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Link and Reflection

After reading about and discussing Kenneth Clark's work in Brown v. Board of Education, it led me to question how psychology's role in the courts has rapidly grown. Before the Social Science Brief by Clark, the courts never appealed to psychologists for their opinion or testimony. However, the use of psychologists as expert witnesses to testify in court has become a common practice. I think that psychologists can be used in some instances, but sometimes I think it's wrong. For example, the use of psychological studies in Brown v. Board of Education was valid and not a far-fetched argument. The use of psychologists in Dan White's "Twinkie Defense" after the murder of Harvey Milk was ridiculous, and it worked! I feel like juries are unfairly persuaded by psychologists discussing testimony that they have no previous knowledge of.
So where Kenneth Clark's work was valuable and sound, it has led to a practice in our field that I am uncomfortable with. I think that the overuse of psychological expert testimony in court is giving the field of psychology a bad name, and psychologists need to restrict what they testify about. But, this is easier said than done when attorneys hand over huge sums of money for expert testimony. This is another problem in a scientific field that is still young and quickly growing. The link below is an article about why nonforensic psychologists should not participate in forensice investigations. The author points out numerous problems and difficulties such as stretching the truth and unfair persuasion. This is just something to think about this week.

http://www.reidpsychiatry.com/columns/14%20Reid%2003-03%20pp163-166.pdf

Seth

Possible questions for Final Exam

Possible Final Exam Questions (the exam will likely only consist of items from this list, but not all of them will appear on the exam):

1. List the four basic elements involved in every structuralist study and provide an example of each using a single primary source.
2. Define the following terms: daimon, psyche, eidolon, heros, manes, lares, numen.
3. What are the three phases that make up a liminal ritual as described by Arnold van Gennep?
4. List four specifications included in the rubric for a spell induction using the method of free association according to Freud.
5. Discuss the connections of gender and class to mind structure in the works of Titchener.
6. How do the representations of mind in Greek literature reflect the culture of Greece at the time in terms of the theory of boundary mobility and the theory of stasis monitoring?
7. Compare and contrast prayers to the method of introspection.
8. What conclusions can we draw about gender issues in early 20^th Century America and Europe by examining the representation of witches in each society?
9. How might a lack of unemployment mobility be related to the emergence of behaviorism in a sedentary society?
10. Name three psycho-bio-social cults from the current hip-hop world.
11. Describe several reasons why a person might want to contact the dead or alternatively the living dead during history and systems class (via either voice or text messaging).
12. When, why, and where, did the tradition of April Fool’s jokes begin?

April Fools Reflection

So, I was thinking about our conversation on Tuesday about psychology and social action. We discussed many famous studies that have enlightened us on different aspects of society, including group conforming, and segregation. What I guess I was wondering was if there really are any studies being conducted now, or recently, that in the future will be considered just as groundbreaking. What are psychologists doing today that will find their way into history of psychology books.

Now on a completely different topic, the reading that struck me the most was Leta Hollingworth's article on impelling women to have children. I'd like to connect this idea of society trying to manipulate women to bear children with a discussion I had in my Drugs and Behavior class about the right to tell a woman NOT to have children. We were talking about taking antipsychotics when pregnant and how that is a big no-no and whether or not a doctor has a right to say that a schizophrenic woman canNOT have a child. It is interesting how much the times have changed. Decades ago, as Hollingworth pointed out, society wanted nothing, but for woman to remain at home and give birth and raise their children. Nowadays, women and men are being prevented or told to not procreate, or maybe to consider adoption instead. Who are we to dictate whether or not a woman should or should not have a child.

April Fools Link

http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/clark-doll-test.jpg
Here is a picture of Clark with a small boy picking between the white and black dolls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg
This video is by a student who sort of tried to recreate Clark's original doll test. It's pretty interesting the reason one girl picks the white doll over the black doll.

reflection on MK-ULTRA info

I really thought class was interesting last week regarding the discussion of MK-ULTRA and how the CIA was able to use mind control on innocent people. Many think these actions are continuing today, and once again, we are just not aware of what exactly the government is doing.

These tests lasted at least 20 years, and from some people's testimony... more like 3 decades.

Some believe that these mind experiments led to the creation of MPD in patients. What do you think? Is this possible?

And I find it appalling that they used mixed methods of hypnosis along with LSD and other wonderful methods of drugging to conduct these experiments, when they clearly didn't know what the effects would be. Obviously, they didn't care, since they saw this as "helping our country."

I found this article informative, so if interested--have a glance...

http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/jewell.htm


So, do you think mind control is still being used today, but in different forms?

MK-ULTRA info

I found some interesting testimony on youtube from MK-ULTRA patients...check it out if interested, they are pretty short segments.... the reasoning "serving the country for a means of an end to communism" is what some of the patients were told...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ES8Bv0_8w


and some info from a former CIA operative

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i46RI2twVao

Check it out...