Topical Blog Week #1 (Due Thursday)

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TB1 -

By now you should have been able to log in and comment on the blog site. What we would like you to do now is to go to the following pages and read some of the blog posts left from the students in the class before you.

http://www.psychologicalscience.com/history/2012/12/week-16-final-assignment-1.html

and

http://www.psychologicalscience.com/history/2012/08/topical-blog-week-15-due-thursday-1.html

After reading the posts please answer the following:
Which posts did you like the best? Why?
Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? How so or why not?
Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?

Thanks,

--Dr. M

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35 Comments

Looking back at the posts that other classes have done make me think that this class may be more interesting than I originally thought. I read through some of the posts and one by beckabk caught my eye because she stated why it was important to learn about the history of psychology along with picking three main topics to talk about. I liked hers because I am also very interested in animal behavior and asylums. I find both those things fascinating. I may not always agree with animal experimentation, but the behaviors that animals emit are amazing. They can understand so much more than what people may give them credit for. I also have been interested in asylums because I honestly think that is one of the areas in our past that we made A LOT of mistakes. I think it is important to see where we started and where we have gotten to since the beginning of the mentally ill. I am excited to learn more about them.

I originally thought that this class would be fun at times and that I would probably enjoy some of the things we talked about because I do enjoy learning about history. I may not enjoy memorizing things, but I do enjoy history discussions. Looking at the posts has made me think that I will like this class a lot more than my first thoughts because it’s fun to get to understand why people did what they did and what was going through their heads at the time. Like with the asylums why did they think that doing that stuff to people was okay?

I am interested in learning more about asylums and Carl Rogers. I don’t know anything about him and from what I read he tried something different from other therapist and I want to no more about it. I think I mainly want to learn about how we have developed when dealing with the mentally ill because I know that we started out doing terrible unthinkable things to them and I am curious on the steps we have taken to get to where we are today as a society. I also am curious on the worldwide differences in how we treat the mentally ill.

EE

Within the first link, I found a post that I really liked. The first one was written by "csmith" on December 10th of last semester. In his/her final blog for the class, they started by discussing how intrigued they were by the high amounts of influence that church had on education. They talk about "church law" and if citizens did not abide by it, they were considered heretics. "Csmith" then goes on to discuss Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilee and their role in challenging the church by theorizing and eventually gaining evidence that suggested that the earth was indeed, not the center of the universe. I enjoyed this part of "csmith's" blog because the present argument of church and state is something that is dear to me. I refer to myself as spiritual rather than religious. While I respect and understand many religions of the world and particularly of America, I do not feel as though they should have any impact on the laws governed by our constitution. It was a nice surprise to see that this topic is touched upon during this class. However, to my regret, I was stunned at the realization of how long this argument of church and state has plagued modern civilization.

Secondly, under the topical blog for week 15, I found a blog by "dwhite". He/She discussed Eleanor Gibson and women's persistent struggle within the psychology field. I liked this blog for two reasons: because of the content (womens rights are important to me) and because of the writing style for it seemed similar to mine. From browsing other blog posts, I found others that touched on this topic and it was pleasing to me that other pscyh students realized that pscyhology is a male domininamt field. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is just important to consider how different research would be today if woman were prominent in the emergence of the field.

Reading this posts has definitely changed by perspective on what the history of pscyhology is. I had imagined it to boring, full of dates and names. However, although most of the blogs did have dates and names, I noticed that alot of their content was much deeper than that, hitting their personal philosphal views and beliefs on whatever they were discussing such as evoluation, the scope monkey trial, or Descartes on the Reflex and Mind-Body Interaction. I like how this class is for the most part, what we make it to be. Gving us the freedom to research whatever topic(s) strikes us most interesting, evident in the variety of blog post topics seen throughout these two links.

I like how this class is for the most part, what we make it to be. Giving us the freedom to research whatever topic(s) strikes us most interesting, evident in the variety of blog post topics seen throughout these two links.

I am interested in learning more about Gibson and the women's role in pscyhology. This topic is fairly new to me and I think it will be very fun and enlightening to learn about. Secondly, Darwin's theory of evolution is something that we have learned about since elementary. However, after reading the blog posts, I feel as though their is much more to it that I still have yet to learn. I am excited about this class will compliment the material that I will be learning in my biopsych class this semester as well.

CL

I liked jdannen post from the topical blog form week 15. The reason I chose this specific post is because of the topic and how elaborate this student was with their work. The topic was the future of psychology, this seemed interesting to me simply because I can becoming part of that history. Its a bit confusing to have a mind set of "today becoming history".
I can say that after reading some of these post my idea of what history of psychology is has changed. When I think of history, I think of dry material and facts. After reading these post helps me get an understanding of this class and some of the topics we will cover and I can say that it all seems interesting.
The topic I look forward to learning more about is the future of psychology. I think that one day people could possibly look at me or some of my peers as the history of psychology. And think that is really cool once you can wrap your mind around that aspect of it.

C.H.
One of the blogs that I liked or am most excited for is the blog in which we get to ask a grandparent or someone who’s of older age a list of questions. This is intriguing to me because I have always loved listening to elderly people tell stories or reading books from world war II and such, but I have never actually sat down and had questions listed out to ask them. Most of the time I just listen and let them talk, but I think being able to ask them multiple questions will bring out a lot more information and memories. I also already know that this assignment I going to bring about a lot more meaning then what I can imagine that just adds to my excitement.
One blog that stuck out to me talked about how in today’s world when someone says they are a “psychologists” it’s just as if someone said “Im an American”. To me this means that psychology has become so much more than what it used to be. At first I wasn’t all too excited about taking this class, I’m actually really big into certain areas of history but I just couldn’t understand what psychology and history had to offer; or if it would be offered in an interesting way. However, now in the back of my mind I feel like I’m going to end up surprising myself and completely loving the bind boggling of this class.
Some specific topics I ran across and seem to be interested in are, the clark doll study. This intrigued me because thinking back to that time frame I can see how such a study would be very important but also over looked or wanting to be ignored, but it also had me applying those findings to today’s world; yes things have changed but have they changed for the good, have they changed drastically enough, or is there really no change at all. Another topic was artificial intelligence, this has always been in the back of my mind because I have never really been one to keep up with technology and my dad and I have always talked about the things he had to what we have today and it’s really amazing and dreadful at the same time. Just looking at what’s already been done and knowing that at one point in time people thought that never would have been possible, so what’s to come in my future.

While reading through these blog posts I found three different posts I was interested in. The first one I found interesting was Beckabk. The part about how the mentally ill were mistreated is what stuck out to me. The mentally ill have always been treated differently than others but with time their treatment has improved tremendously. I knew they were mistreated before I read the blog however, I didn't know that they promoted "bloodletting" for those who were mentally ill. I didn't even know the term bloodletting before reading this post. The fact that people actually believed that by taking a significant amount of blood from their bodies would make them better astonishes me. I would love to learn more as to why they believed it would work.
Another blog that interested me was Savannah's. What she wrote about on the Kallikak Family fascinated me. Because the research was made into a book it will make it easier for me to read so I am excited to read more about it. The reason I find this interesting is because during my lifetime we have known that certain traits are inherited, so to think that people haven't always known that is intriguing.
The last blog post I found interesting was one written by MLannan about artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is something I don't ever think about or have ever thought about until I read this post. I am interested to learn more about how machines could have a thought process. I feel that it is a stepping stone for the human race but I also feel that it could also harm the human race if taken too far. I want to find out the history behind it and how it is helping us now.
Reading these posts has changed my view point on the history of psychology. I figured this class would be like all other history classes, boring. But after reading these I think this history class will be a lot more compelling than most. I feel that I will actually absorb and learn a lot more. I would like to learn more about artificial intelligence, and about whatever they were talking about in the posts about the church and its effect on education.

BR
From the first blog site I liked the post by KSkallerud that talked about Darwin’s theory of evolution. Learning about Darwin has always been interesting to me, and after reading his or hers post, I learned more about Darwin’s theory. For instance how his studies on individual differences contributed to comparative psychology and making it more well-known. I also really like how in-depth this post was about more than one topic, it made it a lot more intriguing to keep on reading than it would be if it was vague.

On the second blog site I found jdannen’s post to be interesting. I don’t know a lot about the future of psychology but after reading his post it made me want to learn more and got me excited to learn about it in class. I really liked his analogy about if you say you are a psychologist, how that it like saying you are an American. I never thought about it that way until I read this post!

These posts have made me more excited to be in this class and learn more about these topics. I think that the topics will also help tie into what I’ll be learning and studying in my other classes which will be nice! I’m interested in learning more about the future of psychology and artificial intelligence the most. They both caught my attention and got me interested the most apart from the other posts. The artificial intelligence is becoming a huge part of the world these days so it’ll be interesting to learn where it started and to compare it to how its progressed to today.

H.S.
After reading through some of the blog posts from the recent classes I found myself surprised by how interested I was in some of the topics. The students really seemed to reflect in many different ways and express some interesting viewpoints. One of my favorite blog posts that seemed to be a repeating favorite for many was about radical behaviorisms. Skinners idea that everything is predetermined. It will be very interesting to hear peoples viewpoints on this. I can imagine all the factors that play a role on this subject to be overwhelmingly ambiguous. I enjoy topics that do not necessarily have a right or wrong answer but yet make you push yourself to think outside of your box to find what you believe is correct. I also look forward to hearing other perspectives that may change my own. Church and education also seems to be a heavy topic that we can all relate to and discuss with experience. I enjoy learning about applicable subjects to my life and discussing the factors that each person has experienced. It was surprising to me to see how interested the students seemed in their blog posts, they all seem natural and educated on the topic. I feel that many students can easily come out of a course not being able to communicate what they learned, and this class will be different.
This reading didn’t change my perspective on history of psychology. I am interested in the history more than the general student and I knew by taking this class with otto I would learn in a different way. I have taking two of Kim’s courses and really enjoy being pushed in a different way than most university classes. I am looking forward to many of the topics stated above and others that will bring a new understanding of psychology.

After reading a few posts, I continued to read more and more of them. I found them incredibly interesting and they really got me excited for the class to begin. I tried to pick a favorite post, but when it came down to it, my favorite part about reading all these blog posts was the great variety in them all. Every student in the class seemed to have a different reason for enjoying the class. Even the posts that had a similar favorite topic, the reasoning behind it was all so different. Reguardless of how many different students took the class, they all enjoyed different parts of it for completely different reasons. For example "beckabk" really enjoyed learning about the Animal Behavior in Psychology and seeing how the Skinner's Puzzle- Box could determine operational conditioning, while "KN" found the book itself to be the best place for her to learn about the body and it's reaction to reflexes and terms such as the automatic stimulus-response action.
When I first enrolled in this class I was unsure of what to expect. To be honest I'm not sure if I had any expectations other than it would probable be boring, but I had to do what I had to do to get a degree. On the first day of class I listened to Dr. MacLin speak about his interpretation of the class and my hopes for an exciting time started to get higher. Now, after reading these posts I really have an idea of what I'm going to be learning about and I'm very happy with what I read. I think that most people really seemed to get a lot out of this class. I've always enjoyed history in the past and I look forward to continuing that.
After reading the posts from the previously class enrolled, I really would like to know more about Charles Darwin and his effect on the history of psychology as we know it. His theories and studies have seemly affected so much of our academic world. However, I have yet to really hear about what he has done for psychology. This would be extremely interesting to me.

initials please

I apologize for not replying to this sooner. My initials are AB and this is the account that I just setup

AK
I liked Blair Miller's post on Darwin. I didn't know much about Darwin except for the obvious. She put the information in a way that was easy to read but still packed full with facts. I also enjoyed caferacer8000's post on the treatment of mentally ill patients by Franz Anton Mesmer. I actually just learned about that today in abnormal psychology class and I find it interesting myself. It is interesting to me that we actually did things like electroshock therapy to people that we thought were mentally ill. Reading these posts hasn't changed my idea of what the history of psychology is because the information is the same as some that I have heard before. It has changed my idea of how to blog though. I am not sure how to blog and reading past posts helped me understand what I should be striving for. A topic that I am really interested in learning about is the treatment of the mentally ill. I have learned about it some from my social work classes but I would like to explore more. I like to see how far we have come from the past and how greatly our health care and treatment of the mentally ill in general has improved.

BG
I think the posts I liked the best were on the correlation between two important things like the church and its involvement in education. I think these blogs because they had so many different opinions on them. Each person who wrote about them pointed out something new about them and that the nice things about letting people express feelings on them. I think reading the blogs and todays class discussion will help me with my ideas on the history of psychology because it will open me up to looking at why ideas were in place and the pusher behind ideas and actions. It will help me not pick a side on the issues rather be in the middle and look at both sides of an issue. I think this class will also help me look at the third factor in correlations, and why things are places together; for example guns and mental health. I think after reading the blogs, there is going to be many things that interest me. I think the church and its influence on education is going to be a big one because just in my lifetime we are still taking the church out of education. When I grew up, we said the pledge of allegiance but just a few years after me, my brothers could not and did not say it in school because they band it.
Another thing I found interesting in the blogs was how many of the students posted that we are the future of psychology. I think this is even truer with psychologist being recognized even more by society and mental illnesses being acceptable in society as well. I think I am really going to like this class because we get to interest topics we like.

JN
I read Madeline Stenerson's final assignment blog post. I noticed that she happened to be most interested in the controversial topics, such as Skinner being anti theological, the fact (which I did not know) that little Albert was terminally ill and died when he was six, and evolution. I liked the fact that she was critical of Watson, because not only was it unethical of him to terrorize little Albert, but his work was also flawed because little Albert's terminal condition may have influenced his conditioning. She also mentioned the Scopes Monkey trial, however she did not go into much detail, and I would like to read further on that.

Blair Miller wrote a good post on the psychology of quitting smoking, which I also read. She briefly explained how addictions work and why nicotine is so addictive. This paragraph turned out to be just the introduction to her full topic, which is breaking habits. Smoking is one of the most notorious bad habits people have, which is why it was an appropriate introduction. Then, she talked about a very fascinating research study which was conducted at MIT, in which scientists manipulated a part of a rat's brain in an attempt to break the rat's habit of completing a particular maze.

Last year in one of my hybrid classes I was a little bit unenthusiastic about finding my own topics about which to write. However, I have realized that it was because I did not know how to search for interesting academic articles. I would google search any given topic and write about the first thing that popped up. I have since learned how to use academic sources, and I resolve to improve the quality of my posts as well as the subject matter.

J.N.
I read Madeline Stenerson's final assignment blog post. I noticed that she happened to be most interested in the controversial topics, such as Skinner being anti theological, the fact (which I did not know) that little Albert was terminally ill and died when he was six, and evolution. I liked the fact that she was critical of Watson, because not only was it unethical of him to terrorize little Albert, but his work was also flawed because little Albert's terminal condition may have influenced his conditioning. She also mentioned the Scopes Monkey trial, however she did not go into much detail, and I would like to read further on that.

Blair Miller wrote a good post on the psychology of quitting smoking, which I also read. She briefly explained how addictions work and why nicotine is so addictive. This paragraph turned out to be just the introduction to her full topic, which is breaking habits. Smoking is one of the most notorious bad habits people have, which is why it was an appropriate introduction. Then, she talked about a very fascinating research study which was conducted at MIT, in which scientists manipulated a part of a rat's brain in an attempt to break the rat's habit of completing a particular maze.

Last year in one of my hybrid classes I was a little bit unenthusiastic about finding my own topics about which to write. However, I have realized that it was because I did not know how to search for interesting academic articles. I would google search any given topic and write about the first thing that popped up. I have since learned how to use academic sources, and I resolve to improve the quality of my posts as well as the subject matter.

ET
The posts that I liked the best were in the section of the final for the class. By the length and value of the posts you can tell that the people taking the class are very interested in what is being taught(or really good at faking it). These posts are nice because people seem to be able to express their own feelings about the material, they aren't just regurgitating information that they had previously heard. I like the way this was stated in class today, if you produce the material you will remember it better because it is your work.
Reading these posts has actually made me more excited for the material in this class. It seems like no matter what you are learning you can find something in the material that you are passionate about. From reading posts I feel like my original assumptions about what this class would be like are still true. It seems to be a class that will wrap up a lot of things that we have already learned in other classes and expand on them.
A topic that I am specifically interested in would be where psychology would be going in the future. When I think about a lot of things today they don't seem possible, such as a good compromise for gun control or abortion laws as an example. If we look back on history I'm assuming no one thought some things would be able to come to be in the future, as an example flight or cell phones. This class will hopefully broaden my thoughts on the possibilities of where psychology can go in the future, not just having a tunnel vision on what I think is possible at this time.

Although there were many great posts I would have to say my favorite was done by kristenlee244. Her main three points of interest included gender inequality, research on children, and the mentally ill. All of these topics are of great interest to me. In my previous psych classes we learned quite a bit of information on these topics so I enjoyed reading what Kristen had to say on them and in general I liked the post because I could easily relate and it made me think back to things that I have learned that she didn't mention. Being a women, gender inequality has always fascinated me so when I read in her opening sentence that that was one of her favorite things I wanted to read more. I think a lot more could have been said but every time I read something new on the subject I am baffled thinking about theories people came up with and how they were restricted from so many things. Same goes with the mentally ill. I was never able to fathom how humans could treat humans so badly.

Reading through all of these posts has definitely altered my opinion on the history of psychology. Like many have mentioned my experiences with history have mainly been negative. It's always been somewhat of a bore to me and I hate memorizing peoples names and dates. That is one plus about this class... no tests... no memorization. Even though most posts had names and dates they made it very obvious that the names weren't the most important part rather it was the content, the main idea of what that person did or believed and it's impact on society. I think this method will be much more effective, and it will make the information stick in my mind longer.

Like I listed in my first paragraph after reading these posts I am looking forward to learning more about the history and psychology behind gender differences, child research, and mentally ill people, but I am also excited to read more about Darwin, asylums, influences of power, and lastly about how the church effects people's education. I already touched base on the initial three and why they are interesting to me but for the last few I am excited to learn about them because they are topics I am not all that familiar on and they seem controversial and I like learning about these issues because it is interesting to see peoples different opinions and different stances on a subject.

JS

After browsing through the posts from last year, the ones that I found most interesting were the one's about Darwin and about the Church and education. I don't believe in Darwin's theory, but I think it's definitely interesting. I'm also interested in learning about how the early asylums were operated and the conditions they were operated under. I know they weren't ran like they are now, and definitely weren't in as good of condition and they are now either.

After reading these posts it has changed what I thought the History of Psychology was just a little bit. Whenever someone says History a person automatically things dates and names, whereas this class is about names and dates, but it is also about so much more as well. Judging from reading the previous posts its about the concepts and ideas behind those names and dates and I'm really interested and excited to further learn about them.

I'm interested in learning more about where Psychology is going to go in the future, and also more about Darwin's theory, eventhough I don't believe in it or agree with it, I still find it interesting.

KG
The few posts that I liked the best were the ones that talked about a B.F. Skinner and how he proposed radical behaviorism. The thought of not knowing if you have control over your own actions and that if it’s say God or as Sinner put it, the things that surround us predetermine or determine our life, is fascinating. Just the thought can be enough to drive someone crazy if they’re not a believer in God or question their faith if they are. One thing that people like more than anything, so it seems, is their freedom. Freedom to own a gun or to move out of your parents house. The other post that I happened to read was about Pinel and his program for moral treatment. After watching all these movies or even a visit to a psych ward, I would have never guessed that the restraints we use in today’s society with leather and wool padding were at one point chains. At the same time it wasn’t really even Pinel who changed the chains out, it was someone else and he just happened to get the credit. That is even more interesting, to know that he probably isn’t the only scientist that has taken credit for something he didn’t do.
I’d have to say just by reading a few posts, I can’t honestly say that any of my ideas about the history of psychology have changed. If you look at it I’m only get bits and pieces of factual history from others thoughts. It’s not enough for me to just read a little paragraph of one’s thought on the matter, but it is enough to get me intrigued on some topics to learn more about. On that note the topics I think I would like to learn more about are on those of the basic studies that are used in everyday life, such as reverse psychology and on studies that were wrongly excepted by another as their own. To me it is fun to catch someone off guard and correct them by stating the truth of the matter. Where would we be without knowing the basics of psychology and where they originated from.

TL
I read some of the posts and found out that all the posts seemed to be different. Different in the sense that everyone had something that they liked different about the class. Some students liked the chapter about darwin, some liked how teaching as been affected by the history of psychology. This brought me to the conclusion that this class can appeal to anyone. This class isn't designed to follow a set struture, and designed to make people like boring material. Students get to write about what they like, and that makes for higher level of retention. To me, that's what college is about. Not the degree that you recieve at the end of your four years (or how long it takes) but the knowledge you can take away from this university for the rest of one's life. Being able to apply the information you learned not because it was jammed into your head, but because it had intrinsic value.
Reading these posts didn't change my opinion on the class. I knew coming in from reading the course description what was expected. Frankly, I like the colaboration of students ideas, accessible by all. It gives me the ability to see what others had to say, and see if I share the same views as my peers in the class. I've never had to write this much for a class before, and I don't neccessarily have the best writing skill, but this gives me the ability to work on those abilities and not to be critized with a red maker on how bad my grammar is. For me, its about the content of one's work and not how its presented, and I hope/think that is an aspect of this class. I look forward to learning about the history of psychology and the oppurtunity to reflect on what I feel is important and what's not.
On what i hope to learn from this class is simple, I hope to take away something that I can use in the future. Something I can hopefully apply to the career I end up at. From the past few days I can tell that this is going to be a great way to express myself not only hiding behind a computer, but also in the classroom with discussion. I say this because speaking my ideas in front of people isn't the easiest thing, but from what Dr. Maclin says, I'll have plenty of oppurtunities to try.
In class today we talked about us being the furture of psychology. This really made me step back and think. At first I just laughed at the idea, but later I realized that if this is something I really want to major in and spend the rest of my life doing, I better take that statement seriously. I hope someday that the knowledge I learned from this class and other classes in psychology will help me educate the future generation. History is the past and the present, and it couldn't be more right in my face.
Finally, I hope to learn more about Darwin. Even though this topic isn't the easiest to talk about it's relevant. I do not think it is about which side that someone believes in, but the facts that each side has to offer. Being close-minded is a ignorant thing, especially when someone doesn't give the other side a chance. I want to make myself uncomfortable witht the topic in hopes that I gain a deeper prospective on the topic.

CC

Browsing through previous posts by students in History and Systems, there is great variety in subject matter. This is to be expected, as a general history course is meant to give a broad overview of a given subject over time. Even though psychology is a relatively young field, it has roots in the other sciences and has been blooming ever since. Today in class, Dr. MacLin said that students typically take classes or major in psychology because "they want to help people", not realizing that psychology spans far more subjects than clinical psychology. (Certainly, every profession out there is meant to "help" others, though it's typically in an indirect way) When others ask me about my major, they assume that I plan on taking the clinical route. When I say that it's not a particular interest of mine, they're shocked to hear that there's more. But psychology is everywhere! It's all about people-- the most complex organisms we can identify, and to this day, know very little about. Of *course* there's more to study than mental illnesses. A student in a previous section of this course said that saying you study psychology is "like saying you're American". This is an excellent way of putting it; you may have identified a general scope of that person's studies, but you have in no way pinpointed the precise subject of their science. This is made especially evident when skimming the posts for previous students' particular topics of interests. The "key words/names/concepts" that the students identified spanned all the fields of psychology I could list off the top of my head, each post barely relating the last. It became clear that each of those students would take their career in a different path, each, hopefully, tailored to their special interests and passion for certain findings and research. This is a great reminder of why I chose to pursue psychology in the first place, and also a glimpse into the future of the field. Maybe one day, it's wide scope will be understood by the general public and it will be more respected as a science.

CC

And just to clarify, I'm thrilled to learn about the "history" of each "system". I think it's only natural to want to know how something you love came to be. I don't doubt that some things will be more exciting than others, though I don't want to taint my experience with any unnecessary expectations just to *say* that something doesn't sound interesting. Honestly, I want to learn about all of it-- though I am particularly interested in social and cognitive psychology, especially in any relation to creativity, music, and art.

Ad

While I was looking through the different blog posts on this website, I found that there are many things to be excited about in this class. Like Dr. MacLin said in class, most students dread having to take a history course because they don't want to have to memorize dates and learn about things that they aren't particularly interested in and I was the same way. By no means did I want to have to learn about dates and such. I was relieved to find out that we basically pick what we want to learn about! And seeing the blog posts really showed me that there were plenty of students that actually got something out of this class rather than if they would have taken a normal, lecture-only, class.
Someone posted about gender inequality in psychology and I am particularly interested in learning more about that topic. I am also taking Psychology of Gender Differences this semester, so that will definitely aid me in retaining the information learned in the two classes!

CT

I liked the post about the Clark Doll Study and its follow up. The student who wrote about this talked about the culture of African Americans in this country and how African American women with lighter skin are still considered more beautiful. These women also dye their hair lighter colors and wear weaves in order to make themselves look more like women of other ethnicities. African American girls were given black skinned and white skinned dolls to play with. The little girls who were asked about the African American dolls versus white dolls during the original study thought the white dolls were prettier. When asked why, they said it was because their skin was lighter. The girls became upset and started crying when they were asked which doll looked most like them. I assume this is because they realize that they look like the doll which they consider to be less attractive. A more recent study revisited this experiment and found that little girls still consider the white doll to be more attractive, but that more girls are claiming that they look like the white doll, and not the black one. I liked this post because I find the history of civil rights in the United States interesting, and I like learning about African American culture and how they have adapted to the struggles they have encountered.

Another post talked about the future of psychology and how it is becoming broader. This person talked about how there are many different categories that fall under Psychology and how there is likely something for everyone in the field. This is something I have noticed while taking Psychology classes. There is no set job for Psychologists anymore. You can become a clinical psychologist, you can do cognitive psych, research, deal with applied psychology, school psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, forensic psychology, and more. Figuring out what part of psychology I want to focus on has been a struggle for me. I find parts of each of these types of psychology interesting, but it is hard for me to pick just one area to focus on. This is why I found the post talking about all the areas of psychology interesting.

I liked reading these posts because you can tell that the students are really interested in and have a passion for the topics they are blogging about. Being able to find a part of each chapter that I care about and focusing on that area is something that I look forward to in this class. In most other classes you are forced to study things whether they appeal to you or not, and I am excited to have the freedom to study what I find interesting and not what a professor thinks is important.

Before reading these posts I thought that the history of psychology focused simply on mental illness and treating it. This allowed some research into behaviors and the brain, but that researchers for most of the history of psychology focused mainly on treating people. Now I realize that psychology has studied cultures and technology as well as many other areas. Psychology is able to study almost any subject because most things relate back to people and what affect things have on them. This allows psychologists a freedom to explore than many other scientists don't have.

I would like to learn more about the different sub-categories of psychology and how each of these developed. I want to know how someone decided to merge two previously unrelated topics, such as crime and psychology, and decide that they could be used to benefit each other. I would also like to see how psychology has been used to study the individual cultures of people in the United States.

I think the most interesting post I read was the one about the future of psychology. I love thinking about the future of things, especially psychology because there is absolutely no telling how much will change in the future and how far things will have advanced. Any day there can be a break through that can change the entire way psychology is studied. I am excited to learn about all the different possibilities that come along with the future of such a widespread subject. I also found it interesting how the student talked about how broad psychology is and how saying "I am a psychologist" is like saying "I am an American." I find that fascinating because it is true. There are a lot of different areas of psychology and I am sure the topics will keep growing and spreading.
I thought a lot of the posts seemed interesting. I believe this is going to be a much more interesting history class than I have ever taken. It seems like other students have really enjoyed taking this class and have learned a lot of interesting things. Not only have they learned a lot but it seems like every student had something different they found to be of interest, which means that in this class there is something for everyone to enjoy, rather than the usual classes where everyone is forced to focus on what the teacher thinks is important. I like the idea of letting the students focus on their interests, while still reading and learning about other topics. At first I thought this was just going to be another boring history class, but from reading some of these posts that reflect on the class as a whole, I can say that I am excited to see what all there is to learn in this class. I hope I find as many things interesting in this class as other students found throughout their semester.

HR
While reading old blogs, I found myself reading almost every blog.

I read a lot about topics and people I have never heard of, like the Scopes Monkey Trial, Carl Rogers, Benjamin Rush's bloodletting treatments, and the first asylums. After reading the little information provided in each blog, I am excited to learn more in-depth about each topic and person and be able to fully understand each topic.
I also read a lot about topics I have learned in other classes, such as Darwin's theory of evolution, who B.F. Skinner is and what he did, and the little Albert studying. However, I am sure that the information provided in my other classes will have a different outlook in this history class. I am excited to see the more history based side of these topics.
I also read a blog post about Applied Psychology, a class I am currently taking. The blog made it seem like there was a parallel between topics learned in each class. My teacher also made a comment about a parallel in my class today when learning about two psychologists.
While reading old blog posts, I rarely saw dates, which I was expecting to see in each post. This makes me believe that this class is more than just dates and names, which is great because I will find this class more interesting.

LW

The posting that I found most interesting was the MikaylaO post about eugenics and social Darwinism. MikaylaO wrote about Galton and his ideas on breeding a superior race of humans, very much the same way that humans breed animals and crops for superior performance. MikaylaO was intrigued with the idea that human genetics can be manipulated to create a future of humans with superior intelligence and physical abilities. Following the concepts of social Darwinism we could also breed a race of hard working, high achievers by discouraging or prohibiting the “lazy, low achievers” from procreating. Spencer’s social Darwinism was where we get the term “survival of the fittest” (a phrase I had always attributed to Darwin himself).

I know that the process of using scientific knowledge to manipulate human procreation in order to produce desirable outcomes is already in effect through gender selection and the process of aborting fetuses with “undesirable” genetic flaws, or for whatever reason. Scientists also store genetic materials for later uses such as cloning, transplantation and fertilization (even after the donors of the genetic materials are deceased). You can become a parent long after you are dead! How’s that for immortality?

MikaylaO’s posting has made me want to learn more about eugenics and social Darwinism. Like Galton, I am fascinated by genealogy, and in studying my own family tree I have seen patterns emerge (not all good ones).

I am trying to wrap my mind around the idea that people such as Galton and Spencer were probably thinking these breakthroughs were progressive and for the good of mankind, and they probably never fully considered the implications of this kind of scientific knowledge when put into the wrong hands (much like nuclear weapons). Or maybe they just didn’t care? That is what I want to find out.

Today, prospective parents can inspect their future offspring and even choose whether they live or die. Now, if Hitler’s mother had been shown an ultrasound of her baby in utero, she would probably still have gone ahead with the pregnancy because he was (desirably) a healthy male child. However, many would argue that if any pregnancy needed to be terminated, that would have been the one. He lived, and many died (interestingly enough, Hitler believed in eugenics enough to try to implement it).

On the flipside, how many selectively terminated babies could have grown to be another Michelangelo, Madame Curie, Albert Einstein or Martin Luther King Jr., but were never given the chance? (Conversely, it could be argued that another Adolf Hitler or Nicolae Ceaușescu was denied a chance at life, and that would probably be considered a good thing).

I do not believe that science exists in a vacuum, and I know that many scientists across the globe make the same breakthroughs around the same time. The one who is first to put the findings to work is usually the one given the credit and the glory (unless that scientist is a minority or a female, of course).

Reading through the posts has changed my idea of what we may be learning in this class. I had thought that this class might be a rehash of Intro to Psych, and I am happy to see that is not the case.

JD
All of the posts were mostly interesting to me. The first blog that I read really stuck out in my as it had touched on the Baby Albert experiment and I was very surprised to read how Watson wasn’t completely honest about his research on this study. I had no idea that Baby Albert had later died at age 6 due to a terminal illness.
I then began reading a post from a student who had commented that they enjoyed the topic of gender differences in science and education; my first thought as I began reading was- Boring! But the more I read, the more interested I became. To hear the struggles that women went through in the past to earn a degree and establish and make a name for themselves in the psychology world was aggravating in a sense, but to know now, that there are many successful women in psychology today- many even at UNI.
Many students noted that the treatment of mental illness was an interesting topic to them. This intrigues me and makes me want to learn more. I find mental illness in al facets fascinating. Because of this, I was glad to read that there were so many students that did enjoy this topic. From the many posts that I read, there seems to be so much to the history of mental illness and how it was handled, treated, and even studied in the past.
After reading many of these posts, my perception of the history of psychology is somewhat different now as there is much more to the history of psychology than what you learned in Intro to Psychology. There are many individuals that have a piece of that history and how it shaped and evolved into what Psychology is today. It’s exciting to know that recent work, is going to play a part in the future of Psychology. History can never leave us, yet it can shape our future.
Because of the interest I have in the mental illness topic, at this very early point of the semester, I am most excited to learn more about it. While many of the topics that I read were interesting, this particular one just sparked my interest more than others. I hope that the history of Darwin is interesting because it was a bit more of a slower read for me as I was going through the posts. Either way, I look forward to learning how the past has shaped what we know and what we do today.

HI

While reading these blog postings, I took most interest in reading about mental illness and the issues our society has within the topic. "becabk" wrote about how people with mental disorders were treated in the past as well as the contrast now. I have read a lot as a psychology major on the topics of mental illness as well as mental health facilities. There was one thing that I had never heard of which surprised me--the bloodletting! I had never heard of that being done and find it really disgusting. However, how mentally ill people were treated then versus now is probably repulsive to me because that is no longer the norm.

"Blair Miller" wrote, "Of course we can look back today and know that their treatment for the mentally ill was not the best, but back then they did what they thought was best." This reminded me of a concept I took from reading chapter one of my textbook: what was morally right then is not necessarily morally right in today's age, but how can we judge them for that? They did not have the knowledge that we have now. It also shows us how the mental health system has come a long way in becoming what it is now. It may not be perfect, but in my mind it's a lot better than what it used to be.

This brings up the question: does "ignorance of the past lead to ignorance"? I read this in chapter one, and it means that history may quite possibly make us feel superior to those who did great things in the past. For example, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Ben Franklin invented electricity. Now we have satellites and cell phones and internet on the go. Does that make our accomplishments today any better than those of the past? If Thomas Edison saw all of the technology we have today, he would probably go insane and melt into a puddle. So, furthermore on the mental health topic, can we really say our system is "superior" to the mental health systems of the past? I suppose you could say it is better, but the advancements and discoveries psychologists have found regarding the mental health process and what will best benefit a patient, have only further advanced us into the topic. I'm sure that 100 years from now, our achievements will seem minuscule compared to the future's advancements.

Based on reading, it looks like most of the topics were enjoyed by students, otherwise they were really good at faking it! I really enjoy history as well, and I feel like it will be interesting to see how it ties in with psychology. I'm sure I will learn a lot in this class and be able to come up with some good thoughts of my own, as well as make the connections between now and then.

RB
As I browsed through previous blogs by students, I found alot of things in those posts that I liked. In one post made by briannew, psychology has no universal discipline. It must rely on history as it's source of proof. I found that to be particularly interesting, as I tend to enjoy the history behind most subjects. I joined this class for both its historical persepctive and for its psychological perspective though. With what the students had to say in the blogs, I would say that this class can be geared towards any topic that I choose. I like how from what I read, most of the students seemed to have enjoyed what they picked. That gives me hope for this calss.

One of the topics that I came across while reading the blogs, that I find the most interesting, is that of the fundamentals of psychology. As a history student, I find the basis for psychology as the most intriguing. The bolg post made references to the differences of religion and science, as well as the different ways to define psychology. It is these types of topics that I am most interested in. I look forward to examining them more closely as time goes on.

JG

I read through a handful of blog posts on the above links and came to the conclusion that the blogs that I liked the best are the ones that are relevant to the areas of psychology that I find most interesting (such as one regarding research on the Gestalt theory). This spurred my enthusiasm that we as students get to focus on what truly interests us in the course. Obviously each topic covered holds a different meaning to each individual in the classroom.

After reading the blog posts, I really did not have a different opinion of what the class would be like. I did however, have a different understanding of what the history of psychology actually is. I realized that history in itself is biased towards what individuals find relevant and interesting. I like the fact that, as a group, we will all contribute to historical topics with different viewpoints and contributions in order to round out the different historical accounts.

Overall, I wish to learn about the development of therapy: different types, various treatments, what doesn't work, etc. But I am also interested in the discipline of psychology as a whole. I am truly interested in the development of psychology and the effects of various researchers/findings on Psychology as we know it today. I look forward to spending the semester studying these topics in a way that is relevant to my interests.

ZG
It's hard to say which posts I like best because they seem to all have little bits and peaces of things that I will enjoy. Just seeing everyone having different opinions on which topic was their favorite and why made me enjoy reading them. I enjoyed seeing names of psychologists that I recognized from other classes or through researching out of interest. If I had to pick which post I like the most, it would have to be from the week 16 assignment talking about Descartes. It's great to see a philosopher make the list of favorite things covered in a psychology class. I also really enjoyed the post talking about the "future of psychology".

Reading these posts has changed my idea of "history of psychology" drastically. I wasn't unhappy about taking a history course because it involved psychology, and I love psychology. But now I am actually very excited for this course. It seems that what we learn in this class is not on the same level as any other history course. It looks like we will be learning about the acts that people did and why they did them, rather than when they were born and what their middle name was.

I'm actually really interested in Alfred Adler, even though he wasn't listed in peoples posts. I am sure we will go over his work and I look forward to that. But from just the posts I think I will be most looking forward to learning about Goddard. I don't support what he did, but I want to know his reasoning and logic behind not allowing immigrants to be admitted into the country.
I've done a lot of research on my own about Maslow's hierarchy of needs but I'd be more than happy to learn more about his other work.

test 123

M.S.
The posts I liked best were CSmith and becabk’s. Both gave great detail about what there writing about and you could read how interested they were. I was surprised to read in CSmith how much the church was involved in the court systems and school. I want to say there is little to know involvement from the church now but I know that weren’t true. I am looking forward to learning more about Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei and how what they did impacted our lives today. I’m also looking forward to learning about what becabk had to say about animal behavior and now it relates to human behavior. I would have never thought the two would be connected. I am pleasantly surprised to see that the students are recalling information they learned from the beginning of the semester.
After reading the post and see how most students are so interested in what they are writing about, I’m more looking forward to this class. I know it was a joke the first day about how dates weren’t important but while reading the posts, I can see that there aren’t many dates. Most of it is content about what happened and why it happened.
I am mostly interested to see how perspectives have changed and what made then chance. What gave Galileo the courage to stand up to the church? I’m also looking forward to learning about how animal and human behaviors are related.

I really enjoyed the posts where the students talked about different psychology such as Skinner and Freud. I like learning about these men because they were such great minds. I think it is interesting to learn their details of growing up and what inspired them. We always wonder how smart people became so smart. These men had a passion for what they were doing and they were educated. This was a great combination when you talk about how they made the contributions that they did. It reminds us that we really do not know how we will end up doing. It inspires me to work hard because with a little luck and awareness, you never know what you might discover.
The posts were a good gage of how the book will go. I think that they show that the history will not always be boring. The posts show the best parts of each chapter because that is what the student chose to write about. It is a good indicator of the topics that students this year will also find interesting. The blogs about people such as Skinner show use the ingenuity these men had along with great psychological minds. They show that you can learn a great deal from studying the history. I am less scared of not being able to read the material after going through these blogs. If all of those students could get through a semester of blogging then so can I.
I am interested the most in learning about the different experiments that these psychologists performed. I think that it takes a lot of creative thinking when it comes to coming up with a good experiment. It will show the creativity and inspiration of the psychologists that made them.

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