The following column appeared in the Sunday NY Times Web edition:
Placebo Nation
By JOHN HORGAN
Over the past decade, psychiatrists and the news media
have proclaimed
the wonders of Prozac and the rest of a new generation of
The March/April, 1999 issue of The Sciences (published by the New York
Academy of Science)has a number of interesting articles, some of which
touch on topics that appeared in Tips recently.
There is a short piece discussing an article from the November issue of
Neuropsychologia that
, hard to follow (at least for me) in a few places.
I highly recommend it.
Jeffrey Nagelbush
Ferris State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
__
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
The following two job openings will be advertised in the next Monitor
and Observers:
Ferris State University - Two tenure-track positions in psychology in
global and multicultural undergraduate curriculum. Succesful candidates
must demonstrate potential for teaching excellence, be able to
His web page is:
http://www.socsci.uci.edu/cogsci/personnel/sperling/staff/sperling/
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 10:58:22 -0600
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: "Patrick O. Dolan" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: "Patrick O. Dolan" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:
of society. Although I do not think the above is
what I would have said to my class if I had received that question,
before I had a chance to think about it, I believe I would say this now.
Jeffrey Nagelbush
Ferris State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL
If you are interested in the Savant Syndrome I would suggest you check
out the following:
Miller, L.K. (1999). The Savant Syndrome: Intellectual Impairment
and Exceptional Skill. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 31-46.
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 16:21:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Michael Sylvester
I hypnosis actually helps get rid of warts, does anyone have an notion
of the mechanism that is involved?
Jeff Nagelbush
Ferris State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
__
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
The program guide for one of the public tv stations I get shows a Daniel
Goleman special about Eomtional Intelligence in early March (actually
March 1). I do not know if this is national so if interested, I would
"check my local listings."
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The following interesting article appeared in today's (Wednesday's)
electronic version of the NY Times.
Writing About Trauma Is Seen to Ease
Illness in Some
By ERICA GOODE
In a powerful demonstration of how intimately mind and
body are
We recently had a discussion on TIPS of the extent to which
antidepressents were placebos. There is an interesting summary of the
controversy in the April 9 (Vol. 284, #5412) issue of Science. The
article seems to present a balanced view of the issues.
Jeff Nagelbush
Ferris State University
The following was in the NY Times.
Enjoy.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
If Things Taste Bad, 'Phantoms' May Be at Work
By ERICA GOODE
Until he bit into a piece of raw cabbage on that
February evening in
1997, Dr.
Judith A. Roberts wrote:
Jeffrey -
Very interesting NY Times article!
When was it published? I sometimes like to share such reading with
my
students, but like to make my copies directly from the source, so I
can
identify it with the newspaper header, etc...
- Judith Roberts
City College of
I have to say, I am amazed at the amount of (symbolic) ink that has
been spent on this issue. (I know, I am spending some myself.) I have
made major changes in my classes over the years of my teaching and, in
most cases, the impact on the students has been minimal. So I have
grave doubts as
I post the following as relevent to our ongoing discussion of
psychology as a science. I will leave it to others to comment if they
wish. (I apologize for the formating.)
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
Cybersex Survey a travesty
Laura Schlessinger
"Now psychology
Jim Clark responded to the letter below:
We will seek independent expert evaluation of the scientific
quality of the article and will make those results known. This
is unprecedented in the Associations history of scholarly
publishing, but, in view of the criticism of this study by
During this time of few messages on tips I thought I would alert Tipsters to
2 articles I found to be quiet interesting and related to things we have
discussed on this forum. Both appear in the latest issue (July, 1999, vol.
125, number 4) of Psychological Bulletin.
One article has to due
Rainer Scheuchenpflug, in response to my posting of the article that
discusses how the restricted range of family environments leads to
misleading conclusions about the importance of shared environment wrote:
I just wanted to add that Mrs. Harris would probably be very happy with
I would like to make one correction in what I wrote below: I meant to say
the elimination of most families that *were* poor, rather than were not
poor.
I agree with your characterization of Harris' views but I was obviously not
clear enough about the article. The restricted range is not
The latest issue of Contemporary Psychology (August 1999, vol. 44, #4) has 2
reviews of Harris' book "The Nurture Assumption." They make interesting
reading and have both interesting differences and similarities in their
views of the work.
Jeff Nagelbush
Ferris State University
[EMAIL
Michael Sylvester wrote:
Now that Hillary Clinton has revealed the abuse factor in
Bill's childhood
as a determinative factor in his mfc ( marriage fidelity challenged),
I was curious if Judith Harris may want to take a swcond look at the
potent role of family influences on behavior. She
Found this article to be quite interesting.
Divided roles
Alison Motluk
DON'T BLAME SOCIETY. It's the kids who impose
stereotyped roles on the people who care for them,according to a
pioneering study
Paul Brandon wrote, about the article on children influencing their parents
behavior that I posted:
The researchers asked 10 lesbian and 26
heterosexual couples who had adopted a child to fill out an extensive
20-page questionnaire.
This is a small sample.
How was it selected?
This
If your work is subject to copywrite just because itis yours, I wonder who
holds the copywrite for faculty, the faculty member or the institution who
hires you to do the work? My understanding was that the notes might
actually belong to the college or university.
Jeff Nagelbush
Ferris State
Does anyone have any information about birth defects caused by the
pesticides used on grape vines. A student in class brought this up during
our discussion of teratogens and I had never heard of it. Presumably, the
effects were on migrant workers, primarily. Any information would be
Our school uses WebCT but I have not yet taken the plunge. One of our
physics professors who is expert on WebCT has developed a series of
templates to make it easier for those of us who do not want to take the time
to get up to speed in the program. In fact, our department is having a
The following copy will be posted in the various places we advertise for
psychology positions. Your and/or your students are encouraged to apply.
Jeff Nagelbush
Ferris State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University - Two tenure-track positions in psychology in global
and
A colleague of mine ran across an article in a book of readings from
Scientific American (The Anatomy of Memory, by Mishkin and Appenzeller,
June, 1987). The articles states that the amygdala has as much to do with
memory and the hippocampus and, in fact, works with the hippocampus. The
This discussion of "passive" informed consent reminds me of experiences I
had with our local public school district. A number of times graduate
students (I believe in education)from a non-local university were given
permission by the school district to give middle and/or high school students
I use the term fraternal and point out its sexist nature. You could also
use the more technical term, dizygotic.
Jeff Nagelbush
Ferris State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Michael Sylvester [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Michael Sylvester [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: TIPS [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the "spirit" of our earlier discussions of the relationship between
science and religion, I offer the following web address that contains an
interesting article by the physicist Stephen Weinberg dealing with this
issue.
http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWfeatdisplay.cgi?19991021046F
It is
: "Jeffrey Nagelbush" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: "Jeffrey Nagelbush" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: help with terminology
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 08:00:37 PDT
I use the term fraternal and point out its sexist nature. You could also
use the more technical te
Jeff Ricker wrote:
I have been thinking more about the post I sent to TIPS, yesterday. In
that post, I was wrestling with an issue that often bothers me: I
frequently sense a passive resistance among my students with regard to
learning about scientific reasoning and its importance in their
I have a colleague (not in psychology) who is not from North America or
Europe. I asked him about spanking when he was a child and we had quite an
interesting discussion. This post is purely anecdote, but I believe it has
some interesting ideas anyway.
First, he did say that he was spanked
I have read 2 of the books and will soon read the third. I was interested
in them primarily because they were amazingly popular. I have no scientific
evidence to present, however I will present my reaction to the books and the
flaps about the books.
Even as a middle-aged man, I enjoyed
I was wondering if any of you who have classes with a substantial number of
both majors and nonmajors in them ever give different assignments or have
different requirements for the two groups?
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
There is a fascinating article about the web sites containing student notes
of classes at the Chronicle of Higher ed site:
http://chronicle.com/free/99/11/99111901t.htm
This article also can send to to an even more fascinating article about the
legal aspects of the issue by a Purdue U.
The wife of a colleague who died last year would like to get rid of his
professonal books. She would like to put them to good use so if any of you
have any suggestions for her, I would appreciate the help. She is even
willing to pay some (reasonable amout) for postage, shipping or whatever.
A student in my lifespan class asked if there was any research that
questioned the elderly as to how much longer they wanted to live. I have
not been able to find any such research but I would think it must have been
done. Any help out there?
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State
I have heard from colleagues in other disciplines, particularly anthroplogy
and sociology, that psychologists were not the only ones to receive this
"gift."
As a member of APA who has not received the book, I am feeling really
cheated and left out!
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris
I do not recall seeing this on tips before: For those who are interested in
the ideas of Judith Harris presented in "The Nurture Assumption," there is a
wonderful site that lists just about everything written or spoken about her
ideas. It includes links for those entries that have internet
I am sure I will get criticized for this but I think the IQ test qualifies
as a major contribution. Whatever it measures, it correlates with more
other things than most any other measure we have and it also has a
substantial genetic component. Even if one hates it, I believe that it
To those of you who are receiving TIPS I would like to point out that there
are many of us who, because of problems that are fearless leader is working
on, are not now currently receiving any of the messages. If you are
wondering about the reduced traffic on TIPS, that is probably the reason.
The New York Times had an interesting article on Beck and his therap, at
least it was interesting to a non-clinical type like me. It is located at
http://nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/011100hth-behavior-beck.html
Or just go to the Times Web site and check the Science/Health
The following discussion appeared in the recent issue of Slate, the on-line
magazine. I hope its relevance is obvious.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
Can Psychology Cure Racism?
From: Walter Reich
To: Peter D. Kramer
Posted: Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2000, at 8:13
A student in my child psychology class said something that really has me
puzzled. She said that when she was pregnant, her fetus was diagnosed with
a heart problem. She went on that the doctor said that, in order to see if
the heart was getting enough oxygen to the brain, he would somehow
We have recently had discussion concerning student behavor and the students'
role in learning. We have also had discussions concerning ways to encourage
students to read the material. Well, in the latest Teaching of Psychology
there is a most depressing article called Compliance with
Michael,
I would love to discuss these issues in my classes. If you have any
references I could read to learn about these contributions, I would greatly
appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
Michael Sylvester wrote:
-The art and science
Today (Thursday, Feb. 17), All Things Considered, on NPR will be doing a
segment on cheating among college students. The segment apparently will
report the results of a survey of college students.
I am not sure that I am up to listening, butI thought some on the list might
be interested.
According to the article below, APA has approved EMDR Therapy. I was
wondering how strong the evidence for its effectiveness really is. Any info?
Thanks,
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
Finger-flash therapy catches on
February 21, 2000
I have a number of high school students in my Introduction to Psychology
class. The mother of one who is not doing as well as she would like has
sent me an email about her daughter. I am reluctant to discuss her
daughter's progress due to the legal issues. However, her mom argued that,
I guess I would like to add my perspective to this discussion. I believe
that science, whatever else it is, is a way (or ways) to understand the
natural world. If humananity is "simply" a part of the natural world then
science is all we need to understand ourselves and "alternate ways of
Below is an English Professor's take on plagiarism. It is from the
Chronical of High Ed.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
A glance at the March issue of "College English":
Why plagiarism is a sexist term
English professors are of two minds about plagiarism. They
A colleague in another department asked me a question about nervous
laughter. I gave her some answer but I was only speculating. Do we know
why some people react with laughter to pictures of, for example, horrible
injuries?
Any help will be apprediated.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I found the following interesting and worth sharing:
A glance at the June issue of "The Atlantic Monthly:"
Did Harvard create the Unabomber?
Alton Chase, who is working on a biography of the Theodore
Kaczynski, widely known as the Unabomber, examines whether Mr.
Kaczynski first came to question
David Epstein wrote:
I'm fascinated and encouraged by research on the wealth/happiness
question (though my acquaintance with it is chiefly distilled through
mass-media blurbs). But I wish we could do it as a real experiment
with random assignment and repeated measures.
I volunteer to be
I can only offer information on one of your questions.
Another student asked if there was any correlation between
early childhood inclinations toward fantasy and the likelihood
of establishing imaginary companions to later mental disorders
in adulthood.
Anyone have any ideas or references
Sharon asks
Is there a separate listserv of people teaching in Developmental Psych
or related courses?
The answer is yes, but it has virtually no traffic. It is, I believe, a
failed experiment.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
From the NY Times:
Hey, What if Contestants Give Each Other
Shocks?
By ERICA GOODE
LONG before anyone ever heard of reality
television, or its most recent
efflorescence, "Survivor," a group of
scientists began putting
I received this from another list I am on and thought Tipsters might find it
interesting.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
From: "Jeffrey Nagelbush" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: [evol-psych] Evidence of brain chemistry abnormalities i
Does anyone know of an instrument that is used to measure the compatibility
of roommates. A masters student is looking for such a measure and I have
been able to find nothing.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Jeff Nagelbush
Ferris State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I do not know if this question is appropriate for this list but I have no
where else to turn, at the moment, and the list members know so much!
Is there any research comparing the different possible configurations of
elementary school? In particular, I am interested in any differences (or
We have discussed similar issues on Tips in the past. (While correlation
does not mean causation, the researchers do try to deal with this issue
somewhat.)
From: "Jeffrey Nagelbush" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: Re: [evol-psych] Re: A religious instinct?
Dat
Although I have no trouble with the logic that says that guessing can't
hurt, the assumption is that, if you do not know the answer, guessing will
be random with respect to the correct answers. However, it has been my
experience that it is not that difficult to create questions for which one
G. Marc Turner wrote:
Okay, I've kept quiet but I feel compelled to mention a few things.
First, the US national election of our president has little to do with the
teaching of psychology as I see it. I would ask that those who continue to
feel compelled to debate this issue, please let us
We had quite a discussion about Harris' Nurture Assumption ideas some time
back. Therefore, I thought that some of you might be interested that the
latest issue of the journal Developmental Psychology (volume 36, number 6,
November)has an invited exchange of views on her theory between
Red Herring Magazine
Looking for Madam Tetrachromat - Do mutant females walk among us?
By Glenn Zorpette
From the December 04, 2000 issue
"Oh, everyone knows my color vision is different," chuckles Mrs. M, a
57-year-old English social worker. "People will think things match, but I
can
see they
.
REVERSE- PARA- META- PSEUDO-RACIST BRAIN THEORY
Copyright 2000 The Telegraph Group Limited
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
November 19, 2000, Sunday
THE DIFFERENCE, a three-part series on genetics, begins on Channel 4
tonight at 8pm.
He's got a better memory than us. New research suggests
For you information:
EPIDEMIOLOGY
Taking the Long View of Depression
Fifty-year Study Reveals Rise in the Illness Among Younger Women
You would not find Stirling County on a map of Atlantic Canada, but it is
a
real place. It was given this protective pseudonym by Alexander Leighton,
HSPH
I thought many of you would find this interesting.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3 JANUARY 2001
Yale University
http://www.yale.edu/
Interpretations of brain activity based on cognitive theories fail to
recognize
background neuronal firing
"Gary Klatsky" [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I'm not sure that the portfolios are meant to be a means of comparing your
class to another. I also don't believe that student evaluations provide
information about the quality of your courses. Unless you include a
measure
of student outcomes, you
Over the past couple weeks I have had two issues/questions arise in class
with which I would like some help.
1. In my child psychology class, while discussing childbirth, a student in
our school's child development program said that her text in one of her
courses said there were 4, rather
jim clark [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Would the 0 influence claim have problems with other evidence
that _appears_ to suggest family effects? I would expect that
religiosity, social attitudes, and like constructs would, for
example, vary in consistent ways across families. That is, some
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Harris debate
Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2001 17:37:07 EST
Hello again -
It was written:
"First, there really isn't a 0 influence model, as I understand Harris.
She
is arguing that environmental influences are very
From: jim clark [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: TIPS Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Harris debate
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2001 09:49:55 -0600 (CST)
Hi
On Fri, 2 Feb 2001, Jeffrey Nagelbush wrote:
jim clark [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Certainly at the most molecular level, there are extremely
jim clark [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I'm probably not being very clear about my point. Here goes one
more try. Religiousness (i.e., L vs. H religiosity) shows no
family effect. But more specific religious affiliations,
including presumably such irreligious classifications as agnostic
and
I received the following from another list that I am on:
"My colleagues and I find stage of development hugely predictive of position
in the world of work. Most bureaucrats perform at the formal operational
stage, most professionals at the systematic operation stage (one stage after
formal).
DISTANCE EDUCATION
* A PROFESSOR at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has
created a prototype of a satirical knowledge-dispensing
terminal called the Automatic Professor Machine. The A.P.M.,
he says, will be available soon from the same company that
markets wearable universities.
The following quote is from the Feb. 23 issue of Science: "Anatomical and
physiological studies have shown that three structures of the limbic
system-the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the nucleus acumbens-are
connected and speak to one another."
My question is, when did the prefrontal
I want to publically thank all who have written in response to my question
about the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. After reading all of
your responses, however, I feel a little like Alice talking to the Chesire
cat.
Oh well, your responses really were a help. Thanks again.
Jeff
The following position will soon be advertised in the usual places. If you
know anyone you know might be interested, please share this information with
them. Thanks.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
Psychology (Assistant Professor) to teach psychology, contribute to
Since religion has played such a large part in recent TIPS postings I
thought I would NOT add to the current discussion but, instead, just point
out what looks to me to be an interesting article in the most recently
released (although not current in date) December 2000 American Psychologist:
New Scientist Online News
I received this from another list and thought I would pass it on.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
Dark thoughts
Freud may have been right: people can suppress memories
Michael Anderson and Collin Green of the University of Oregon in Eugene
I have all this discussion on test item analysis interesting because I gave
up using these anayses years ago. The reason was that in my experience, as
I taught multiple sections of the same course, I found vastly different
item-analysis results in each section. I would have questions that
Recent research seems to show that, probably as a result of the
SIDS-prevention advice to keep infants on their backs, many infants do not
learn to crawl at all or at the normal time. The research also indicates
that other physical milestones, e.g., walking, sitting up, are not
influenced by
From: Jeffrey Nagelbush [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: [evol-psych] Fw: deeply disturbing developments at the
American Psychologist (long)
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 14:16:21 -0400
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 21:06:30 -0400
From: Scott Lilienfeld [EMAIL PROTECTED
From: Jeffrey Nagelbush [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: [evol-psych] Journal Backs Away From Article Critical of
Congress and Psychology Association
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 10:06:05 -0400
This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
(http://chronicle.com
-Original Message-
I am considering resigning from APA, which would also
necessitate resigning as Editor of JPSP:PPID, as well as from the
Presidency of Division 8 of APA. A number of events make me question
the full commitment of APA to the open discussion of
From: Jeffrey Nagelbush [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: [evol-psych] APA controversy
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 22:46:22 -0400
Norine Johnson, Ph.D., President APA and Phil Zimbardo, Ph.D.,
President-Elect, APA have asked Council Reps to distribute the
following letter
Norine Johnson, Ph.D., President APA and Phil Zimbardo, Ph.D.,
President-Elect, APA have asked Council Reps to distribute the
following letter they wrote regarding the controversy.
Dear Colleagues:
We urge you to not take a position, one way or the other, on the merits of
the issues involved
This might be of interest to Tipsters.
Jeff Nagelbush
From: Jeffrey Nagelbush [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: [evol-psych] Online psychological research projects
Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2001 10:33:43 -0400
From: Ken Pope [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Ian Pitchford [EMAIL
On public radio, the show Fresh Air scheduled for today, Monday, June 11 is
dedicated to a discussion of depression. The show is on at various times on
different public radio stations. It is on at 4:00 pm on my local station.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
July 8, 2001
SCIENCE
Is Our Fate Written in the Lengths
of Our Fingers?
DEBORAH BLUM, Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning
science writer and
author of Sex on the Brain: The
I found this interesting. I hope you will as well. Not new arguments, but
still worth pondering (even with the oversimplifications).
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
Tuesday, August 21, 2001 12:01
a.m. EDT
I have a confession to make: I have a mental illness,
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