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 know how we can
>integrate this debate in with our courses. (I commend those individuals who
>have already attempted to relate the issues to psychology, but the vast
>majority of posts do not seem to do that...including this one strangely
>enough)
>
I always find it useful to try to integrate current events into my classes.
So how did do this for the election? Well, in my lifespan class, I
discussed the fact (if what I heard is correct) that the ballot in question
was changed to make the print easier to read for the elderly ( a bit or
irony here, perhaps). Since the size of the ballot did not change, this
necessitated the use of the right hand column. This, of course relates to
the sensory changes in the elderly. I also related it to the research
showing that the elderly are more disrupted by time pressure than are
younger folks. Finally, I did discuss the design implications that I/O
psychologists talk about, including the problem we all seem to have with
using the knobs to turn on the correct burners on our stoves.
In my child psychology class, we were discussing the development of the
understanding of intention. As an example of how important understanding
intention is I suggested that if we could show that the ballots in Palm
Beach were intentionally confusing, then we might have a case for
overturning that part of the election. However, without intention, then the
confusion is likely to be seen as just tough luck and something to repair
next time.
Students seemed to really like the reference to these events.
Jeff Nagelbush
nagelbuj@ hotmail.com
Ferris State University
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