Hi
The second part of the learning outcome ("realize that psychological
explanations are often complex and tentative") suggests one possible approach.
Give them a number of findings / observations and ask for possible explanations
for each.
Some academic disciplines contain a higher percentage of men (or members of
group A) than women (or members of group B). What explanations are possible
for this finding? Parenthesized phrasing would make it more abstract? Score
for sensitivity to biological (innate and environmental) and societal
influences.
A school of fish is swimming along with one fish ahead of the others. Why
might that one fish be swimming ahead of the others? Score for internal /
external explanations (based on some cross-cultural work on attributions).
Infants who are more attached to their mothers grow up to be less aggressive
than children who had poorer attachment as infants. Why? Score for different
directions of causality and third factor, coercive cycle, ....
The correlation between IQs is higher for monozygotic twins than for dizygotic
twins. Why might this be the case? Score for genetic and environmental (e.g.,
intrauterine due to shared placenta / chorion, later treatment by others)
factors.
A study reported that children who attended preschool tended later in life to
be more successful in school than children who did not attend preschool. How
might you explain this finding? Score for benefits of preschool, flaws in
design (e.g., non-equivalent groups), parental motivation, importance of
looking at all comparable studies, ....
...
Should be possible to generate a host of these for diverse psychological
domains? Might be useful to also ask for student estimates of likelihood of
each explanation being correct to see if they are indeed "tolerating ambiguity"
or are simply citing alternatives they have actually discarded mentally.
Or one could give such scenarios but with one explanation (e.g., group A is
genetically better endowed, the fish in front is "leading" the others) and ask
for alernative explanations, perhaps providing (some) explanations that force
students to think "against the grain."
e.g., Some people believe that men are more aggressive than women because of
their upbringing; that is, without socialization to be aggressive and sexist
societies, men and women would show little or no difference in aggressiveness.
What possible causes for gender differences in aggression might be inconsistent
with this model?
Use of multiple items would allow measure of reliability and would also be able
to determine if trait was unidimensional or not?
One nice thing about this approach is that it does seem to overlap with how we
might actually evaluate this in a classroom?
Take care
Jim
James M. Clark
Professor of Psychology
204-786-9757
204-774-4134 Fax
[email protected]
>>> "Frantz, Sue" <[email protected]> 30-May-10 10:25:12 AM >>>
We've based our student learning outcomes for Intro Psych on the APA Guidelines
for the Undergraduate Psychology Major:
http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/about/psymajor-guidelines.pdf.
Goal 5, Values in Psychology (pdf page 17) reads, "Value empirical evidence,
tolerate ambiguity, act ethically, and reflect other values that are the
underpinnings of psychology as a science." Within this one goal are 7
suggested student learning outcomes. The one we want to address is 5.4:
"Tolerate ambiguity and realize that psychological explanations are often
complex and tentative."
In our brainstorming, we came up with giving students a scenario and asking
them to describe the events in the scenario from a number of different
psychological perspectives, e.g. biological, behavioral, cognitive. To get at
the ambiguity part, we were looking for some writing prompt that would evaluate
whether students understood that one perspective isn't the correct perspective,
but rather all contribute to our understanding. We had a couple ideas on how to
do that, but none we were happy with, and certainly none that led to an obvious
grading rubric.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, I was wondering if anyone else has evaluated
this student learning outcome, and if so, how. To reiterate, we are not at all
committed to this particular assignment. We're just looking for ideas.
Some people suggested using 'tolerance of ambiguity' scales. This is an
approach we hadn't considered. I wonder if one Intro Psych course would show
much movement on such a scale, or if it's even fair to expect such a thing. I
also wonder if scores on such a scale at the beginning of the course (or the
end of the course) would correlate with final grade in the course.
And then I wonder if it's possible to construct such a scale that's specific to
psychology, a 'tolerance of ambiguity in psychology' scale.
Sue
--
Sue Frantz Highline Community College
Psychology, Coordinator Des Moines, WA
206.878.3710 x3404 [email protected]
Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, Associate Director
Teaching of Psychology Idea Exchange (ToPIX)
APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology
APA's p...@cc Committee
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