1

Mr. Nelson – PsychologyDirections: Choose any 1 of the Assignments here, complete on Microsoft Word, and Email to me at

nelsonsaphumangeography@gmail.com All PowerPoint notes (and some readings) are on the

website at www.nelsonspsychology.weebly.com

Assignment Option 1: The New Science of the Teenaged Brain (National Geographic Article):

Directions:1 - Google “The Teenaged Brain, National Geographic” *Or read on website under “Developmental Psychology” – just scroll a little, and Read the article (Dobbs, October 2011, “Beautiful Brains”)

3- Summarize the main points of the article and relate to any 5 or more following terms/concepts from your notes:

Nature vs. Nurture Brain chemistry (axons, dendrites, synapses,

neurotransmitters) Parts of the brain (cortex, executive regions) Adolescent cognitive development Adolescent risk taking behaviors (be specific) Gender & risk taking behavior Reward paths in the brain Types of parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative,

permissive, “helicopter parents”) Adolescence as time of “Storm and Stress’ (Hall)

2

The Imaginary audience (adolescent egocentrism) Personal fable (adolescent egocentrism) Pseudo stupidity (adolescent egocentrism)

Assignment Option 2: What’s the Right Thing To Do? (Moral development)

Task:

Read the excerpts on the website under “Assignment Resources” – What’s the Right

Thing to Do and answer the questions that follow each reading.

3

4

Assignment Option 3: Parenting Styles & Their Impact

Task:

Thinking of your own life and how you were/are raised (as well as how you may witness a younger sibling being raised), address the following:

1.) Describe the major parenting styles discussed in class (in the notes on website)

2.) Choose any 2 people who have been involved in raising you from when you were young (this doesn’t have to just be parents) and describe which style they embodied, how that manifested in your life, and how you think it shaped you (good or bad) into the person you are now.

5

6

Assignment Option 4: Nature vs. Nurture: A Case Study of David Reimer’s Life

Task:

1.) Define what Nature vs. Nurture refers to (look in your notes)

2.) Do some brief research on David Reimer (a Google search of his name will bring up a series of websites/videos) – and briefly summarize the key points of his story

3.) Describe how his story of gender development pertains to the psychological argument regarding whether nature (biology) or nurture (environment) is more important in how someone develops.

7

Assignment Option 5: The Marshmallow Test – a study in impulse control

Task:

Read the following New York Times article“We Didn’t Eat the Marshmallow: The Marshmallow Ate Us” (New York Times)https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/magazine/we-didnt-eat-the-marshmallow-the-marshmallow-ate-us.html?_r=0 *if this link doesn’t work just Google the title above, or follow link on website.

1.) Summarize the key points of what the so-called “Marshmallow Test” were

2.) Summarize the article’s point of view regarding the findings of the original study

8

Assignment Option 6: Twins

Task:

Read the National Geographic Article “Twins: Alike But Not Alike” & Look at your notes on Infant & Toddler Development –

1.) What is the difference between fraternal and identical twins? (notes)

2.) Summarize the key points from the article in no less than 2 pages – relate to your notes on Nature vs. Nurture, and anything else in Developmental Psychology we discussed.

9

Assignment Option 7: The Baby Lab (moral development in babies

Watch the 60 Minutes video clip “The Baby Lab” (on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRvVFW85IcU ) and on website as a file

under “Assignment Resources” and answer the following questions:

1.) What is the "baby lab" (the infant cognition center - what are the founders of the lab trying to research?

2.) What kind of experiments are used (several are shown) in order to answer the research question of whether or no babies have a sense of right and wrong? Describe this in some detail, at least 1-2 paragraphs.

3.) Since they lack more well defined motor skills, how describe how the babies indicate their preference for either the "good" or "bad" dolls in the different experiments.

4.) Describe the 'snack' test used to determine inborn bias

5.) What are the implications of this experiment in terms of human bias? In other words, what is this experiment meant to tell us about human behavior, attitudes, and feelings in different parts of our lives/society? (The psychologists discuss this after they show the footage of the experiment)

6.) The last experiments shown are of older children using coins - describe the framework of the experiment.

7.) What is the purpose of the experiment?

10

8.) Describe some of the results and what they inform us about human behavior.

9.) How do the behaviors change in the participants (the kids) around the age of 8? Describe.

10.) After viewing and analyzing all of this, what is your opinion about human morality? Are we taught and socialized into 'right and wrong', or are we born with an innate sense of it? Defend your answer.