Banality of Evil

From a writing prompt on our Honors Psychology Discussion Board:

Q: Think of a time when you resisted conformity or obedience.  What were the reasons behind resisting conformity or obedience? If you were a participant in Milgram’s study, would you have obeyed the experimenter? Why or why not?
 
I have resisted conformity and obedience many, many times in this life. Generally, my reasons were a mix of practicality, ethics, and sheer orneriness.

Better Living Through Chemistry

From a writing prompt on our Honors Psychology Discussion Board:

Why do people first begin using drugs? Because it is easier for teens to buy drugs than alcohol. Ba dum ching! No, not really. While the above is sadly true, there is no one line answer for this question. I believe that a variety of factors play into the decision to use drugs, assuming that illegal intoxicants are what we are focusing on.

Our first exposures to drugs as a concept are as small children. “Take this,” we instruct our children. “It will make you feel better.” Then we gulp a caffeinated, sugary soda to prepare to stay up all night with them. We begin our mornings with coffee and end our evenings with a nightcap. We celebrate with wine and champagne. We step out to smoke a cigarette while the television blares out commercials advertising magical pills to fix all of life’s problems, from depression to erectile dysfunction. We take those pills, and our children see it. We prime our children for 'better living through chemistry'. Is it any surprise that they seek out what we show them?

Grand Theft Science

From a writing assignment for Honors Psychology:
 

Does media violence cause aggression? This question is as old as media itself, with medieval priests opining to the people that reading and listening to unholy things would lead to unholy behavior. The common man would do better to stick to the Holy Writ and Passion Plays and to leave the rest alone, lest they be led astray. This question comes from today’s priests in the form of psychiatrists and other medical miracle men holding up or putting down television and video games, with both sides arguing vociferously and with the stakes just as high today as then.

On Language Development

From a writing prompt on our Honors Psychology Discussion Board:

I chose to read about Genie, the ‘wild child’, because I had previously seen the film ‘Mockingbird Don’t Sing’, which was based on her life and case history, from the point of view of her predominant worker, Dr. Susan Curtiss, a trained linguist. As I followed links around the Internet, going everywhere from linguistic case studies to film reviews; I began to wonder how environment affects language acquisition. Everything I read focused on the negative impact of a linguistically lacking environment, but I did not see anything that considered the theoretical positive effects of a linguistically rich environment.

On Adulthood

From a writing prompt on our Honors Psychology Discussion Board:

When we think of adulthood, we first think of chronological age. An 18-year-old is an adult, for civil legal purposes. They may sign contracts, marry, vote, drive without restriction, bring a suit in court, and enjoy most of their majority rights. This is not an encompassing freedom, as the state still holds some rights in abeyance, such as the right to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages, hold certain licenses, and run for certain offices. However, in regards to criminal legal purposes, people under the age of 18 (usually at least 16 but as young as 13 in some states) are frequently 'tried as adults', and sentenced as though they were chronologically older. So legally speaking, an adult can chronologically range from 13 to 35.

Pavlov's Nightmare

            Advertising is pervasive in our culture. In the beginning, advertising was direct. Burma Shave billboards populated roadsides across America and athletes advised parents and children to choose Wheaties, so they could grow big and strong. These ads were successful, but not nearly as much as today’s advertisements. Since these early days, companies have spent billions of dollars to determine exactly how to convince consumers to purchase their products. Those billions of dollars have purchased extremely sophisticated methods of delivering their message to the minds of consumers, including classical and operant conditioning. Using these techniques, companies can easily train consumers to choose or continue to choose their products, and to sway them from their competitor’s products. These companies use both classical and operant conditioning techniques to train us to purchase their products.

Thoughts on Behavioral Genetics

From a writing prompt on our Honors Psychology Discussion Board:
 
Behavioral genetics has always been of immense interest to me. Are emotions merely chemicals and firing neurons? Are we wasting our time on environmental solutions to societal problems? Eugenics...? It's a very interdisciplinary field, covering biology, genetics, pharmacology, psychology, the Human Genome Project, and even history.