Hi John. I have thought about including primary source material in intro
(which I do in all other classes), but have worried that they will be
overwhelmed, because I don't have time to teach them how to read an
empirical article (I do this in research methods). As a compromise, I
include readings from _Forty Studies that Changed Psychology_ and _Research
Stories for Introductory Psychology_. Both of these books group studies by
subdiscipline and include 5-10 page descriptions of each study, broken down
by intro, method, results, but they are written in a much more
reader-friendly way than are the original empirical articles. It's a
trade-off, but I don't believe that most intro students are ready to
grappple with primary sources, and I don't have the time to teach them how
to do so. I would love to hear your thoughts (and the thoughts of other
tipsters)on this.
Marty Bourgeois
University of Wyoming
-----Original Message-----
From: John Neuhoff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 10:43 AM
To: tips
Subject: Intro Reading Nominations
Hello,
I am planning on exposing my intro students to a good deal of primary
source material this semester. My goal here is to give them a greater
appreciation for theoretical and methodological considerations that they
might not get otherwise. I would like to assign one primary reading for
each of the following chapters.
Neuroscience-
Behavioral Genetics-
Sensation/Perception-
Development-
Consciousness-
Learning-
Memory-
Language-
Psychological Disorders-
Stress and Health-
Social-
If you had to pick one article for each area, what would it be? The
requirements of your nominations (for my purposes) are as follows:
1. I cannot be tremendously complex methodologically, or esoteric
theoretically.
2. It must be of "reasonable length" (define this as you see fit, but
brief is better).
3. I must have a hook for 1st year students.
4. It must be reasonably well done.
Note that the paper need not be current, seminal, or even important in
the grand scheme of the sub-discipline. Most of these types of studies
they can read about in their textbook. I simply want to give the
students a good feel for what it is that experimental psychologists do
and what kinds of things they discover.
_______________________________________
John G. Neuhoff
Department of Psychology
The College of Wooster
Wooster, OH 44691
Voice: 330-263-2475
FAX: 520-244-5577
http://pages.wooster.edu/jneuhoff/index.htm
