriate definition? 3. Why did the experimenter tie the ribbon to the empty stand again, following the nine minutes connected to the mobile? 

 

Thorndike’s Puzzle Box   Length: 1:06 minutes File Name: 127_Thorndike.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: BBC Motion Gallery    Description Edward L. Thorndike’s work set the stage for B. F. Skinner’s important work on operant conditioning. You may want to show this clip to introduce the law of effect and describe its links to Skinner’s principle of reinforcement. Thorndike wondered how a new skill is learned. In attempting to answer that question, he constructed puzzle boxes in which cats could escape only by operating latches. Using its paw to operate the latch, the cat seemed to cleverly engineer its escape. However, Thorndike did not believe animals understood the consequences of their behavior. The cat’s successful actions in escaping the puzzle box seemed to appear by chance. Thorndike used graphs to measure the rate of learning. A well-practiced cat placed in the puzzle box quickly recalls the actions that help it escape to a food reward. Thorndike believed that if an action leads to reward, the action becomes stamped into the mind. He concluded that behavior changes because of its consequences, which he called the law of effect. The law explains how even wild creatures develop new habits. Interpretive Comments Thorndike’s work with the puzzle box was an important antecedent to Skinner’s work on operant conditioning. Thorndike focused on observable behavior and wrote the first dissertation on animal learning. His law of effect was influential in the development of Skinner’s principle of reinforcement. The idea that behavior is shaped by its consequences has wide application to promoting effective instruction in the classroom, to fostering athletic skills, and to increasing productivity in the workplace. Discussion Questions 1. How do animals learn new skills? 2. How does human learning compare with that of Thorndike’s cats?

Cognitive Maps Length: 2:35 minutes File Name: 128_Cognitive_Maps.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description Clips 10a and 10b both demonstrate how animals use cognitive maps or mental representations of the world around them. Clip 10a shows how elephants living in a desert in Southern Africa use cognitive maps. The elephants would not be able to survive if they did not rely on mental maps in order to remember the location of water sources. Clip 10b shows how a lab rat creates a cognitive map of a maze while trying to locate food. When the rat is placed back into the maze and the old route to food is blocked, the rat is able to use cognitive maps to locate food instead of trial and error learning. Interpretive Comments This segment can be used with lectures on the cognitive perspective of learning. Cognitive psychologists are concerned with thought processes. In this way, they differ from behaviorists in the study of learning. While behaviorists such as Hull believe that behavior is entirely reflexive and brought about by cues from the environment, cognitive psychologists are willing to posit the existence of thought in animals, even animals as primitive as the rat. Both clips show animals engaging in enterprises which support the cognitive perspective—the elephants find water in the desert and the laboratory rat finds food in the radial arm maze by using cognitive maps.  

Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment Length: 5:06 minutes File Name: 130_Bandura.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description In clip 11 Albert Bandura, one of the first scientists to conduct experiments on observational learning in children, narrates a video of one his most famous experiments on modeled aggression. Bandura was interested in how much modeled aggression a child learned just by watching others perform aggressive acts. During this experiment children viewed a video tape in which an adult performed both novel aggressive behavior and novel aggressive language towards an inflated doll. The children were then observed during free play. The children who had not viewed the video of novel aggression modeling never exhibited the novel forms of aggression; however, the children who had watched the video are shown in clips displaying the novel aggressive behavior and language seen in the video. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful with lectures dealing with social learning theory. This material can be found in chapters that deal with learning. Bandura became famous based on the work he did with the modeling of aggression in children. The idea was that individuals can learn from watching others. This has been shown to be true in a number of studies. What makes Bandura’s study so interesting was that he showed that children who watch adults acting aggressively will become aggressive themselves. This research is often cited by advocates for reducing violent content of television shows. The segment can also be helpful with lectures on social development, because it shows that a child’s environment influences his/her behavior.

 

Do Video Games Teach People to Be Violent?  Length: 4:30 minutes File Name: 131_Video_games.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Grand Theft Auto” 60 Minutes (CBS News)    Description The impact of playing violent video games is an issue that could be introduced in the context of several important introductory psychology topics, including observational learning, adolescence, and aggression. Grand Theft Auto, a violent video game, is at the center of a civil lawsuit involving the murder of three men in Fayette, Alabama. The victims, police officers, were killed by 18-year-old Devin Moore, who had played Grand Theft Auto regularly for months. The attorney bringing the suit against the makers of the video game claims that Grand Theft Auto taught Devin to commit the murders. Following the game’s script, the young man had shot three officers in the head, grabbed the keys to a police cruiser, and fled. Indeed, after his arrest, Devin claimed that “Life is like a video game, everyone has to die sometime.” A young law student demonstrates the controversial video game and relates the details of its script. Like millions of other gamers, he claims that he plays the game for fun. Child psychologist David Walsh has co-authored research that links violent video games to physical aggression. He offers a possible explanation for the association. Pioneering brain research at the National Institutes of Health indicates that the adolescent brain is not fully developed. Thus, repeated exposure to violent games has a greater impact because the prefrontal cortex that enables impulse control is still under construction during the teen years. Diminished impulse control becomes a particularly important factor in young men who have additional risks factors for criminal behavior. Walsh acknowledges that not every person who plays violent video games will re-enact the game’s script. Obviously, multiple influences shape human behavior, including physical aggression. Interpretive Comments Studies of the impact of violent video games reveal that they prime aggressive thoughts and increase aggression. In addition, young adolescents who play a lot of these games see the world as more hostile, get into more arguments and fights, and receive lower grades. The fact that game play involves repetitive and active participation leads some experts to suggest that violent video games have an even greater impact on behavior than watching violent television and movies. The results of the studies also challenge the catharsis hypothesis that we feel better and become less aggressive by venting our emotions.

Discussion Questions 1. Who do you think are most likely to re-enact the scripts of violent video games? 2. What does this research suggest regarding the catharsis hypothesis, that is, that we feel better and become less aggressive if we vent our anger? 

Memory An Amazing Memory Length: 9:45 minutes File Name: 132_Amazing_Memory.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: 60 Minutes “Brain Man” (CBS News)

Description This case of extraordinary memory provides a good introduction to the topic and can be juxtaposed with cases of memory loss. Indeed, the exploration of memory’s extremes has helped investigators understand how memory works. The example of the savant in this video segment also raises important questions about the nature of intelligence and the controversy over whether it consists of one ability or many. Daniel is a 27-year-old math and memory wizard. Give him any date in history and he can tell you the day of the week on which it occurred. Give him a complex multiplication problem and he immediately provides the correct answer. Daniel is a savant who is articulate and self-sufficient. Shown a long numerical sequence only once, he can correctly recite it both backward and forward. Daniel first made headlines at Oxford University when he correctly recited 22,514 digits of pi. It took him over five hours but he performed the feat without a single mistake. Researcher Rajan Mahadevan is amazed at Daniel’s intelligence, his ability to interact socially, and perhaps most importantly his capacity to introspect on his unique ability. Daniel’s description of how his own mind works could prove invaluable to scientists. Mahadevan believes that a savant’s unique ability may actually result from brain injury. Indeed, at the age of four, Daniel suffered a massive epileptic seizure. He developed a rare crossing of senses known as synesthesia. He began to see numbers as shapes, colors, and textures. Thus, a sequence of numbers now forms a landscape in his mind. Some numbers, he claims, are beautiful while others are ugly. At an early age, Daniel was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism. Social relations became difficult and Daniel retreated into the safety of numbers. However, he did become a social isolate. He believes his large family may have fostered his ability to adapt. Today, he runs a successful online business. Still, social anxiety keeps him close to home. Mahadevan believes that Daniel may provide important insights into the working of the human brain. Although Daniel refuses to become what he calls a “performing seal” who makes money from his unique ability, he has written a book about his experiences. Ultimately, he hopes that he can share with others the beauty and joy of numbers.

Interpretive Comments Daniel’s description of how he sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures provides an excellent opportunity to discuss how encoding imagery aids effortful processing. We experience greater ease in remembering pictures than in remembering words. Research shows that we remember concrete words that lend themselves to visual mental images better than we remember abstract, low-image words. Imagery is also an important component of many memory aids. Mnemonic devices like the method of loci or the peg-word system rely largely on visual representations and associations to boost recall. About 4 in 5 people with savant syndrome are males and many also have autism, a developmental disorder that afflicts more males than females. People who exhibit exceptional skill in one area suggest that we do not have a single, general intelligence. Instead we have multiple intelligences, each relatively independent of the other. Howard Gardner identifies eight intelligences including linguistic, logicalmathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Discussion Questions 1. How might Daniel’s synesthesia contribute to his remarkable memory? 2. Does Daniel’s case provide any clues as to how we may improve our own memories? Explain your answer. 3. Does intelligence consist of one general ability? Or, does it consist of several specific abilities? Explain your answer.

Memory in Everyday Life

Length: 2:50 minutes File Name: 133_Memory_Everyday_Life.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Description The inability to remember words, names, or events—especially from the present or recent past— discourages and frustrates many in later adulthood. In this clip, older adults share their experiences with memory loss. One man admits that he can remember the name of his college roommate but not of someone he met just the other day. Another man expresses the concern that many of his peers fear in relationship to memory loss—the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Discussion Questions 1. How do residents of an assisted living community describe finding another resident wandering the halls aimlessly, not recalling where they are or how they got there? 2. What does a woman in the video recommend for keeping one’s mind alert in advancing age? Can you think of any other ideas for “exercising” an aging mind?

Models of Memory   Length: 13:45 File Name: 134_Models_of_Memory.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012)

Description Alex is on a trip to visit a place of significance in his life from eight years earlier. Along the way, Alex experiences a sense of familiarity as he passes by landmarks that trigger old memories and remind him how to get to his destination. How does Alex remember his way after such a long time? Where are memories such as Alex’s stored when not in use? This program provides an overview of the complex process of memory encoding, storage, and retrieval. The human capacity for emotion is what distinguishes the memory system of the human brain from the memory system of a computer. Memories that are linked to emotions are more likely to be kept for future retrieval. The three stages of memory, as outlined in the stage model of memory, are categorized by the duration of time the memory is stored in the brain and how we interact with it. In the earliest stage, sensory memory, information that enters through the senses is stored only for a few seconds. The information to which we actually attend then moves to the short-term memory, the second stage of memory processing. As we use and integrate the information stored in short-term memory, we activate the working memory, which is required in word, sound, and symbol recognition. Daniel Schacter describes three components of working memory—the phonological loop, the visual-spatial sketchpad, and the central executive. Attending to information in the short-term memory allows it to continue to move into long-term memory, where it is encoded and stored. Access to information in long-term memory occurs through conscious and unconscious processes known as implicit and explicit memory. Much of our current understanding about the relationship between cognition and memory has been contributed by the field of cognitive neuroscience. Nonetheless, there is still a great deal of work to be done to learn more about this complex and fascinating system. As stated by Schacter, “Memory really defines who we are. There’s a very tight connection between memory and our sense of self.” Discussion Questions 1. What are the implications of thinking of the brain like a computer? Why is that analogy inaccurate? 2. How might memories get distorted? Where do false memories come from? 3. Describe a flashbulb memory. Why are flashbulb memories often formed during emotionally arousing and surprising events? 4. Why might someone who develops Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or a brain injury later in life be able to access old memories?  

A Pill for Forgetting   Length: 8:00 minutes File Name: 135_Pill_for_Forgetting.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: 60 Minutes “The Memory Pill” (CBS News) Description Classroom discussion of how memories are stored in the brain could include interesting research on how stress hormones affect memory. The possibility that one could take a pill to weaken memories of a painful experience has alarmed critics but filled trauma victims with hope. Beatrice, a Boston subway conductor, describes the horror of seeing a man attempt to commit suicide by jumping in front of her train. She went to a hospital emergency ward in extreme psychological distress. Psychiatrist Roger Pitman has treated patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and whose memories have become incapacitating. He enrolled Beatrice in a study in which trauma victims were given propranolol, a drug used to treat high blood pressure. Findings suggest that it may also weaken memory. Research indicates that the stress hormone adrenaline can affect the strength of our memories. James McGaugh demonstrates how a rat’s memory is enhanced if it is injected with adrenaline. McGaugh maintains that the same stress hormone strengthens memories in humans. Additional research indicates that propranolol blocks adrenaline’s memory-enhancing effects in rats. Based on these findings, Pitman recruited patients for a pilot study. Catherine was one participant who had been terrified when hit by a bicyclist on a Boston street. Catherine took propranolol four times daily for 10 days. Three months later, she showed no physiological signs of PTSD. In contrast, control participants given a placebo continued to show signs of the disorder. These findings led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund a larger study. But then the President’s Council on Bioethics condemned the study, claiming that rewriting memory undermines our true identity. Catherine counters with this: Why should people be forced to live with horrible memories? Another concern is that the drug might be used too widely. For example, some may seek to erase their painful recall of the breakup of a relationship, or even of an embarrassing moment at a party. Such experiences, and our memories of them, may in the long run make us better people. Interpretive Comments Researcher James McGaugh (featured in this video segment) states that, “stronger emotional experiences make for stronger, more reliable memories.” Flashbulb memories, in which we maintain very clear memories of exciting, significant events, may be based in emotion-triggered hormonal changes. Our first kiss, our high school graduation ceremony, or the sudden death of a close relative might be vividly remembered years after its occurrence—as if the experience has been burned in. In class, you might also note the limits of stress-enhanced memory. Prolonged stress, such as sustained abuse, can corrode neural connections and shrink the hippocampus, which is essential for laying down memories. In addition, when stress hormones are flowing, older memories may be blocked. For example, under the stress of public speaking we may suddenly forget what we planned to say.

Discussion Questions 1. Share a specific flashbulb memory from your past. What specific emotions did you experience at that time? 2. Do you believe that the recall of painful experiences can make us better people? Why or why not? 3. Should a medication that blocks memory be regulated? Or, should it be available as an over-thecounter drug?

Clive Wearing: Living Without Memory   Length: 9:00 minutes File Name: 136_Clive_Wearing.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Worth Publishers    Description This clip illustrates an extreme form of memory deficit, in which a person is unable to form new memories. Before sustaining significant brain damage caused by viral encephalitis that left Clive Wearing unable to form new memories, Clive was an accomplished choir director and musical arranger. Discussion Questions 1. How does Clive characterize his dreams? 2. How is Clive Wearing’s case reminiscent of that of HM? 3. How do you think Clive Wearing’s memory deficit impacts his loved ones, particularly his wife?

Enhancing Memory: The Role of Emotion   Length: 7:38 minutes File Name: 137_Enhancing_Memory.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Scientific American Frontiers Teaching Modules for Introductory Psychology, Third Edition Description The program opens with Jim McGaugh of University of California, Irvine, reflecting on the question of why memories of some events remain vivid while others seem to fade. Clearly, events that arouse emotion are more likely to stick than those that are mundane. For example, Nobel Peace Prize winners as well as actors and writers who receive negative reviews never forget the events. In a laboratory experiment designed by Larry Cahill, research participant, Malina, watches slides of scenes having varying emotional content. Immediately after she views the slides, she is asked to immerse her hand in a tub of ice water, holding it there as long as she can. Cahill’s hypothesis is that the immersion triggers a stress-hormone response which in turn enhances memory of the slides. Presumably, the stress hormones work to consolidate the scenes into storage. Indeed, when participants like Marina are tested a week later for their memory of the slides, they remember the emotional slides more clearly than do control participants who have not received the ice-water treatment. Cahill explains that the stress hormones activate the amygdala, a small almond-shaped region of the brain near the hippocampus, which is responsible for the enhanced memory. Learning can occur, explains McGaugh, without activation of the amygdala but the memory will not be as strong. The program concludes with a consideration of possible gender differences in the memory of emotional events. When Cahill had participants watch movies of emotionally arousing events, he found that they activated the right amygdala in men and the left amygdala in women. Given the specialized functions of the two cerebral hemispheres, Cahill speculates that this finding may mean that men may be more likely to remember the gist of an emotional event and women may be more likely to remember its details. Interpretive Comments The program highlights emotion as one of the important factors that impacts memory. It can provide a good introduction to the interesting phenomena of flashbulb memories, which represent clear memories of emotionally significant moments or events. You might ask your students if they remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the tragic events of 9/11. Do they have other flashbulb memories? Of course, emotion enhanced remembering has its limits. Prolonged stress (e.g., sustained abuse or combat) can corrode neural connections and shrink the hippocampus that is vital for storing memory. Stress hormones can also block retrieval of older memories. Have any of your students had the experience of their minds going blank while speaking in public?

Discussion Questions 1. In what ways is it adaptive that emotional events are remembered better than the mundane? 2. What might be the relevance of this research for the controversy over repressed and recovered memories? 3. What are some of the implications of this research for improving memory?

Living Without Memory Length: 10:00 minutes File Name: 138_Living_without_Memory.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Living Without a Memory (BBC Motion Gallery)   Description You can introduce the topic of memory with this dramatic case study. It vividly illustrates the significance of memory. We are what we remember. But only when memory fails are we truly aware of its importance. George cannot remember. He suffered a viral infection that caused his brain to become inflamed, a condition called encephalitis. It produced almost immediate memory loss. George reports, “I can’t even remember what it is like to remember.” When he and his wife Val return to a favorite spot they have visited since their teens, George does not recognize it. And when Val reminds him that they have been married 47 years after being childhood sweethearts, it is clear that George has no recall. George considers using a special pager to remind him of everyday tasks. For those suffering from significant memory loss this simple device provides an active prompt for taking medications, keeping scheduled appointments, and preparing meals. George hopes the pager will take some of the pressure off Val as well as help him. Val expresses deep sympathy for her husband and hopes the pager will restore some of his independence. The pager is delivered. It will be used to remind George of what clothes to wear, of bills to pay, and of library items to return. Together, George and Val learn the simple operation of the device, and George happily leaves home with the pager that will remind him what to do. He successfully navigates transactions at the local library. Val’s deep emotional pain over her husband’s memory loss becomes apparent when the narrator asks what personal message she would want to leave on the pager for George. Through tears she expresses her deep love for her husband and continued commitment to him. In a final scene George drops letters in a mailbox and expresses “victory” over his illness. Interpretive Comments Memory represents our ability to store and retrieve information. We become aware of its importance when it malfunctions. As this program vividly demonstrates, memory binds us to family and friends. To a significant degree, we are what we remember. The case also reminds us that everything psychological is simultaneously biological. Quite possibly the viral encephalitis that George suffered damaged neural centers enabling storage and retrieval of explicit memories, including the hippocampus, a neural center in the limbic system.

Discussion Questions 1. What role does memory play in our identity and connections to others? 2. What does this case tells us about the mind-brain relationship? 

Memory Loss: A Case Study    Length: 7:28 minutes File Name: 139_Memory_Loss.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Scientific American Frontiers Teaching Modules for Introductory Psychology, Third Edition   Description E.P. is a spry, sociable 82-year-old who is retired from a career in electronics. In 1982 he suffered an acute virus infection that destroyed his hippocampus, a brain structure that is critical to memory. Psychological testing reveals that most of his thinking skills remain intact. His limitations, however, become apparent as he forgets what he has just said and spontaneously repeats the same story several times to his tester within a few minutes. Researchers Larry Squire and Jennifer Frascino of the University of San Diego indicate that, although they have visited and tested E.P. several times, he is unable to remember their names. Anything new that happens to him is simply not stored and thus he lives in a state of “permanent present.” Although new memories are not recorded, old memories from decades back remain strong. Remarkably E.P. can accurately describe the route from his boyhood home to the town library but cannot remember the names of any of the streets in his current neighborhood. E.P. remains jovial, optimistic, and outgoing. He genuinely enjoys life in spite of his his inability to store new memories. Narrator Alan Alda concludes by noting that, while the hippocampus is important in processing new memories, clearly it is not where memories are permanently stored. E.P has vivid and accurate recollections of his distant past. Interpretive Comments The program provides an excellent illustration of the oldest method of studying mind–brain connections, namely to observe the effects of brain diseases and injuries. More generally, the program highlights the importance of case studies in understanding human behavior. The effect of E.P.’s illness provides valuable insight into the role of the hippocampus in processing memories. Showing this program is also useful for distinguishing between short-term and long-term memory as well as the processes of encoding, storage, and retrieval. You might also note that studies of people with brain damage reveal that we have two types of memory—explicit (declarative) memories processed by the hippocampus, and implicit (nondeclarative) memories processed by the cerebellum and the amygdala. Discussion Questions 1. Explain the claim, “We are what we remember.” Do you agree or disagree? 2. Distinguish between the processes of encoding, storage, and retrieval. 3. E.P remains remarkably upbeat in spite of his limitation. Had the illness occurred before his retirement, do you think he would have been able to continue his work in electronics?

 

Aging and Memory

Length: 4:00 minutes File Name: 140_Aging_and_Memory.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This clip discusses the research on aging and memory. Much of the research that has been done on the memory of older adults has focused on retrospective memory, or memory for events that occurred in the past. However, this clip discusses research on prospective memory, or memory for intended actions in the future. In the experiment discussed in the clip, time-based and event-based prospective memory was tested. In the timebased test, a subject was asked to remember to press a key every five minutes while he/she answered questions. In the event-based test, subjects were asked to answer questions and to remember to press a key when a question came up about a president. Each type of test was given to both young adults and older adults. Researchers found that for the time-based task, significant memory differences existed between older adults and younger adults. However, in the event-based task, no memory differences were found. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful with lectures on memory. The type of memory that is measured by the researchers in the clip is called prospective memory, or memory for things in the future (i.e. remembering to do things). This is an area of memory research that is not well explored. The researchers here are able to show that older adults are as good as younger adults at prospective memory tasks when they are given external cues, but are worse when the cues are absent. This clip could also be helpful when discussing neural degeneration during the physiological psychology part of the course.  

 

Memory Retrieval   Length: 7:39 minutes File Name: 141_Memory_Retrieval.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012)   Description This program explores how we access the memories stored in our brains. Memory retrieval is important to many aspects of everyday life, and various factors can influence how memories are retrieved. We all have had trouble, at one time or another, recalling the details of an event, a word, or a person’s name. Those “tip-of-the-tongue” experiences can be frustrating, making us wonder why we can’t access the information that seems so within reach. Cues from the environment, called retrieval cues, aid in this process by helping link an outside object or hint to the information we are looking for. Returning to the particular place where the information was first learned can also be helpful in retrieval. This concept, known as the encoding specificity principle, states that information processed and encoded in a certain physical space is more retrievable in that space. This suggests that in memory retrieval, context matters. Mood is also an important factor in memory retrieval in that it acts as a retrieval cue. A positive mood reminds us of a positive experience we’ve had, and a negative mood reminds us of a negative experience. The more we activate associations, the easier it will be to retrieve the information in the future. Various parts of the brain are responsible for storing our memories. When these areas are activated patterns of neural activity are formed, and this has the potential of changing the physical structure of the brain. Discussion Questions 1. How does mood affect memory retrieval? 2. What parts of the brain are activated during memory retrieval? Are they the same with successful versus unsuccessful retrieval?

3. Can we improve our memory?  

Retrieval: A Journey Into Memory  Length: 8:28 minutes File Name: 142_Retrieval_Journey.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Xunesis (2005)  Description Memory is our ability to store and retrieve information. The program shows that we do not retrieve exact copies of our past experience. Daniel Schacter of Harvard University has enumerated a number of important ways in which our memories fail. Bias represents one of the “sins of distortion.” Nick Breckenridge recalls an important conversation he had with his daughter, Amber, who is now missing. The present emptiness in his life changes his memory of their last talk. Interspersed with his current viewing of past pictures and letters on a clothesline is his recall of the conversation. It begins as an angry exchange between father and daughter over her abrupt plans to travel and ends as an understanding, mutually supportive dialogue. In the subsequent scene, Daniel Schacter describes the memory distortion that he labels “bias.” Our recall of the past, explains Schacter, can be distorted by our current knowledge, beliefs, and feelings. Research suggests that present feelings about a close relationship affect our recall of the past state of that same relationship. Schacter explains that the current needs of the father may have led him to soften his recall of what he initially remembered as a harsh exchange. Interpretive Comments Daniel Schacter has identified seven sins of memory. The sins of forgetting include absent-mindedness (inattention to details, which produces encoding failure), transience (storage decay over time), and blocking (inaccessibility of stored memory, illustrated by the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon). The three sins of distortion include bias (belief-colored recollections), misattribution (confusing the source of information, for example, attributing a statement to the wrong friend), and suggestibility (the lingering effects of misinformation). The sin of intrusion is persistence, which refers to unwanted memories (for example, being haunted by failure on an important exam). Discussion Questions 1. How did Nick’s memory of his last interaction with his daughter change over time? Why do you think it was distorted? 2. What does this program tell us about the nature of memory?   

Creating False Memories: A Laboratory Study  Length: 4:45 minutes File Name: 143_False_Memories.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “False Memories” Tomorrow’s World (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description Your discussion of memory can begin or end with the presentation of current work on memory construction. Before showing this clip, ask your students, “Is it possible you could have a memory of a vivid childhood event, say, a hot-air balloon ride, that never occurred?” Psychologists at Victoria University have demonstrated that false memories can be readily implanted in research participants by showing them digitally altered photographs. In the research, 30 college students view pictures of their childhood in a study that is purportedly about how we reminisce. In fact, the study assesses the fallibility of memory. When Jessica is first shown a false photograph of a hot-air balloon ride that she presumably took as a child, she reports having no memory of it. However, by the end of the week she believes she had been on such a balloon ride, something that never occurred, of course. Psychologist Maryanne Garry describes the study in detail. Each research participant is shown four photographs from his or her childhood. In each case, the third photograph, showing the participant with family members in a hot-air balloon, is fake. In the course of the week the participants are interviewed three times about the photographs. By the end of the week, many of the students believe they have been on a hot-air balloon ride. Even those who do not remember the ride believe the photo is real. Over the course of the week the research participants are instructed not to speak to family members about the study. However, they are instructed to think about the photos every night. By the end of the week, many of the students have enriched their recall of the experience with imagined details that surrounded the balloon ride. When the participants are told that their memories of the balloon ride are false, they express surprise and sometimes even fear. We typically have a great deal of faith that our memories are reliable, and learning that they are not can be unsettling. Interpretive Comments The findings suggest that memories are not exact copies of our experiences but reconstructions of our past. Even memories that are vivid, detailed, and of which we are confident are not necessarily accurate. In the research presented in this clip, memory is constructed from false information (the digitally altered photograph) and, very likely, frequent rehearsal of the nonexistent event (the research participants are instructed to think about the photos every night). It can be very difficult to discern false from true memories because they are equally durable. Thus, neither the sincerity nor the longevity of a memory tells us that it is true.

Discussion Questions 1. What does this research tell us about the nature of memory? 2. What implications does research on false memory have for evaluating the accuracy of eyewitness testimony in a court trial?

Thinking and Language Can Chimpanzees Plan Ahead? Length: 2:10 minutes File Name: 144_Chimp_plan_ahead.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “First Among Equals” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery)   Description In presenting this program ask your students, “Do animals think?” Animals’ remarkable cognitive skills are evident in research on the chimp’s capacity to plan ahead. The clip also provides a good introduction to the question of whether animals exhibit the capacity for language. For the past 30 years, researchers at Georgia State University have been studying the mental skills of chimpanzees. Are the animals able to plan ahead? The maze task assesses the chimpanzee’s ability to look ahead in time. Some have assumed that this capacity is uniquely human. However, given the chimpanzee’s need to locate food and to engage in selfdefense, it seems reasonable to believe that the animal engages in planning. Pansy shows unusual skill in running multiple-choice mazes that are new to her. In fact, her performance often surpasses that of humans. She takes few wrong turns and often sees the solution faster than her human counterparts. Pansy’s capacity to see the solution to a maze reflects a very active prefrontal lobe system. The researcher concludes that she is a genius. The findings indicate that the ability to see possible solutions and to plan before acting is not a uniquely human skill. The researcher suggests that, in addition to planning ahead, chimpanzees are capable of reflecting on the past. The animals’ capacity to do so, however, is more limited than that of humans. Interpretive Comments The program indicates that animals have remarkable cognitive capacities. Other lines of research indicate that they also display insight and can form concepts. Chimps learn to use tools and pass their strategies on to others in their group. Some research suggests that chimps even form a theory of mind. They seem capable of self-recognition and of comprehending others’ perceptions. Whether chimps are capable of language is still debated. Discussion Questions 1. Should psychologists study animals? Why or why not? 2. Do humans demonstrate unique capacities? If so, what are they? 

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How Intelligent Are Animals? Length: 5:40 minutes File Name: 145_Animal_intelligence.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Animal Intelligence” Sunday Morning (CBS News) Description This video introduces the remarkable cognitive capacities of animals. It discusses animals’ capacity to communicate and thus can be use to introduce the controversy surrounding animal language. Eugene Linden believes that his study of animal intelligence indicates that the divide between humans and other animals is smaller than we think. Animals can use and even create tools. Studies indicate that both apes and dolphins understand words as well as the meaning of complex sentences and ideas. Animal researchers and zookeepers have been key resources for Linden’s appreciation of animal intelligence. One zookeeper describes elephants that seem to cooperate intelligently in their own foot care, as well as engage in meaningful communication. A veteran observer of killer whales claims that this species also has the capacity to communicate and suggests that whale families even have their own dialects. She uses a hydrophone to record whale communication and identify the specific sounds associated with specific activities. A family of whales, she claims, was instrumental in directing her to safety after she became lost in a dense fog. Orangutans also seem to demonstrate complex mental abilities. They are notable for being escape artists. They have also shown the capacity to tolerate painful needles, apparently because they recognize that the needles are good medicine. No orangutan is more legendary than the now deceased Fu Manchu. He hid wire in his mouth until just the right time to pick the lock on his enclosure. Indeed, all manner of thought has been observed in all manner of animals. Interpretive Comments Animals show an amazing capacity for thinking. Research indicates that monkeys form concepts and pigeons can sort objects based on similarity. Chimpanzees create and use tools and demonstrate the capacity for insight. In addition, chimpanzees, orangutans, and dolphins invent customs and pass them on to their peers and offspring. The great apes have demonstrated capacities for reasoning, self-recognition, empathy, imitation, and understanding another’s mind. Some animal researchers have estimated their mental accomplishments as similar to that of 2-year-olds. Clearly, animals—including bees, whales, and parrots—communicate. Several species of apes have learned to communicate with humans by signing and pushing buttons wired to a computer. However, research findings indicate limitations to animal language. Only humans master the verbal or signed expression of complex syntactical rules. Discussion Questions 1. What is intelligence? 2. Do you believe animals are capable of language? Why or why not? 2   

3. Do humans differ from other animals in important ways? Explain you answer.

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Problem Solving in Genus Corvus (Crows, Ravens, and Magpies) Length: 1:30 minutes File Name: 146_Corvus.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Behavioral Ecology Research Group, University of Oxford Description The program illustrates the strategies animals and humans use in solving problems. It also addresses the question of whether animals think, and more specifically, their capacity for making and using tools. In this video, birds of the genus Corvus (crows, ravens, magpies) confront the challenge of retrieving food from a long glass tube. As the clip opens, a bird finds two short wires atop a glass tube. The bird uses one of the wires to poke at the food in the bottom of the tube. Animals (as well as humans) often approach problems through trial and error. After several unsuccessful attempts to secure the food, the bird withdraws the wire from the tube and, with some effort, bends the wire into a small hook. Demonstrating insight the bird returns the hooked wire to the tube and, using it as a tool, successfully lifts the basket of food to the top. Interpretive Comments People and animals use a variety of strategies to solve problems. Some are solved through trial and error. Sometimes solutions come as sudden flashes of inspiration that we call insight. Animals display remarkable capacities for thinking. Moreover, they demonstrate a surprising capacity to create and use tools, something that was once thought to be uniquely human. Discussion Questions 1. How do animals solve problems? 2. Is tool-making unique to humans? What, if any, human capacities are unique?

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Chomsky’s View of Language Development

Length: 1:23 minutes File Name: 147_Chomsky.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description: In this clip, Noam Chomsky’s theory of language development is explained. The ability of humans to master grammar, Chomsky claims, cannot be explained solely by learning. Therefore, Chomsky asserts that the grammar in language is more likely to have a biological basis than the meaning of individual words. In other words, Chomsky argues that humans have an inborn, predisposition for language and grammar. The clip then gives examples of sentences that are grammatically different when words are removed at the end of the sentence. Humans are able to understand the sentences as meaning two different things without explicitly learning the grammatical rules that make the sentences different. Interpretive Comments This segment can be used with lectures on cognitive development. Chomsky’s work on psycholinguistics is the cornerstone for our understanding of how humans develop language skills. The clip can also be used with lectures on nature/nurture since Chomsky’s theory is highly nativistic. Chomsky’s work was revolutionary because he argued against the behavioral explanation of language development, espoused by B. F. Skinner, which stated that language development was a purely learned phenomenon. The clip could also be used with a lecture on the history of psychology when introducing Chomsky’s contribution. Finally, when presenting material on the language areas of the brain during physiological psychology lectures, it might be useful to mention that Chomsky’s work was critically important to the notion that humans are hard-wired for language.  

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Gleason’s Wug Test Length: 1:08 minutes File Name: 148_Gleason_Wug_Test.mp4 Original Worth Collection Digital Media Archive Description This clip discusses the Wug Test, which was developed by Jean Gleason. The Wug test uses words that do not exist in order to test whether or not children can apply the rules of their language to unfamiliar words. Fake words are used to eliminate the possibility of previous exposure to the words, and to give support to the tenet that learning alone is not enough to explain grammar use. The clip depicts a psychologist administering the Wug test to a child, who demonstrates his ability to apply the rules of grammar to the nonsense words used in the test. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful with lectures covering cognitive development, especially language development. Jean Gleason has invented a way to test children’s grammatical development. This test employs nonwords and, in many cases, is complemented by images. The point is to test whether children understand rules like adding –s to a noun makes it plural, or adding –ed to a verb makes it refer to events in the past.

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Learning Language: Language Development in Infants and Toddlers Length: 7:11 minutes File Name: 149_Learning_Language.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Description This segment contains a series of clips illustrating the development of language from infancy to three years of age. −

In Clip A, we see newborn infants using only crying to communicate their needs.

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In Clips B and C, with infants from two to four months of age, we can see a sense of the external world developing. Crying and laughter become a form of communication, an interaction with the environment. The mothers in these clips are using high-pitched voices to respond to their infants.

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Clip D, of 6-month-old infants, shows the beginning of monosyllabic sounds—“oohs,” “ahhs,” and “mmms.” Their sounds are often made with inflections similar to adult speech, which allow the infants to communicate without words. These inflections become more complicated by nine months, shown in Clip E, where the infants begin speaking gibberish. They are often able to say common, simple words like “mama,” but the clip focuses primarily on the strings of nonsensical sounds that the child makes even when alone.

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Clips F and G show toddlers now able to speak their first words and simple sentences. The string of gibberish and sounds is still present, but more frequently in these clips we hear simple word combinations such as “I do” and “where go.” Much of these sentences contain a noun and verb only. It is apparent that the child understands adult speech with ease even if unable to mimic it entirely.

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Clips H and I show 2- and 3-year-old children. In Clip H, the toddlers’ sentences are still simple and of few words, but the meaning becomes more complex with expressions such as “my toys” and “who are you?” In Clip I, a child is able to sing an entire song, clearly expressing nearly all of the words.

Interpretive Comments This segment on infant language development works either in the setting of cognitive psychology or developmental psychology since it is part of both of these topics. Language is a major topic in the field of cognitive psychology and is normally covered in some detail in an introductory psychology course. The development of children’s speech is germane to this topic, especially when considering the conflicting views of language development proposed by Skinner and Chomsky. Developmentally, it is pretty clear that the differences seen in the infants and children in these clips reflect developmental stages that are often covered under the topic of cognitive development.

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Discussion Questions 1. How do the parents’ responses to their infants change as the infants’ language develops? What effect might the parents’ responses have? 2. What function might nonsensical sounds serve for the developing toddler, particularly those they make while alone? 3. In what ways does the acquisition of language as an infant/toddler differ from learning a language later in life?

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Animal Language   Length: 3:14 minutes File Name: 150_Animal_Language.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Volume 3 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems)   Description Whether or not animals truly have language ability has been a topic of debate in psychology for many decades. The clip begins with some examples of non-verbal animal communication, such as the warning flash of a white-tailed deer, and the intricate “dances” of bees that indicate the location of a food source. A psychologist argues that there is no clear division between human language and that of other species, but rather that the differences are a matter of degree. One of the difficulties in evaluating animal language is that most species lack vocal cords. Research efforts with animals, therefore, focus on non-verbal methods of communication. The clip then shows research efforts to teach human language to dolphins. Some of these dolphins have been able to learn up to sixty words and to process these words in 2000 sentences. Bonobos also have been shown to be capable of language processing. In the clip, we see a bonobo communicating with a researcher via a symbol board.

Discussion Questions 1. Would you feel differently about your pet if it could tell you how it felt about you? 2. As we improve our ability to communicate with other species will this affect how we view them and how we treat them?  

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Teaching Language to Chimpanzees   Length: 4:10 minutes File Name: 151_Language_Chimps.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “First Among Equals” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description Most students find the question of animal language to be fascinating, a continuing controversy that you may want to introduce in the context of thought, language, and intelligence. This program suggests that the bonobos (also known as pygmy chimps) at Georgia State University challenge the assumption that language is uniquely human. Because they cannot speak, they have been taught to link written symbols with specific words. One chimpanzee, Panbanisha, began with a few simple symbols that referred to six different foods, a location outdoors, and the simple activity of grooming. The researchers soon added the word “quiet,” a more abstract term. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh describes how Panbanisha spontaneously typed the word “quiet” in response to a rather heated admonition the chimp had received from the trainer. Panbanisha demonstrates her current mastery of dozens of symbols from “Perrier” through “egg” to “TV.” Most impressive is her mastery of word order. Asked to “give a bite of your hot dog to the doggy,” the chimp follows the instruction precisely. Given the different meanings of the word “dog,” her success in following the instruction is quite remarkable. Told “to put the toy snake on your hand,” Panbanisha again succeeds. Savage-Rumbaugh is convinced that bonobos can understand spoken English as well as a human child. She reports that they can comprehend entire dialogues, extensive narratives, and accounts of events that have happened the previous day, provided they are interested. Interpretive Comments Whether bonobos such as Panbanisha have demonstrated human language depends on how one defines language. If language refers to the ability to acquire a vocabulary and to communicate through a meaningful sequence of symbols, clearly Panbanisha has these capabilities. She is able to use symbols, and she has also mastered word order to decipher the meanings of simple multiword commands. However, humans alone may possess language if “language” refers to the verbal or signed expression of complex grammar. From this program it is not clear that Panbanisha has acquired the rules for distinguishing plural from singular nouns, for marking the tense of verbs, or for marking any words by grammatical class. As Peter Gray concludes, “Apparently, the brain mechanism that makes grammar so easy and natural for human children came about in our evolution sometime after we split off from the line leading to chimpanzees and bonobos.”

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Discussion Questions 1. Have you ever felt that an animal was communicating with you? 2. Do you think Panbanisha demonstrates language? Why or why not? 3. What should be the role of animal studies in psychology?

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Learning Through Visualization: A Gymnast Acquires New Skills

Length: 5:20 minutes File Name: 152_Gymnast_Visualization.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Learning” The Human Mind (BBC Motion Gallery)   Description This clip highlights the value of thinking in images. Rebecca, a gymnast, explains that she starts learning her complex routine by watching someone else do it. Then, she begins the progression of moves herself with constant feedback and encouragement from her coach. Colin Still, Rebecca’s coach, takes his student through the moves, instructing her to focus on the bar throughout the routine. He explains that gymnasts must initially picture the moves in their minds and then “get their bodies to follow their minds.” Concentrating on what she hopes to achieve, Rebecca attempts the routine. However, she fails to catch the bar in her first efforts. Trying an alternative approach, Rebecca rehearses the entire routine in her brain. She stands still and visualizes every stage of the somersault. She repeats the visualization several times, claiming that it helps. Scientific research suggests that imagining a physical activity creates neural pathways in the brain that parallel those of the activity itself. Thus, the actual performance of the moves becomes easier. After many visualizations of each specific step in the routine, Rebecca performs the complex routine flawlessly. In fact, the moves become automatic. Although competition raises her level of anxiety, she reminds herself that she has successfully performed the routine countless times. Interpretive Comments Many studies have examined the value of thinking in images. Mathematicians, composers, artists, poets, and scientists rely on mental pictures in their work. Athletes in many different sports—including figure skaters, basketball players, and gymnasts—now supplement physical work with mental practice. Findings suggest that such mental rehearsal can improve performance. Even visualizing studying seems to foster studying and better academic performance. Brain-imaging studies show that mentally simulating an action activates neural networks that are also active when performing the action. Discussion Questions 1. What does this research indicate about the nature of human thinking? 2. Can you think of activities other than sports where visualization might prove beneficial? Could mental rehearsal improve your academic outcomes? 

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Intelligence Savant Art Skills: In Autism and Dementia Length: 5:55 minutes File Name: 153_Savant_Art.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “It’s All in Your Head” 48 Hours (CBS News) Description Does intelligence consist of a single ability or of many different abilities? The cases studies in this video may prove helpful in answering that question. Jonathan’s mother derives enormous satisfaction from her 14-year-old son’s artwork. The young man has impressed professional art circles worldwide and his drawings command up to $2000 each. Most surprising, Jonathan has autism, a disorder that severely limits his ability to communicate. His mother describes how she went from thinking she had a handicapped child to realizing she had a gifted child. An after school program in which Jonathan participated as a 10-year-old, revealed the depth of his talent and emotion. The drawings provide a window into his world. Neurologist Bruce Miller marvels at the paradox of deficit and great strength that is sometimes found in those with autism. Jonathan’s drawings seem to be instinctive creations. Obviously, his brain is a beehive of visual activity. In attempting to understand how such remarkable talent emerges, Miller has examined another group of extraordinary and unlikely artists—those suffering Alzheimer’s disease. Four years ago, 87-year-old Audrey was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. At the same time, she began to demonstrate unusual artistic talent. Her degenerative disease seemed to unlock an amazing ability to paint, much like a blind person might develop a better sense of smell. Miller has observed a similar creative ability emerge in several patients suffering from dementia. The left hemisphere of the brain is damaged in those having autism and in those with Alzheimer’s. Somehow the damage on the left side seems to strengthen the right side of the brain, which now expresses itself in a new way, most notably in pictures. Unfortunately, for the Alzheimer’s patient, the period of creativity will be short-lived. Eventually, the disease will ravage the right side of the brain as well. The remarkable cases of Jonathan and Audrey provide scientists with new insights into how our brains work. They also reveal the significant, although often hidden, potential of human beings. Interpretive Comments Savant syndrome is a condition in which a person with otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional skill—for example, in computation or drawing, as shown in this video. About 4 in 5 people with this syndrome are males. Many also have autism, a developmental disorder that affects more males than females. The nature of Jonathan’s drawings is especially intriguing because autism is typically marked by deficient communication, poor social interaction, and limited understanding of another person’s state of mind. In addition to illustrating the special strengths of the brain’s right hemisphere, these two cases illustrate how intelligence comes in different packages. Howard Gardner suggests that those with savant syndrome show that we do not have a single intelligence but instead we have multiple intelligences, each relatively independent of the others.

Discussion Questions 1. What do the two cases shown in this video tell us about the nature of intelligence? 2. What do these cases reveal about the nature of the human brain? 3. In what ways are Jonathan and Audrey similar? In what ways do they differ?

Savant Music Skills

Length: 3:25 minutes File Name: 154_Savant_Music.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Musically Speaking” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description Cases of savant syndrome capture students’ interest and are likely to stimulate lively class discussion. This case provides a good introduction to the topic of intelligence and more specifically to the question of whether it represents one ability or many. Derek is a 24-year-old musical savant. He demonstrates extraordinary skill in playing the piano but, at the same time, cannot hold up three fingers when asked. He turns to the narrator for help. Derek was born prematurely, weighing only a pound and a half. He suffered massive brain damage. He cannot give his age and, when asked, reports that he has been playing the piano for only a year. In fact, he has played since he was 2 and began lessons at 5. Derek’s piano teacher worked with him every day for more than 10 years. The teacher reports that in terms of his understanding of the world around him Derek is a 3-year-old. In terms of his musical ability, he is ahead of almost everyone. Derek remembers and can play every one of the thousands of songs he has heard. Derek responds flawlessly to specific requests. Moreover, when asked, he successfully plays San Jose as Mozart or Beethoven might have written the piece. Derek lives at a school that seeks to develop the musical talents of students with learning disabilities. Ideally, some will pursue and achieve paid careers in the field of music. Interpretive Comments Savant syndrome is a condition in which a person with very limited mental ability has an exceptional skill such as in music, computation, or drawing. About four in five are males and many also have autism, a disorder that is more common among males than females. People such as Derek raise important questions about the nature of intelligence. Does intelligence consist of a single ability or several specific abilities? Howard Gardner suggests that we do not have a single intelligence. Rather, we have multiple intelligences that are relatively independent of each other. Thus, people show linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, spatial intelligence, and so on. Psychologists agree that people have specific abilities but debate whether a general intelligence factor (g) runs through them all. Discussion Questions 1. What is intelligence? Is intelligence a single ability or many? 2. Should schools seek to foster the development of all human abilities? How should we deal with people having savant syndrome? 

Locking Away The “Feebleminded”: A Shameful History   Length: 7:55 minutes File Name: 155_Feebleminded.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Deep Dark Secret” 60 Minutes (CBS News)

Description You may want to include this video in your classroom discussion of the history of intelligence testing. Eugenics proposed measuring human traits and using the assessments to encourage only smart and fit people to reproduce. At its peak, Fernald School confined 2500 people behind its walls. All were labeled “feebleminded.” Some of its victims are still living. Fred, now 63, lived 11 years at Fernald and states that for a long time he believed he belonged there and actually thought he should never have been born. Fernald was part of the eugenics movement of early 20th-century America. People who were considered genetically inferior were separated from the rest of society to ensure they would not reproduce. Presumably, the practice was good for the human race and good for America. Sadly, one critic notes, at least half of Fernald’s residents would have functioned well in today’s world. Fred was 8 years old when his mother died and the state of Massachusetts committed him to Fernald. He was diagnosed as a “moron,” although tests showed that his intelligence was in the normal range. Children were kept in packed dormitory rooms. They received little education and even less affection. Joe was abused as a child and, at age 8, was abandoned by his father in a hallway at Fernald. He had no idea where he was or that he, a normal child, was now labeled a moron. The school made sure that at least 30 percent of its residents had normal intelligence so that they could do the work needed to support the institution. Joe’s job was to section the brains of severely retarded residents who had died. Presumably, scientists would study the specimens. But that never happened. Worse than the work was the physical abuse Joe suffered at the hands of the staff. Some employees were psychologically disordered. Efforts to escape led to punishment and even to solitary confinement. More than 30 years later, Fred and Joe learned they had been used as human guinea pigs in radiation experiments conducted by MIT. Victims recently received $60,000 each in compensation from MIT, Quaker Oats (the study sponsor), and the government. Neither Fred nor Joe has ever received an apology. The label of moron has not been removed from their records.

Interpretive Comments Although science aims for objectivity, individual scientists are clearly affected by their own values and assumptions. Psychologist Lewis Terman promoted the use of intelligence testing to “take account of the inequalities of children in original endowment.” He was in sympathy with the eugenics movement, which aimed to encourage only intelligent and fit people to reproduce. Terman believed that the use of intelligence tests would eventually “result in curtailing the reproduction of feeblemindedness and in the elimination of an enormous amount of crime, pauperism, and industrial inefficiency.” Beginning in the early 1900s, state governments warehoused hundreds of thousands of American children in institutions like the Fernald School for the Feeble-Minded. As this video suggests, in many cases the children were not retarded but simply poor and uneducated with no place else to go. Although eugenics is usually associated with Nazi Germany, it actually started in the United States. In the 1920s and 1930s, exhibits at fairs taught visitors that eugenics was good for America and good for the human race. Schools tested children regularly and those classified as feeble-minded were sent to institutions like Fernald.

Discussion Questions 1. In the establishment of schools such as Fernald, what underlying assumptions were made about human intelligence? 2. What are the potential dangers of using diagnostic labels? 3. What are society’s obligations to the surviving victims of the Fernald School?  

Pros and Cons of Intelligence Tests   Length: 6:29 minutes File Name: 156_Intelligence_Tests.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems)   Description This clip describes the roles of Alfred Binet, Lewis Terman, and David Wechsler in the development of intelligence tests. The clip also explains how the controversial use of intelligence tests to screen immigrants created negative stereotypes about certain immigrant populations.

Discussion Questions 1. Do you think intelligence testing should be abandoned? Are there situations where IQ tests do more harm than good, and vice-versa? 2. What do you think will be the future of intelligence testing?

Psychologist Ellen Winner Discusses “Gifted” Children   Length: 3:55 minutes File Name: 157_Winner_discusses_gifted_children.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition

Description This segment shows an interview with psychologist Ellen Winner of Boston College as she describes the characteristics of gifted children and some possible causes. She notes three characteristics shared by gifted kids: “Precocity” (showing early and more rapid development in their gifted area when compared to typical children), “Rage to Master” (an intrinsic drive to master the knowledge in their gifted area), and “Marching to Their Own Drummer” (the child is different, thinks in different and novel ways, and learns in different and novel ways). She describes these children, whether they are gifted in areas of math, literacy, the arts, athletics, etc., as typically learning on their own without a lot of adult support. These kids will choose to participate in their gifted activity without being coerced in any way. Winner also addresses the nature versus nurture debate. Despite the merits of hard work and early education, she has noticed that gifted children display these characteristics in their gifted areas at a very young age, some earlier than one year old, before their skills can possibly be attributed to hard work alone. She describes one child with which she has worked who before the age of two would draw all the time, at the breakfast table, when friends came over to play, etc. This demonstrates, she claims, the “Rage to Master” trait. Thus, in contrast to the mother of the previous segment, Winner feels that being gifted is primarily innate. Interpretive Comments This film segment can be used in conjunction with nature/nurture material. The question of how genius develops is addressed by Winner in this segment. Most of her data suggest that superlative mental abilities are the product of genetic inheritance. The segment is also useful for coverage of cognitive development. The pattern shown by Winner’s gifted children is somewhat different than that seen in other children. Discussion Questions 1. Do you agree with Winner’s definition of “gifted”? Why or why not? 2. How might the cognitive development of “gifted” children differ from that of other children? How might their social development differ? Moral development? 3. Where would Winner place being “gifted” on the spectrum of nature versus nurture? Where would you place it? Why?  

Hothouse Babies: Mother Tries to Teach Her Two-Year-Old Multiplication (Pushing Children to Perform Tasks Beyond Their Level) Length: 1:52 minutes File Name: 158_Hothouse_babies.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition   Description This segment shows the mother of a 2-year-old girl describing her parenting philosophy. Despite no knowledge that her child is gifted or of above average in intelligence or development, the mother is attempting to train her daughter to perform tasks beyond her level of development. In the segment, she shows us the multiplication flash cards she has just bought her 2-year-old in order to prepare her for advanced preschool programs. The mother describes the importance of “structuring” the majority of her daughter’s day with learning tasks and displays obvious concern that her daughter will be missing out on an important opportunity should she not make it into the “best” preschool program. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful for the topic of cognitive development. It portrays a parent who seeks to push her daughter to mature at a faster pace than normal children. This brings up the issue of normative development and how milestones are determined. It also brings up another developmental topic— parenting styles. Finally, the segment can also be used when discussing the effects of nature and nurture. This type of coverage can help to decide whether this parent’s strategy should be successful. Discussion Questions: 1. Is the mother helping her child by structuring her education and development in this manner? Even if she is not helping her child, is she causing harm? How do you know? 2. Do you think this mother considers intelligence to be due more to nurture or nature? Where do you think intelligence falls on that continuum? 3. What is “normal” versus “gifted” development? How do you know? Who created that definition? 4. What advice would you offer this mother? Why? 

Motivation and Work What Is Motivation? Length: 4:08 minutes File Name: 159_Motivation.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems) Description This clip follows a middle-aged Dairy Queen owner who becomes unhappy with his level of fitness and his weight, and decides that he wants to become a marathon runner. The clip discusses three aspects of motivation. The first of these is activation, which is the process of making a decision to engage in a new behavior. The second is persistence, or the ability to persevere with the new behavior. The third aspect of motivation is intensity, which is how hard one will work at the new behavior. The clip illustrates these three aspects of motivation by way of the marathon runner.

Discussion Questions 1. Think of a specific example of a positive behavior that you have tried and so far failed to adopt. What do you think has prevented you from succeeding so far? 2. Is all of the success in adopting a new, positive behavior based on motivation? What other factors are involved?

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Hunger and Eating Length: 6:49 File Name: 160_Hunger_and_eating.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Simply stated, we eat for the purpose of fulfilling hunger and sustaining our bodies. But, there are many factors present in the relationship between hunger and eating behavior that make this interaction quite complicated. As Marlene Schwartz points out, one of these factors is environment. What we eat is largely influenced by where we live and what we are taught to believe about food. In this program, students learn the basics of how our bodies process and store the food we eat, the role of the brain in eating and hunger, and the impact of environment on our food choices. Body weight is determined by the balance of calorie intake and output. Our bodies rely on calories for the energy needed to allow our organs to function. Glucose, the main source of our body’s energy, is manufactured by the liver and regulated through the production of insulin in the pancreas. When we overeat, especially sugary and processed foods, the body produces an excess of glucose which gets stored in fat cells. The hypothalamus in the brain monitors and responds to appetite hormones in the body. Cholecystokinin, or CCK, is a hormone of the gastrointestinal system responsible for alerting us to satiety and slowing down digestion. But, do these ancestral mind-body mechanisms stand a chance in today’s fast-food world? The environment is filled with cues that trigger the desire to eat. Kelly Brownell states that “the problem now is that the cues are everywhere all the time and often these highly accessible foods are also unhealthy.” Discussion Questions 1. How could the government mandate positive changes in the food industry to make food safer and healthier? 2. Why is obesity becoming such a big problem? 3. Are eating disorders caused by genetics or by environmental triggers?

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Eating and Weight Gain: A Role for Fidgeting Length: 3:35 minutes File Name: 161_Eating_Fidgeting.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Fatbursters” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description This is an excellent clip to show in your discussion of the factors that determine body weight. The research findings suggest that the role of activity in determining body weight goes beyond exercise. Jeff eats a lot of unhealthy foods and gets very little exercise. Still he gains no weight. Why are some people able to eat what they want and never gain a pound, while others only seem to look at food and gain weight? In an effort to answer that question, researcher Jim Levine recruited Jeff and 15 others to participate in a study in which they ate huge amounts of food and got no exercise. After two months of overindulgence, Jeff gained little weight, in fact only two pounds, while other participants in the study gained eight pounds. Levine’s data indicated no differences in food consumed, exercise, or basal metabolism. Finally, Levine examined the "non-exercise" daily activity data. Non-exercise daily activity is everything one does that is not exercise. Examination of this data suggested that Jeff did not put on weight because he could not keep still. He was constantly fidgeting—tapping his feet, touching his face, rubbing his hair. The data indicated that this activity accounted for half of Jeff’s calorie burn. Simple body movement helps control body weight. Interpretive Comments Multiple physiological, psychological, and cultural factors contribute to hunger, eating, and body weight. Levine’s research refines our understanding of the role that physical activity plays in controlling weight. He has coined the acronym NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) to refer to the energy expended by physical activities other than planned exercise. He suggests that modifying NEAT behaviors (standing instead of sitting, fidgeting instead of keeping still, or simply walking) can burn the necessary extra calories to control weight Discussion Questions 1. Does “non-exercise" daily activity highlight the role of nature or nurture in determining weight? 2. What, if any, are the implications of this study for weight-control programs?

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Eating and Weight Gain: Genetic Engineering

Length: 3:05 minutes File Name: 162_Eating_Genetic_Engineering.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Fatbursters” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description Although this clip could be used in a variety of contexts in the introductory psychology course (from a discussion of serendipitous research to the controversies surrounding genetic engineering), it relates most directly to determinants of body weight and weight control. Events in French munitions factories during World I set the stage for the discovery of an effective obesity-reducing drug. Factory workers reacted to the explosive DNP that they handled daily with fevers and unexplained weight loss. Careful study indicated that DNP speeds up metabolism so that food is not converted to fat but is burned off as heat. In short, DNP was a potential diet drug that could produce significant weight loss. However, DNP also proved dangerous because it increases the metabolism of every cell in the body. Thus, body temperature quickly rockets out of control. For an obesity treatment to be safe it must work only in selected cells. Researcher John Clapham knew that the human body contains proteins similar to DNP. More importantly, the proteins work only in selected cells. Clapham surmised that by manipulating these proteins it might be possible to burn off body fat without fatal meltdown. To test his idea, Clapham used genetic engineering on a mouse with genes for these proteins. When Clapham inspected his genetic creation, he was surprised to see that the mouse was much skinnier than its natural-born sister. Equally surprising was the discovery that the skinny mouse ate 50 percent more than its plump sister. The genetically altered animal could overeat without putting on weight. Interpretive Comments This case provides a good example of how researchers sometimes stumble onto new pharmaceuticals, chemical compounds, or inventions by accident. Clearly, eating and body weight have multiple determinants and illustrate the value of a biopsychosocial approach to behavior. Human bodies regulate weight through food intake, energy output, and basal metabolic rate, that is, the rate of energy expenditure for maintaining basic body functions when the body is at rest. Through genetic engineering Clapham successfully increased metabolic rate in mice and thereby controlled body weight. The implication of this research for the problem of human obesity obviously needs much further exploration.

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Discussion Questions 1. How does a biopsychosocial approach apply to understanding eating behavior and body weight? 2. To what degree is body weight a matter of personal control? 3. If it were possible, should we seek to regulate human body weight through genetic engineering?

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Love: The Mind-Body Connection Length: 2:40 minutes File Name: 163_Love.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “In the Heat of the Moment” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description Class discussion of the psychology of attraction can be extended to a consideration of the biology underlying love relationships. This program examines Rebecca Turner’s fascinating research on the role of the hormone oxytocin in the experience of love. More generally, the program provides useful insight into the physiology underlying emotions. As a young woman vividly recalls her husband’s marriage proposal in very glowing, positive terms, Turner’s research team measures the level of oxytocin in her bloodstream. Previous research has indicated that the hormone plays an important role in many reproductive behaviors, including breast feeding, childbirth, and orgasm. Turner notes that oxytocin receptors are present in many parts of the brain, including the limbic system and brainstem, areas that are involved in emotion and its autonomic control. This finding raises the question of whether this specific hormone underlies the experience of love. Turner notes that, in some women, the experience of positive emotions, particularly those associated with relationships, is accompanied by a surge of oxytocin. Similarly, negative emotion such as that associated with a significant personal loss is linked with a decline in the same hormone. In short, oxytocin levels seem to rise and fall in research participants with the level of loving attachment they feel. Turner concludes that the research findings suggest that oxytocin influences patterns of loving and associated behaviors. Interpretive Comments The research on oxytocin extends our understanding of the biochemical influences on social behavior. These findings run parallel to more familiar work on the role of testosterone and serotonin in aggression. More generally, this research raises questions about the physiological differences among specific emotions. In addition to possible hormonal differences, emotions differ in the brain circuits they use and in the activation of different areas of the brain’s cortex. When people experience positive moods, brain scans reveal more left frontal lobe activity. Discussion Questions 1. What, if anything, does this program suggest about the cause and effect relationships between hormones and the experience of emotion? 2. What might be some practical implications of this line of research?

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Sexual Dysfunctions and Their Treatments Length: 6:05 minutes File Name: 164_Sexual_dysfunctions.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “It’s Just Sex” 48 Hours (CBS News)

Description In addition to describing the treatment for one major sexual disorder, this video raises important questions about the goals and appropriate use of drug therapy. The Mayo Clinic is dedicated to eradicating erectile dysfunction. This segment explores the lives of five men who have participated in the clinic’s drug therapy program. John is a 51-year-old athletics instructor who developed erectile dysfunction after he was diagnosed with diabetes. Over the past eight years, he has tried a variety of drugs with mixed success. The effectiveness of each pill is carefully recorded. Some of the most dramatic effects have come from the drug Cialis, which has been nicknamed “The Weekender.” Tolman, a prostate cancer survivor, was one of the first patients to be treated with Viagra. The drug has now made medical, social, and marketing history. Viagra, explains one advertising executive, has become the equivalent of a generic and many view it as the cure to the problem of erectile dysfunction. Nonetheless, Viagra is not successful with all men. Approximately 25 million men could benefit from an alternative intervention. More than a dozen pharmaceutical companies are seeking to tap into the multibillion dollar market. Four of the men, including 61-year-old Joseph who suffers from diabetes, have tried the new drug Levitra. Similar to Viagra, Levitra is supported by an advertising campaign that features a younger man who “just needs a little help with his pain.” Focus is shifting from treating erectile dysfunction to enhancing erectile quality. That is, the drugs are being used in ways not originally intended. Men without a disorder are using them to improve their sexual experience. Research continues on new drug developing, which includes some that may eventually replace pills. For example, 61-year-old Wes, a CPA and prostate cancer patient, is using a cream that is applied locally to improve sexual performance. Perhaps the most revolutionary new treatment is a nasal spray recently tested successfully by Kurt, a 45-year-old photographer. In contrast to the cream, this spray works on the brain structure that triggers erections.

Interpretive Comments Sexual disorders are problems that consistently impair sexual functioning. For men, premature ejaculation and erectile disorder (an inability to have or maintain an erection) are among the most common. Beginning with the introduction of Viagra, erectile disorder has been routinely treated with a pill. Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Viagra in 1998, 35 million men in more than 120 countries have taken nearly 2 billion Viagra pills. Cialis and Levitra are competitors and also big sellers. It is estimated that 4 million Americans take erectile dysfunction pills every year. 7   

The drugs work by fueling a chemical reaction in the bloodstream. This reaction produces nitric oxide, which opens up the blood vessels essential to erections. Before Viagra, erectile disorder was largely treated as a psychological problem rather than a physical one. As this program indicates, critics argue that men often take these prescription drugs for the wrong reasons—that is, to enhance sexual performance or simply to weaken anxiety. Some fear that sexual disorders may reflect problems in relationships, which may continue and even worsen if the “physical” problem is solved. Viagra seems to have become a factor in some divorces because of a “Viagra-fueled” affair by the husband.

Discussion Questions 1. Should drugs be used only to correct sexual disorders or also to improve sexual experience and performance? 2. What does this research reveal about human sexual motivation across the life span? 3. Should drugs be used to eliminate all negative emotions if possible? Why or why not?

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Homosexuality and the Nature-Nurture Debate

Length: 8:00 minutes File Name: 165_Homosexuality_Nature_Nurture.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Gay or Straight” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description Your discussion of sexual motivation can be extended to a consideration of the roots of sexual orientation. This clip could also be used to highlight psychology’s biggest and most persistent issue, namely, the relative contribution of biology and experience to human traits. The clip visits the bedrooms of two brothers, Jared and Adam. The rooms are a study in contrast. One reflects strongly masculine interests, the other very feminine. Jared is eager to show the narrator his GI Joe collection. Adam displays his baby doll. He also wears bright red nail polish. Adam’s behavior is labeled “childhood gender nonconformity.” Children who show this pattern of behavior tend to grow up gay. The boys’ mother Danielle reports that the difference in her sons’ behaviors became apparent at 18 months. Psychologist Michael Bailey suggests that cases such as that of Jared and Adam indicate that nature rather than nurture shapes sexual orientation. Although research indicates that homosexuality runs in families, psychologists have also found that identical twin pairs can have different sexual orientations. For example, twins Steve and Greg had the same upbringing but one is gay and the other is not. Although they showed different interests in childhood, it was not until they were in high school that their different sexual orientations became evident. This difference in identical twins, admits Bailey, indicates that sexual orientation is not entirely genetic. Environmental influences, he continues, include those that occur already in the womb. In fact, research suggests that prenatal influence can be very important. At Michigan State University, Marc Breedlove has found that the hormones a rat is exposed to at birth can change its sexual orientation. Rats are born underdeveloped so this exposure comes at a stage when humans are still in the womb. A female rat injected with testosterone at birth shows a sexual behavior pattern characteristic of a male. A male castrated at birth (and thus deprived of testosterone) shows a sexual pattern characteristic of a female. Other research on sexual orientation has revealed the “older brother” effect. The more older brothers a man has, the greater the probability that he will be gay. There is no corresponding effect for lesbians. One explanation for this effect is that the mother produces antibodies when she conceives her first boy, and these antibodies affect the sons she subsequently carries. Strangely, this effect holds for right-handed but not for left-handed men. Trying to apply these theories to the real cases presented in the clip merely highlights the complexity and 9   

continuing riddle of sexual orientation. At this point, there are many more questions than answers. Interpretive Comments Research suggests that from 3 to 4 percent of men and 1 or 2 percent of women are homosexual. Sexual orientation seems to be biologically influenced. Genetic studies of family members and twins as well as research on the effect of exposure to certain hormones during prenatal development highlight the role of biological influences. Studies of same-sex behavior in several hundred species as well as the finding of a straight-gay difference in brain anatomy contribute to the growing belief that biology plays an important role in the development of sexual orientation. In contrast, a child’s relationships with parents, childhood sexual experiences, peer relationships, and dating experiences are not predictive of sexual orientation. As this program suggests, prenatal environmental influence may help explain the occasional difference that has been discovered in the sexual orientation of identical twins.

Discussion Questions 1. How might research on the roots of sexual orientation shape public attitudes toward gays and lesbians? 2. What does this research suggest about the nature-nurture issue? 3. What do you think accounts for prejudice toward gays and lesbians?

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Sexual Orientation and Activity

Length: 3:17 minutes File Name: 166_Sexual_orientation.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems)

Description This clip begins with a discussion of sexual orientation, explaining that sexual orientation is about emotional and physical attraction. Thus heterosexuals are emotionally and physically attracted to the opposite sex, homosexuals to the same sex and bisexuals to both. A psychologist explains that sexual behavior may not always reflect sexual orientation, particularly when homosexuality is widely disapproved of. The existence of sexuality through the life span is discussed. A psychologist explains that it is only our “ageism” that makes us uncomfortable with the thought of older people being sexual. The clip then profiles a couple, both of whom are in non-traditional occupations for their gender.

Discussion Questions 1. Do you mind if people are hetero-, homo-, or bisexual? Why or why not? 2. Do facilities for older people, usually staffed by younger people, actively or passively discourage sexual activity among seniors? If you end up in such a facility would you like these practices changed?

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Emotions, Stress, and Health Emotion = Arousal Plus Interpretation Length: 3:45 minutes File Name: 167_Emotion_1.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “In the Heat of the Moment” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description In introducing emotion, you will likely include the theories that explain the relationship between its major components. Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer claim that to experience emotion one must be physiologically aroused and cognitively label the arousal. The program notes that drugs such as coffee, nicotine, and alcohol change both our brain chemistry and how we feel. Clearly, then, claims researcher Harriet de Wit, drugs can be used as a tool in studying emotion because they stimulate the limbic system, which is normally activated whenever we experience an emotion. In de Wit’s study, research participants are given an amphetamine, a drug that stimulates neural activity. Two of the volunteers are told they have been given in inactive, placebo pill. Two others are informed that they have received a stimulant. If changes in biochemistry are the sole source of our emotional experience, all the participants should experience the same emotion regardless of whether they know they have taken a drug. Thirty minutes into the experiment all the participants experience arousal. Those who know that they received a stimulant are out of their chairs and active. They report positive feelings. In contrast, the unsuspecting subjects are less active, and they experience the arousal more negatively. Clearly, the research participants’ expectations shaped their experience and behavior. Basic physiological responses are only part of our emotional experience, concludes de Wit. Our understanding and interpretation of the situation shape our specific feelings. Interpretive Comments Emotion includes (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behavior, and (3) conscious experience. Different theories have been proposed to explain the relationship between these components. William James and Carl Lange claimed that we feel emotion after we notice our physiological arousal. Walter Cannon and Philip Bard suggested that we feel emotion at the same time that our bodies respond. Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer proposed that emotions have two components, physical arousal and a cognitive label. The idea that a stirred-up state can be experienced as different emotions depending on how we interpret and label it has been demonstrated in dozens of studies. Although emotional arousal is not as undifferentiated as two-factor theory implies, arousal from emotions as diverse as anger, fear, and sexual excitement often does feel the same.

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Discussion Questions 1. What are the three important components of every emotion? 2. Give an example of a time when you felt physiologically aroused and only later interpreted that arousal?

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What Is Emotion?

Length: 6:53 minutes File Name: 168_Emotion_2.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Even under similar circumstances, people often experience and express their emotions very differently. Emotion can be defined a number of ways—a particular set of feelings or an instinctive state of mind, for instance. In this program, students learn about the origin of human emotion from the evolutionary perspective, the physiological mechanisms involved in emotions, and some of the latest research findings on the subject. Charles Darwin, one of the earliest scientists to study emotion, argued that all organisms show emotion through similar behavioral expressions. He believed that emotions had an evolutionary quality that contributed to survival and reproduction by communicating information about an individual’s internal state to one another. Darwin’s conclusion that emotions were universal across cultures was later adopted and proven by researchers to have statistical significance. Evidence suggests that six basic emotions exist in all human cultures: happiness, fear, sadness, anger, surprise, and disgust. Emotions, as Daniel Gilbert points out, can be located in a two-dimensional space: valence and arousal. The dimension of valence ranges from positive to negative, and the dimension of arousal ranges from active to passive. The fact that these emotional dimensions and expressions are universal suggests that they hold evolutionary value. The nervous system, specifically the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, is aroused during highly emotional states. In a fearful state, for example, the nervous system triggers the fight-orflight response, cueing the body to release hormones, move blood to organs and muscles, and preserve energy from other system functions. Although emotions are very much rooted in our biology, our environment provides consequences for emotional behavior, which ultimately influences how we use and feel about our emotions. Discussion Questions 1. What do evolutionary psychologists believe about the nature of emotions? What other theories exist about the nature of human emotion? 2. Are all emotional capabilities innate? What is emotional intelligence? 3. What aspects of emotion are similar across all cultures? 4. How do men and women experience and express their emotions differently?

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Brain Fingerprinting: Memory, Recognition, and Lie Detection

Length: 5:00 minutes Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Brain Fingerprinting” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description This program will stimulate class discussion of how information is stored in the brain and how assessment of that storage might be used in lie detection. Researcher Lawrence Farwell describes brain fingerprinting as a technique that uses electrical brain-wave activity to determine whether specific information is stored in the brain. He explains that the recognition of familiar stimuli (e.g., words, phrases, pictures) triggers a specific electrical signal called a murmur. Because our brains maintain a record of our important experiences and activities, Farwell argues that police could use brain fingerprinting to determine whether a suspect has any hidden knowledge of a crime. A criminal suspect, wearing a headband that measures brain-wave activity, watches stimuli flashed on a computer screen. Included are words and pictures that are relevant to the crime. Recognition of the stimuli as indicated by a murmur suggests the suspect is the guilty party. Farwell acknowledges that not only the perpetrator but also witnesses to the crime may demonstrate recognition of the stimuli. However, that is similar to witnesses also having left fingerprints at the scene of a crime. Farwell demonstrates the technology in the testing of a suspect in a murder carried out 23 years earlier.An observer to the crime scene had testified that, after the murder, the suspect had run behind a building to escape. Tall weeds and grass would have impeded his effort to escape to his car. Farwell flashes “weeds and grass” as well as other stimuli relevant to the crime scene on the computer screen. The suspect’s failure to recognize the crime-relevant stimuli as well as his recognition of stimuli related to his alibi suggest that he is innocent. Researcher William Iaconno of the University of Minnesota suggests that hundreds of scientific studies support the basic technology pioneered by Farwell. Information from our past is stored in the brain, and so we are likely to respond predictably to familiar stimuli. At the same time, Iaconno believes that a jury, and not brain fingerprinting, must ultimately determine the suspect’s guilt or innocence. Interpretive Comments The clip is useful for introducing research on the physical basis of memory. You will want to emphasize that, contrary to conventional wisdom, memories do not reside in specific, single spots in the brain, and we do not seem to store most information with the exactness of a tape recorder. Contemporary researchers are focusing on memory-related changes within and between single neurons. Brain fingerprinting is likely detecting these changes.

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If you do not have an opportunity to use the program in your coverage of memory, you may choose to use it later in discussing possible alternatives to the polygraph. Although not indicated by the clip, the outcome of Farwell’s brain fingerprinting test of the suspect was ruled admissible evidence in court. The suspect's murder conviction was reversed and he was freed by the Iowa Supreme Court. Discussion Questions 1. Do you believe brain fingerprinting results should be used in court to determine the guilt or innocence of a criminal suspect? Why or why not? 2. What does this research tell us about the nature of memory?

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The Physiology of Emotions

Length: 3:04 minutes File Name: 170_Physiology_Emotions.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems) Description The clip begins at a soccer game with parents describing some of the physical sensations that accompany their emotions. We then switch to a psychologist who discusses some of the earlier work on emotions that focuses on their relationship to the autonomic nervous system. He mentions that attempts to differentiate among different emotions using measures of autonomic arousal (such as heart rate, sweating, etc.) were only partly successful. More recent research into emotion has focused on its relationship to the central nervous system, more specifically on which parts of the brain are involved in specific emotional experiences. Another researcher goes on to explain that our left hemisphere is more related to positive emotions, while the right hemisphere is more related to negative emotions. He describes a phenomenon in which individuals who have had a stroke in their left hemisphere have a tendency to be more “cynical and sullen” in their demeanor, whereas individuals who have had a right hemisphere stroke tend to express more of a “What, me worry?” attitude. Discussion Questions 1. In what situations do your emotions “control you”? Is “you” therefore more related to your cognitive and rational thinking processes? When it comes to controlling one’s emotions, are there different rules for males than for females? 2. We tend to think of demeanor as at least somewhat under voluntary control (think of your grumpy neighbor or relative who you wish would just cheer up!). Does the research on stroke victims presented in the segment make you feel differently about this individual?

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Ekman’s Studies on Facial Expressions of Emotion

Length: 2:17 minutes File Name: 171_Ekman.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Description The human face is vitally important in displaying emotions. In this clip Paul Ekman describes the multiple roles of the human face and its primary importance in conveying emotion. Ekman also describes his studies of facial expressions, in which he traveled to many different countries to measure how people of different cultures express the six basic emotions (surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness). Included in Ekman’s sample, was a preliterate tribe from New Guinea who had little contact with other cultures. Ekman found that in every culture emotions were expressed with very similar facial expressions. Therefore, it was concluded that evolution, and not learning, is responsible for our facial expressions. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful with lectures on emotion. Paul Ekman describes his famous research on the crosscultural recognition of emotions. Ekman has traveled to a number of different countries and has shown people faces of individuals who were posing in one of the basic emotional expressions (happy, sad, angry, surprised, disgusted, afraid). He has found that, regardless of culture, people are able to recognize the facial expressions that he has shown. This is very strong evidence that facial expressions are innate behaviors. If they were learned, then there would be a difference between people of different groups. The clip is also useful with lectures dealing with the topic of nature vs. nurture. Once again, this is due to the fact that emotional expressions are examples of innate, or genetically programmed, behaviors.

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Emotions and Facial Expression Length: 3:30 minutes File Name: 172_Emotions_and_Expressions.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems) Description Our facial expressions, claims psychologist Paul Ekman, communicate our internal states. They enable others to see what we are feeling. Different expressions communicate different emotions. Thirty years ago, Ekman traveled to New Guinea to study facial expressions of emotion. He went to live in the last stone-age culture on earth. The people he studied had had virtually no contact with the outside world. Ekman wanted to know whether the facial expressions shown by people in the industrialized world differ from those of people in New Guinea. Do emotional expressions change as societies develop or are they fixed and universal? Ekman showed photographs of people to the natives and asked them to point to the face that was displaying a particular emotion. He also asked them to be actors and to make facial expressions displaying different emotional states. He discovered that the facial expressions of the tribe in New Guinea were the same as those he had found elsewhere. He concluded that these common expressions reflected a simple set of core universal human emotions. Interpretive Comments Although the meaning of gestures varies with culture, many facial expressions of emotion are shared by everyone. The fact that even blind children who have never seen a face demonstrate the same facial expressions of emotions such as joy, sadness, fear, and anger suggests that these expressions are fixed and universal. However, cultures differ in the amount of emotional expression they consider acceptable. In cultures that foster individualism (in contrast to collectivism), emotional displays are often intense and prolonged. Charles Darwin speculated that before our ancestors communicated verbally, their ability to use facial expressions to convey greeting, threat, and submission fostered survival. Discussion Questions 1. How might the evolutionary perspective explain the universality of facial expressions? 2. In what ways does nurture as well as nature shape our expression of emotion?

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Reading Nonverbal Communication Length: 3:34 minutes File Name: 173_Nonverbal_Communication.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description Human emotions are conveyed in both verbal and nonverbal actions. Therefore, nonverbal behavior is a very important aspect of the way humans communicate. Facial expressions in particular, can reveal a lot about how a person is feeling. This series of clips deals with the detection of nonverbal communication. The first two clips are of women talking on the phone. Using nonverbal cues, the viewer is to decide whom she might be talking to. Likewise, in the final clip a woman tells two different versions of her life story and the viewer is to decide which story is a lie and which is the truth, based on nonverbal information. Interpretive Comments: This segment is useful for lectures dealing with emotion. The clip attempts to demonstrate how it is possible to tell certain things about a person’s emotional state from their facial expressions and their voice. Also, one of the presentations is a test of whether the viewer can tell if the person on tape is lying or telling the truth. Ekman has done extensive studies of what he refers to as ‘action units’ that are facial movements which collectively become facial expressions. He has shown that there are individual differences in being able to read facial expressions. The portion of the tape where the person is describing parts of her past is an excerpt from his experimental stimuli.

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A Happiness Trait? Length: 2:00 minutes File Name: 174_Happiness_Trait.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Designer Babies” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery) Description The clip provides a good introduction to trait theories of personality, including a discussion of the heritability and stability of the Big Five. You could also use this program in discussing the genetic contribution to happiness. Researcher Dean Hamer has discovered a gene that affects mood. The gene operates like Prozac. People with a long version of the gene seem to have been on Prozac all their lives, while those with the short version of the same gene seem never to have had it. Hamer has researched the impact of this gene on personality. In studying hundreds of individuals, he has found that the gene is strongly related to neuroticism. Those with the long version of the gene are low in neuroticism. They feel good about themselves and optimistic about the future. Those with the short version of the gene are more depressed, worried, and pessimistic about the future. The presence or absence of a gene seems to profoundly affect personality. Hamer concludes that we are still a long way from genetically designing happy children. Probably many genes contribute to happiness. Interpretive Comments Trait theorists attempt to describe personality in terms of stable and enduring behavior patterns, or predispositions to feel and act. Neuroticism (emotional stability versus instability) is one of the Big Five personality factors. One end of the neuroticism dimension is marked by the predisposition to be calm, secure, and self-satisfied; the other end of the continuum reflects the tendency to be anxious, insecure, and self-pitying. The other four personality factors are conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and extraversion. Research suggests that these traits are substantially heritable, appear in all cultures, are stable in adulthood, and are good predictors of other personal attributes. Locating a person on these five dimensions currently offers the most comprehensive view of personality. Discussion Questions 1. What makes us happy? Do people have a genetically determined “set point” for happiness? 2. Do you believe personality is primarily a product of nature or nurture?

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Do Body Smells Reveal Fear and Happiness? Length: 3:15 minutes File Name: 175_Body_Smells.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Taste and Smell” Come To Your Senses (BBC Motion Gallery) Description In addition to introducing smell as a possible mode of communication, this video provides an excellent opportunity to review the basic components of the experimental method. In showing the program, ask students if they can identify the independent and dependent variables in this study. This segment explores whether body odor reflects mood. Male and female student volunteers at the University of Warwick begin the study by washing with unscented soap and then changing into new t-shirts. In the first part of the experiment, the students observe a series of “feel-good” film clips. The students appear happy as they watch the programs, and after 20 minutes their t-shirts have presumably picked up their body odor. After a quick wash under the arms, they put on fresh t-shirts. This time the volunteers watch programs intended to elicit fear. Again they change shirts. Shirts are placed in six bags sorted by gender and emotion. Two of the bags hold plain shirts. The students are instructed to sniff and categorize each bag of shirts. They report the task to be challenging. The results indicated that males were very good at recognizing females and females were successful in recognizing males. In addition, males were able to detect the specific moods of females but not those of other males. Similarly, females could pick up the moods of males but not of other females. The researcher concludes that the results provide some evidence that smells can be picked up as messages. Interpretive Comments A pheromone is a chemical released by an animal that acts on another member of the species to elicit some specific behavioral or physiological response. For example, most mammals produce pheromones that promote sexual attraction or serve to mark one’s territory. As this program highlights, humans have structures that make such communication possible. We have specialized glands in the skin that secrete odorous substances. They are heavily concentrated in the armpits and genital region. Humans also have a vomeronasal organ that contains receptor cells specialized for responding to pheromones. In this program, males and females seem capable of detecting the smell of the other sex as well as distinguishing its good or fearful mood. Most human pheromone research has focused on whether we produce sex-attractant hormones. Both males and females have been exposed to various secretions taken from the other sex and then asked to rate the attractiveness of the odor or changes in their own mood. Thus far, such studies have failed to produce convincing evidence that we do produce such pheromones. The clearest evidence for human pheromones comes from findings that show the possible impact of chemicals on women’s menstrual cycles. College women who live together for several months tend to have synchronized menstrual cycles. Research suggests that this effect is mediated by chemical communication.

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Discussion Questions 1. What are the independent and dependent variables in this experiment? 2. How might smells serve as messages? 3. How would an evolutionary perspective explain the findings from this study?

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Rage: One Man’s Story and Treatment Length: 10:05 minutes File Name: 176_Rage_Man.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Personality” Human Mind (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Anger and its management are central themes of this program. You can use the program to introduce the key components of emotion as well as the causes, consequences, and control of the specific emotion of anger. The clip will also stimulate class discussion of the concept of catharsis. Does venting hostility reduce aggression or fuel more aggression? Is venting cathartic or does it merely foster shame and regret? Sean has a good job, a loving wife, and a new baby son. However, he has a problem with bouts of uncontrollable rage that often occur when he is driving. His overwhelming anger, including shouts and screams of obscenities, is later followed by feelings of shame and regret. He can’t stop to think before he reacts, claims his wife Angie. Sean fears he will lose everything if he does not change. In his first anger-management session, Sean describes his pattern of rage in detail. The therapist attempts to explain to Sean that the part of his brain responsible for the conscious control of behavior is in conflict with the part that underlies more automatic, impulsive reactions. The narrator notes that the challenge facing Sean is one of getting his frontal lobes to overrule his raging amygdala. The therapist counsels Sean to attempt to distract himself, if only temporarily, when confronted with specific situations that trigger his rage. The first session seems to produce mixed results. Early in the week, Sean seems successful in controlling his anger but, as the days pass, his road rage returns. Angie notes that while her husband wants to change, his uncontrollable anger persists. Strongly motivated to bring his rage under control, Sean continues the anger-management sessions. His therapist encourages him to continue to monitor his specific behaviors very carefully and to reinforce himself when he succeeds in controlling his impulses. Several weeks of additional therapy end with Sean taking a final test drive. Wearing a monitor that assesses his heart rate and level of stress, he pursues a route that he typically hates taking. Sean remains calm and relaxed even when confronting situations that he formerly found stressful and that elicited rage. A month later, Sean and his wife reflect on the effectiveness of therapy. Sean reports greater self-control and a healthier relationship with his family. Angie agrees that therapy has been effective. Interpretive Comments Emotions are a mix of physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience. These three components are apparent in Sean’s anger. For example, he shows increased heart rate, shouts and screams obscenities, and experiences rage. Anger is especially likely to occur when another’s perceived misdeeds seem willful, unjustified, and avoidable. Venting one’s anger usually fails to produce catharsis, that is, a cleansing or relieving of aggressive urges. Typically, expressing anger breeds more anger. As this case study illustrates, expressing anger may temporarily reduce aggression because the behavior leaves us feeling guilty or anxious. 13   

Discussion Questions 1. What are the effects of venting anger? In the long run, does the expression of one’s anger increase or decrease it? 2

What are some effective ways of dealing with anger?

3. What do you think accounts for the change in Sean’s apparent capacity to control his anger?

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Rage: One Woman’s Story and Treatment Length: 8:10 minutes File Name: 177_Rage_Woman.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Rage” 48 Hours (CBS News) Description This video provides a case study in the anger-prone personality. It considers the destructive effects of anger on relationships, as well as the management of the emotion. Tracy, a wife and young mother, has decided to enter an inpatient anger management program. The fourweek program includes a complete medical evaluation along with therapy. The therapist suggests that becoming angry with another person often enables us to get what we want, and the discharge of our frustration also makes us feel better. Patients act out their anger in psychodrama. They learn to play childlike games that enable them to ask for help in dealing with their frustration. For Tracy, the most important moment will come when her husband joins her in a face-to-face encounter. Their marriage is in jeopardy and neither can anticipate the outcome of their meeting. After three weeks in treatment, Tracy is learning to control her anger. She believes her problem can be traced back to being raised in an angry family. Tracy is convinced she will never be as angry again. Her husband believes he has been unfairly victimized by his wife’s problem and has begun divorce proceedings. In a challenging encounter at the treatment center, Tracy and her husband are given the opportunity to air their grievances and share their goals. Tracy begins by describing how she has felt belittled by him. Most troubling to her, was when he secretly taped of one of her outbursts and shared it with her pastor and their friends. As her husband listens, Tracy apologizes for her past pattern of anger and thanks him for the times he has been supportive. Tracy’s husband voices frustration with his wife’s anger, especially for the times she has thrown things and called him names. He expresses his love for Tracy and his desire for a healthy relationship. At session’s end, the two embrace. Tracy voices her concern that her husband failed to express regret over the taping. He admits that sharing the tape was wrong, but also still seems to defend his motive for taping her out-of-control rage. He clearly hopes that their participation in the program will repair their relationship. Interpretive Comments This case suggests that anger is sometimes shaped by parental models. Growing up in an anger-prone family seems to have fostered the emotion in Tracy. In addition to being expressive of frustration, anger may become instrumental in achieving important goals. Although the narrator suggests that the expression of anger also makes us feel better, catharsis generally fails to cleanse one’s rage. Expressing anger tends to breed more anger, which may explain Tracy’s life-long pattern of attack.

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This case also illustrates how anger is often a response to a friend or loved one’s perceived misdeeds. It is especially common when another person’s actions seem willful, unjustified, and avoidable. Both Tracy’s and her husband’s anger seem to have been fueled by feelings of rejection and belittlement. Communication can serve to reduce conflict, especially when it includes non-accusing statements of feeling that foster mutual understanding. Clear and forthright communication tends to reduce mistrust and forgiveness can also promote reconciliation. Without excusing the offender or inviting further harm, forgiveness releases anger and calms the body. Discussion Questions 1. What do you regard to be the important causes of Tracy’s anger? 2. How might group therapy prove helpful in understanding and managing one’s anger? 3. What is the role of communication in reducing conflict?

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The Development of Disgust Length: 5:05 minutes File Name: 178_Disgust.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: In the Heat of the Moment” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Class discussion of specific emotions can be readily extended to the universal emotion of disgust. Psychologist Paul Rozin, who has studied disgust for two decades, observes that when we are told that something smells disgusting, we are curious, we approach the substance, and we are then typically repulsed by the odor. Rozin has been particularly interested in how our thoughts and emotions become linked as we develop. Disgust initially seems to involve food. Over time, however, what we find disgusting extends to touching dead things, to blood and gore, and to certain unnatural sexual practices. Even certain people may elicit disgust. What’s the link, asks Rozin, between the initial core of disgust, namely food, and all these other things? Children of different ages react quite differently to a variety of messy foods. At a very early age, they show taste preferences. By age 3 or 4, they make a distinction between food and things they should not eat. And these judgments are no longer made simply on the basis of taste. A key landmark in the development of disgust is the acquisition of the concept of contamination. Although both younger and older children react with disgust to a cockroach, as well as to apple juice containing one, only the older children seem to have a concept of contamination. The younger ones drink the juice after the cockroach has been removed, whereas the older ones resist. Rozin maintains that adults’ disgust reactions to a variety of abstract stimuli develop from earlier reactions to something that tastes disgusting. Our reaction begins, says, Rozin, with “I want to get it out of my mouth” and ends with “I want to get it out of my mind, even out of my soul.” In short, disgust of everything offensive reflects our efforts to become better people. Interpretive Comments From an evolutionary perspective, disgust seems to be a case of survival by aversion. It’s a fear of incorporating an aversive substance into one’s body. Rozin and April Fallon have identified three criteria for membership in the “core disgust club.” It must be something you could eat, something that has or had a life of its own, and something that has the power to make other things disgusting. Disgust has its own unique facial expression in which the nose wrinkles with a constriction of the nostrils, and the mouth opens with the tongue pushed forward as if to force the offending substance out. Interest in the study of disgust has grown in popularity as brain-imaging research has uncovered that certain parts of the brain are activated when people are disgusted. Discussion Questions 1. What do you find to be most disgusting? 2. Can you describe the characteristics of the facial expression of disgust? 17   

The Search for Happiness Length: 6:15 minutes File Name: 179_Search_for_Happiness.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: CBS Sunday Morning: “The Pursuit of Happiness” (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This program provides a good introduction to classroom discussion of research on subjective well-being, as well as the perspective of positive psychology. It features the pioneering work of psychologists Martin Seligman and Ed Diener. Seligman suggests that happiness includes the pleasant life, the engaged life, and the meaningful life. The latter involves serving something larger than oneself, and is marvelously illustrated by an elderly couple’s establishment of a retirement home for abused animals. For 22 years, the husband and wife team have served as “happy slaves” in meeting the basic needs of dozens of horses, dogs, pigs, and goats. The couple laughs at the irony of their working 14-hour days so their animals can retire. Darrin McMahon traces the history of happiness. In ancient times, happiness was thought to be something dispensed by the gods. The Greeks suggested that humans might play a role in their own happiness. For example, Aristotle maintained that happiness came in living a virtuous life. The early Christians believed that happiness came only in the hereafter. The nineteenth century American ideal of “the pursuit of happiness” assumes that we have the personal capacity to shape our lives and the world in the way that we like. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that the majority of Americans describe themselves as “pretty” or “very” happy. Research on the predictors of happiness suggests that money increases happiness only for the very poor. Once basic needs are met, more money makes little difference. However, researcher Ed Diener notes that Americans’ expectations keep rising and cultural comparisons find that the United States ranks only 15th in subjective well-being. He calls for regular monitoring of a national index of well-being. Diener reports that, without exception, the happiest people all have supportive family and friends. In addition, the pursuit of important values and goals fosters long-term happiness. Enjoying the activities it takes to reach a goal is more important than attaining the goal itself. Diener notes that the pursuit of happiness may itself be long-term happiness. Clearly, happiness is a journey not a destination. Interpretive Comments Researchers in positive psychology aim to expand psychology’s study of emotion to include the positive emotions. They focus on subjective well-being assessed either as feelings of happiness or as a sense of satisfaction with life. Important predictors of happiness include not only close friendships and meaningful work, but also the personality characteristics of high self-esteem, optimism, and agreeableness. “Flow” results from optimal engagement of one’s skills. It is a focused state of consciousness in which there is diminished awareness of self and time. As Diener suggests, enjoying the activities that it takes to reach a goal become more important that the goal itself.

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Discussion Questions 1. What makes you happy? 2. What makes people happier, something they do for personal pleasure or something they do to help others? 3. Why might a national index of well-being, as Diener proposes, be useful and important?

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Fighting Cancer: Mobilizing the Immune System Length: 6:35 minutes File Name: 180_Fighting_Cancer.MP4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source:“Mind Over Body” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This program provides an excellent example of how mind and body interact as well as the constant interplay between our heads and our health. Everything psychological is simultaneously physiological. A few years ago Christine, a young mother of three, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She dreaded undergoing chemotherapy and vividly describes its side effects, which include a horribly dry, metallic aftertaste. Sixteen years ago Dr. Leslie Walker sought to help cancer patients reduce the distressing effects of chemotherapy. He taught them to practice special relaxation techniques and found that the strategy reduced problems with nausea and vomiting. More surprising was the finding that patients who used relaxation techniques survived longer. Thinking that the results may have been a fluke, Walker set up a new trial. His research team sought to determine whether relaxation and imagery techniques could control the spread of breast cancer cells after tumors had been removed by conventional treatment. A total of 96 women participated in the new study. All underwent conventional treatment for removal of their tumors. However, half of them also spent time each day imagining that their tumor was being attacked. Christine describes how, in seeking to control the spread of her cancer, she imagined a monster imprisoned in a cage. Over a period of three years, the researchers assessed the natural killer cells in the participants’ blood, which are thought to inhibit the spread of cancer. They found that relaxation and imagery techniques enhanced the white cells that are important in targeting and fighting cancer cells. The study is not complete, but preliminary results suggest that those women who practiced relaxation and imagery techniques have more active natural killer cells. Although the strategy does not provide a cure, it may slow the spread of cancer throughout the body. Interpretive Comments This segment raises important questions about the relationship between stress and cancer. Some researchers have found that people are at increased risk for cancer within a year after experiencing depression, helplessness, or bereavement. Other researchers have not found a link between stress and cancer. Most investigators believe that stress does not create cancer cells, but it may affect their growth by weakening the immune system’s ability to defend against a few proliferating malignant cells. Similarly, the research highlighted in this video indicates that relaxation and imagery techniques may not cure cancer, but they may significantly slow its progression and spread throughout the body. This would be consistent with other lines of research that have indicated that relaxation techniques can help alleviate headaches, hypertension, anxiety, and insomnia. Such techniques have also been associated with a reduction in the recurrence of heart attacks. Finally, conscious, mindful meditation has been specifically linked to improvement in immune functioning. 20   

Discussion Questions 1. How does the research reported in this video illustrate links between mind and body? 2. What role can psychologists play in promoting physical well-being? 3. What are the possible dangers in believing that our minds can cure our bodies?

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Measuring Stress While Running with the Bulls Length: 4:20 minutes File Name: 181_Stress_Bulls.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Born to Survive” Human Instinct (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This video provides a vivid illustration of how our bodies respond to stress. Running with the bulls also demonstrates how human motivation seeks optimum levels of arousal. Sensation- or thrill-seeking personalities seem to prefer high levels of stimulation. Each year people come from all over the world to Pamplona, Spain to run with the bulls. The narrator describes the event as the “ultimate adrenaline rush.” Since the event began, many participants have been badly gored and some have even lost their lives. Andy describes coming to the run as the fulfillment of a dream. He has agreed to participate in a study that observes how the body responds in times of acute danger. His heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol level are measured as part of the assessment. Cortisol is closely related to adrenaline, which may energize Andy to run faster than he ever has before. An hour before the run he reports he is excited and ready to go. The bulls are released and Andy waits for them to come near. The challenge is to get as close to a charging bull as you dare, without getting gored. As the bulls approach, Andy’s body is flooded with a massive burst of adrenaline. His cortisol levels more than double. From a resting rate of 72 beats per minute, Andy’s heart rate more than triples. Andy describes the fear elicited by the running bulls as incredible. Unquestionably, he has found the experience to be thrilling. The fear instincts that we rely upon to save our lives are powerful. Thus, concludes the narrator, it is difficult to turn them off at will. Interpretive Comments Our response to stress dramatically demonstrates the mind–body interaction. Research has identified a two-track stress response system. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the release of the stress hormones epinephrine and norepineprhine (also called adrenaline and noradrenaline) from nerve endings in the inner part of the adrenal glands. This system also increases heart rate and respiration, diverts blood from digestion to the skeletal muscles, reduces pain, and releases sugar and fat from the body’s stores. On a second track, the cerebral cortex, by way of the hypothalamus, prompts the release of glucocorticoid stress hormones (such as cortisol) from the outer part of the adrenal glands. Both of these systems promote fight-or-flight physiological effects in our bodies, including faster breathing and tense muscles. However, they work at different rates of speed. Biologist Robert Sapolsky explains, “In a fight-or-flight scenario, epinephrine (or adrenaline) is the one handing out guns; glucocorticoids are the ones drawing up blueprints for new aircraft carriers needed for the war effort.”

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Discussion Questions 1. What are the key components of any emotion? 2. Describe how our bodies respond to stress. 3. What do you think is the most important motive for “running with the bulls”?

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Selye’s Stress Response Studies Length: 2:52 minutes File Name: 182_Selye.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and BBC Motion Gallery Description This clip provides excellent background to Dr. Hans Selye's classic work on stress. You can also use the clip to highlight the nature of stress, including both its positive and negative effects. Hans Selye has worked as director of experimental medicine and surgery at the University of Montreal since 1945. The university is a world center for the study of stress. Selye explains his long involvement in research on stress. He observes that in addition to the symptoms that are unique to each illness, there is a syndrome or set of disease signs common to all illnesses, for example, feeling ill, tired, and without an appetite. Even as a medical student, Selye observed this syndrome of “just being sick.” Ten years later, he published his first manuscript on stress entitled “A Syndrome Produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents.” Stress plays a role in every disease, argues Selye, because disease places increased demands on the body. In some diseases, stress proves to be the decisive factor. When asked about his own personal stress, Selve describes it as the “salt of life.” You need stress, he observes, to make life worthwhile. Stress plays a positive role in life. People vary in their need for, or their tolerance of, stress. For example, Selye notes he has a fairly intense need for work. In fact, he could not exist without it. At the same time, he does not fight for things he cannot win. Interpretive Comments Selye is best known for describing the general adaptation syndrome. When we experience a stressful event, we first go into an alarm state. With our resources mobilized, we are now ready to fight the challenge during the second stage of resistance. If the stressor lasts for a prolonged period, it may deplete our body’s resources and we experience exhaustion. Discussion Questions 1. How can stress be the “salt of life”? 2. What does Selye’s analysis suggest about the relationship between life experiences and our physical well-being?

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Stress Length: 5:42 minutes File Name: 183_Stress.mp4 Scource: New (2012) Description It is almost impossible to live without the presence of some stress in our lives. In fact, it is possible that a little stress may be what keeps us motivated and able to perform under pressure. Whether it is good stress or not, too much stress can be harmful to one’s health, relationships, and enjoyment of life. This program explores the definitions, origins, and effects of stress. A stressor is something in one’s environment that provokes stress and can be a minor annoyance to a cataclysmic event. Our responses to stressors vary depending on our perception of the seriousness of the event and whether we have, or believe we have, the resources to meet the challenge. That is the idea of appraisal theory—our emotional and physical responses to an event are based on our appraisal of that event. Appraisals are broken up into two categories: primary and secondary appraisals. Primary appraisals inquire about motivations, whereas secondary appraisals deal with evaluating our resources. When we experience stress, our bodies trigger the fight-or-flight response, which is an automatic, inborn response that prepares the body to react to the perceived threat. When the fight-or-flight response is activated, chemicals like adrenaline, noradrenalin, and cortisol enter the bloodstream. The release of these chemicals causes the body and brain to undergo a series of changes. One such response, as Joseph LeDoux points out, is that we become more attentive and alert. But, over time the overload of cortisol becomes too much and that is when we begin to see health deteriorate. Discussion Questions 1. Do our genes influence how we respond to stress? What are the evolutionary origins of the stress response? 2. Is the idea of “good stress” a myth? Is it possible to live a stress-free life? 3. What are some ways that chronic stress affects health? Do males and females respond to stress differently?

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Stress and the Immune System: Caretakers at Risk Length: 3:15 minutes File Name: 184_Stress_Caretakers.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Mind Over Body” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Does stress undermine our physical as well as our psychological well-being? This video examines the impact of stress on our immune system and our body’s ability to heal. Madge is an elderly woman who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Franklin, her husband of 51 years, provides constant care. In contrast to other challenges he has faced, he knows this one will only get worse. The hardest part, Franklin claims, is the contrast that he sees between what his wife is now and what she had been she was when healthy. Researchers Jan and Ron Glaser conducted a detailed study examining the effects of stress on health. Research participants were people under continuous levels of high stress ,such as those who care for family members with Alzheimer’s. Such caregivers often describe their experience as a “living bereavement.” They see pieces of the one they love disappear over time. The Glasers found that psychological stress had lowered Franklin’s immune response. This finding is consistent with other studies of animals and humans, which have found that stress impacts aspects of the immune response. The unanswered question is whether these changes are large enough to have an effect on one’s physical health. The Glasers sought to determine whether the impact of stress on immune functioning would affect the body’s ability to heal itself. Small identical wounds were made on the arms of all of the volunteers. Results indicated that it took longer for the wounds of those experiencing high stress to heal. The study provides evidence that stress inhibits our immune system’s response to the point of undermining our health. Interpretive Comments Our immune system includes two types of white blood cells called lymphocytes. B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections. T lymphocytes form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances. Macrophage, another agent of the immune system, identifies, pursues, and ingests harmful invaders. Stress is one important factor that depresses the immune system’s activities. Several studies have demonstrated its negative impact on physical health. In the study described in this clip, the Glasers found that the wounds of stressed participants took longer to heal. In another study, 47 percent of the research participants living stress-filled lives developed colds after a virus was dropped in their nose. In contrast, only 27 percent of those living relatively stress-free lives contracted the illness. Finally, findings from 23 studies reveal that family caregivers of people with dementia exhibit a 15 percent below-normal immune antibody response and a 23 percent increase in stress hormones.

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Discussion Questions 1. What are the practical implications of this research for those who are in engaged in long-term care of acutely ill family members? 2. What makes caring for Alzheimer’s victims especially stressful? 3. How does this research illustrate the interaction of mind and body?

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Stress on the Job Length: 10:46 minutes File Name: 185_Stress_Job.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description Interactions in brain can be upset by environmental changes such as those experienced during stress. The physiological response to stress is discussed in this clip. The stress response activates many brain structures (the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, locus coeruleus, and adrenal gland) and results in the release of neurotransmitters (namely norepinephrine). Low levels of stress experienced over long periods of time keep messages from the limbic system flowing to the frontal cortex. The balance that the organism tries to maintain between the limbic system and cortex during stress is exhausting and leads to the erratic behavior that is often seen in victims of stress. This prolonged stress can cause exhaustion, disease (ulcers, cancer, and heart disease) and even death. The importance of the neurotransmitter GABA is also discussed. GABA appears to lower the excitability of cells that are about to receive incoming information. However, if stress is prolonged, GABA’s ability to block messages decreases. Individuals who experience high levels of prolonged stress can be helped by a class of drugs called benzodiazepines (i.e. Valium), which enhances GABA’s inhibiting action. Interpretive Comments This segment can be used with lectures on physiological psychology. Since the clip deals with stress and its manifestations, it could be used to discuss the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, particularly the sympathetic arm. Stress activates this system and causes a number of physiological events to occur. The autonomic nervous system is an evolutionarily engineered system that is very effective in preparing us for life-threatening situations. However, this system can cause us problems in situations where stress in ongoing. In these circumstances, we can develop ulcers, high blood pressure, and other physical disorders due to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. The clip can also be used with lectures on abnormal psychology, since stress plays a role in precipitating many types of psychopathology.

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The Stress Response

Length: 2:45 minutes File Name: 186_Stress_response.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: CBS Evening News (CBS News) Description This video can be used to either introduce or conclude your classroom discussion of stress and health. Although the video acknowledges that stressors can have positive effects, it focuses primarily on how severe or prolonged stress harms us. Teresa, a corporate attorney, finds that the demands of her workplace and home are sometimes excessive and stressful. Under stress, the brain signals the release of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol. They can give us energy, strengthen the immune system, improve reflexes, and even enhance memory. However, if we are always under stress the release of cortisol begins to work against us. Researcher Bruce McEwen explains how chronic stress undermines our physical well-being. It causes neurons in the brain to shrink. In animals, this produces increased anxiety, aggressiveness, and even symptoms of depression. Other researchers find that chronic stress accelerates aging and makes us more susceptible to disease. Damage even occurs at the molecular level. The fraying of telomeres, which form the protective coating at the end of chromosomes, mimics the effects of aging. The improved technology of contemporary society, including the ready availability of cell phones and email, has created new sources of stress. Psychologist Christina Maslach suggests that those who do not manage stress well may become overwhelmed and eventually experience burnout. They work less effectively. Learning to control and even avoid stress can reverse the physiological damage that stress produces. Effective stress management strategies include relaxing with family, exercising, eating well, and, at times, ignoring those emails. Interpretive Comments Stress is the process by which we perceive and respond to environmental threats and challenges. How we interpret or appraise an event impacts how much stress we experience. One person may see a psychology test as a challenge and become motivated and focused. Another person may see the test as a threat and become distracted. Our body responds to stress with a two-track system. The sympathetic nervous system prompts release of the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine from the nerve endings in the inner part of the adrenal glands. The cerebral cortex directs the release of glucocorticoid hormones, such as cortisol, from the outer part of the adrenal glands. Both systems lead to flight-or-fight physiological effects in our bodies such as faster breathing and tense muscles. Aerobic exercise, biofeedback, relaxation, meditation, and spirituality may help us manage stress. In addition, having a sense of personal control and optimism, along with a strong base of social support, promote health.

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Discussion Questions 1. In what ways can stressors have positive effects? 2. In contemporary society, which demands produce severe and prolonged stress? 3. What strategies do you use to cope with stress? Are they effective?

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What Is Stress? Length: 4:17 minutes File Name: 187_What_Is_Stress.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems) Description The clip begins with a psychologist explaining that stress has three components. The first component is the type of event we encounter. In most cases these stressful events have a negative connotation. We then meet a woman who describes when she first noticed an abnormal feeling in her breast that was later diagnosed as cancer. Because her daughter was soon to deliver a baby the woman did not tell her daughter of the breast cancer until the day after the baby was delivered. The daughter describes her feelings on that day. We are told that a second component of stress is that it is a discrepancy between what the situation demands and what you think your resources are. Our breast cancer patient describes her physical and mental reactions when her doctor gave her diagnosis. Finally we are told that the third component of stress is the physical reactions produced by the sympathetic nervous system. Discussion Questions 1. What has been the most stressful event in your life so far? What made it so stressful? 2. How could you increase your coping skills to cope with events in your life that are stressful right now?

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Companionship and Support: Pets Fill the Void Length: 4:35 minutes File Name: 188_Pets.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Garden of Eden” 48 Hours (CBS News) Description Discussion of the ways that social support promotes health can readily be extended to a consideration of the benefits of animal companionship. Seven years ago, Dr. Bill Thomas began converting a nursing facility in upstate New York into an “Eden” for the elderly. He imported thousands of plants and hundreds of animals in an effort to create a more livable, stimulating environment for the residents. Birds, cats, dogs, and even rabbits now provide companionship to those who are no longer capable of living independently. In addition, Thomas invites children to visit the residents regularly. The Eden alternative seeks to care for the human spirit as well as the human body. It substitutes genuine human caring, claims Thomas, for drugs. In fact, the nursing home’s annual budget for drugs has decreased $75,000. In providing residents with strong social support and instilling in them a new reason for living, the new program has produced dramatically lower infection and mortality rates. When the narrator asks one resident what would happen if the plants and animals were removed, she immediately responds that she would lose her reason for living. The new environment also seems to bring out the best in staff by reducing their level of on-the-job stress. Nurses as well as residents have formed close bonds with the animals. Thomas has now brought the Eden alternative to over 300 nursing homes. “People belong,” he concludes, “in a human habitat surrounded by affection.” Interpretive Comments Social support can act as a stress buffer and, as this clip suggests, can come in different forms. Other lines of research indicate that pets increase the probability of survival after a heart attack, relieve depression in AIDS patients, and lower the level of blood lipids that contribute to cardiovascular risk. Animal lovers might suggest that, in comparison to human companions, pets love you just the way you are, are never judgmental, and are always there for you. Discussion Questions 1. What are the essential elements in the Eden alternative that foster human well-being? 2. Are animals only a substitute for humans in providing support to the elderly or are there unique advantages to animal companionship?

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Experience and Exercise: Generating New Brain Cells Length: 6:17 File Name: 189_Experience_Exercise.mp4 Source: New (2012) Description In order to practice their occupation, London cabdrivers must first demonstrate a mental map of the city’s mazelike streets. Recent brain scans of 16 volunteer cabbies revealed an unusually large hippocampus, the brain area used for packaging memories before they are stored. Fred Gage of the Salk Institute reported the even more astonishing finding of new neurons in the hippocampus of Swedish cancer patients. This finding overturned scientists’ long-held belief that mature brains lose cells with age but never gain them. Studies of rats at the University of Illinois had indicated that when the animals were raised in enriched environments their brains formed many more neural connections. However, there had never been any evidence of the formation of new neurons until Gage’s research team set up a similar study with mice and found that a challenging, enriched environment generated new neurons. Henriette van Praag reports that subsequent research found that merely providing mice with a running wheel for exercise produced new brain cells. Mice who had exercised proved smarter than mice housed in standard cages. Van Praag hopes physical exercise in humans may produce similar beneficial effects. Furthermore, researchers continue to explore the possible implications of this research for those suffering diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s which involve the loss of brain cells. Interpretive Comments Recent findings indicate that the brain is not as hardwired as scientists once thought. The scientific attitude of curiosity, skepticism, and humility is illustrated in the work that shows nature and nurture sculpt neural tissue throughout life. Research challenges existing claims and extends prior findings. You might note that physical exercise both lifts mood and increases heart and lung fitness. Studies indicate that even moderate exercise extends life. Discussion Questions 1. How does this research highlight the key characteristics of the scientific attitude? 2. What do these findings tell us about the relationship between nature and nurture? 3. What are other potential benefits of physical exercise on physical and psychological well-being?

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Stress Management: The Relaxation Response Length: 6:58 minutes File Name: 190_Stress_Management.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description In the opening scenes of this program, Herbert Benson of Boston’s Mind/Body Medical Institute teaches Alan Alda the “relaxation response.” He instructs Alda to close his eyes, and then beginning with his feet, tells him to relax all the muscles of his body. He is to focus on his breathing while silently repeating to himself the mantra, “calm.” Other thoughts will occur, suggests Benson, but each time he should come back to “calm.” This attempt to elicit relaxation reflects a simple form of meditation and Alda responds well. Physiological measures confirm a significant reduction of muscle tension. Benson suggests that to the extent stress causes or worsens any disorder, the relaxation response is therapeutic. Indeed John Goddard benefits greatly from relaxation therapy. Once a victim of panic attacks, depression, and high blood pressure, he is now mentally stable and off his blood pressure medication. He states that his daily meditation is responsible: “It’s given me my life back.” In 1981, Benson led expeditions to northern India to study Tibetan monks who practice Tummo yoga as part of their spiritual practice. Vintage film footage dramatically demonstrates how the monks are able, through meditation, to dry (within three to five minutes) ice-cold, wet sheets that have been wrapped around their bodies. Benson reports that they are able to raise the temperature of their extremities by 15 degrees. At the same time they do not increase their heart rate. Benson reports that the relaxation response counteracts stress hormones and thus raises body temperature. Normally the flight-or-fight stress response occurs automatically and is beyond our conscious control. Meditation brings that stress response under control, and, as Alda concludes, “you don’t have to be a Tibetan monk to do it.” Interpretive Comments As a classroom exercise, you may want to ask students to close their eyes and follow the instructions that Herbert Benson gives Alan Alda at the beginning of the program. Interrupt the program to ask students to relate their experience (before Alda reports his!). Research indicates that Tibetans in mediation report a diminished sense of self, space, and time. Brain scans indicate that a part of the parietal lobe that monitors our location becomes less active than usual while a frontal lobe involved in focused attention becomes more active. Numerous studies document the benefits of relaxation therapy. For example, it has been shown to alleviate headaches, hypertension, anxiety, and insomnia. Discussion Questions 1. What physical and psychological disorders are most likely to benefit from relaxation therapy? 2. What does this research suggest about the relationship between mind and body? 3. In addition to relaxation, what other effective ways have you found to manage stress in your own life? 34   

Personality Personality Structure: Id, Ego, and Superego Length: 5:30 minutes File Name: 191_Superego.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Freud: The Hidden Nature of Man” (The Phoenix Learning Group Inc.) Description Sigmund Freud provided the first comprehensive view of personality. This clip provides an intriguing overview of the three interacting personality systems proposed by Freud: the id, the ego, and the superego. By vividly highlighting the conflict between our biological impulses and internalized social restraints, the program provides a good introduction to the theory of psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud describes his theory of personality structure. The conscious self that attempts to deal with the outside world of reality he calls the ego. But ego is not the master of self, claims Freud, because we are “constantly bedeviled by powerful unconscious forces.” The id reflects all that is primitive and infantile; it represents the blind instincts of sexual desire and aggression within us. The id is opposed by the superego, which is rigid, punishing, and repressive. The superego reflects the moral restrictions we have inherited from our parents and from our society. The three elements of personality are illustrated in David’s interactions with his employer, who challenges the way David has handled a client. Although David’s responses to his employer seem rational and calm, the inner voices of his id and superego reflect strongly conflicting forces. The id expresses strongly hostile feelings, while the superego voices respect. David’s hostility toward his employer is based on unconscious hatred of his father caused by childhood jealousy and the Oedipus Complex (a very young boy’s sexual desires for his mother and feelings of jealous hatred toward his father). Without insight into these dark forces, claims Freud, we are doomed to play out our lives in an endless dramatization of our childhood relationships with our parents. In a second scenario, the same conflicting forces are apparent in David’s interactions with his girlfriend Peggy. In this case, the strong sexual attraction he feels toward Peggy reflects the unconscious sexual attraction he felt at a very early age toward his mother. This id impulse is in sharp conflict with his superego’s moral restrictions on the expression of the sexual drive. The ego’s task is to meet the conflicting demands of id, ego, and reality and still preserve its own identity. Freud concludes that the struggle between the id and the superego can be the source of our growth only if we recognize the unconscious forces within us. Interpretive Comments Sigmund Freud was a physician who specialized in nervous disorders. His inability to explain his patients’ symptoms in terms of physical causes led to his view of personality. His theory of psychoanalysis focused attention on the conflict between biological impulses and social restraints, and included ideas about an unconscious region of the mind, psychosexual stages, and defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety. Freud has profoundly influenced Western culture. 1   

Discussion Questions 1. Do you find Freud’s theory of personality structure to be helpful? Why or why not? 2. Why is a strong ego necessary in personality? What kinds of problems might a person experience if he or she were dominated by either the id or the superego?        

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Psychodynamic Theories of Personality Length: 9:08 minutes File Name: 192_Psychodynamic_Theories_of_Personality.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New Description What elements make up an individual’s personality? Many theorists have sought answers to this question, but one of the earliest and most prominent sets of theories on the origins of personality descended from the work of Sigmund Freud. The psychodynamic approach to psychology emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental forces as the underlying motivation for behavior. Freud himself believed that there was much more to personality than what meets the eye. This program summarizes Sigmund Freud’s theories about the development of personality and introduces students to various Freudian terms and concepts. According to Freud, three levels of consciousness—the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious—exist in every human mind. He believed that the unconscious is the source of our motivations, whether they are desire for food or sex, neurotic compulsions, or motives for skill acquisition. We are often driven to deny or resist becoming conscious of these experiences, which then may become available to us only in a disguised form. The iceberg analogy is used to illustrate how the bulk of mental matter is submerged in the depths of our unconscious, while only a small portion, the conscious matter, is exposed. The narrator then describes what Freud referred to as id, ego, and superego: the three components of personality that ideally work together but often come into conflict with one another. When conflict arises, we create defense mechanisms as a way to help us cope and maintain a sense of order in our minds. Another important yet controversial concept Freud proposed was his theory of the psychosexual stages of development. He believed that biologically fundamental sexual desires surfaced in childhood and that these sexual desires present themselves in conscious behavior. During the third stage, the phallic stage, boys were thought to experience the Oedipus complex: the son-father competition for possession of the mother. Similarly, the Electra complex was thought to be the girls’ experience of affection for their fathers. Despite the fact that his theories are often criticized today, Freud’s work helped influence much of modern research on personality and on the application of talk therapy.

Discussion Questions 1. What is a defensive mechanism according to Freud? Why do we use them? 2. What are some common criticisms of Freud’s personality theory? 3. Are Freud’s psychosexual stages specific to childhood? Can behaviors continue into adulthood?

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Repression: Reality or Myth? Length: 12:40 minutes File Name: 193_Repression.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Newsnight “Traumatic Memories” (BBC Motion Gallery)   Description This case study can be used in a classroom discussion about the psychoanalytic perspective of personality and the controversy surrounding Freud’s proposed defense mechanism of repression. Alternatively, you may choose to present the program with the material on memory—specifically in your discussion of the research on reports of repressed and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Anna had always enjoyed pleasant memories of her childhood. But when she developed eating disorders, her deteriorating health led her to therapy. The psychiatrist asked Anna about her relationships with her parents including whether she felt safe with her father. She answered affirmatively. Anna was admitted to an acute psychiatric ward where other patients were in the process of recovering memories of sexual abuse. Anna’s disturbing dream about a male patient attempting to climb into her bed lead her therapist to encourage her to keep dream diaries. Anna believes that the therapist saw her dream as evidence that she had been sexually abused as a child. He gave her The Courage to Heal, a book intended to help readers recover memories of sexual abuse. Anna became convinced that her current problems were the result of past abuse. She first accused her step-grandfather, and then her father, of abuse. Although at times Anna had doubts about the accuracy of her recall, her therapeutic team assured her that it was accurate. But they did not seek any corroborating evidence. Anna now claims that her therapist failed to provide adequate treatment for her eating disorders. In fact, she suggests that the therapy led to her abuse of drugs and made her suicidal. A working team of psychiatrists was appointed to address the controversy. Their inquiry led them to conclude that there is no evidence to support recovered memory theory. Specific guidelines now instruct therapists not to use memory recovery techniques intended to reveal evidence of past sexual abuse about which the patient has no memory. In addition, psychiatrists should alert patients to doubts about recovered memories. The psychiatrist who led the team inquiry goes even further and outright rejects repression and the notion of recovered memory. Clearly, not all agree with his assessment. Anna is now convinced she was never abused and members of her family are trying to rebuild their lives.

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Interpretive Comments Sigmund Freud argued that repression banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts and feelings from consciousness. It is the key defense mechanism because it underlies all the other defense mechanisms, each of which disguises threatening thoughts and feelings and keeps them from reaching consciousness. Contemporary researchers question whether repression ever occurs. The more common finding is that high stress enhances memory and thus negative emotional events are remembered well. Often vivid, unwanted flashbacks haunt survivors of rape and torture. Research also indicates that we construct our memories using both stored and new information. Children or adults who are exposed to misinformation after an event, or are asked to repeatedly imagine and rehearse an event that never occurred, may incorporate the misleading details into their remembering. Elizabeth Loftus’s finding that false memories of childhood trauma can be experimentally implanted is particularly relevant to this video on therapist-aided recall. Studies indicate that people can be wrongly persuaded that they almost drowned as a child or that they experienced a vicious animal attack.

Discussion Questions 1. Why might people in therapy be especially vulnerable to therapist-assisted recall of past trauma? 2. Do you have any painful memories of your past? Are you readily able to suppress them or do they sometimes prove intrusive? 3. Have other people ever played an important role in your recall of past experiences? Explain.

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Genes and Personality Length: 8:10 minutes File Name: 194_Genes_Personality.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: BBC Newsnight “Quest: Human Behaviour” (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description This video can be used in conjunction with material about the trait perspective on personality. It also highlights the nature–nurture issue and the use of twin studies to examine the influence of heredity and environment. Karen and Lynn, identical twins, have been inseparable since birth. They have always lived in the same town, and once even had the same boyfriend. They share the same likes, display the same sense of humor, and have the same genes. Do genes determine our traits? At one time, researchers believed that genes played little role in determining our personality. Today, DNA analysis suggests that genetic influence may be very important. Although our genes may play a more important role in some traits than others, so far research indicates that there is some genetic influence on every trait. Studies of twins raised apart suggest that genes may even play a role in criminality and addiction. Such understandings are not politically popular. Eventually, the research findings may call us to revise our comfortable views of human nature. Having completed the sequencing of the human genome, researchers now turn attention to the role that genes play in a variety of specific human characteristics. The applications of this research will become increasingly important. One project is aimed at understanding the genetic basis of depression. By comparing the genetic code of depressed persons with that of non-depressed persons, researchers aim to uncover the specific genes involved in depression. In addition, researchers are studying the possible genetic influence on antisocial behavior. Hopefully, findings will eventually enable them to identify children who are likely to develop problems. The research raises the question of whether we will eventually need to view antisocial behavior as an illness like schizophrenia or depression. Medical intervention may be able to prevent problems before they occur. Similar efforts are underway to understand the possible genetic basis of alcoholism and other addictions. Some believe that thrill-seeking may be an important factor in such disorders. From this research, we may eventually learn how to intervene most effectively in treating addiction.

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Interpretive Comments Behavior genetics studies the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on personality and behavior. Researchers who attempt to define personality in terms of traits—that is, in terms of stable and enduring behavior patterns—have recognized that many of our normal individual variations are genetically influenced. For example, Hans and Sybil Eysenck believed that nature shaped the basic personality dimensions of extraversion and emotionality. The proposed Big Five personality factors of conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion represent an expanded set of personality factors that are relatively stable and that describe personality in various cultures reasonably well. Although heritability of these individual differences varies with the diversity of people studied, it generally runs 50 percent or more for each dimension.

Discussion Questions 1. In what ways do you believe both nature and nurture have shaped your specific personality traits? 2. If genes predispose people to criminal behavior, are they still responsible for their actions? Why or why not?

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Personality and the Brain Length: 5:30 minutes File Name: 195_Personality_Brain.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: All in the Mind” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description The impact of biology on personality is clearly evident in this case study. The example of degenerative brain disease also revisits the mind-brain relationship and illustrates the general principle that everything psychological is simultaneously biological. Over the past eight years, Dick’s personality has changed dramatically. His wife reports that Dick is less aware of the impact his behavior has on others, shows less empathy, and become agitated when things fail to go his way. She also notes that she and her husband can no longer watch a film together on television because he cannot follow the plot. Dick has been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease that is slowly destroying the front of his brain. Although he is aware that doctors anticipate that his condition will worsen, he seems largely oblivious to the changes in his own personality. He is grateful that the degenerative process is occurring more slowly than the doctors predicted. The frontal lobes underlie our individual differences. They are responsible for our temperament, our social interaction, and our personal style. Dick’s wife relates how brain damage is changing his personality and behavior. At the same time, she reports, he does not seem to care that his behavior is often socially unacceptable. Surprisingly, Dick’s frontal lobe damage has released abilities that he did not know he possessed. His disease has been accompanied by an overwhelming urge to paint. He expresses both surprise and pleasure in this new interest. Sadly, as his brain continues to deteriorate, this new skill will also fade. The brain may consist of a number of interactive modules, with some modules suppressing or inhibiting the functions of others. Thus, destruction of an inhibitory module may improve the function of another. Interpretive Comments Brain-imaging procedures are exploring a growing list of traits and mental states, including impulsivity, empathy, and aggressiveness. Biological underpinnings of personality are highlighted in research that suggests extraverts may seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal is relatively low. Biological influence is also clearly evident in the role of heredity in the development temperament. Phineas Gage, of course, provides the classic case study of how frontal lobe damage may alter personality. The friendly, soft-spoken Gage became irritable, profane, and dishonest as a result of his accident. Discussion Questions 1. Are our personality traits fixed or can we change? 2. What does this case suggest regarding brain-mind connections? 8   

Personality Traits Length: 3:32 minutes File Name: 196_Personality_Traits.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems) Description This video describes the three trait theories of personality (Cattell’s sixteen personality factors, Eysenck’s three-factor theory, and McCrae and Costa’s Big Five Factors). Animated charts accompany coverage of each theory.

Discussion Questions 1. Of the five traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, which do you think is most influenced by upbringing? Which is most influenced by heredity? 2. How different would your personality be if a family very different from your own had raised you?

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Trait Theories of Personality Length: 7:59 File Name: 197_Trait_Theories.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Given that we now know more than ever before about the origins of human behavior and cognition and how they relate to environment, why is it still so difficult to solidify a theory of personality? As Daniel Cervone states in this program, the reason is that each individual is different and a good theory must take into account these individual differences and apply them universally. In studying individual differences in behavior, psychologists like Gordon Allport recognized certain consistencies that were believed to be biologically driven. These consistencies, or characteristic patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings, account for the traits an individual possesses. The combination and interaction of various traits is what makes up personality. In the 1930’s one of Allport’s students compiled a list of thousands of stable characteristics, which helped to develop a theory that reformatted these traits in a more simplistic style. British psychologist Hans Eysenck suggested that personality was based on just two dimensions: extroversion and neuroticism. Each individual trait, he believed, could be charted somewhere along each of these dimensions. Eysenck’s model, which was criticized for focusing on too few traits, was soon replaced by slightly more complex theory called the Big Five model of personality. The Big Five model is comprised of five personality dimensions: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extroversion, which form the acronym “CANOE.” As with Eysenck’s model, these factors are dimensions, not types, so people fall somewhere on a continuum. Studies have shown the factors proposed by the Big Five model to be consistent cross-culturally. So where do these traits come from? In the final part of the program, Cervone explains that the Big Five model makes the presumption that traits are rooted in our biology. Twin studies have been especially useful in showing how much our genes influence who we are. The study of personality requires taking into account the whole picture—our biology, our environment, and how the two interact. Discussion Questions 1. What makes the trait theories of personality stand out from those which came earlier? 2. What do twin studies tell us about the origins of personality? 3. What are some common criticisms of the trait theory of personality? What does it fail to tell us?

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Social Psychology The Actor-Observer Difference in Attribution: Observe a Riot in Action Length: 0:44 seconds File Name: 198_Actor_Observer.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: Footage From the March 20, 2003 Antiwar Protest, San Francisco—Lisa Rein Description This segment is a handheld video of a street riot. Police officers are attempting to control the crowd and have weapons at the ready. One policeman hits an approaching woman with his club and moves away. Some crowd members are yelling “peace” or holding up peace signs. We should attempt to take the point of view of the different observers of this scene, in order to illustrate the actor-observer bias. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful with lectures dealing with social cognition. Particularly with coverage of the actorobserver bias which is a interesting exception to the fundamental attribution error. This error is a well reported social psychology phenomenon in which observers are more likely to ascribe someone’s motives to his/her character rather than the situation the individual finds him/herself in. Discussion Questions 1. What is the actor-observer bias? What is the fundamental attribution error? How do these two phenomena play out in the segment you just saw? 2. Think of a time when you might have performed the fundamental attribution error. How might you have looked at the situation differently? 3. How do these phenomena affect our social lives and our society? Give two examples.

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The Stanford Prison Study: The Power of the Situation Length: 13:00 minutes File Name: 199_Stanford_situation.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “The Stanford Prison Experiment” (BBC Motion Gallery) Important Note: This footage contains graphic images and languages. We recommend you screen this video before showing it in class to determine whether or not it will be appropriate for your students. Description Research in social psychology highlights the power of situations to shape behavior. Zimbardo’s famous study of prison life introduces students to this important principle. In his study, psychologist Philip Zimbardo sought to determine whether external situations or inner traits are more powerful determinants of human behavior. Research participants, paid $15 per day for the anticipated two-week study, are randomly assigned to play the roles of prisoners or guards. Psychological testing indicated none of the participants suffered from a psychological disorder. Stripped, deloused, and blindfolded, the prisoners are ushered into their barren cells. To foster a sense of power, the guards are dressed in military uniforms and silver-reflecting sunglasses. The first day passes uneventfully as prisoners and guards are not yet into their roles. However, on the second day, the prisoners curse the guards and openly rebel. Responding to this challenge to their authority, the guards use sheer power to enforce compliance to prison rules. They become arbitrary, even inventive in their use of punishment. They awaken the prisoners in the middle of the night and force them to clean toilets with their bare hands. Overcome by the harsh treatment, Prisoner 8612 asks to be released. Zimbardo who serves as prison warden initially denies the request. However, when the prisoner becomes increasingly disturbed, Zimbardo releases him. Throughout the program, former guards and prisoners reflect on their experience. One guard notes how little support the prisoners offered one another. When Prisoner 819 expresses his desire to leave, his fellow inmates derogate him. By the time replacement Prisoner 416 joins the group at midweek, the guards and prisoners have fallen into their respective roles of dominance and submission. Although the guards vary in their treatment of the prisoners, the “good” guards do little to restrain the cruelty of their harsh partners. When Prisoner 416 goes on a hunger strike, both guards and fellow prisoners deride him. Power corrupts, notes one of the former guards, and oppressed people have great difficulty standing up for themselves. By the end of the fifth day, four prisoners have psychologically broken down and been released. Psychologist Christina Maslach’s visit to the prison on the sixth day leads Zimbardo to end his study prematurely. Maslach observes the shackled prisoners being lead to the toilet with bags over their heads. She recognizes that they are truly suffering. Prisoners feel shame, and guards experience guilt. The clip ends with Zimbardo’s thoughtful reflections on the need for ethical treatment of human research participants. He also notes how his study demonstrates the power of evil situations to overwhelm the intentions of good people.

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Interpretive Comments In addition to highlighting the power of situational influence, the Zimbardo study illustrates the influence of role-playing on attitudes. Initially, the research participants self-consciously “played” their roles. However, within a very short time period, the guards’ use of power led them to develop disparaging attitudes toward the prisoners and to create cruel and humiliating routines. Similarly, the prisoners broke down, rebelled, or became passively resigned. The prison study raises important ethical issues involving research with human participants. An important guideline that governs research is that investigators will protect their participants from harm and discomfort. Discussion Questions 1. What does Zimbardo’s study tell us about the causes of human behavior? 2. What does Zimbardo’s study teach us regarding the abuse that sometimes occurs in institutional settings? 3. What ethical issues involving human research participants does this study raise?

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Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment Length: 8:19 minutes File Name: 200_Zimbardo_Stanford.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Experiment, 1988–2004 (Philip G. Zimbardo and Stanford University) Important Note: This footage contains graphic images and languages. We recommend you screen this video before showing it in class to determine whether or not it will be appropriate for your students. Description This segment follows the events of Dr. Philip Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo created a mock prison in the lower basement of Stanford University and divided participants into guards and prisoners by the flip of a coin. Those participants who were made prisoners were arrested and given prison garb, a number, and a crime for which they were supposedly jailed. Those labeled guards were given khaki uniforms, dark glasses, and a nightstick, and were asked to do frequent “counts” in order to tally the inmates and initiate interaction. The segment shows video footage at various stages of the experiment and interviews with participants and Zimbardo himself. The prisoners attempt several ways of dealing with their increasing sense of helplessness and despair. It begins with rebellion and solidarity. Some then passively rebel by breaking down emotionally until they are released from the experiment. Some become model prisoners, quickly obeying whatever the guards ask. The guards, too, quickly take to one of three roles. Some are incredibly sympathetic to the prisoners, doing them favors. Others are tough, but fair—sticking to the rules. Some, however, become sadistic, punishing the prisoners with solitary confinement, strip searches, strenuous physical exercise, and verbal abuse. One prisoner is removed after only 36 hours in the experiment when he falls into an uncontrollable rage. His replacement attempts to rebel, but finds no support from his fellow prisoners, now fearful of the guards’ punishments. One guard describes how quickly he began to see the prisoners as inferior beings who need to be controlled. Even Zimbardo himself describes how easily he was drawn into the drama, forgetting that it was a simulation and not reality. Not until a female graduate student spoke out against the treatment of the prisoners did he realize that the experiment needed to be stopped, only six days after it began. The participants in this experiment, guards and prisoners, were brought together two months later to discuss what had transpired. This segment ends with a brief video of the postexperiment discussion between a particularly sadistic guard and one of the prisoners. The guard emphasizes the uniform and his orders as symbols of the role he felt he must fulfill. The prisoner expresses his discomfort with “knowing what [the guard] can do” given these circumstances.

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This segment illustrates the sometimes horrifying effects of dehumanization and social conformity. The prisoners were given numbers, not names. They were quickly viewed as inferior. The guards were given uniforms to denote power and authority. They were no longer individuals, but members of a team whose duty was to keep the prisoners under control. Under these circumstances, “good” people took on the roles they were assigned. Very similar results can be found in modern-day prison scenarios, such as the conditions leading to the events at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. Interpretive Comments Zimbardo’s prison study is a classic in the field of social psychology. It is best used with lectures on social influences. This study exemplifies the way in which the social role that a person takes on can change an individual’s behavior. In this case being either a “guard” or an “inmate” changes the behavior of a group of college students. Eventually, events get out of hand. This result was alarming and eye opening for psychology community in the 1970s. Discussion Questions 1. If you were chosen as a participant and made a guard, which of the three types do you think you would have become? What if you were a prisoner? 2. Given these findings, how might we change our prison system and/or police arrest procedures to avoid some of these situations occurring? 3. How do the attribution bias and/or the fundamental attribution error play a part in this experiment? 4. Many of the situations that occurred during Zimbardo’s experiment would not have passed the Human Subjects Review Board today. Were the findings worth it? How might the experimental design be changed to explore these issues safely? 4. Many have compared the events in Dr. Zimbardo’s prison experiment with the torture and abuse that occurred in the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq in 2003. What about these two situations is similar? What is different? Do you feel that it was the prison situation that led to these events?

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Liking and Imitation: The Sincerest Form of Flattery Length: 2:20 minutes File Name: 201_Liking_and_Imitation.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Making Friends” The Human Mind (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This video can be used in a discussion of either social influence or social attraction. How does other people’s behavior influence our responses to them? For example, do we tend to mirror the behavior of those we like but not the behavior of those we dislike? In this study, an adult male (an actor) interacts either positively or negatively with research participants. In the first condition, he is friendly, warm, and agreeable when relating to the participants who come to discuss various subjects (e.g., their favorite films). In the second condition, he is unfriendly, cool, and difficult. Whether he is acting positively or negatively, he moves his body in very deliberate and specific ways during the course of his face-to-face interaction with the participant. For example, he rubs his eyes, folds his hands, puts his arms behind his head, or scratches his face. A camera carefully records the interaction, including the body movements, of both the actor and the participant. Gradually, as the conversation unfolds, the participants interacting with the friendly actor begin to copy him. On the other hand, the participants conversing with the unfriendly actor do not imitate him. The narrator concludes that, because the participants liked “Mr. Nice,” their minds prompted them to mimic him, reflecting a subconscious attempt to strengthen the bond between them. Interpretive Comments The chameleon effect refers to our natural tendency to mimic the behavior of others. Unconsciously mimicking others’ gestures, expressions, and even voice tones helps us feel what they are feeling. It is part of empathy. In fact, the most empathic people mimic the most. This segment suggests that we are particularly likely to imitate those we like, in an effort to strengthen our connections with them. Not surprisingly, those who are most eager to fit in with a group are especially prone to nonconscious mimicry. Other lines of research indicate that those who mimic the most are indeed liked the most. Behavior tends to be contagious. Even chimps are more likely to yawn after observing another chimp yawn. If a group of people gazes upward, passersby will tend to do the same. Short order cooks and bartenders “seed” their tip containers with money to suggest that others have given. Even “ illnesses” can be contagious. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, more than two dozen schools had outbreaks of children reporting red rashes, which lead parents and school administrators to wonder whether biological terrorism was at work.

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Milgram’s Obedience Studies

Length: 5:08 minutes File Name: 202_Milgram.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Description This clip contains original footage of the most famous research in psychology, namely, Stanley Milgram’s studies of obedience. You may want to use this clip in introducing students to the literature on social influence. The studies also raise important questions about the ethics of research involving human participants. In these studies, participants were asked to serve as “teachers” in presumably pioneering research on the effect of punishment on learning. Milgram was actually interested in the extent to which the participants would obey authority in delivering supposedly traumatizing electric shocks to a screaming, innocent victim in an adjacent room. The opening scene pans the shock generator, which has switches ranging from 15 volts to 450 volts in 15volt increments. In administering the task to the learner, the teacher is instructed to “move one level higher on the shock generator” each time the learner gives a wrong answer. The “learner” (the experimenter’s confederate) is ushered into an adjacent room and, as the teacher looks on, the experimenter straps the learner into a chair and attaches an electrode to his wrist. The rest of the video focuses on one of the teachers as he administers the learning task. On the orders of the experimenter, with each error he delivers increasingly higher levels of shock to the learner. The learner’s protests become increasingly strident. At 300 and 315 volts, he screams his refusal to answer; after 330 volts, he falls silent. The experimenter instructs the teacher to treat nonresponses as errors. Reluctantly, this teacher (as do the majority of other participants in this study) fully obeys the experimenter’s commands. Interpretive Comments Milgram’s results demonstrate that our tendency to obey a legitimate authority may override personal conscience. Unfortunately, the results have many counterparts in recent history. The studies were prompted by Adolf Eichman’s defense of his involvement in the Holocaust: “I was only following orders.” It was also the defense of Lieutenant William Calley, who in 1968 directed the slaughter of hundreds of Vietnamese in the village of My Lai, and more recently of those who have led the ethnic cleansings in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Americans serving as guards in the Abu Ghraib prison used obedience to authority as their defense for abusing Iraqi prisoners. The obedience studies raise important ethical issues involving research with human participants. Milgram deceived the teachers and exposed them to considerable stress. Today’s stricter ethical guidelines prevent replication of the obedience studies.

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Discussion Questions 1. Can you identify examples of destructive obedience in everyday life? 2. What insights into these examples do the Milgram studies provide? 3. Why do you think the teachers showed such high levels of obedience?

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Obedience and Authority: A Laboratory Demonstration Length: 6:05 minutes File Name: 203_Obedience.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Lab Rats (BBC Motion Gallery) Description You may choose to show this video while introducing the social-psychological literature on conformity. It is particularly relevant to a discussion of Stanley Milgram’s classic obedience studies. The narrator opens this segment by explaining how a tiny camera passed through the digestive tract is used to measure how research participants cope with stress. The purpose of the study is to assess our willingness to obey an authority. The experimenter (the authority) explains that she is interested in understanding the effect of adrenaline on taste. First, participants will rate the taste of chocolate on a scale from 1 to 10. Next, they will face a series of increasingly unpleasant experiences and each time rate the chocolate again. The hypothesis, as presented to the participants, is that increases in adrenaline (produced by the unpleasant experiences) will impact their taste ratings. However, the real question to be answered is the extent to which people obey the instructions of an authority. The study begins with the participants rating the taste of chocolate. The researcher then presents the first unpleasant experience, which is to take a deep breath of a rotting fish. All comply and again rate the taste of chocolate. Next, the experimenter instructs each participant to dig out a fish eye. Again, there is full compliance. Although the participants appear calm, the tiny cameras within their digestive systems signal increased stress. The experimenter then uncovers a large container of swarming maggots. As the participants watch and rate the chocolate, they show signs of increased emotion—including short, clipped speech. Told to place their hands in the maggot container, the participants again follow orders. Even when asked to place a maggot on the tip of their tongue and then finally to swallow it, the participants obey. Full compliance is accompanied by high levels of stress, as measured by increased blood flow to the stomach and air bubbles in the intestine. In summary, people often unquestionably obey someone they perceive to be an authority figure, even if means enduring very unpleasant, stress-producing experiences. Interpretive Comments Stanley Milgram’s studies of obedience to authority are perhaps the most famous and controversial in all of psychology. Conducted at Yale University in the early 1960s, the studies examined research participants’ responses to Milgram’s commands to shock a learner for errors made while mastering a simple task. The participants, torn between obeying either the experimenter’s commands or the learner’s pleas to stop the shocks, usually chose to obey the experimenter—even though that obedience presumably meant harming the learner. Participants were most likely to obey when the authority figure was nearby and was supported by a prestigious institution. In addition, compliance was higher when the victim (the learner) was depersonalized or at a distance.

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The deception and stress that were part of Milgram’s obedience studies resulted in vigorous debate over research ethics. After learning of the deception and the actual purpose of the research, virtually none of Milgram’s participants regretted taking part in his study. Later, when a psychiatrist interviewed 40 of the “teachers” (the participants) who had most agonized over their obedience, none appeared to suffer permanent emotional aftereffects.

Discussion Questions 1. Why do we obey authority figures? 2. Are some people more likely than others to obey an authority? Explain your answer. 3. Do you think it is permissible for researchers to use deception in their studies? Why or why not?

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Social Influence Length: 8:45 minutes File Name: 204_Social_Influence.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Our tendency to form groups is part of the story of human evolution. Survival and reproduction require that we interact with others to satisfy our basic physiological and safety needs. When these needs are met, our groups also provide us with a sense of belonging and relatedness. From the culture in which we live to the sports team on which we play, we are part of many kinds of groups, each with different qualities and functions. When our emotions, opinions, and behaviors are affected by others in these groups, we are experiencing social influence. We can become successful in influencing others by understanding what motivates human behavior. Our desires for pleasure, for fitting in, and for making sense of the world are key mechanisms of social influence. This program outlines the three motives of social influence (hedonic motive, normative influence, and informational influence) and introduces students to two famous experiments on conformity and obedience. The ways in which social influence is used in business and to get others to behave badly is also explored. Hedonistic motivations are what allow humans to learn, says Daniel Gilbert. He argues that behavior, in humans and animals alike, is motivated by a desire for pleasure over pain. But, we are also motivated by our desire for approval and acceptance from others and, therefore, seek out groups for information that will support our growth and survival. Conformity occurs when we match our behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs with those of our social group in order to avoid social rejection. This type of influence can be unconsciously created or may come in the form of social pressure. Similarly, cues for behavior may also come from the demands of authority. Stanley Milgram’s classic obedience experiments demonstrated how people will “do what they were told” even if it means pushing the boundaries of what is considered appropriate. The social conformity studies led by Solomon Asch offered insight into how, why, and when people conform and the effects of social pressure on behavior. As Jeff Greenberg explains, Asch set up a situation where subjects would give their answers after the confederates of the study gave their wrong answers. Over a third of the time, the subjects would also choose the wrong answer. Further in the program, Scott Plous describes the types of sales techniques commonly used by salespeople that operate on the principles of social influence. The idea behind each of these, says Gilbert, is that a message is communicated to the potential buyer that since others are doing it, it must be the right thing to do. One negative aspect of being in a group is that we can become deindividuated, lose our sense of selves, and go on to commit acts that social norms would typically restrain us from doing.

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Discussion Questions 1. What is deindividuation and why is it dangerous? 2. What messages of non-conformity exist in our culture? Are these messages stronger than those telling us that conformity is good? 3. How might Milgram’s experiments be criticized for ignoring the ethical code of psychology research?

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The Wisdom of Groups Length: 7:23 minutes File Name: 205_Wisdom_of_Groups.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: CBS Sunday Morning “The Crowd Knows Best” (CBS News) Description This video provides a good introduction to the question of how groups affect our behavior. It can stimulate classroom discussion on the possible limits or benefits of social influence. Interacting with others can have both bad and good effects. Do groups make wise judgments? James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, suggests that under the right circumstances a group of people can be smarter than the smartest single group member. By successfully tapping the knowledge of a large group, we can improve our decisions. We can even improve our predictions about the future. At the turn of the last century, Francis Galton averaged fairgoers estimates of the weight of an ox and found the average was just one pound less than the actual weight. Taking a similar problem to Times Square, Surowiecki and the narrator ask passersby to judge the number of jellybeans in a large jar. Surowiecki argues that the crowd will be much smarter than the average person. At the horse races, playing the odds usually pays off. The odds on the horses are set purely by the crowd. Every single person who bets affects the outcome. Similarly, in buying stocks, people are offering their best judgment on what a stock is worth. It is very hard for even the smartest money managers to do better than the stock market as a whole. This explains why index funds with holdings from an entire sector of the market beat managed funds where the experts select stocks. But crowds can go wrong, admits Surowiecki, when diversity breaks down or when people pay too much attention to what those immediately around them are doing. The Internet site NewsFutures enables anyone to bet on the likelihood of almost any specific future event. The crowd’s predictions prove accurate. Corporations use the Internet site for information on how to market their goods because it taps directly into the collective intelligence of the audience. Similarly, the crowd’s judgment of the success of future movies and even of likely Oscar winners is typically better than that of the experts. The actual number of jellybeans in the jar was 1369. The crowd’s average guess was 1247. No single guess was closer.

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Interpretive Comments Research using a variety of intellectual tasks has shown that two or more heads are better than one. For example, given challenging logic problems, three, four, or five heads perform better than one. Interacting groups of eyewitnesses also tend to give accounts that are more accurate than those provided by the average isolated individual. By critiquing one another, several individuals may enable the group to avoid some forms of cognitive bias and produce higher-quality ideas. In weather forecasting, two forecasters come up with a forecast that is more accurate than either arrives at working along. Surowiecki claims that Google has become a dominant search engine by harnessing the wisdom of the crowds. Google interpets a link to Page X as a vote for Page X, and weighs most heavily links from pages that are themselves highly ranked. By harnessing the democratic character of the Internet, Google takes a fraction of a second to lead users to what they want. At the same time, group influence can be destructive. Submerged in a group that provides anonymity, we have a tendency to loaf or to have our worst impulses expressed in lootings, riots, and lynchings. Discussion in groups can enhance mutual racism and hostility. It may also suppress dissent that leads to groupthink and disastrous decisions. In short, group influence can be both good and bad for us.

Discussion Questions 1. Do you more strongly believe that “two heads are better than one” or that “too many cooks spoil the broth?” Defend your answer. 2. Can you provide examples of how group interaction can have negative as well as positive effects? Cite a specific example of how a group has been beneficial to you as well as an example of how a group has been detrimental.

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Attitudes and Prejudicial Behavior Length: 6:06 minutes File Name: 206_Attitudes_Prejudice.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems) Description The clip begins with a reminder of America’s history of treatment of African Americans. Less well known is the story of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. A Japanese-American woman recalls how at age 6 she and many others were loaded on to crowded trains, ordered to close the blinds and then taken to be imprisoned in remote camps. A Japanese-American doctor tells how the FBI came to his family’s house and took his father away. His father was held for 3 ½ years, yet was never charged with a crime. It is noted that of the various nations at war with America during WWII only Americans of Japanese origin were interned. There was already anti-Japanese American sentiment prior to the war probably because they, like African Americans, were a visible minority. A psychologist explains that attitudes are collections of thoughts and beliefs that are created around specific items in our environment. Once formed we then use attitudes to organize information. The concept of in-group and out-group is explained as developing because the more we see people as similar to us the more we tend to like them.

Discussion Questions 1. We are horrified to hear stories of Nazi Germany where Jews were herded onto crowded trains, interned in concentration camps, and murdered. How close did we come to enacting a similar holocaust on our Japanese-American citizens? 2. We think of a country’s constitution as providing protection against arbitrary arrest and detainment without charges. Do our current laws ensure that what happened to JapaneseAmerican citizens couldn’t happen again?

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Being Gay: Coming Out in the 21st Century Length: 6:10 minutes File Name: 207_Being_Gay.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: Being Gay: Coming Out in the 21st Century, 2005 (Cambridge Educational, A Films Media Group Company) Description This segment is a composite of interviews with homosexual teens and teen counselors, as well as some facts and a brief history of homosexuality in the United States. In the early 20th century, homosexuality was legally a criminal offense and the APA considered homosexuality a mental disorder until 1973. And yet, homosexuality has been around since history began. There is still much to be understood about homosexuality. However, it is not a disease and it is not a choice. Sexuality is a continuum, but society has created ever-changing definitions and labels by which we define who is homo- and who is heterosexual. “Coming out,” or revealing publicly that one is homosexual, is a difficult and at times dangerous event in a homosexual’s life. The segment then turns to an interview with Ian Enriquez, a homosexual youth counselor, who describes the six recognizable stages of coming to terms with one’s sexuality: Confusion, comparison, tolerance, acceptance, pride, and finally, synthesis. It concludes with a series of homosexual students speaking about their experiences coming out in the 21st century and information for urban centers that can offer free advice and support for homosexual teens. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful with certain topics in developmental psychology, particularly gender identity. The topic of homosexuality is not often covered in much detail, and psychology is even considered culpable by some in the gay community for the fact that earlier versions of the DSM diagnosed homosexuality as a mental disorder. This segment attempts to identify the experience of a young person’s growing understanding of their sexual orientation. Discussion Questions 1. What are some of the unique struggles faced by homosexuals in society? If you were a therapist or counselor, what special considerations might you make in your practice to account for these unique struggles? 2. How has the image of homosexuality in popular culture and U.S. society changed in the last century? 3. What are some steps that you can take, on a personal level, to help decrease homophobia and intolerance towards homosexuality?

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Bystander Apathy: Failing to Help Others in Distress

Length: 4:25 minutes File Name: 208_Bystander_Apathy.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Have a Go Heroes (BBC Motion Gallery) Description You can introduce research on the bystander effect and helping with this filmed demonstration. The program presents a social exchange analysis of prosocial behavior. A beating is staged on a city street in an effort to assess the reaction of observers to a stranger in distress. Following a minor traffic incident, the driver of a van and a bicyclist fight until the former gains the upper hand and mercilessly beats the cyclist. Most observers watch but do not intervene. Finally, one man in a black shirt steps forward to stop the assault. He explains that he simply can’t stand by and watch someone get hurt. He would be unhappy with himself if he walked away knowing that person was likely to be injured. Why did others fail to intervene? One explains that he did not believe the “victim” was really being hit. Another admits having little more than a morbid curiosity in watching the attack. Still a third said that he thought someone had probably called the police. By himself he did not think he could do anything, and intervention was likely to be dangerous. Psychiatrist Sandra Scott explains that observers carefully weigh the costs and benefits in deciding whether to intervene. Moreover, the specific costs and benefits can vary from one individual to another. Two young women observers explain their own conflict in deciding whether to help. While they felt that they should do something, they also felt that they were “too small” to make a difference. Finally, the man who did intervene explains that he is a self-defense instructor. He felt confident that he could effectively intervene and make a difference. Interpretive Comments Social psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley did pioneering research on the bystander phenomenon. They found that as the number of bystanders to an emergency increases, any given bystander is less likely to notice the incident, less likely to interpret the incident as an emergency, and less likely to assume responsibility for taking action. Social exchange theory provides one analysis of helping. Other researchers suggest that social expectations such as the reciprocity and social responsibility norms promote helping. Evolutionary psychologists argue that kin protection and reciprocity are forms of helping that promote gene survival. Discussion Questions 1. Would you describe the bystanders in this incident as “apathetic”? Why or why not? 2. What do you think are the important factors that keep people from helping in this scenario? 3. Does personality predict helping? What traits might be associated with greater willingness to help? 17   

Competition and Aggression: Testosterone at Work Length: 3:20 minutes File Name: 209_Competition_and_Aggression.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Hormone Hell” Body Chemistry (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description By examining the role of testosterone in social behavior, this program provides a good introduction to class discussion of the biology of aggression. Football players describe the emotional rush that accompanies anticipation of playing the game. Running out on the field you feel euphoric, notes one player, and you believe you can accomplish anything. Testosterone plays an important role in maintaining the sex drive and in the development of the sex characteristics. The hormone also motivated our early ancestors to hunt and to fight. In contemporary society, the power of testosterone is most evident in competitive sports. The hormone is both emotionally arousing and motivating. Research suggests that testosterone rises even in the fans of winning teams. The team itself, of course, experiences instant euphoria. Similarly, the feeling of dejection that follows defeat is accompanied by a measurable drop in testosterone within 15 minutes. Research suggests that testosterone levels are associated with more enduring behavior patterns. For example, men with higher levels of the hormone seem to be generally more successful in life. However, the specific causal relationship between testosterone and achievement is unclear. Does higher testosterone breed success or does success produce higher levels of testosterone? Or does causality operate in both directions? Interpretive Comments This clip emphasizes the potential positive function of testosterone, especially its link to assertiveness. Research also indicates that high testosterone correlates with irritability, low tolerance for frustration, and impulsiveness. The gender difference in testosterone level has been linked to the gender difference in physical aggression. Among both male teens and adults, high testosterone correlates with delinquency, hard drug use, and bullying responses to frustration.

Discussion Questions 1. In what ways may higher levels of testosterone be linked with destructive, rather than beneficial, behavior? 2. What might this research suggest about gender differences in behavior?

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Interpersonal Attraction: Clothes Make the Man

Length: 4:20 minutes File Name: 210_Interpersonal_Attraction.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Attraction” Secrets of the Sexes (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description This video segment explores how physical appearance affects our evaluations of other people. Peter is a divorced, 37-year-old political science lecturer. He describes himself as short, skinny, and not very good looking. Observers are asked to assess Peter as he stands behind a store window on a busy city street. He is dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt. Females think that Peter holds a low-status job with a low income and they overestimate his age. Most observers perceive him as unattractive. Past research indicates that women are attracted to men who can provide resources. When asked, however, women tell investigators that money is not one of their priorities. In fact, women in this clip specifically state that they are not attracted to men who are status-driven or money-oriented. The next day, researchers give Peter a more affluent look. He wears a suit coat, white shirt, and sunglasses. This time, female observers’ judgments are quite different. One observer even sees him as “sexy.” He is thought to have higher-status employment accompanied by a higher income. Most importantly, Peter is perceived as significantly more attractive. Obviously, physical appearance, which includes clothing, impacts our social judgments. Interpretive Comments Research indicates that physical appearance strongly impacts our judgments of other people. Findings suggest the presence of a physical-attractiveness stereotype—that is, the presumption that physically attractive people possess other socially desirable traits. In short, we tend to believe that what is beautiful is good. In this particular demonstration, the evaluation extends to clothing. Physical attractiveness has wide-ranging effects. We believe that, in comparison to unattractive people, attractive people are healthier, happier, more empathic, more successful and more socially-skilled. Attractive, well-dressed job applicants are more likely to make a favorable impression on employers and to enjoy greater occupational success. Evolutionary psychologists report that females are particularly attracted to males with economic resources and social status. Females prefer mates who show a potential for long-term mating and long-term investment in their joint offspring. Males judge women as more attractive if they have a youthful appearance. By choosing healthy, fertile-appearing women as mates, males increase their chances of sending their genes into the future.

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Discussion Questions 1. How important is physical appearance in our overall evaluation of other people? Explain your answer. 2. When evaluating other people, are males and females equally sensitive to physical appearance? Explain you answer. 3. What characteristics do males and females look for in a potential mate? How do the characteristics differ?

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Prejudice

Length: 6:22 minutes File Name: 211_Prejudice.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012)

Description Prejudice refers to our inclination to make judgments, evaluations, and assumptions about others based on their associative group. Our social identity is derived from our perception of relatedness and connection to our group. Intergroup behaviors, both positive and negative, are often indicators of the beliefs and attitudes held by the group. Although groups can serve many positive functions, overgeneralizations about differences among groups can have negative implications. When we think of prejudice we tend to think of negative prejudice, in which negative evaluations are made about “the other.” Negative prejudice can lead to various kinds of discrimination—the unjust act of treating someone differently because of his or her race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, or religious affiliation. In 1954, Muzafer Sherif conducted a classic study of intergroup prejudice and conflict, known as the Robbers’ Cave Experiment. In this experiment, boys were taken to a Boy Scout camp, divided into two groups, and asked to participate in a series of competitions with prizes for victory. The competitions evoked a great deal of conflict between the groups and resulted in fights between individuals. Researchers then presented a challenge too great for one group to achieve and noticed that when the boys worked together, conflict and animosity decreased. Not all attitudes are consciously formed, however. David Myers makes the distinction between explicit, consciously created attitudes, and implicit, unconscious, and often unacknowledged attitudes or beliefs. Today, researchers are especially interested in the nature and mechanisms of implicit attitudes and how they influence behavior. If it were possible to eradicate harmful prejudice, says Jeff Greenberg, “we would have a much better world.” Discussion Questions 1. What is subtle racism? How do discriminatory actions affect the group being discriminated against over time? 2. How do the news media affirm our attitudes and influence our group affiliations? 3. Can negative stereotypes and prejudices be eliminated? Why is the study of prejudice important?

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Takooshian’s Psychology of Bystanders

Length: 1:33 minutes File Name: 212_Takooshian.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description After 38 neighbors witnessed the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York in 1964 and did not call for or try to help, social psychologists became very interested in bystander psychology. This clip shows staged crimes committed in public. In this clip, a man steals bicycles and a wallet (from a woman and a man). Even though many people witness these staged crimes, only in one instance does a person intervene. These findings have led psychologists to suggest that a person is less likely to call for or offer help to another individual when other people are present. This is now known as the bystander effect. Interpretive Comments This segment is appropriate for lectures dealing with social psychology. The clip details studies done by Takooshian on the reaction of bystanders to events in which one individual is victimized. Takooshian, as well as others, has observed something known as the ‘unresponsive bystander phenomenon.’ This is the name given to the finding that people who are alone are more likely to help another person who is in trouble. This originally seemed counter-intuitive, but researchers like Takooshian determined that the presence of others has inhibiting effects on each of us that lead us not to help, but rather to look to others to render assistance.

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Whom Do We Help?

Length: 3:36 minutes File Name: 213_Help.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: Have a Go Heroes (BBC Motion Gallery) Description In addition to addressing the questions of why and when we help, the literature on altruism seeks to identify the characteristics of those whom we are most likely to help. In the opening scene, a female actress pretends to be in serious distress as she collapses on a busy city street. Passersby quickly come to her aid. The researcher suggests that we may be more likely to help females (in contrast to males) because we feel there is more we can do for them or because of empathy. In addition, the actress appeared to be a middle-class person and we may be less likely to come to negative conclusions about why a middle-class person (in contrast to someone from a lower class) is in need of help. One passerby discloses how her own past need for help has made her more responsive to others in distress. In the next scene, a male holding a bottle of beer collapses on the same city street. Although passersby notice him, they choose not to intervene on his behalf. Observers may assume he is homeless, drunk, and less deserving of help. Thus, they are reluctant to intervene on his behalf. After seven minutes, someone finally comes to the victim’s aid. The young male who helps explains that he thought something might be severely wrong with man and, with no one else intervening, he decided to do something. Interpretive Comments Many studies have compared help received by male and female victims. Most of these studies have involved brief encounters with strangers in need. Women offered equal amounts of assistance to males and females, whereas men offered more assistance when the persons in need were female. Furthermore, men were more likely to help attractive, rather than unattractive, women. Observers have speculated that in some cases a man’s helpfulness may be motivated by something other than genuine altruism. Other lines of research indicate that women not only receive more offers of help in certain circumstances (for example, if they are motorists with a flat tire), they also seek more assistance. They are twice as likely to seek medical and psychiatric help. The fact that the male victim in this demonstration is holding a bottle of beer is undoubtedly important in understanding observers’ responses. We are more likely to help those whose need does not appear to be due to their own negligence. That is, we are more likely to intervene on behalf of those we perceive as deserving our help.

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Discussion Questions 1. Why might strangers be more likely to help a woman than a man? 2. Do you think men or women are more likely to offer help to someone in distress? Why? 3. What motivates people to help a stranger in distress?

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Psychological Disorders ADHD and the Family Length: 6:10 minutes File Name: 214_ADHD.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Living with ADHD” Horizon (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Your consideration of classroom psychological disorders could profitably include this case study in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Liam is a young boy who is out of control. He is fearless, impulsive, and careless to the point of running into busy traffic. He ignores parental warnings and seldom obeys. He is a source of enormous stress for his parents. Liam is constantly on the go and is easily distracted. His mother Eleanor reports that, because of his oppositional behavior, she and her husband Brian rarely take Liam along on shopping trips. Simply getting him back to the car is a challenge. A year ago, Liam’s oppositional behavior produced so much stress that Eleanor sought medical help. Liam’s school also became involved. On the playground, Liam shows little improvement. Eleanor and Brian became so concerned about their son’s behavior that they turned to a community mental health agency for help. With an oppositional child like Liam, Eleanor explains that she is in a “no-win” situation. Trying to provide direction to Liam leads him to do the opposite. Psychologists believe that many ADHD children develop oppositional behavior as a reaction to constantly being told what to do. It is their way of coping with criticism of behavior over which they feel that they have no control. The video segment ends showing little change in Liam’s behavior. In an effort to bring his behavior under control, his parents try a time-out in his room. Interpretive Comments The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that about 4 percent of children suffer attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is diagnosed two to three times more often in boys than in girls. The symptoms include: (1) inattention reflected in distractibility, forgetfulness, and disorganization; (2) hyperactivity expressed in fidgeting, restlessness, or excessive talking; and (3) impulsivity characterized by difficulty in taking turns, interrupting, or blurting out answers while questions are still being asked. The disorder often coexists with defiant, oppositional behavior, as is apparent in Liam’s case. Research indicates that ADHD is heritable. In neuroimaging studies, it is marked by abnormal brain activity. Successful treatments have included nonaddictive medications such as Ritalin and Adderall, which help calm hyperactivity and foster the child’s ability to focus on a task. Therapies that focus on shaping behaviors in the classroom and in the home have also helped address the common symptoms of ADHD. 1   

Discussion Questions 1. How is ADHD different from simple rambunctiousness? Does ADHD fit the definition of a psychological disorder? Explain your answer. 2. While dealing with their son’s behavior, what forms of therapy have Liam’s parents tried? 3. What do you think might be the most effective strategy for dealing with children suffering from ADHD?

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Gender Identity Disorder

Length: 4:05 minutes File Name: 215_Gender_Identity_Disorder.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description Brad describes his personal struggle with gender identity disorder. He describes his feelings of confusion and discomfort with being born biologically as a woman but always feeling psychologically as though he were a man. Brad speaks to the viewer only a year after his reassignment surgery. Since the surgery Brad says he now views himself as one person and one sex and expresses his feelings of wholeness. Interpretive Comments This segment can be used with lectures on the gender identity portion of social development. This individual would be an example of the idea that gender identity is a complex development phenomenon that consists of both physiological and social variables. For a historical perspective, it could be shown in conjunction with lectures on abnormal psychology to accentuate a discussion of the fact that until the early 1970s, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder.

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Anxiety Disorders Length: 6:41 minutes File Name: 216_Anxiety_Disorders.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Anxiety, characterized by feelings of worry, nervousness and fear, is a condition that everyone experiences throughout life. The psychological and physiological sensations that accompany anxiety are considered normal and are even helpful in alerting us to danger and motivating us to work harder. Theorists believe that anxiety is adaptive and has evolved as a human survival function. However, when anxiety pervades everyday life or is otherwise disruptive and/or debilitating, it is considered to be a disorder. This program explores the three types of anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, and phobias. A person with GAD may experience persistent, exaggerated worry and is often unaware of the root cause of his or her feelings. Over time, GAD can cause physical distress and impair social and occupational functioning. A panic attack, by contrast, is a sudden onset of intense fear leading to shortness of breath, chest tightening, heart palpations, and dizziness. Panic attacks, which typically peak within 10 minutes, can be triggered by a stressful event, by a specific phobia, or in the absence of any discernible cause. Panic disorder is the overarching, generic diagnosis given to a person suffering from regular panic attacks. The narrator points out that “fear becomes a phobia when it leads to an irrational desire to avoid an object or situation.” Such is true of someone with agoraphobia, who avoids public places because of the fear of having a panic attack and not being able to escape. Anxiety and anxiety disorders are often symptoms of, and comorbid with, other psychological disorders. Discussion Questions 1. What is the relationship between anxiety and fear? 2. Is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) curable? What kinds of lifestyle changes might benefit a person suffering from GAD? 3. What distinguishes normal anxiety from an anxiety disorder? What criteria does the DSM-IV use to diagnose anxiety as a mental disorder? Discuss the similarities and differences between GAD and social phobias. Can a phobia trigger a panic attack?

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Experiencing Anxiety

Length: 1:14 minutes File Name: 217_Experiencing_Anxiety.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Phobias…Overcoming the Fear,” 1991 (Madriguera Connecticut Public Television)

Description Cases studies are an effective way to introduce the psychological disorders. This specific case is useful in presenting the symptoms of an anxiety disorder. Julio, a young man, describes his fear of dying, possibly from brain cancer. He explains how two of his friends had recently died of cancer at an early age. In addition, his schoolwork and involvement in fundraising for an organization proved stressful and fostered feelings of anxiety. Julio describes awakening during the night with distressing thoughts of suffering from brain cancer. He experienced physical symptoms such as cold sweats and developed a fear of darkness. At his girlfriend’s place he was nervous and edgy. Nancy, his girlfriend, describes Julio’s anxiety attack and near-fainting, which finally led to his hospitalization. Interpretive Comments Although we all experience anxiety, it is considered a disorder when it becomes distressing or persistent or is characterized by maladaptive behaviors intended to reduce it. In addition to being tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal, Julio seems to have an irrational fear of dying and darkness. His anxiety sometimes escalates into panic attacks—minutes-long episodes of intense fear that something awful is about to happen. Specific stresses in his life, including the deaths of two friends, schoolwork, and heavy involvement in fund-raising, seem to have contributed to his high level of anxiety. Discussion Questions 1. At what point does anxiety become a psychological disorder demanding treatment? 2. Do you think Julio would have developed an anxiety disorder if his two friends had not died of cancer?

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Fear, PTSD, and the Brain

Length: 4:00 minutes File Name: 218_Fear_PTSD_Brain.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “In the Heat of the Moment” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This program is a continuation of the case study of Dennis who suffers from PTSD. It can be used in a class discussion of the possible underlying causes of anxiety disorders. More generally, it demonstrates how experience can change brain structure. Taking a neuroscience perspective, the program examines Dennis’ brain in an effort to identify the cause of his fear. By exposing Dennis to vivid reminders of the war, psychiatrist J. Douglas Bremner is able to study the brain circuits underlying his fear. The emotion of fear seems to involve two separate pathways. Potential threat activates the amygdala, which automatically triggers sweaty palms and increased heart rate. A second slower circuit runs through the cerebral cortex, which assesses the seriousness of the threat. A judgment that alarm is unwarranted shuts down the amygdala. Bremner explains the need for a delicate balance between these two brain pathways. The automatic response is necessary to survive real threat, but the fear must not overwhelm one’s capacity to think. Bremner has compared the brain activity of traumatized veterans with that of veterans who have come through unscathed. He has found that in victims such as Dennis there is far less activity in a part of the cortex that normally shuts down the automatic fear response. Even the slightest threat seems to elicit terror. Further research suggests that, in comparison to their counterparts, Vietnam veterans suffering PTSD seem to dwell on their memories of the war. Bremner’s interviews indicate that their recall of the war is vivid and immediate. In contrast, more recent experiences are poorly recalled. An MRI scan of Dennis’ brain reveals that his hippocampus (a structure involved in memory) is significantly smaller than normal. Constant terror seems to have changed the structure of his brain. Interpretive Comments Biology, including natural selection and genetic influence, is part of anxiety. This clip traces PTSD to abnormal responses in the brain’s fear circuits. Of special note is the suggested impact of experience on the brain. Although this effect is most evident in the brains of young children, the clip indicates that traumatic events can potentially change brain structure throughout life.

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Discussion Questions 1. Why is biology important to psychology? 2. Are other theoretical perspectives important in understanding anxiety disorders such as PTSD? Why or why not? What might a behavioral or cognitive perspective contribute to our understanding of PTSD?

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Young Mother’s Struggle

Length: 7:15 minutes File Name: 219_OCD_Young Mother.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Who’s Normal Anyway?” Obsessions (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description This case study is a useful way to introduce students to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Stephanie’s obsessions center on her young son Jake. Fearing that someone may kidnap him, she keeps him under constant observation even when she is traveling in the car with him. At home behind locked doors, the fear persists. She goes through an elaborate ritual to protect Jake. Although Stephanie knows her thoughts are irrational, she can't control them. Her desperate efforts to keep her son safe make life difficult. A stroller ride down the sidewalk illustrates Stephanie’s obsession. She stares at Jake continuously. Passersby pose a special threat. If they don’t kidnap him, they may still contaminate him. Stephanie also carefully navigates Jake’s stroller around any potentially contaminating objects on the sidewalk such as cigarettes. Before her son was born, Stephanie was diagnosed as having OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). Now, her fear of contaminating Jakes leads to compulsive rituals that help her to manage her anxiety. She needs to scour her hands before touching him. She demonstrates the torturous, complex procedure that she goes through in laboriously washing each finger. After touching the garbage can, she feels compelled to repeat the process. Stephanie’s husband describes how his wife’s obsessions have become uncontrollable since the birth of their son. Stephanie is highly motivated and eager to begin treatment because she knows that her disorder is harming her son. Interpretive Comments OCD is one of the major anxiety disorders. It is clear that Stephanie’s obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors that center on the safety of her son are interfering with her everyday functioning and are causing her significant distress. Psychologists have applied both learning and biological perspectives to an understanding of the anxiety disorders. Certain behaviors such as checking door locks may relieve feelings of uneasiness, so we may check them again when the feelings return. Brain scans of people with OCD reveal elevated activity in specific brains areas associated with behaviors such as checking, ordering, hoarding, and even handwashing. The anterior cingulate cortex seems to be especially likely to be hyperactive in those with OCD. Discussion Questions 1. What are the defining features of a psychological disorder? 2. What are possible causes of Stephanie’s obsessive-compulsive disorder? 8   

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Vietnam Combat Veteran

Length: 3:55 minutes File Name: 220_PTSD_Vietnam.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “In the Heat of the Moment” Brain Story (BBC Motion Gallery) Description This case study provides a helpful introduction to anxiety disorders and, more specifically, to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a flashback to the Vietnam War, Dennis describes the horror of a firefight. With dead and wounded comrades all around and your own life threatened, you have a profound sense of fear and helplessness. Dennis claims the war “took his soul” along with any goodness and happiness he once possessed. Psychiatrist J. Douglas Bremner suggests that Dennis exhibits the important symptoms of PTSD, including intrusive memories over which he has little control, nightmares of the war, jumpy anxiety, and hypervigilance. Nearly one-fifth of Vietnam combat veterans returned from the war traumatized. Dennis explains that currently he feels trapped by his past trauma and is at times suicidal. He carries the hopelessness of the war into his present life. Busy streets continue to elicit the fear of ambush. His disorder interferes with his ability to do his work and to maintain close interpersonal relationships. Cars backfiring or even the smell of diesel bring Dennis back to Vietnam. Interpretive Comments PTSD follows some traumatic event or events that the individual experienced but could not control. The greater one’s emotional distress during the trauma, the greater the risk for PTSD. Most people do not respond to trauma with disorder. Although half of adults experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, only 10 percent of women and 5 percent of men show PTSD. Discussion Questions 1. What life experiences other than war are likely to trigger PTSD? 2. Does the struggle with challenging crises ever have beneficial effects? Why or why not?

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PTSD: Returning from Iraq Length: 8:05 minutes File Name: 221_PTSD_Iraq.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: PTSD: Returning from Iraq

Description This video provides a case study in one of the major anxiety disorders. It also highlights some of the obstacles that can impede effective therapeutic intervention. Jared, wounded during combat in Iraq, is diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He reports that his symptoms include irritability and impatience. He admits that he easily loses his temper and finds it difficult “to put up with anything.” PTSD may be more widespread that we think. It is very likely that each of us will experience a life-threatening event at some point in our lives. For some, the event will produce a chronic, unremitting disorder. Although Jared had once prepared a detailed account of the ambush, he is now either unable to remember what happened or simply does not want to discuss it. He indicates that during his 10 months of therapy he has deliberately tried to forget about the attack. Jared does recount two boys firing guns at his truck. In the course of the assault, he shot and killed one of the boys who appeared to be only seven years old. A year after the ambush, Jared is still in therapy. He has a new girlfriend who reports that Jared is unpredictable. On one occasion, he became very drunk and physically assaulted her. Jared does not understand his own behavior. Research suggests that 1 in 6 Iraqi veterans return with signs of anxiety, depression, or PTSD. Most are not asking for the help they need. Instead, they try to deal with their problems on their own. They do not want the stigma of being a “head case.” Those with physical injuries have little respect for those merely experiencing psychological distress. Although Jared suffered a foot injury in combat, he now feels that he used it as an excuse to run away. Gale, Jared’s girlfriend, reports that she told him she wanted him to get help. Jared said he did not want to lose her so he would do what it would take to keep her. Nonetheless, his violence returned and again he assaulted her. Through tears she reports that Jared is not bad and repeats her hope that he will still get the necessary help.

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Interpretive Comments Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and insomnia. Those who experience PTSD lose a sense of basic trust and tend to be hopeless about their future. The greater one’s emotional distress during a trauma, the greater the risk of developing post-traumatic symptoms. For example, in comparing Vietnam veterans who experienced combat with those who had not, researchers found that combat stress more than doubled a veteran’s risk of alcohol abuse, depression, or anxiety. Additional research indicates that the more frequent and severe the assault experiences, the more adverse the long-term outcome tends to be. Therapists face challenges in dealing with those who suffer from PTSD. Prompting survivors to revisit the experience and vent their emotions has actually proven ineffective and sometimes harmful. Reliving the trauma can exacerbate one’s emotions. Although half of adults experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, only about 1 in 10 women and 1 in 20 men develop PTSD. Indeed, suffering can lead to post-traumatic growth. For some, it leads to a greater appreciation of life, more meaningful relationships, revised priorities, and a richer spiritual life. Discussion Questions 1. What do you regard to be the primary cause of Jared’s disorder? 2. In this case, what are the primary obstacles to effective therapy? 3. Do traumatic experiences ever foster personal growth rather than disorder? Explain you answer.

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Those Who Hoard Length: 7:00 minutes File Name: 222_Those_Who_Hoard.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Who’s Normal Anyway” Obsessions (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description This video can be used to introduce or extend your classroom discussion of psychological disorders. You may also choose to show it when you present material on obsessive-compulsive disorders. Bob is a hoarder. Anything brought into his apartment stays. His living room and bedroom are so full, he barely has a place to sleep. Walking through his apartment, he admits his habit is odd. Bob has many things, but not a single home comfort. He wants to watch the TV he cannot find. Bob claims his hoarding stems from childhood. Viewed as different, he was bullied and beaten. Fear of being seen was really fear of being hit. For protection, he built a nest and a wall around himself. People cannot see him and he feels safe. In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) a person is bombarded by intrusive, fearful thoughts. Because Bob’s hoarding is his attempt to contain his fears, the idea of throwing anything away is terrifying. Bob admits that his things provide protection, but also make him feel buried alive. Shirley’s hoarding began more than 30 years ago, after her home was robbed. Three years later, her father was killed in a robbery attempt. She felt having more stuff would make her feel safe. A neighbor suggests that, if robbers came, they would think the house was already ransacked. Hoarders are difficult to treat. The most effective strategy is to go directly to their house and convince them to dispose of things. Therapist Randy Frost has been to Shirley’s house a couple of times and notes a bit of improvement. When asked, Shirley admits there is no organization to her stuff and she is unable to find things she might need. Frost tries to help Shirley throw away a picture. As expected, she resists, saying she finds the object beautiful even though she has no need for it. For those who hoard, explains Frosts, possessions provide safety. Throwing away even a small thing—for example, a newspaper—makes one vulnerable. Another treatment step is to have the person throw away something, despite feeling bad, and then learning to overcome the distress. Shirley sees the task of overcoming her hoarding as a reclamation project and looks forward to the time when she can again sit on her sofa and watch TV.

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Interpretive Comments Most researchers consider hoarding to be a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Some view it as an impulse control disorder. Compulsive hoarding has been defined as the acquisition and failure to dispose of large quantities of items that are of little use or value. The problem often originates in childhood or adolescence, but typically does not become severe until adulthood. As this clip illustrates, hoarding begins in an effort to reduce anxiety. Compulsive hoarders often have interpersonal difficulties and suffer low self-esteem. They tend to be perfectionists with weak decision-making and organizational skills. Depression and anxiety are symptoms that often accompany compulsive hoarding. Cognitive-behavioral therapy attempts to strengthen decision-making and organizational abilities. In addition to helping sufferers discard items, therapists assist them in limiting new acquisitions. Drug therapy may help in controlling the feelings of anxiety and depression.

Discussion Questions 1. How does hoarding reflect the characteristics of a psychological disorder? 2. What do you believe is the major cause of compulsive hoarding? 3. What makes hoarding a difficult disorder to treat?

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Three Anxiety Disorders

Length: 4:08 minutes File Name: 223_Anxiety_Disorders.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems)

Description The clip begins with a psychologist explaining the difference between specific phobias (irrational and excessive fear of a single thing or experience) and social phobias (fear of humiliation or negative feedback in a social situation). It is explained that we used to think phobias resulted from a single negative experience such as being bitten by a dog or trapped in an elevator. Psychologists now know that a combination of heredity, environmental experience and cognition come together to produce phobias. The clip also defines Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which is characterized by almost continual high arousal levels. The clip ends with a discussion on Panic Disorder. Panic Disorder can be triggered by 'overvigilance' to one’s physiology, which then leads to catastrophic thinking. This, in turn, increases the originally distressing physiological systems.

Discussion Questions 1. Have you or someone you know ever had a panic attack? What techniques reduce the severity of symptoms? Is hyperventilation a contributor? 2. Do you have a phobia? What do you do to cope with it?

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Depression Length: 8:35 minutes File Name: 224_Depression.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Black Dog: A Depression Tale (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description The case of a 30-year-old man with clinical depression provides a helpful introduction to the major symptoms of the “common cold” of psychological disorders. Steve’s display of the contents of his “medication bag,” which includes sleeping pills and antidepressants, immediately reveals that he suffers from more than a blue mood. Steve suggests that others sometimes view his depression as less serious than a physical illness. They see it as only temporary sadness or as merely a mental disturbance that demands admonition rather than pills. In therapy, Steve admits he is discouraged about the future and has no motivation. Everything he does proves mentally exhausting. He opens a humorous birthday card with the greeting “It’s all downhill from here.” He agrees. Clearly, Steve’s depression has had a long history. He expresses surprise that he has gotten this far. Clinical depression takes over one’s life. It is totally debilitating. When Steve was 10 years old, his mother committed suicide. Since her death, he has had difficulty trusting anyone. By presenting himself as someone he is not, he has tried to win others’ love. Steve’s wife, Victoria, from whom he is now separated, reflects on what it means to be married to a person with a severe mood disorder. The illness always lurks in the background and each day is unpredictable. At the same time, Victoria voices no regret over her marriage to Steve. In a greeting card she expresses her continued love and support and the couple embraces. Steve acknowledges that his depression has made a healthy relationship with his wife impossible. Steve concludes that moving forward in life with clinical depression is nearly impossible. In addition to confronting all the normal challenges of life, you are fighting feelings and emotions that are not based in reality. Although Steve's depression was diagnosed only three years earlier, he is convinced he has suffered from it all his life. In a closing scene Steve walks alone through a peaceful setting of hills, trees, and water. In this majestic place he reports finding temporary relief. Interpretive Comments The case provides an opportunity to introduce the general nature of psychological disorders as well as the specific disorder of depression. Steve’s behavior is deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional. Depression is the “common cold” of disorders and is the number one reason people seek treatment. Annually, a depressive episode strikes 5.8 percent of men and 9.5 percent of women. Major depressive disorder is defined by two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities. All of these characteristics are evident in Steve’s case. 15   

Discussion Questions 1. What are the major symptoms of depression? 2. What do you believe are the primary causes of Steve’s depression?

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Mood Disorders

Length: 11:48 minutes File Name: 225_Mood_Disorders.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive

Description Depression and mania are the main focus of discussion in this clip. Individuals who suffer from both depression and mania share their experiences. Depression is also discussed from both a psychological and a biological perspective. The use of medications to treat patients with depression and mania is also described. An animation is used to illustrate synaptic activity in manic and depressed patients. The animation also illustrates how different medications control neurotransmitter release/absorption and can therefore alleviate symptoms of both depression and mania. Biological and psychological treatments are emphasized as being used in conjunction with one another during treatment. The last several minutes of the clip are devoted to a dramatization of a depressed client’s progression through treatment. The treatment involves both psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic methods, asserting that while medication can be many times necessary, successful treatment lies in the application of both medical and psychological methods.

Interpretive Comments This segment could be a component of a lecture on neurotransmission that is part of coverage of the nervous system. There is brief coverage of the role of norepinephrine and serotonin transmission in affective disorders. The material for the majority of the segment is more appropriate for lectures on both abnormal psychology and treatments of psychopathology. It is an attempt to dramatize the symptoms of depression and their resolution via both pharmacological and psychotherapeutic means. There are a number of segments of a dramatized interaction between therapist and client.

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Suicide: Case of the “3-Star” Chef

Length: 4:40 minutes File Name: 226_Suicide.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “The People’s Chef” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description Your discussion of psychological disorders will surely include consideration of depression and its causes. This video examines the extraordinary case of chef Bernard Loiseau who became deeply depressed and finally committed suicide. His wife traces his remarkable success as a chef who fulfilled his lifelong dream of receiving a 3-star rating (the highest rating given in France) for his very popular and highly successful restaurant La Côte d'Or. She recalls their champagne celebration 12 years earlier. It was the same week she gave birth to their second child—an event Bernard regarded as a distraction at the time. Thousands mourned Bernard’s death and could not fathom how someone who seemed to love life so much could choose to end it. Bernard left behind three young children and a multi-million dollar empire that included the pride of his life—his hotel and 3-star restaurant. Beautifully-manicured lawns and spectacular rooms marked La Côte d'Or, one of only 25 restaurants in France that have earned the 3-star rating. People came from great distances to experience the meal of a lifetime. Although Bernard was a merchant of happiness, he himself suffered demons. What he feared most was the possibility of losing his 3-star rating. One evening, a few days before his death, he returned home and told his wife that the press wanted to kill him. A French restaurant guide—one which was not as influential as Michelin, the guide that has issued the all-important 3 stars—had lowered its rating of La Côte d'Or. A newspaper article predicted that Michelin would also be taking away a star. The story was not true. In its new guide, Michelin continued the 3-star rating. Bernard was aware of that fact, but took his life anyway. Bernard’s maître d' for twenty years recalls his employer’s final weeks as very difficult. He was depressed, extremely tired, and convinced he was failing. In spite of reassurances, Bernard felt he was not living up to his own standards of professional achievement and thus took his life. Interpretive Comments Each year, approximately 1,000,000 people worldwide end their lives. Suicide rates vary greatly by country, race, gender, and age. The rate of suicide in England is little more than half that of that in the United States. White Americans are twice as likely as Black Americans to end their lives. Although women are more likely to attempt suicide, men are significantly more likely to succeed. The suicide rate also increases significantly as men age and those who have been depressed in the past (which is true of Bernard Loiseau) have a much greater risk of suicide. In fact, the risk is five times that of the general population. People rarely commit suicide while in the depths of depression. Instead, the risk increases when they begin to rebound and, thus, have the added energy and initiative to follow through. In Bernard’s case, the struggle for perfection likely contributed to his finally saying “no” to life. In spite of claiming that the press wanted to kill him, he may have felt that the threatened loss of rating was actually his own fault, would likely repeat itself, and would negatively impact everything else worthwhile in his life. 18   

Discussion Questions 1. What do you think was the primary cause of Bernard Loiseau’s suicide? 2. Identify the components of Bernard’s pessimistic explanatory style? 3. Was Bernard’s suicide inevitable? What forms of therapy might be useful in treating potential victims of suicide?

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A Case Study in Schizophrenia

Length: 9:25 minutes File Name: 227_Schizophrenia_Case_Study.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Source: Schizophrenia: New Definitions, New Therapies, 1999 (Films for the Humanities and Sciences) Description This segment is a case study in schizophrenia. As the segment informs, schizophrenia is a collection of many diseases that manifest themselves differently in different patients. It is an organic, physical brain disease caused by both genetic and environmental factors. The segment cites recent research which has found a correlation between the likelihood of developing schizophrenia later in life and damage to the patient while still a fetus, particularly during the second trimester. There is evidence of schizophrenia even in infancy, with likely schizophrenics having smaller brains and larger brain ventricles than their healthy counterparts. The next segment includes an interview with researchers, Dr. Ruben Gur and his wife, Dr. Roehl Gur. They worked together to testify in the case of Russel Weston Jr., a 41-year-old man who killed two guards in a shooting at the U.S. Capitol Building in 1998. Weston was declared a paranoid schizophrenic. They discuss the difference between MRI scans of “normal” brain function, versus that of a schizophrenic. It appears that schizophrenic brains don’t activate certain regions in response to environmental stimuli and often activate the wrong regions instead. In general, schizophrenic patients are not violent. Only in cases of paranoid schizophrenia, like that of Russel Weston Jr., is violence more likely. The segment continues with a description of the symptoms of schizophrenia, which can be divided into two categories: positive and negative. Positive symptoms are those that schizophrenics exhibit, but normal people do not. Examples of positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized speech. Negative symptoms are characteristics that represent a loss of normal function. Examples include social withdrawal, loss of pleasure, and lack of speech capability. One patient describes his experience with schizophrenia. The segment ends with a description of the history of treatment for schizophrenia. The first popular antipsychotic drug was Thorazine. Thorazine treated positive symptoms and led to waves of schizophrenic patients being released from mental institutions. However, the side effects, such as severe motor disturbances and impotence in men, were often considered worse than the schizophrenia itself. New drug treatments, such as Clozapine and Olanzapine lack these side effects, but are better for the treatment of negative symptoms. Interpretive Comments This segment is another look at the mental disorder known as schizophrenia. It is useful with lectures on abnormal psychology. This mental disorder has a number of different symptoms but the defining symptoms are hallucinations and delusions. These individuals evince a clear break with reality.

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Discussion Questions 1. Given the research discussed in this segment, what are some ways that we might prevent or reduce, early in life, the development of schizophrenia in adulthood? Are there certain demographics which might be at higher risk for schizophrenia? Why? 2. How do we determine who is capable of being held accountable in a court of law? Should paranoid schizophrenics be able to plead insanity? Why or why not? 3. The advancements in drug therapy have certainly been beneficial to schizophrenic patients in a number of ways. What are some of the problems or complications of the drug treatment trend?

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John Nash: “A Beautiful Mind” Length: 4:50 minutes File Name: 228_John_Nash.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “John Nash’s Beautiful Mind” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description John Nash, a brilliant mathematician and a winner of the Nobel Prize, suffered from schizophrenia for many years. In 1958, Nash was enjoying a remarkable career and had married a beautiful wife. But shortly after his thirtieth birthday, the same year that Fortune magazine named him a mathematical star, he began to imagine conspiracies and see hidden messages that did not exist. Reflecting back with amusement, Nash suggests that at the time these experiences left him feeling exceptionally “enlightened.” Schizophrenia affects up to one percent of adults and has no cure. Thus, many victims spend time in and out of institutions, just as John Nash did many times during the 1960s. Initially, the police brought Nash in for treatment—an experience he later described as torture. He felt he was being treated like an animal. Nash was brilliant, creative, and abrasive. Wandering the streets as a homeless person, he appeared to be a zombie—probably as a result of having undergone insulin therapy. As he was being considered for a Nobel Peace Prize, there was concern he might do something bizarre or shocking. Nonetheless, in 1994 Nash received the prize for his work in economics. “Recognition is a cure for many ills,” wrote Howard Kuhn, Nash’s friend and colleague. Kuhn claims that his friend was a changed man after receiving the Nobel Prize. Nash became socially responsive, and his life story was told in the popular feature film “A Beautiful Mind” starring Russell Crowe. Nash’s son Johnny shares both his father’s talent for mathematics and his schizophrenia. Johnny, who has also earned a doctorate, has always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and match his accomplishments. Nash observes that his son would do better if he could think more logically and rationally. When Nash is asked whether he thinks he reasoned his way out of his illness, he replies that he “became disillusioned with his delusions.” Interpretive Comments As this clip indicates, about 1 in 100 people will develop schizophrenia. Typically, it strikes in late adolescence or early adulthood, and males are slightly more vulnerable than females. Schizophrenia occurs in all cultures. Its symptoms include disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions or actions. Among its most dramatic symptoms (which Nash also evidenced) are delusions (false beliefs) and hallucinations (false perceptions). Schizophrenia has a genetic component and the occurrence of schizophrenia increases to 1 in 10 if a family member has it. Interestingly, Nash’s son Johnny is also a victim of schizophrenia.

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Experts are divided on the portrayal of schizophrenia shown in A Beautiful Mind, the feature film based on John Nash’s life. Certainly, it illustrates how this serious illness may strike anyone as well as how it can prove incapacitating. Also, John Nash’s specific case fosters empathy for those suffering from serious psychological disorders. But, on the other hand, the film does not make clear that the insulin shock therapy Nash received in the early 1960s is no longer used or that treatments, including the utilization of drug therapies, have improved dramatically. In addition, some critics would argue that the notion that one can overcome the illness without professional help is dangerous. Most of those who suffer from schizophrenia do not have Nash’s inner resources. Discussion Questions 1. How does Nash’s case illustrate the major symptoms of schizophrenia? 2. What do you believe may have been the major cause of Nash’s schizophrenia? 3. Do you believe we can reason ourselves out of a major psychological disorder? Why or why not?

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Schizophrenia: New Definitions, New Therapies Length: 8:16 minutes File Name: 229_Schizophrenia.mp4 (also in Therapy as 254_Schizophrenia_New_Therapies.mp4) Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder characterized by a disruption in the balance of emotions and thinking. During schizophrenic episodes, sufferers lose touch with reality and experience distorted beliefs, perceptions, and thought processes. Despite advances in our understanding of its causes and treatments, schizophrenia is still commonly misunderstood. This program answers some of the questions about what schizophrenia is, what causes it, and what abnormalities exist in the brains of individuals who suffer from schizophrenia. Tyrone Cannon makes an important distinction between a disease and a syndrome. Schizophrenia, he says, is considered a syndrome because it involves a set of symptoms that appear differently in different people and tend to fluctuate over time. Furthermore, symptoms caused by a syndrome do not have an established cause. Schizophrenia sufferers often experience a combination of positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, and racing thoughts) and negative symptoms (disorganized thoughts, reduced motivation, and lack of emotion). “Positive” refers to the presence of inappropriate behaviors, whereas “negative” refers to the absence of appropriate behaviors. In people with schizophrenia, delusional beliefs can be thought of as rational explanations for unusual experiences. Auditory hallucinations, which are the most common, can range from mildly irritating to extremely debilitating, especially when the voices deliver derogatory or disturbing messages. Studies have indicated a relationship between schizophrenia and brain abnormalities. Cannon explains that subtle reductions in gray matter and decreases in the integrity of white matter are thought to contribute to disconnectedness among different parts of the brain. When aspects of cognition get isolated, the result is scattered thinking and the inability to coordinate the cognitive processes needed to complete the simplest of tasks. It is also believed that exposure to certain viruses in utero may cause schizophrenia. In the final scene, Cannon points out the importance of reducing the stigmatization of schizophrenia so that more sufferers will seek treatment. Discussion Questions 1. What are some methods of treatment used on schizophrenia patients? 2. Historically, how was schizophrenia viewed? 3. How is schizophrenia diagnosed? 4. What genetic abnormalities are thought to cause schizophrenia?

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Schizophrenia: Symptoms Length: 4:50 minutes File Name: 230_Schizophrenia_Symptoms.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: The Brain Teaching Modules, Second Edition (Worth Publishers/The Annenberg/CPB Multimedia Collection)

Description This video illustrates the symptoms of schizophrenia, and includes an interview with a schizophrenic patient and a brief tour of a schizophrenia ward at the National Institute of Mental Health, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, D.C.

Discussion Questions 1. How do the anti-psychotic drugs that are discussed in this video clip treat the symptoms of Schizophrenia? 2. How does Dr. Kirch describe Jerry’s case of schizophrenia? How does his experience compare to that of other people with the disease?

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The Schizophrenic Brain Length: 0:58 seconds File Name: 231_Schizophrenic_Brain.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This video shows the differences in brain characteristics of a schizophrenic patient when compared to the brain of his normal identical twin. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the schizophrenic brain shows larger amounts of spinal fluid in the space between the brain and the skull in comparison to the normal twin. This clip illustrates the brain abnormalities related to schizophrenia and the often-observed brain shrinkage in schizophrenic patients. Interpretive Comments This video would be helpful with lectures on the role of nature and nurture, due to the fact that it discusses schizophrenia, a mental illness with a strong genetic component, in the context of identical twins. It can be used to demonstrate that brain morphology is a combination of both genes and environment. The video segment can also be used with lectures on abnormal psychology. It is helpful to show this clip in order to support the idea that schizophrenia is due to organic causes. It links the brain and the disorder.

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Multiple Personality Disorder

Length: 8:52 minutes File Name: 232_Multiple_Personality_Disorder.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description In this clip, a man named Tony describes his life and struggle with multiple personality disorder. Tony, with the help of a therapist, has identified at least 53 of his different personalities. While some psychologists agree that alternative personalities are created to escape trauma, others feel the disorder is culturally created and is not a true psychological disorder. Dr. Putnam and his colleagues examined evoked potentials in the brains of multiples. Results showed different patterns of activity in response to stimuli presented to different personalities of the same individual. These results suggest that actual bodily changes (galvanic skin response, patterns of brain activity) occur when different personalities surface. Dr. Putnam and others argue that this evidence supports the claim that multiple personality disorders is a valid psychological disorder that merits further research. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful when covering the tools that are used to measure brain activity. This would be relevant to lectures on the nervous system. A psychologist in the clip uses an EEG apparatus to obtain evoked potentials from the patient being studied. The differential activity patterns for the person with multiple personality disorder are suggestive of an actual physical change occurring in the man’s brain when he takes on another personality. It is also effective for use with lectures on abnormal psychology when discussing the different forms of mental disorders. Finally, since there is a therapy session shown briefly in the clip, it can be used with lectures on treatments of psychopathology to demonstrate how psychotherapy might proceed.

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Beyond Perfection: Female Body Dysmorphic Disorder Length: 4:35 minutes File Name: 233_Female_Dysmorphic.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Seeking Perfection” Obsessions (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description This interesting case study can be used to introduce the defining characteristics of a psychological disorder or to extend your classroom discussion of more common disorders. Body dysmorphic disorder is considered to be one of the somatoform disorders. Thirty-year-old Jennifer is obsessed with having a perfect appearance. She desperately wants her skin to appear flawless without the application of any makeup. Instead, she reports spending three hours applying foundation to cover blemishes and scars before she feels presentable in public. Although she is in fact a very attractive woman, Jennifer is convinced that she is terribly disfigured. When Jennifer looks in a mirror she claims she sees a monster. To her, her skin seems badly discolored and scarred. She believes others also view her as badly disfigured. However, as she walks down a busy Boston street, male strangers frequently whistle and note her sexy appearance. For a brief moment, she thinks she must be attractive, but then realizes they are too far away to know what she really looks like. Though Jennifer comes from a wealthy family and is well-educated, she works only part-time at McDonald’s. Her therapist claims that Jennifer meets the criteria for a variety of psychological disorders including OCD, borderline personality disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, and major depressive disorder. Jennifer literally wants to be someone else. At the university, she was obsessed with other students whom she thought looked perfect. For example, she became obsessed with one close friend whose life seemed ideal. Jennifer bought the same jewelry, the same socks, and even tried to emulate her friend’s handwriting. The efforts failed and she dropped out of school. Three years ago, Jennifer began undergoing cosmetic surgery. She underwent a nose job and now she is saving for dermabrasion, a procedure designed to improve the appearance of skin. With each procedure, she feels she is getting closer to her goal and thus claims to be happier. Interpretive Comments Those who suffer from body dysmorphic disorder (also known as dysmorphophobia) are deeply concerned about some imagined or minor defect in their appearance. Most frequently, they focus on wrinkles, skin spots, excessive facial hair, or a misshapen facial feature. In some cases, they are concerned about their body odor. Because of their disorder, sufferers limit contact with others and make every attempt to conceal the defects they perceive in their physical appearance. As this particular case illustrates, many will seek cosmetic surgery and may feel worse rather than better afterward. Many of those with the disorder are housebound and some have attempted suicide. 28   

Typically body dysmorphic disorder begins in adolescence, but victims are often slow to reveal their concern. It is estimated that 2 percent of people in the United States (4 percent of college students) suffer from body dysmorphic disorder. Interestingly, clinical reports suggest that it may be as common among men as women. Discussion Questions 1. How does Jennifer’s concern about her physical appearance fit the characteristics of a psychological disorder? 2. What social-cultural influences may contribute to this disorder? 3. How does this case illustrate the importance of psychology’s cognitive perspective?

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Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa Length: 3:20 minutes File Name: 234_Overcoming_Anorexia.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Slim Chance” 48 Hours (CBS News) Description Discussion of the psychology of hunger can include consideration of the important topic of eating disorders. David suffers from anorexia nervosa. At his lowest point, his diet consisted of carrots and club soda. His weight is down to 105 pounds when he finally arrives at the hospital. Although he should weigh 140, he reports scheming to reach 98 pounds. Video images taken by his wife show him to be extraordinarily thin. David’s self-perception is distorted; he does not believe that he appears emaciated. And although he recognizes that his thinking is irrational, he seems helpless to break the grip of the disorder. He reports that at home he would dump his yogurt down the kitchen drain in an effort to convince his wife that he had eaten it. In the hospital he describes his internal struggle. If he now fails to gain weight, he is a bad patient. If he does gain, he is a bad anorexic. Treatment at Somerset hospital includes medication, food, and therapy sessions. In group therapy, it is clear that David has a negative body image. At home, Joanne describes her husband as his own worst enemy. She finds David’s continued refusal to eat to be increasingly frustrating and tiring. When the narrator confronts David with the prospect of death from his illness, he acknowledges that possibility but also makes the bizarre claim that it would provide “some kind of validation.” After six months of therapy at the hospital David has successfully gained 25 pounds and is preparing to leave treatment. However, he describes his recovery as only beginning. Interpretive Comments Multiple factors contribute to anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder in which a normal-weight person diets and becomes 15 percent or more underweight yet still feels fat and continues to starve. Usually the disorder occurs (in contrast to this case) in adolescent females. Cultural pressure to be thin has contributed to the rise in anorexia nervosa among women in Western societies. In addition, low selfesteem (apparent in David’s case) and negative emotions interact with life experiences to produce the disorder. Patients with anorexia often seem to come from families who are competitive, protective, and high-achieving. Twin research indicates that eating disorders may have a genetic component. Discussion Questions 1. What do you think are the underlying causes of David’s eating disorder? 2. Why has the incidence of eating disorders increased significantly in the last 50 years? Why are they more common among women than men?

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Purging Food Length: 4:00 minutes File Name: 235_Purging_Food.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Slim Chance” 48 Hours (CBS News)

Description This video provides a case study in the causes and treatment of one of the major eating disorders. Rick, a 38-year-old husband and father of two, suffers from bulimia nervosa. For 15 years, he secretly purged after every meal. His eating disorder can be traced back to being overweight as a child. He was the victim of name-calling in school and the cruel teasing continued into adulthood. At one point, Rick’s coworkers, thinking it was funny, wrapped him from head to toe in packing tape. Instead of reporting them, Rick tried harder to fit in. He learned that purging was an effective way of losing weight and dropped 100 pounds in 10 months. Eating disorders are closely linked to how people feel about themselves, and especially to the need for self-esteem. However, Rick quickly lost control of his world to his obsession. He experienced seizures, was unable to concentrate, and eventually lost his job. Several years passed before Rick was able to acknowledge that he needed treatment. Because the disorder is typically viewed as a female illness, men may have a particularly difficult time admitting their vulnerability and need for help. Nearly two years ago Rick finally admitted himself to the eating disorders unit at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey. After six weeks of treatment, he was doing well enough to be discharged. Although he admits that he still occasionally slips by overeating and purging, he remains hopeful and committed to overcoming his disorder. Interpretive Comments Most people who suffer from bulimia nervosa are women in their late teens or early twenties. Those with bulimia have repeated episodes of overeating followed by vomiting (as in Rick’s case), laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise. In contrast to anorexia nervosa, another common eating disorder, bulimia is marked by weight fluctuations within or above normal ranges, making the disorder easier to hide. The families of bulimia patients tend to have a higher incidence of childhood obesity as well as negative selfevaluations. Both of these factors seem present in Rick’s case. The biopsychosocial perspective contributes to our understanding of eating disorders. For example, twin studies suggest that genetics influence susceptibility to anorexia and bulimia. In addition, sufferers tend to have low self-esteem. They set extremely high standards, worry about falling short of expectations, and are intensely concerned about how others view them. Finally cultural factors, especially an emphasis on physical appearance that includes a “thin-ideal” and the notion that “fat is bad,” fuel dissatisfaction with one’s body image.

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Discussion Questions 1. What is the most important cause of Rick’s eating disorder? 2. Why do you think females, in comparison to males, are more vulnerable to eating disorders? 3. Are there important social-cultural determinants involved in eating disorders?

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Self-Image: Body Dissatisfaction Among Teenage Girls Length: 3:20 minutes File Name: 236_Self-image.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Skin Deep” 48 Hours (CBS News)

Description This video can be used in discussing research on the self—particularly the research findings related to self-esteem. It is also relevant to a discussion of the social-cultural influences that impact the development of the self. Finally, the clip illustrates the importance of physical appearance in social judgments and in shaping our sense of self-worth. 16-year-old Hayley indicates that she was only 13 years old when she first considered having corrective surgery for her breasts. Now, she is scheduled for breast augmentation. The surgeon explains that Hayley was concerned her breasts were too small and, in addition, they had a slight asymmetry. Hayley believed that she suffered a “deformity.” A photograph shows Hayley’s body and breasts to be normal. Hayley’s mother describes her daughter as an excellent student, a fine athlete, and socially popular. Still, she could not stand in front of a mirror without wearing a towel because she felt deformed. The mother’s efforts to reassure Hayley were unsuccessful. Psychologist Lilly Freedland suggests that, for parents and teenagers, the definition of deformity has expanded to include anything that is not perfect. She worries that they may come to see surgery as a quick fix for what may not even be a problem. Dr. Freedland also questions whether teens have the necessary maturity to make such an important decision. One plastic surgeon states that he would not consider doing surgery for breast augmentation on any one under the age of 18. He questions whether a younger person is emotionally prepared to make that kind of decision. Such surgery, he argues, should not be viewed as a “haircut.” In addition, the surgeon has medical concerns because female breasts continue to develop between the ages of 16 and 18. Another surgeon agrees and notes that those coming for surgery often seem to think that looking good is more important than feeling good. The teenagers typically shrug off the potential surgical risks and younger girls continue to seek the surgery. Unfortunately, he notes, a teenage girl often experiences each day as a Miss America beauty contest. Interpretive Comments Self-esteem is a person’s self-evaluation or sense of self-worth. Researchers Jennifer Crocker and Connie Wolfe have argued that the source of our self-esteem is a powerful guide for our behavior. They have identified seven possible domains in which people may invest their self-worth, including academic competence, virtue, other’s approval, God’s love, appearance, competition, and family support. A pervasive physical-attractiveness stereotype (the belief that what is beautiful is good) impacts social judgments and explains why people tend to worry about how they appear to others. 33   

However, cultures vary in what they find attractive. In North American society, breast augmentation, body piercings, and rhinoplasty (reshaping of the nose) have increased dramatically in recent decades. In contrast, women of the Padaung tribe in Burma focus on the length of their neck (the longer, the more beautiful) and women in China are concerned with the size of their feet (small feet are considered attractive). In a study of 600 college students, Crocker and her research team found that self-esteem based on appearance was linked to spending more hours per week grooming, shopping, and partying. Self-esteem based on academic performance was associated with greater success in gaining admission to graduate school. Jennifer Crocker and Lora Park have suggested that secure self-esteem is not contingent on external evaluations. Feeling accepted for who we are and not for our looks, wealth, or acclaim enables us to lose ourselves in relationships and in purposes beyond ourselves. Discussion Questions 1. What do you think are the important factors that contribute to Hayley’s concern with her physical appearance? 2. Should girls younger than 18 be permitted to undergo surgery for breast augmentation? Why or why not? Who should make this decision? 3. What are the factors that influence our sense of self-worth?

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The Mind of the Psychopath

Length: 7:17 minutes File Name: 237_Mind_of_Psychopath.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description The difference in the functioning of a psychopath’s brain in comparison to the functioning of a normal individual’s brain is discussed in this clip. Dr. Robert Hare describes his lexical decision paradigm that was used to examine how psychopaths process information differently than other individuals. In the lexical decision paradigm, a person decides if a string of letters forms a word. The words presented in Dr. Hare’s experimentwere either neutral or emotionally negative in connotation. Results showed that in contrast to normal individuals, psychopaths seem to process emotionally laden words in the same way that they process neutral words. This may suggest that psychopaths do not extract emotional meaning from words in the same way that normal individuals do. Dr. Hare also asserts that psychopaths may be unable to process deep semantic or emotional meaning. The viewer is shown PET scans of brains that were taken while patients were performing the lexical decision task. The PET scans clearly show marked differences in the way normal and psychopathic individuals process emotional information. Interpretive Comments This clip is useful with each of the following topics: The nervous system—The clip demonstrates the technique of S.P.E.C.T., a form of PET scan, which is used to image the brains of individuals diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder (psychopaths). The narration also briefly mentions fMRI while a brief view of a scanner is given. Social development—It is not directly relevant to what is seen in the clip, but a discussion of the development of the conscience and Erikson’s first psychosocial stage (Basic Trust vs. Mistrust) is important to the understanding of anti-social personality disorder. This clip can be used to describe the development of this disorder. Abnormal psychology—This clip can be helpful in elaborating on a description of anti-social personality disorder. The lack of emotion shown by the individuals in the study that is presented

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Trichotillomania: Pulling Out One’s Hair Length: 6:15 minutes File Name: 238_Trichotillomania.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Who’s Normal Anyway” Obsessions (BBC Motion Gallery) Description Discussion of psychological disorders can be readily extended to include those disorders involving impulse control. It is also possible that you may choose to present this specific case study in connection with your consideration of obsessive-compulsive disorders. Liz suffers from trichotillomania. She cannot resist the urge to pull out her hair. In the opening scene of this video, Liz describes how she pulls out a single hair, eats the root, and throws the rest away. Although the bizarre act has a temporarily calming effect, Liz also knows it is self-destructive. Aside from the urge to pull her hair, Liz seems like an average woman. She began pulling her hair at age 12 and is embarrassed by her bald patch. Fortunately, most people do not notice. At the same time, she worries that in any intimate relationship her patch and her trichotillomania will quickly become known. Research findings at the University of Utah suggest a possible cause for the disorder. Certain laboratory mice will over-groom themselves, resulting in the removal of their hair. Their unusual behavior is the result of a single altered gene. Researchers are now investigating whether the same defective gene may produce hair-pulling behavior in humans. If this proves true, researchers could begin a search for medications to treat the disorder. This line of research is also important because it may indicate that faulty genes underlie more common compulsive conditions. Meanwhile, Liz is exploring alternative treatments for her self-destructive behavior. She has had a hairpiece glued to the top of her head with the hope that this may stop her cycle of hair-pulling behavior. Three months after the wig was fitted, examination of the bald patch shows significant new hair growth. The hairpiece is replaced and will be worn for another six months. Most importantly, Liz reports that her urge to pull her hair has lessened. Interpretive Comments The DSM-IV classifies trichotillomania as an impulse control disorder. In some important respects it resembles an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Because the general public responds negatively to the disorder, it often goes unreported. Thus, the rate of occurrence is difficult to estimate. Some estimate the prevalence at 1 to 3 percent of the population. Although depression and anxiety sometimes accompany trichotillomania, those with the disorder may lead otherwise normal lives. Liz’s case illustrates how the disorder often begins in adolescence. She demonstrates trichopagia—that is, chewing and eating the roots of the hair she pulls. Therapeutic interventions include medication and behavior therapy. Those with the disorder might be asked to keep a careful record of situations in which they typically pull their hair, and especially of what they are thinking or feeling at the time. This may help them to develop strategies for avoiding repeat episodes. As the video indicates, recent research suggests that the disorder has a genetic basis. 36   

Discussion Questions 1. How does trichotillomania fit the definition of a psychological disorder? 2. What do you believe is the cause of Liz’s trichotillomania? 3. Why do you think Liz’s therapy is working? What other therapies do you think might be effective in treating this disorder?

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Therapy Early Treatment of Mental Disorders Length: 5:01 minutes File Name: 239_Early_Treatment_Mental_Disorders.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: National Library of Medicine Description During the first half of the twentieth century, mental hospitals used a variety of medical procedures to treat severe mental disorders. These therapies were often crude, ineffective, and sometimes unintentionally cruel. In hydrotherapy, patients were sprayed with water in order to stimulate them. Another therapy, the wetpack, involved wrapping patients in wet sheets. In the continuous bath, water was kept at 98 degrees to sedate patients. Hot boxes and hot lamps were also used in the effort to help patients to relax. Insulin therapy was a predecessor of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Used primarily in the treatment of schizophrenia, it was less effective as well as more dangerous than ECT. Insulin injections caused the patient's blood sugar to drop; as a result, the patient slipped into a coma and, most importantly, experienced a convulsive reaction. The insulin also produced wet shock marked by excessive sweating and drooling. Dry shock, yet another reaction to insulin therapy, involved a full-brain seizure. Therapists administered glucose to bring patients out of the coma. Also prior to the use of ECT, another therapy utilized injections of metrasol to produce a grand mal type seizure. Finally, the lobotomy was among the most notorious of the early procedures used to treat mental disorders. Surgeons severed the connections between the cortex of the frontal lobes and the lower centers of the brain. Interpretive Comments Prior to the twentieth century, treatment of psychological disorders could be even more brutal than the methods shown in this program. These techniques included cutting a hole in the head, restraining, bleeding, and “beating the devil” out of people. These early strategies for treating severe psychological disorders as well as those presented in this program have been largely replaced by drug therapies. Electroconvulsive therapy is now used in the treatment of severe depression. As a last resort, certain forms of psychosurgery are used. This program highlights the need for careful scientific testing of intervention strategies to determine their effectiveness before their widespread use. Discussion Questions 1. What did these early treatments assume about the causes of psychological disorders? 2. Under what conditions should we implement new treatments for psychological disorders?

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Outpatient Commitment: Forcing Persons into Mental Health Treatment Length: 3:10 minutes File Name: 240_Outpatient.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Vision, Human Senses” (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description The fascinating issue raised by this program provides an opportunity to extend the text treatment of therapy. What do we do with those who suffer psychological disorder but refuse treatment, particularly if they represent a danger to themselves or others? Charles, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, awaits trial. One year ago, police shot him when he was found menacing passengers on a Long Island passenger train. Charles had stopped taking his medication when he boarded the train. He carried a sword and wore a clown nose. The police asked him to leave the train but he refused. Splashed with pepper spray, he attempted to escape, took out his sword, waved it, and struck the train. Police fired shots and wounded him. Charles is now taking his medication. Nonetheless, if the courts find him guilty of attempted assault, he will be sent to prison. Charles had a long history of illness and was in and out of treatment centers before he returned home to live with his parents. His behavior was bizarre and at times even aggressive. Charles was not taking his medication and gradually deteriorated into incoherence and impulsiveness. At one point, his parents called the police for help. However, because Charles was not harming himself or others, the police claimed they could not intervene. His parents could not force him to take his medication. In fact, Charles had destroyed the pills. Under Kendra’s Law, families and/or doctors can now obtain a court order to force mentally ill persons to undergo treatment without committing them to a hospital or institution. Although the treatment is expensive, it is less costly than the institutionalization of those suffering severe psychological disorder. Jay, who suffers from bipolar disorder, takes medication under Kendra’s Law. He lives in Maple House in Brooklyn, which serves 30 formerly homeless adults with psychological disorders. Jay, who wants to be a writer or comedian, is free to come and go as he pleases. However, his care is closely monitored by a psychiatrist, case manager, and visiting nurse. Before Jay was under court order to take medication, he suffered hallucinations and delusions, neglected his own care, collected garbage off the streets, and harassed strangers. Now under outpatient treatment, his life appears on track. When Charles’ mother is asked whether the application of Kendra’s Law to her son’s case would represent infringement of his rights, she is quick to respond, “What about my rights to safety?” Even Charles supports the law. He recognizes that his unwillingness to accept treatment caused many of his past problems.

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Interpretive Comments In 1999, New York State passed Kendra’s Law in response to two incidents in which men diagnosed with schizophrenia pushed residents into the path of oncoming trains. More specifically, 29-year-old Andrew Goldstein’s assault killed Kendra Webdale and 43-year-old Julio Perez’s attack caused the amputation of Edgar Rivera’s legs. Under the law, the state may compel those with psychological disorders to undergo treatment against their will or to participate in mental health programs even if those individuals do not meet the criteria for involuntary hospitalization. In 2005, Kendra’s Law was extended for five years. Some critics have argued that the law violates the right of a person to determine his or her course of medical treatment. Others have suggested that the issuing of court orders under the law has reflected strong racial and socioeconomic bias. Discussion Questions 1. Do you support Kendra’s Law? Why or why not? 2. How should families and doctors decide when to pursue court-ordered treatment?

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Problems in Living Length: 2:51 minutes File Name: 241_ProbsinLiving.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 3 Source: Psychology: The Human Experience (Coast Learning Systems) Description This clip begins by mentioning some of the more serious psychological disorders and then talks about other distressing events that may cause people to seek treatment. We are introduced to Linda who is recently divorced and who is having trouble coping with the dramatic change in her life. She expresses bitterness toward her ex-husband and describes some of the negative coping strategies she has been engaged in, such as overeating. The clip talks about the past when so-called “psychological treatments” were worse than the symptoms of the disorders they were supposed to treat. Psychotherapy and medication are greatly improved since days gone by and now offer a very real opportunity to obtain relief from psychological distress. Psychotherapy is defined as a helping relationship between an individual and a mental health professional. The clip closes by mentioning the major approaches to the treatment of psychological disorders. Discussion Questions 1. How have you coped with interpersonal and romantic relationships that have come to an end? Were you surprised by the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aftermath of such endings? 2. Other than divorce what “problems in living” might one seek professional assistance for?

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Treatment of Drug Addiction Length: 3:31 minutes File Name: 242_Drug_Addiction.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This clip features a recovering drug addict, Greg Scrirrotto, talking about his addiction to crack cocaine. Crack cocaine is a particularly powerful stimulant. After using the drug, the regular user experiences an intense rush of euphoria followed by a crash and craving. Cravings can last for hours and return days later. As a result of his addiction, Greg abandoned his family, lost his job, was on welfare and started to commit petty crimes in order to support his habit. In order to receive treatment, Greg entered a program at the University of Pennsylvania treatment center. When the clip was filmed, Greg had been sober and clean for four years. In the clip Greg discusses the skills he learned that were particularly helpful in accomplishing and maintaining his sobriety goal. Interpretive Comments This segment is appropriate for lectures on abnormal psychology. Substance-use disorders are classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. This manual includes, among other things, the classification scheme for mental disorders. This videoclip shows an individual discussing his addiction and what became of his career and family life due to his addiction. The clip could also be used with lectures on treatments for mental disorders. In the segment, the individual talks about how and where he received treatment for his addiction and how it improved his life.

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City of Gheel: Community Mental Health at Its Best Length: 7:15 minutes File Name: 243_Gheel.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: City of Gheel: Community Mental Health at Its Best

Description Describing the community therapy practiced in Gheel, Belgium, provides an excellent extension of text coverage of family and group therapy. Just as social and cultural circumstances may contribute to psychological disorder, communities may also be part of the solution. In the city of Gheel, Belgium, psychiatric patients are cared for by local families. Careful screening at a psychiatric hospital excludes dangerous patients and pedophiles from placement in the program. When patients are placed, a psychiatric nurse and psychologist monitor their relationship with the foster families. Over time, reports the visiting nurse, patients improve as they discover their specific roles within the families. For 45 years, Jeff and Clara have lived together as brother and sister. Although Clara was originally a patient who joined Jeff’s family, today they provide each other with companionship and support. The same mutual support is apparent in the lives of three elderly women who call themselves the “Three Musketeers.” They share household chores, go out together, and seem inseparable. Medication of patients is often reduced as they become acclimated to family life. Patients often live for decades within the family setting. Although the care-giving families are paid for each troubled person they accept, the care they provide is clearly more than a business. Typically, the newcomers become accepted members of the family. For example, Mark, a 32-year-old male diagnosed with schizophrenia, is flourishing. He maintains contact with his biological family but reports that he feels more secure with his foster family. The director of the psychiatric hospital that oversees the family-care program reports that on occasion patients experience a crisis and are temporarily hospitalized. When they stabilize, they return to their families. Patients removed from their families even temporarily feel that it is a punishment. Many of them participate in a jobs program run by the hospital. Dr. Matthew Dumont, a Boston psychiatrist, reflects on the strength of the Gheel family-care program. Not only the families but the entire community accept and embrace the psychiatric patients, a population that is typically marginalized in other parts of the world. Gheel is a community defined by its inclusiveness.

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Interpretive Comments The biopsychosocial approach recognizes that psychological disorders may be the result of a growthblocking difficulty in the person’s environment. Evidence of environmental effects comes from links between certain specific disorders and culture. Potentially, environments can also prove therapeutic and growth-enhancing. Gheel’s program provides both strong family and community support to those suffering from a psychological disorder. False labeling and stereotyping seem to have been avoided, as those with a history of psychological disorder have been integrated into all aspects of community life. Discussion Questions 1. What are the important elements in Gheel’s approach to treatment of those suffering from psychological disorder? 2. Would Gheel’s approach work in your community? Why are why not? 3. What are the advantages and risks of the Gheel program?

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Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies Length: 7:08 minutes File Name: 244_Cognitive_and_Behavioral_Therapies.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012)

Description Therapies such as psychoanalysis and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are useful in helping people to combat destructive thought patterns and behaviors. Several approaches to these forms of therapy exist, each with the goal of modifying the way clients think and helping them acquire healthier patterns of behavior. In this program, students learn how cognitive and behavioral therapies work and which disorders they treat most effectively. In cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), says Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, therapists collaborate with their clients, helping them chart their goals and explore what limitations exist. Therapists do not merely teach their clients what to do, but also how to do it. This focused approach allows CBT to be more short-term than traditional forms of psychotherapy. CBT has been shown to be effective in treating a wide range of problems, including mood, anxiety, personality, and eating disorders, as well as substance abuse and phobias. The narrator points out that CBT can, similarly, treat chronic depression and is beneficial in preventing depression and positively altering brain chemistry. CBT is not recommended for clients with schizophrenia, suicidal depression, or mania. Discussion Questions 1. Do you think that all learned behaviors can be unlearned? 2. Describe exposure therapy and how it is useful in overcoming anxiety and fears. 3. What differentiates CBT from other types of therapy currently in use?

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Dealing With Panic Length: 4:50 minutes File Name: 245_Dealing_with_Panic.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: Phobias (BBC Motion Gallery

Description This clip can be used in class discussion of the phobias and their treatment. It also provides the opportunity to introduce alternative therapies and explore the importance of careful assessment. Donna, a young mother, has an intense fear of driving. She vividly describes the panic attacks that force her to the side of the road. She temporarily calms herself but back on the road the overwhelming fear returns and she pulls off again. The uncontrollable panic is marked by extreme heat and cold, difficulty breathing, and clenched muscles. Overcoming the fear, Donna recognizes, would be liberating. Donna begins the novel anxiety treatment of EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing). Her therapist admits that he initially thought the strategy of waving one’s hand in front of patients’ eyes to trigger eye movements was nonsensical. In addition, the process was tiring. The therapist’s finger waving has now been replaced with automatic moving lights that prompt the same side-to-side eye movements. The therapist suggests that, because we process intellectual and emotional material in different parts of the brain, we may sometimes experience a disconnect between what we know and what we feel. Presumably, EMDR connects the two. In an hour-long therapy session, Donna’s eyes follow the moving green lights. As she follows the lights, the therapist asks her to remember the last time she had a panic attack while driving. Emotional memories are painful because the past dread is experienced in the present. For some reason, explains the therapist, EMDR makes emotional memories seem more distant. At the end of the session Donna seems more relaxed. The therapy, she explains, seems to give her the ability to switch off her fear. Treatment (presumably after multiple sessions) appears successful as Donna resumes driving without her former dread. Interpretive Comments Because it focuses on the use of EMDR, the program provides an excellent opportunity for introducing the challenge of evaluating alternative therapies for psychological disorder. In showing this clip, you will certainly want to note the controversy surrounding EMDR. Although thousands of therapists use it, others regard it as bogus. Research suggests that eye movements are not the key therapeutic ingredient. Skeptics claim that the effectiveness of EMDR may be a combination of exposure therapy (reliving painful memories in a supportive context) and a strong placebo effect.

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Discussion Questions 1. Do you find the therapist’s explanation for the effectiveness of EMDR to be credible? Why or why not? Should we use therapies if we do not know how they work? 2. What is the best way of determining whether an alternative therapy is effective?

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Mentally Ill Chemical Abusers: A Community Problem

Length: 5:20 minutes File Name: 246_Mentally-ill-abusers.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Wild Man of West 96th Street” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description This video raises important questions regarding society’s treatment of severely disordered and homeless persons who represent a danger to themselves and others when under the influence of drugs. Larry, the wild man of West 96th Street, arrived seven years ago. Residents got used to seeing him wander through traffic and talk to himself like so many other homeless, mentally ill persons in the neighborhood. However, as time passed, his behavior became more bizarre and menacing. One resident who had originally befriended Larry now actively seeks to get him off her street. She reports that he scares motorists by jumping unpredictably on to their cars hoods. He threw a piece of concrete through her car window, causing considerable damage. Residents are now fearful of leaving their homes if they see Larry on the street. Larry has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He suffers from irreversible brain damage, the result of an accident that occurred while he served in Vietnam. Each month he receives $3000 in veteran benefits, which he wastes on drugs. After that, he ends up back on the street. He fights off the police officers who try to bring him into custody as an emotionally disturbed person. Each time that he is picked up, he is brought to jail or to the psychiatric emergency room of a hospital and held until the drugs are out of his system. He then becomes calm and docile and is released because he is no longer a threat. The cycle repeats over and over. The assistant district attorney explains that the criminal justice system can do nothing more unless Larry harms someone. His misdemeanors are not serious enough to hold him in jail. In court he is typically meek and rational. The attorney believes that because the criminal justice system cannot keep Larry off the streets, he should be held in the mental health system. However, he cannot be involuntarily committed to a mental hospital because, once his system is clear of cocaine, he is not in imminent danger. Thus, the only place for Larry and the 150,000 people like him is back on the street. Interpretive Comments Homeless, psychologically-disordered persons who are typically not a danger to themselves or others may, under the influence of drugs, pose a serious risk. However, as long as they commit no serious crime, they cannot be incarcerated for any extended period time and are released. Unfortunately, the cycle often repeats itself. These cases are further complicated by the fact that people who suffer psychological disorders cannot be involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital because, once they are free of drugs, they are no longer dangerous. In virtually all states, a person can only be committed against his will if he is mentally ill and a danger to himself or others. Larry, along with many others who share his characteristics, raises the very difficult issue of how we balance individual liberty with the government’s obligation to protect its citizens. 11   

Discussion Questions 1. To what degree do you believe Larry is responsible for his conduct? Explain your answer. 2. How should society deal with its “Larrys?” 3. Do you believe there is any alternative to either a prison or a psychiatric hospital for Larry? Explain your answer.

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Psychodynamic and Humanistic Therapies Length: 5:13 minutes File Name: 247_Psychodynamic_Therapies.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description With hundreds of types of psychotherapy in practice today, one might wonder where the concept of therapy originated. This program focuses on two of the earliest forms of psychotherapy—psychodynamic therapy and humanistic therapy—and how these therapeutic models provided the basis for the entire field of individual psychotherapy. People seek therapy for the purpose of alleviating the symptoms of psychological ailments. Successful therapy, therefore, depends on selecting the right type of therapy needed to unveil and treat the underlying causes of the symptoms an individual is experiencing. The goal of psychodynamic therapy is to help clients become aware of the thoughts and feelings that have been forced into the depths of their unconscious minds. This goal is achieved using various methods including dream analysis, transference and resistance, and free association. A distinct feature of Freudian psychoanalysis, as Louis Cozolino points out, is the physical positioning of the psychologist and his client during therapy. Instead of sitting across from his client, Freud would sit behind his client in a chair while his client would lie on a sofa or couch. Humanistic therapy, sometimes called “the Third Force,” emerged in the 1950s as a reaction to the pessimistic nature of psychoanalysis. Humanistic psychology assumes that people are innately good and seeks to help them reach their potential by acquiring a healthy sense of self. Humanistic therapists adopt a holistic approach and interact with their clients in a positive manner using eye contact and engaged dialogue. The program closes with Cozolino stating that “people need to have meaning in their lives—or their lives have to have meaning—and so this whole search for meaning I think is sort of key with humanistic therapy.” Discussion Questions 1. What purpose do dreams serve, according to Freud? 2. What limitations of the psychodynamic approach caused some psychologists to split off and join the humanistic tradition? What ideas did humanists reject? 3. What social and cultural events were happening when the humanistic tradition emerged that may have influenced its development?

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Therapy in the Real World: The Use of Real-Life Exposure to Treat Phobias Length: 2:16 minutes File Name: 248_Therapy in the real world.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: “Phobias,” 48 Hours, 7/29/92 (CBS News)

Description In this segment, taken from a CBS News clip, a therapist is providing group therapy to a number of phobia patients. The interview follows one patient, Bill, who is afraid to ride an elevator and has not ridden on one in eight years. We see the therapist challenge Bill to ride the buildings elevator once, with his supportive therapy group cheering him on. The camera takes us inside the elevator as we watch Bill succeed. Upon exiting, his fear is apparent, but his elation at successfully completing the challenge suggests that he is on his way to recovery. The segment ends with a brief interview with the therapist providing real-life exposure therapy. This has proven a very effective method for the treatment of phobias. Although Bill’s experience on the elevator may be rather mild compared to the reactions to exposure many phobia patients experience, his success is not atypical. Interpretive Comments The segment is equally useful in both the learning chapter and the treatment of mental disorders chapter. The exposure therapy depicted is part of the therapeutic intervention known as behavior modification. It is the outgrowth of work done on classical conditioning, particularly the extinction phase of classical conditioning. Exposure therapies seek to bring clients into proximity of a phobic situation or object and for the client to experience no harm while confronting this. After a number of exposures the connection between the phobic object and the original aversive stimuli will be broken. Discussion Questions: 1. Why might the therapist in this segment have chosen group therapy for the treatment of her phobic patients, versus individual sessions? 2. In many cases, someone in Bill’s position would not be ready for full exposure therapy immediately after entering treatment. What are some methods the therapist might have used to build up to the elevator ride? 3. Everyone is afraid of something. Common fears include spiders, snakes, heights, or darkness. When does a fear become a phobia, in need of treatment? 4. Why are many fears, such as spiders or snakes, so prevalent among humans? How might certain phobias be adaptive?

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Treating OCD: Exposure and Response Prevention Length: 7:15 minutes File Name: 249_OCD.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology Source: “Who’s Normal Anyway?” Obsessions (BBC Motion Gallery)

Description In continuing the case of Stephanie who is suffering OCD, this program introduces one of the major forms of psychotherapy—cognitive-behavior therapy. Stephanie’s entire house is subject to a decontamination ritual that is as compulsive as the one she applies to herself. Stephanie’s treatment began with medication but it did not alleviate her obsessions. A clinician comes to her house to begin cognitive-behavior therapy. Under the therapist’s guidance, Stephanie retrieves mail from the box on her front porch, something she has not done for a year. The doctor asks her to assess how anxious she feels. Stephanie fears contamination from the envelopes that someone else has licked to close. The therapist’s goal is to expose Stephanie to the situations that elicit her anxiety but then prevent her from practicing the compulsive cleaning rituals that have helped her contain it. With the continuous support and encouragement of the therapist Stephanie opens a letter. She now feels contaminated and her distress is obvious. Although she could not now touch her son Jake, she is able to touch the back of the couch. The therapist explains to Stephanie that the exposure therapy helps her to experience the feared things that she has been avoiding. Again with support, Stephanie spreads the germs from the letter all around the couch. Rather surprisingly, she now also wants to approach Jake. Although she experiences strong conflict, she picks up Jake and places him on the coach. After nine therapy sessions, Stephanie is much improved. On an outdoor walk she allows Jake to explore the environment freely. She expresses relief but is in some conflict over whether she is totally free of obsessions and compulsions. Interpretive Comments Cognitive-behavior therapy attempts to alter both the way people think (cognitive therapy) and the way they act (behavior therapy). Stephanie’s therapist is clearly using exposure therapy, a classical conditioning strategy, to help her overcome her OCD. By experiencing the feared things she has been avoiding (touching the couch and eventually Jake) she becomes less anxiously responsive to what formerly terrified her. Discussion Questions 1. How do the basic principles of conditioning explain the effectiveness of Stephanie’s therapy? 15   

2. What might be other effective ways of treating Stephanie’s OCD?

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When Treatment Leads to Execution: Mental Health and the Law Length: 7:05 minutes File Name: 250_Treament_Execution.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Video Tool Kit for Introductory Psychology, Vol. 2 Source: “Doctor’s Dilemma” 60 Minutes (CBS News) Description Students are typically fascinated by questions about the relationship between psychological disorder and criminal behavior. You may want to present this troubling case study while discussing issues of mental competence, treatment, and punishment. The case also raises important questions about the death penalty. Ten years ago, Claude was sentenced to death for the brutal murder of a 16-year-old boy. While he awaited execution, the court appointed attorney Carla Ryan to handle his appeal. Questioning Claude’s sanity, she asked the court for a psychiatric evaluation of her client. Both the doctor that Carla selected and the one chosen by the state found that the death-row inmate was not competent. Thus the court, unable to execute Claude, sent him to the state hospital where chief psychiatrist Jerry Dennis diagnosed him as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Claude could only be executed if he recovered from the disorder. His treatment was the responsibility of Dr. Dennis, who had taken the Hippocratic oath promising to do no harm. Furthermore, if he medicated Claude he would have violated the American Medical Association’s code of ethics, which states physicians should not treat patients to restore their competence so that they can be executed. Dr. Dennis placed Claude on a low dose of medication, which would alleviate his suffering but not restore his competence. Arizona’s Attorney General sought another doctor to treat Claude. Nelson Bennett, a psychiatrist from Georgia, was brought onto the case to answer the question of whether Claude was suffering and thus could be treated. Instead of answering that question, Bennett found him competent. The judgment nullified the diagnoses of four other psychiatrists. Although the matter is now out of Dr. Dennis’s hands, he worries that Claude may be put to death even though he is not competent and has no idea of what it means to be executed. Carla Ryan’s effort to get Claude’s sentence changed to life imprisonment failed. If necessary, she intends to appeal his case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Interpretive Comments A United States Department of Justice study found that about 16 percent of the U.S. inmate population suffers from severe psychological disorders. Claude’s case is not unique. Charles Singleton was executed by the state of Arkansas after being forcibly medicated with antipsychotic drugs in order to make him mentally competent so that he could then be put to death. In a Texas case, Larry Robison was twice hospitalized for paranoid schizophrenia. When his insurance coverage expired, he was discharged. He subsequently killed five people and was executed.

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More generally, many people who have been executed or who are presently on death row are limited by mental retardation or motivated by delusional voices. Historically, the insanity defense requires proof that the defendant was incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong at the time the crime was committed. In some jurisdictions, the defense must establish that the defendant was unable to control his behavior at the time of the offense. To be mentally competent to be executed, death row inmates must understand why they have received the death penalty and the effect that the penalty will have. In discussing whether the death penalty deters homicide, you might note that research indicates that states with the penalty do not have lower homicide rates. After instituting the death penalty, states do not see their rates drop. Furthermore, homicide has not increased in states that have abandoned the death penalty. Nonetheless, the U.S. Supreme Court persists in maintaining “the death penalty undoubtedly is a significant deterrent.” Discussion Questions 1. Are people who suffer from a psychological disorder responsible for their behavior? Explain your answer. 2. What do you believe should be done in Claude’s case? 3. Do you favor the death penalty? Why or why not?

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Therapeutic Effectiveness: The Placebo Effect Length: 6:59 minutes File Name: 251_Therapeutic_Effectiveness.mp4 Original Worth Collection: New Description In the 1960s, Cedric had great success racing automobiles in his native England. After he emigrated to Canada 20 years ago, Parkinson’s disease struck. Movement became difficult and he now takes 16 to 20 pills daily to regain control of his body. Cedric was one of the volunteers in Jon Stossel’s studies of medication for Parkinson’s sufferers at the University of British Columbia. The standard treatment for the illness is a drug that stimulates the brain to release dopomine, a brain chemical that helps control movement. Each patient in Stossel’s study received three or four injections, one of which was an inert substance, a placebo. Patients knew that one of the injections was inert but not which one it was. PET scans assessed the brain’s response to each injection. In some patients, including Cedric, Stossel was amazed to find that the release of dopamine to the inert substance was as strong as it was to the regular medications. Stossel explains that dopamine is intimately involved in reward mechanisms in the brain and the placebo effect involves a strong expectation of benefit. Thus, on careful reflection, its association with dopamine release is not so surprising. Interestingly, in Cedric’s case, the placebo released dopamine in precisely the same place as the standard medication, that is, in the part of the brain that controls movement. Indeed careful testing found that in response to the placebo, Cedric’s major symptoms were relieved. Interpretive Comments The placebo effect is well documented with pain, depression, and anxiety. The research findings covered in this program indicate that placebos can affect not only human experience and behavior but the brain itself. They provide an extraordinary example of the mind controlling the body as expectations materially affect the physical outcome. Remarkably an inert substance has the same physiological and behavioral effects as standard medication. You may want to remind students of how investigators control for the placebo effect in their research by using the double-blind procedure. Discussion Questions 1. Can you share any examples of how your expectations, either positive or negative, have impacted your behavior and/or outcomes? 2. Why is knowledge of the placebo effect important in conducting scientific research? How do investigators control for its effect? 3. How important do you think the placebo effect is in understanding the effects of psychotherapy?

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Electroconvulsive Therapy Length: 5:11 minutes File Name: 252_Electroconvulsive.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This clip discusses the use of electroconvulsive therapy for severely depressed patients. ECT is used on patients who do not respond to conventional methods of treatment. At the beginning of electroconvulsive therapy the patient is put to sleep and then given a dose of muscle relaxant. An electric shock is then administered for .5 to 4 seconds. ECT produces a seizure that needs to last 25 to 120 seconds to be effective Patients typically receive 6 to 10 treatments over the course of 2 to 3 weeks. Following ECT treatments patients may show confusion or loss of memory for recent events. These deficits, however, are temporary and long term memory loss is rare. Mary, a depressed woman, is used as an example of a person helped by electroconvulsive therapy. ECT was used to quickly and effectively reverse Mary’s severe depression and constant thoughts of suicide. Interpretive Comments This segment is appropriate for lectures on abnormal psychology or treatment for mental disorders. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a treatment for clinical depression. It is used only in situations where the person suffering from the depression is an imminent risk to themselves or in cases where antidepressant drugs are not efficacious. ECT is used sparingly due to the fact that it produces seizures in the individuals who receive it. Also, memory deficits for events closely preceding the treatment are reported. Currently, ECT is less traumatizing than it was in the past due to the fact that only one electrode is used on one of the patient’s temples and the amount of current that is passed through the person’s brain is greatly reduced.

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Schizophrenia Length: 5:18 minutes File Name: 253_Schizophrenia.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive Description This clip discusses the medical treatment of schizophrenia. In the 1950s, chlorpromazine was a drug that was given to many patients plagued with a variety of mental disturbances. While chlorpromazine was not very useful in treating some mental disorders, it was extremely effective in treating schizophrenia. Following the advent of chlorpromazine, many other drugs have been developed that help schizophrenic symptoms. All of these medications seem to have one thing in common; they act on the neurotransmitter dopamine. This discovery led to a theory of schizophrenia that suggests that schizophrenics suffer from excessive activity at dopaminergic synapses. These medications alleviate many patients’ symptoms by blocking dopamine receptors and normalizing the chemistry of the brain. The effectiveness of antipsychotic medications is demonstrated by showing two separate interviews with Augustine, a young schizophrenic patient: one interview done before medication, and one interview completed after four weeks of treatment with medication. Placement This segment is useful with lectures on abnormal psychology. Schizophrenia is described in this segment through a case study of an individual who has the disorder. The most effective treatment for the disorder, anti-psychotic drugs, is discussed. These drugs are dopamine antagonists and thus slow down that rate of activity in dopamine pathways in the brain. The history of treatment of schizophrenia is also briefly discussed. The segment could also be used with lectures dealing with treatments of mental disorders, since treatments are discussed throughout much of the clip. Finally, the clip could be used with physiological psychology lectures, since the physiological underpinnings of schizophrenia are discussed in some detail.

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Schizophrenia: New Definitions, New Therapies Length: 8:16 minutes File Name: 254_Schizophrenia_New_Therapies.mp4 (also in Psychological Disorders as 229_Schizophrenia.mp4) Original Worth Collection: New (2012) Description Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder characterized by a disruption in the balance of emotions and thinking. During schizophrenic episodes, sufferers lose touch with reality and experience distorted beliefs, perceptions, and thought processes. Despite advances in our understanding of its causes and treatments, schizophrenia is still commonly misunderstood. This program answers some of the questions about what schizophrenia is, what causes it, and what abnormalities exist in the brains of individuals who suffer from schizophrenia. Tyrone Cannon makes an important distinction between a disease and a syndrome. Schizophrenia, he says, is considered a syndrome because it involves a set of symptoms that appear differently in different people and tend to fluctuate over time. Furthermore, symptoms caused by a syndrome do not have an established cause. Schizophrenia sufferers often experience a combination of positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, and racing thoughts) and negative symptoms (disorganized thoughts, reduced motivation, and lack of emotion). “Positive” refers to the presence of inappropriate behaviors, whereas “negative” refers to the absence of appropriate behaviors. In people with schizophrenia, delusional beliefs can be thought of as rational explanations for unusual experiences. Auditory hallucinations, which are the most common, can range from mildly irritating to extremely debilitating, especially when the voices deliver derogatory or disturbing messages. Studies have indicated a relationship between schizophrenia and brain abnormalities. Cannon explains that subtle reductions in gray matter and decreases in the integrity of white matter are thought to contribute to disconnectedness among different parts of the brain. When aspects of cognition get isolated, the result is scattered thinking and the inability to coordinate the cognitive processes needed to complete the simplest of tasks. It is also believed that exposure to certain viruses in utero may cause schizophrenia. In the final scene, Cannon points out the importance of reducing the stigmatization of schizophrenia so that more sufferers will seek treatment. Discussion Questions 1. What are some methods of treatment used on schizophrenia patients? 2. Historically, how was schizophrenia viewed? 3. How is schizophrenia diagnosed? 4. What genetic abnormalities are thought to cause schizophrenia? 22   

The Therapeutic Effect of Antipsychotic Drugs Length: 2:20 minutes File Name: 255_Therapeutic_Effect.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: The Brain: Second Edition, Thirteen, WNET, and Worth Publishers Description This segment offers an example of a positive outcome from the use of antipsychotic drugs. The segment begins with a therapeutic session with a patient named Augustine who is not currently on medication. The patient appears unkempt, “down,” and describes his frustration with nonsensical “thoughts going across [his] head.” The therapist asks how he feels about beginning his new medication and Augustine expresses his anticipation to return to drug therapy even though he is unaware of the name or type of drug he will be taking. We then see Augustine a month later, after having begun his regimen of antipsychotic medication. He is now clean-cut and shaven, and can easily talk about the way he felt when, as he says, he was suffering from delusions. The therapist asks him what he sees in store for his future and Augustine says he thinks he will get a job, a significantly more positive outlook than one month before. Interpretive Comments This segment is useful in lectures on either abnormal psychology or treatments of mental disorders. It covers the symptoms of schizophrenia when the patient is without treatment and then shows the change in behavior after the onset of treatment with an antipsychotic drug. Thus both the mental disorder of schizophrenia and its treatment are portrayed. Discussion Questions: 1. The development of antipsychotic medication has created a number of changes in the way we treat schizophrenia, as well as in the way we view mental disorders in general. Describe these changes. 2. Is the overuse of drug therapy in treating psychotic patients a problem in our country today? Why or why not? 3. Do you think Augustine’s experience with antipsychotic drugs is realistic? Typical? Why or why not?

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Undesired Effects of Conventional Antipsychotic Drugs Length: 1:00 minutes File Name: 256_Undesired_Effects.mp4 Original Worth Collection: Digital Media Archive, Second Edition Source: Madness: Brainwaves (BBC Worldwide Americas, Inc.)

Description In contrast to the previous segment, this segment illustrates the potential problems with the use of drug therapy. It begins with an interview with the author of The Loony Bin Trip, Kate Millet. Millet describes the negative side effects of Thorazine and the mind-numbing feeling when taking the drug. The segment continues with a look at the permanent effects of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs, including severe disorders of muscular coordination. This segment mentions the overuse of drug therapy with psychotic patients, particularly in mental hospitals. A comparison of this segment with the last illustrates the two sides of the debate for the use of antipsychotic drugs in treating mental illness. Placement This segment is useful for lectures on the treatment of mental disorders. It portrays the negative side effects of the use of antipsychotic drugs. These side effects are very important to note since many schizophrenic patients stop taking their medication while they are living outside of the hospital setting and lose their ability to cope with everyday responsibilities and become homeless. Discussion Questions 1. In the early 1900s, lobotomy was a typical treatment for schizophrenic patients. We know today that it was, in most cases, ineffective and even harmful. Today, the introduction of a new drug or treatment evolves under much more scrutiny. How is a new drug or treatment introduced and proven? 2. What are some alternatives to drug treatment for schizophrenics? Are they effective? Why or why not? 3. What role should the schizophrenic patient have in making decisions regarding their own treatment? Are they typically given that authority?

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