Dear Students:
CLICK HERE to be whisked away to Discovery Health's web site to take an Emotional Intelligence test. As discussed in class, such tests purport to measure your ability to:
1. know your emotions
2. manage your emotions
3. motivate yourself
4. recognize emotions in others, and
5. handle relationships.
For more information Emotional Intelligence (including the criticisms), CLICK HERE.
Dear Students:
Please click the links below to download either the Stress Scale for Youth, or the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (for adults). Both are designed to provide you with insight into your level of stress, and help you decide whether it's time to take steps to cope better. Keep in mind that we can be under great stress and not even notice it, so don't assume that you'll know when you're at risk.
Dear Students:
CLICK HERE to take an online version of the Jenkins Activity Survey, an introspective measure that will allow you to test whether you fit into the category of Type A or Type B personality. This measure is based on research by Jenkins, Ayzanski, & Rosenman (1971), and consists of just 30 items.
More information on Type A and Type B personalities can be found HERE.
Enjoy!
-- Sheldon
Dear Students:
Click the link below to read an interesting article from Skeptic about research on nonhuman primate communication. For decades we've heard conflicting reports about efforts to teach chimps and gorillas (and sometimes orangutans) to "talk" using sign language, message boards, and other means. In the early 1970s, the answer seemed to be that it was possible that they might actually have the capacity to express themselves on something approaching a human level of communication. Since that time, the research has been criticized in terms of its methods, research design, conclusions and, in some cases, even its very authenticity!.
It is with a heavy heart that I inform you tonight of the passing of my dear friend, and friend of the college, Magda Brown, who passed away late last night. She had been hospitalized for some time due to a recent injury, and at the age of 93, it was more than her body could take.
Magda visited Ohlone College on several occasions, and was one of the most popular guests in our Ohlone Psychology Club Speaker Series. A survivor of the Holocaust, she devoted the past several decades of her life to fighting against the rise in Holocaust denial around the world, and to spreading her message of love and acceptance to everyone she met. She was a tireless educator, and her calendar was always incredibly packed, sending her traveling to schools, colleges and universities, church groups, mosques, temples, and public auditoriums of all sorts, making clear in each of her talks, “I do not tell you to hate, or not to hate. All I ask is this: think before you do so. Always think.”
Perhaps no better example of the success of B.F. Skinner, the training of kamikaze pigeons in Project Orcon in the 1940s and 1950s showed how Operant Conditioning could be used in some of the most extreme conditions imaginable. In it, Skinner shaped the behavior of the birds so well that they could actually guide missiles toward their target (ultimately killing the birds, of course, but they didn't know that).
CLICK HERE to be taken to a website that covers the project in detail, including strategic blueprints, as well as a short video clip that explains its history and problems.
Have you ever wished for a better memory? I think it's a very common (perhaps ubiquitous) human desire. Many might even go so far as to envy those who have "perfect recall," the ability to store and retrieve nearly every experience, fact, thought, etc.
As with many such cases, however, the reality of perfect recall, often a result of Hyperthymesia, is far from the rosy picture many of us imagine. The case of Jill Price (The Woman Who Can't Forget) illustrates this quite well. Studied by researchers for years, always under a pseudonym, Price has marveled memory specialists with her ability to recite dates and facts down to the smallest detail, with little or no error. She even corrects entries in encyclopedias and other authoritative sources.
CLICK HERE to read a report about this fascinating woman, and watch the embedded video for additional details about how this "gift" can also carry a "curse."
Click the video below to watch a short documentary about Jill and her life history.
As we will discuss, one of the world's leading researchers in Memory is a psychologist named Elizabeth Loftus. Professor Loftus has published hundreds of articles, reporting the results of work with tens of thousands of subjects' memories. The big lesson from this research is that memory production is "constructive" and maleable. It is not a perfect reproduction of the experience, as many people assume.
Dr. Loftus has been a consultant, or testified, in hundreds of criminal cases that involve memory-based testimony, leading to a great interest in her work, but also a good deal of backlash and hate because she stands up for the truth, even with unpopular defendants (e.g., Harvey Weinstein).
CLICK HERE to listen to my ShelShocked Podcast episode on memory, which includes an interview with Elizabeth Loftus!
Continue reading "Remember The Lessons of Elizabeth Loftus..." »
Dear Psychology 112 Students:
Please follow the instructions below in EMAILING your Course Papers to me. Failure to follow them perfectly could result in your paper being counted as late or not graded at all.
Continue reading "Submitting Social Psychology Course Papers..." »
Back in the 1950s, psychologist Leon Festinger conducted a series of experiments that showed how people's beliefs are affected by Cognitive Dissonance, a psychological and emotional reaction in which people experience negative emotions because they have performed a behavior that is in conflict with their beliefs. Festinger set out to demonstrate that we unconsciously alter our beliefs so that they match with behaviors in order to avoid Cognitive Dissonance. He did this by showing that people's beliefs about a boring task could be altered by getting them to tell others that the task was actually fun. CLICK HERE to see a short educational clip about this landmark study.
Festinger later became fascinated by a doomsday cult known as The Seekers. He knew that their leader, a Chicago housewife named Dorothy Martin. Ms. Martin had amassed a large following of people convinced that she was communicating with beings in outer space through automatic writing. These beings supposedly told her of a great and terrible flood that would wipe out all of humanity, later revealing that she and her followers would be spared. The date for this end-of-the-world prophecy had come and gone without incident several times, but the core of her followers remained dedicated to her teachings and stayed with her.
Festinger took the unprecedented step of joining the cult (under false pretenses) in order to better witness and record their reactions during the next scheduled date. He later wrote about his experiences in a book titled "When Prophecy Fails," and introduced the scientific community to the term Cognitive Dissonance. As Festinger predicted, members of The Seekers unconsciously altered their beliefs in a manner that allowed them to resolve this internal conflict, and giving themselves "permission" to stay in the cult even though the failed predictions should have (logically) proved Ms. Martin a fraud.
Dear Social Psychology Students,
Click the link below to download and take a simple version of the Johari Window. It's probably best to take the test before reading about what it's meant to measure.
Download CH 07 - Johari Window Handouts
After you receive your results, CLICK HERE to read more about the Johari Window and what it means.
As with any such tool, you should use critical thinking when evaluating its validity, both in general, as well as specifically as it applies to you. I also invite you to learn more about the creators of this measure (Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham), as well as its history and development.
Have fun,
-- Sheldon
Dear Students:
CLICK HERE to be taken to a story about a young boy with the rare disorder "Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhydrosis" (CIPA) a 
condition that leaves him unable to feel pain, or to regulate his body heat.
At least, that's what the proponents of BackMasking would have you believe. This phenomenon is not only predicated upon the belief that we can be affected by subliminal input, but even more outlandishly, that we can be affected by BACKWARD subliminal input.
CLICK HERE to be taken to a web site where you can hear excerpts from songs of the accused, played forward and backward. Numerous music artists throughout the years have been accused of "corrupting America's youth" with messages of death, destruction, suicide, and evil supposedly hidden within their music.
The best defense against the nonsense of BackMasking lies in how difficult it is to determine what the message is before reading the "reverse lyrics." An area of the brain responsible for language comprehension (the Wernicke's Area) creates this auditory phenomenon. Ever on the lookout for input, the Wernicke's Area only needs the slightest suggestion to give us the perception of language. With an almost endless supply of recordings to search, it is almost certain that a combination of sounds will present themselves that are close enough to actual words to be perceived as language, especially once we are prompted to listen for them.
CLICK HERE to be taken to a wonderful web site full of illusion
s that will test your perceptive abilities and make you better aware of just how the brain's perceptive abilities work (and don't work) to give us a sense of the world around us. For a preview of such wonders, click the image to the right and stare at it for a moment. Although your brain may tell you otherwise, I promise it's not actually moving.
Dear Psychology Students: 
Click here to read an article on the creation of the "Mosquito Noise," a 17 kilohertz sound file that was created to discourage young "troublemakers" from hanging out in front of stores, in construction zones, or in other places that they are creating trouble or putting themselves in danger.
Its genius lies in the fact that, generally speaking, only those under the age of about 25 can hear the noise (which I understand is quite shrill and annoying). Presumably, those over 25 years of age are less likely to make trouble, and can go about their business in a mature fashion. It may seem a bit "age-ist" and discriminatory, but initial reports are that it seems to work better than constantly calling the police.
In an interesting side note, clever youth have begun to download this file as a "silent" ring tone for their cell phones, allowing them to receive calls without the "old folks" knowing it. In the game between Youth and Age, I'd say the score is a 1:1 tie, then.
To download file, click below.
Sadly, most of our education lacks a thorough review the contributions of gay men and women in our curriculum (the way such is, thankfully, done for Chicano and African American History).
Until this is done, I offer the following information for my students.
Dear Students:
Please CLICK HERE to be taken to the home page of The Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender and Reproduction. Once there, you can learn about the institute, its founder, and the ongoing research being conducted.
Afred Kinsey's contribution to the field of Human Sexuality research cannot be understated. In a time when social norms about sexuality were such that the topic was not discussed, research on human sexual behavior was scant. Kinsey's nonjudgmental approach and fearless activism in the name of scientific investigation helped us understand our sexuality better, and set the stage for many later researchers such as Masters and Johnson, Sandra Bem, Simon LeVay, J. Michael Bailey, and countless others.
To watch the trailer for the 2004 film "Kinsey," click here.
The life story of David Reimer is a fact that reads like fiction. It regards one of the most personal and mysterious aspects of human life: gender. The detailes of the story were recently released in a book by John Colapinto, "As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl."
Continue reading "David Reimer - The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl..." »
Dear Students:
In 2010, I was honored to receive an invitation to become part of a collaborative effort to educate the public about the importance of sleep. This group, now called the Stanford Sleepwell So
ciety, operates under the auspices of one of the biggest names in sleep research, Stanford University professor/researcher William C. Dement, MD, PhD.
In a previous semester, several members of the Ohlone Psychology Club and some of my other students attended a talk by Dr Dement.
Continue reading "William C. Dement - World's Leading Sleep Researcher..." »
Dear General Psychology Students:
Please click the links below to download the Sleep Debt Measure and the KEY which will allow you 
More information on the importance of sleep can be accessed by clicking HERE.
Download ch_06_sleep_debt_measure.doc
Download ch_06_sleep_debt_key.doc
Since insomnia is often discussed as a possible cause of poor sleep hygiene, I offer the fact sheet below to help you understand the various diagnoses, effects, and possible treatments for this serious problem.
James Randi's reputation as a magician and escape artist is a matter of world renown. Although he occasionally still performs small feats, most of his current efforts involve his work as a tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Utilizing a keen scientific mind, Randi - as he prefers to be called - examines claims of paranormal powers and activities all over the world.
In 1971, psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted what is now one of the best known experiments in the history of psychology: The Stanford Prison Experiment. Testing the power of the situation, Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology laboratory at Stanford University, randomly assigning a few dozen volunteers to the roles of Prisoner or Prison Guard. The study was scheduled to last for two weeks, but had to be called off by Day 6 because it had gotten seriously out of control. At least, according to Zimbardo...
CLICK HERE to read a short, but fiery, op-ed piece by Carlo Prescott (the ex-con who helped Zimbardo construct his mock prison), in which he accuses Zimbardo of lying about how the study was set up, the meaning behind the behaviors exhibited by the guards, and several other important points.
CLICK HERE to watch a video, describing the newest controversy about the Stanford Prison Experiment, much of which calls into question the results.
CLICK HERE to watch an introductory video about the study, and visit Dr. Zimbardo's web site for more information.
A few years ago, I was asked by the James Randi Educational Foundation to contribute to part of their educational efforts. The result of this collaboration was three chapters in their e-book, "Magic in the Classroom." In it, I wrote chapters on the following topics:
Click here to visit the download page where you can get a FREE copy in multiple formats.
Dear Students:
Many of you laughed when I mentioned the Flat Earth Society in class (and it is, indeed, laughable). But believe me, I'm not kidding. There are litereally thousands of otherwise normal, everyday folks around the world who believe that our planet is flat.
This view of the world is ancient, and derives from staggering ignorance. Even Christopher Columbus knew that the world was a sphere (regardless of the children's tale that says otherwise). To find people who believed this, you'd have to go back much further than the 1400s. In fact, it was the Greek philosopher Pythagoras who first proposed a spherical Earth in the 6th century (the 500s)!
CLICK HERE to read a report about the Flat Earthers and their ridiculous beliefs. Then, consider what other beliefs people hold (homophobia, Creationism, sexism, anti-GMO, racial superiority, vaccine denial), as well as any that you yourself may hold that aren't supported by the facts.
I'm pleased to announce that my long-awaited podcast has finally aired. Each week, my co-host Amanda DeVaus (from the Australian Skeptics) will cover a different topic from science or skepticism, and feature interviews from famous scientists, authors, critical thinkers, etc.
NOW AVAILABLE in the iTunes store! Just search for "ShelShocked," then subscribe so that episodes will download automatically each week FREE.
CLICK HERE to join our Facebook fan page where each new episode will post, and related information can be found.
In addition, you can listen to (or download) episodes directly from my website HERE.
Dear Students:
I'm happy to report that Operation Bumblebee (San Jose) was a rousing success. Several of us to took part have written up articles about the experience, and some are already taking part in podcast interviews to spread the word. In addition to tricking self-described psychic Chip Coffey into connecting with our fake dead relatives, we also hoped to spark skeptical activism in our community. When you have a moment, click the link below to read (or listen to) my take on the evening. It was an emotionally exhausting experience, but very gratifying, nonetheless.
CLICK HERE to read a report of the evening's events (also available in audio format on that page). We have some interest from several major publications and a TV show, and I'll keep you posted about those as they develop.
Stay skeptical!
