Brain Surgery

Fancy having a go at Brain surgery? Click here....

CSI: Fact or Fiction?

Click on the image to see it in full.

Source: Forensic Science

Psychology Apps

If you have an iPhone or iPod you might want to try some of these psychology apps:

Link to:Top 10 Psychology Apps for the iPhone, & iPod

You may be able to see drawings and paintings by patients with mental disorders at the Royal Bethlem Museum but you can see paintings and drawings by some of America's major serial killers at the FBI's 'Evil Minds Research Museum'. According to this post at Mindhacks you can see 'Killer Clown' paintings by John Wayne Gacey and other examples of serial killer art.



Link to FBI's Behavioural Science Unit

The FBI's Behavioural Science Unit also run a 12 week student intern programme. You can check out the details here...

Brain Poster

The monthly science supplement from the Times Eureka has a good poster of the brain in its February edition.

Download the poster here...

The Fourth Kind

Chris French explains why the Fourth Kind is rubbish....here

Anomalistic psychology

Chris French outlines what anomalistic psychology is and why psychologists should be interested in it. The first of a series on anomalistic psychology in the Guardian.

Play...

Darwin's intergalactic adventure if the evolutionary explanations topic is driving you mad. You never know it might help......  

Despondex

FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

"We buy your dreams."

This 1950's comic book turned readers dreams into comic book stories. You can download 'Strange World of Your Dreams' here. Today, Jesse Reklaw turns readers dreams into a four panel cartoon strip. What would Freud make of this one?



Why not keep a dream diary and use the comments to submit the best one. Maybe I'll turn it into a comic strip.

Have a look at Jesse Reklaw's site 'Slow Wave' for inspiration.

Make your own hollow mask illusion.

You can download the Dragon here...

Resources for students

The BPS Research Digest Blog has just published a post with links to relevant articles from the Psychologist Magazine. Have a look, you might find some of them useful.

BPS Research Digest Blog

The Good Samaritan

Man rescued by stranger

"But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him', he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have'.

Bystander behaviour can be a pro-social behaviour: if you help someone in need. If you are going to read anything, read We Are All Bystanders, an article from Greater Good magazine published by Berkeley University. It makes a clear link between altruism and bystander behaviour, outlines some interesting research on bystander apathy, and discusses the concept of the active bystander and the altruistic personality.

Link to We Are all Bystanders

Link to Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful life website

Psychology Photo's

The history of psychology through the lens of Life Magazine......

Link to 'too many interests' blog and Life Magazine psychology photo's here.....

Bystander behaviour

Watch the video below.



How would a social psychologist explain the behaviour of the people in the video? How about Latane and Darley and their decision model?

Environmental Stressors

Research into the effects of environmental stressors on aggressive behaviour.

Noise, temperature, crowding....try and think of a song about an environmental stressor. The two below are mine about noise. How about the name of a band based on a psychological approach, a psychologist or a famous psychological experiment? Why not post the track or band on the A2 Psychology Facebook group?

Noise Annoys...........

Noise, Noise, Noise......well Smash it Up and I Just can't be Happy today (I watched this on telly as a kid. Not quite a flashbulb memory.....but....)

Here's a track based on a social psychological experiment that you may not have heard about.

Walk on by.........

"The chilling scene captured on video by a streetlight surveillance camera has touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford, with the capital city's biggest newspaper blaring "SO INHUMANE" on the front page and the police chief lamenting: "We no longer have a moral compass."

"We have no regard for each other," said Chief Daryl Roberts, who on Wednesday released the video in hopes of making an arrest in the accident that left Angel Arce Torres in a critical condition."

The bystanders.....

The song...

Bystander Behaviour

A short BBC radio documentary on Kitty and bystander behaviour:

Case Study

Winston Moseley the man that did it....

Then: the confession

Now: the explanation?

Original New York Times report of the murder illustrated by Alan Moore

Students

Some psychologists have argued that students are the human fruit flies of psychological research (Rubenstein, 1982) . This is a reference to the extensive use of fruit flies in genetic research. As early as 1946 McNemear stated that psychology was the 'science of the behaviour of students'. Kimmel (1996) claims that 70% of social psychological research and 90% of cognitive research has used students as participants.

There are lots of reasons why students are chosen to participate in psychological research. Most psychological research takes place in Universities and Colleges. Students are easy to recruit, there are lots of them, and many Universities offer credit to students if they take part in research.

However, this may undermine the validity of a lot of psychological research. Students are not representative of the adult population, they may also be biased in terms of social class, ethnicity, and intelligence. This bias is even more acute for research conducted in the past. This means that a lot of research may be based on a biased and unrepresentative sample of the population. We may not be able to generalise the findings of this research to other people and a lot of psychological research may not tell us something fundamental and universal about human behaviour.

Some psychologists also argue that there may be ethical issues raised by the use of students in psychological research.

The link below will take you to the British Psychological magazine the 'Psychologist' where these issues are discussed in depth:

Article on students as participants in psychological experiments

Student Blog

The Link below is to a Richmond College Student psychology blog:

Student Blog