posted
Hello all you brilliant people, As you can see, I'm a new poster here. This is my first time starting a topic (I hope I'm not committing any faux pas'). But I've been 'lurking' I guess for quite a while. In that time I've come to realize that there are some really really intelligent people posting on here! Therefore, when my sister and her friend came to me, frustrated, I told them I had just the solution. Ask Hatrack. Their quandry is this: In their psychology class, they are required to do a 3000 word research paper. From the requirements they told me, the range of topics they can choose from is very broad. Pretty much anything pertaining to psychology. I, however, am a dunce when it comes to this particular subject. So I am asking the great brain trust at Hatrack ... any idea's for an interesting, relatively easy psychology topic ?
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Um...if you've been lurking for a while you should have come across many versions of "Do Your Own Homework."
Your sister needs to take herself to a library, do some reading and old fashioned research and figure out her topic on her own. There should be some books on writing term papers that go into techniques for selecting topics and (even more importantly) narrowing them down.
I know, I know, gee that sounds so old fashioned. But believe it or not, she'll learn more that way.
The one thing I do advise is stay away from sites on the internet that advertise papers, few educators take plaigarism lightly.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Yeah, well I don't think we are doing their homework if we just suggest topics they can research.
[strike]That said -- there is so little that is new or original to cover in psychology.[/strike]
She could always fall back on the old "nature vs. nurture" debate on intelligence. Are smart kids smart naturally (hereditary) or due to their environment (nurture) or both - or can it even be proven?
That's been done a hundred times - but I'm sure she would find lots of material.
Is this a high school psychology class? or college level?
I don't know, I just think the process of making a decision and narrowing down a topic is a valuable skill that everyone needs to learn, especially at the college level.
Why isn't the person doing the paper asking for the help? If she came in here then I'd be more willing to discuss ideas with her because I could get feeback on what types of things she is interested in or what the class has studied.
And for the record, yes I've asked for help with suggestions for topics before but I was here participating, not asking a family member to do things for me, and you guys all know me and know I'm not trying to get out of doing anything, I just wanted someone to bounce ideas off of.
I guess if it were the paper writer herself making the request I'd be more willing to jump in with both feet to help.
but hey, whatever, I'll join the fun
What about social psychology, specifically cross cultural perspectives on child rearing? ADD is a trendy topic but there's sure to be plenty out there, you could look at the affect of ADD on adults, that's an area that's under-researched.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
3000 words isn't a lot. Err...I'd suggest maybe looking into cross-cultural psychology. There's been som really neat stuff done recently comparing Eastern and Western cultures. Richard Nisbett wrote a great book about it. You could do a search on my user name and psychology here for other ideas I think are neat.
Another neat issue is the use of exercise as both a primary preventive and rehabilitive treatment for mental illness.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
And MrSquicky apparently has a reputation of "help the newbies but be insulting to the regulars" to uphold.
I'm wondering about your word choice there, Squicky, is there a reason you didn't choose something similar to "Farmgirl, could you elaborate on that statement?" or even "As a psychologist, I couldn't disagree more, what exactly do you mean?" but no, you decided to go with "You obviously have no idea what you're talking about."
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posted
People shouldn't talk about things they don't know about, especially to make stupid disparaging remarks. If she wants to spew her ignorant prejudice, she should expect to get called on it.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Twins Studies (comparing identical twins raised either apart or together for similarities and differences -- to a research psychologist, identical twins are way more exiting than any lab rat)
Applications of the Phi Phenomenon (what makes your mind believe it is seeing motion when there is not)
posted
I'm not questioning you calling her on it, I'm questioning the manner in which you called her on it. I think it was unnecessarily rude and you could have made your point without the rudeness.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Some cool topics I enjoy can be found in Steven Pinker's books on language and how the brain works- the actual physical process of thinking.
Posts: 4548 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
Belle, Farmgirl's comment, besides being pretty stupid, was itself extremely rude. However, it fits a prevelent acceptable prejudice against the field of psychology (OSC hismelf has pushed this prejudice in his writing). I felt that I was better served with a sharp response so as to more directly challenge this prejudice.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
I don't see how countering a "stupid disparaging remark" with another "stupid disparaging remark" helps anything. Additionally, it's never good to assume that another person must mean exactly what you think they mean. It's much more constructive to let the other person explain their opinion before arguing about something that you may have just misinterpreted.
Posts: 1256 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I don't see how what I said is a stupid, disparaging remark. Farmgirl clearly demonstrated her ignorance. There are more new things going on in the field of psychology now that at any other time in history. It is currently a very vibrant, dynamic field. Saying that there is so little new or original is completely wrong.
I could have played the passive-agressive questioning game, but what would be the point? She was dead wrong. She said something that no responsible person who knew the field would ever say.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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"Farmgirl, you're mistaken. There are more new things going on in the field of psychology now that at any other time in history. It is currently a very vibrant, dynamic field. Saying that there is so little new or original is completely wrong."
Not only is it not nearly as rude, but it actually conveys some information. "You obviously don't know what you're talking about" is simply a rude statement with no information backing it up. In that statement you do nothing except be rude to Farmgirl, you don't tell her or us WHY she is so obviously wrong.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
FG wasn't trying to offend, whereas you basically said you were. A much better, less disparaging, and more constructive comment would have been exactly what you later said,
quote:There are more new things going on in the field of psychology now that at any other time in history. It is currently a very vibrant, dynamic field. Saying that there is so little new or original is completely wrong.
Edit: Yeah, what Belle said
Posts: 1256 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Farmgirl behaved poorly. She failed to conform to a responsible standard. She was pushing a damaging, ignorant prejudice and was behaving without intellectual integrity by talking with implied authority about something she doesn't know about. I consider both of these important things to point out and I don't feel that Belle's statement captured them.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Actually, knowingly or not, FG was being offensive. There is a clear implication in her saying there is nothing new or original in psychology. Just because the offense is diffuse (across the population of psychologists), ought not make it any less offensive.
That said, Squick was rude.
Posts: 7021 | Registered: Nov 1999
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quote:hat said -- there is so little that is new or original to cover in psychology.
Farmgirl, you obviously have no idea what you're talking about.
quote:"Farmgirl, you're mistaken. There are more new things going on in the field of psychology now that at any other time in history. It is currently a very vibrant, dynamic field. Saying that there is so little new or original is completely wrong."
Which one provided more information about perceived problems in Farmgirl's post?
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Belle's post was a reformulation of what I said in a followup post. So, I provided that information as part of the process I started with the initial post. It's not like I didn't expect to be called on for elaboration.
I'm not trying to say I wasn't rude. Pointing out people's bad behavior in a direct manner generally involves rudeness. If Farmgirl used some other, less acceptible prejudice, say against black people, I expect that she would be met with very direct correction. As this prejudice is more accepted and acceptible, I felt directness was even more important here.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
And yet, rather than remembering that psychology is a vibrant field with more new things going on than ever before, people are more likely to remember you acted like a jerk to Farmgirl.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I disagree. If there wasn't a sharp confrontation, I think people were more likely to pick up on the more comfortable prejudice that psychologists don't really know what they're doing and that psychology pretty much stopped with Freud. As it is, that this is an ignorant prejudice has been accompanied by emotionally arousing conflict, which increases both attention and retention.
And I don't think that, when somoene clearly does something wrong, saying "Hey, you have done something wrong." constitutes being a jerk. My first post didn't call her names or make any disparaging remarks about her. It pointed out what she did wrong, which was make unsupportable negative remarks about a field she knows little about.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Wow- like 5 posts on the actual topic and 4 times that many discussing whether or not Squicky was rude, whether he should have been rude, and so on. Go Hatrack!
Posts: 4548 | Registered: May 2001
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quote:My first post didn't call her names or make any disparaging remarks about her.
Nope, I'm not buying that one at all.
"You obviously don't know what you're talking about," is considered by most people to be rude and disparaging.
And Dag is right, rather than defended your field all you've done is show yourself to be a rude representative of it.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Belle, Do you think that I shouldn't have said that Farmgirl did something wrong? If you agree that it was okay to do so, how would you have phrased it?
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:It pointed out what she did wrong, which was make unsupportable negative remarks about a field she knows little about.
It actually didn't do that, though. You didn't correct what you considered to be the error. It didn't give any information to a reader to judge why you should be believed over Farmgirl. It was essentially a big "Nuh uh!" that provided no knew information except that you disagreed strongly with her post.
You stated something was obvious when it clearly isn't. If it were obvious, then a lot of people wouldn't think what Farmgirl does about it. (I'm assuming from conext and from your hints that this is a widely held prejudice that many people think this way about psychology.)
quote:Do you think that I shouldn't have said that Farmgirl did something wrong? If you agree that it was okay to do so, how would you have phrased it?
You should have said, "You are wrong. Psychology is a vibrant...."
You could have even listed some of the exciting new things being done.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I'm sorry you're depressed, Avadaru. Perhaps you should see a psychologist. After all, there are more new things going on in the field of psychology now that at any other time in history. It is currently a very vibrant, dynamic field.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
BTW, I think he should get points..or at least one point...for being up front about this being a "help me with homework" thread, rather than trying to be all coy about it. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Who keeps track of the points? Do I have any? What is my score, and how do I rank in the class?This whole point thing has me feeling very competitive.
Perhaps Doc's "friend" can write about using a token economy to encourage positive behavior.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
wow ... i posted this right before i went to church, come home, and all this happened. Well, thanks all for the suggestions and for the massive amounts of entertainment i got from reading all this. . Just for the record, my friend and my sister don't frequent this forum, so I thought I'd do them a favor. Currently they, as well am I, are dual enrolled at a community college. For those who don't know, that means taking college courses while we're still in highschool. I'm on track to get my AA degree and highschool diploma at the same time. So yes, thank you all for your help and any more continued help would be appreciated, if your conscience allows it. Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Some friendly advice: I did pretty much the same thing you did in high school - graduated about 1 class short of an A.A. degree. You might want to consider doing that (not quite completing your A.A.) if you're planning on going on to a private four-year, or just planning on applying for some scholarships for the rest of your education. If you get an A.A. degree, then you will be considered a transfer student, and, at least in my experience, there are a lot less scholarships availible for transfer students compared to incoming "freshman". If you don't complete your A.A., you can still be considered a "freshman" by the admissions office, although you'll have almost enough credit for junior status.
Of course, you might run into a problem with transfering the credit - it's a trade-off between the two, depending on where you want to go after you graduate from high school.
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Pointing out people's bad behavior in a direct manner generally involves rudeness.
go without comment.
I am very concerned by this notion. It forces a false (IMO) dichotomy: either let bad behavior go without comment, or behave rudely.
Why are those the choices? What ever happened to calmly, quietly, and politely correcting bad behavior? At least trying that first, and leaving harsher possibilities for use only if they prove necessary?
I didn't check back with this thread yesterday because I went home sick from work -- have had this blasted bronchitis for six days now, and I'm all foggy-headed.
I don't let MrSquicky (or anyone else) get under my skin. He's entitled to his opinion. (If I got offended easily, I would have been off Hatrack a long time ago)
And he is probably more well-versed in this subject that I am, for sure. I was just "spewing" (as he puts it) exactly what my Psych 101 professor said to me, when we were doing research topics when I was in college.
So be it. Dr. StrangeLove - listen to MrS and not me if you want the "gospel" according to Psych.
FG
(anyone know the UBB code for strikethrough for this forum)??
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. Just for the record, my friend and my sister don't frequent this forum, so I thought I'd do them a favor. Currently they, as well am I, are dual enrolled at a community college. For those who don't know, that means taking college courses while we're still in highschool. I'm on track to get my AA degree and highschool diploma at the same time. So yes, thank you all for your help and any more continued help would be appreciated, if your conscience allows it. 
