Remember Psych 101?

[Bored, Esq.]

301 in my case.

I was thinking about this class this morning because I had particularly vivid/intense dreams last night. Some of the theories taught to me in Psych 101:

1. Dreams are just the brain "processing" information received during the daylight hours.

This is the lamest, most boring theory ever and completely misses the point.

2. Sleep is caused by the brain's need to "cool down."

AKA the overheated engine theory of sleep. Hello 14th century. This has been negated/proved incorrect numerous times and yet they still teach it...why? They don't really know, still, what "causes" sleep.

I took this class in 1992, though, so hopefully things have changed.

Anyone else completely turned off psychology forever by this pseudoscience's lame grasping at materialistic causation in early college courses?

[Bored, Esq.]

Well, I imagine this class isn't exactly loved by the professors so they either force it on some sadsack grasping at tenure or they draw straws.

[Bored, Esq.]

Getting grants to do psych experiments in order to reconfirm common sense and/or easily observable phenomena must be the greatest academic scam ever. "I need 10 years to experiment to see why attractive females influence the decision-making part of the brain in males."

I suppose the bad part of that is the other professors (esp. the "real" scientists) throw their lunches at you in the cafeteria.

[VueeeuVueeeeuV]

I will never forget psyh 101. It was thought by a tiny and insane german man who was seriously the head of the department and his statuesque female TAs. I have no memory whatsoever of any of the content but there was a lot of "noone actually believes this anymore but you should know it."
It was taught in a multistory lecturehall which he made a point of telling us was against his his frequent protest but he wouldn't let anyone sit more than five rows back. This lecturehall's (i guess it was actually an auditorim, i saw lewis black there!)top floor had doors facing the admissions/bussar/registars offices where everyone got roped into going so it wasn't very clear where these huge doors went though they did not lock. I am sure everyone at the school at some point or another(i know i did) said "i am gonna see what is in these doors" and went inside. It's not a bad view from up there though when i went in they where doing some other class and I made a speedy exsit.
Most professors didn't really pay attention to the balcony except for the crazy pcyh professor who would STOP THE CLASS, YELL AT THE PERSON UP IN THE BALCONY TO LEAVE and then go on about how terrible the auditorium was. This happened about every third class. I don't even want to go into what happened if someones phone went off. This class was also at 8:15 and most people had commutes about ten times the length of mine.
He also once said "i am from a family of musicians, i am the only nonmusical one in the family and here is why" and he put his stubby little hand on the overhead projector.

So no, I will never forget psych 101but i wish I learned some psych there. I also never made the connection but Hunter College is without doubt the higher education version of wayside school.

[Bored, Esq.]

I will never forget psyh 101. It was thought by a tiny and insane german man who was seriously the head of the department and his statuesque female TAs. I have no memory whatsoever of any of the content but there was a lot of "noone actually believes this anymore but you should know it."
It was taught in a multistory lecturehall which he made a point of telling us was against his his frequent protest but he wouldn't let anyone sit more than five rows back. This lecturehall's (i guess it was actually an auditorim, i saw lewis black there!)top floor had doors facing the admissions/bussar/registars offices where everyone got roped into going so it wasn't very clear where these huge doors went though they did not lock. I am sure everyone at the school at some point or another(i know i did) said "i am gonna see what is in these doors" and went inside. It's not a bad view from up there though when i went in they where doing some other class and I made a speedy exsit.
Most professors didn't really pay attention to the balcony except for the crazy pcyh professor who would STOP THE CLASS, YELL AT THE PERSON UP IN THE BALCONY TO LEAVE and then go on about how terrible the auditorium was. This happened about every third class. I don't even want to go into what happened if someones phone went off. This class was also at 8:15 and most people had commutes about ten times the length of mine.
He also once said "i am from a family of musicians, i am the only nonmusical one in the family and here is why" and he put his stubby little hand on the overhead projector.

So no, I will never forget psych 101but i wish I learned some psych there. I also never made the connection by Hunter College is without doubt the higher education version of wayside school.

You have to know this was coming:



Very creative spelling, btw. A+

[death by snoo snoo]

My professor had a penchant for throwing himself into walls and screaming gibberish trying to act out the disorders he was talking about. There was also a supposed boy genius in the class who was home schooled and graduated at 12 or 13. He would ask the most inane questions, he always flunked or nearly flunked the exams, and he walked around campus with a suitcase on wheels that contained a giant ziploc bag full of sandwiches.

[Bored, Esq.]

My professor had a penchant for throwing himself into walls and screaming gibberish trying to act out the disorders he was talking about. There was also a supposed boy genius in the class who was home schooled and graduated at 12 or 13. He would ask the most inane questions, he always flunked or nearly flunked the exams, and he walked around campus with a suitcase on wheels that contained a giant ziploc bag full of sandwiches.

That's awesome. The boy genius from my HS went to Texas A&M, was introduced to alcohol and went around yelling sea chanties while wearing combat boots. I think the cadets beat the shit out of him regularly. He has since lapsed into obscurity.

[death by snoo snoo]

I think his genius was mostly wishful thinking on the part of his parents. I'm sure he was smart for his age, but whatever intellectual gifts he might have possessed were more than made up for by his supreme lack of common sense and social skills.

He said he wanted to become a doctor, and I'll bet he did. I'm going to go look him up and make an appointment, as a matter of fact..

[caldwell.the.great]

I think his genius was mostly wishful thinking on the part of his parents. I'm sure he was smart for his age, but whatever intellectual gifts he might have possessed were more than made up for by his supreme lack of common sense and social skills.

He said he wanted to become a doctor, and I'll bet he did. I'm going to go look him up and make an appointment, as a matter of fact..

What we have here, class, is a unique manifestation of the Freudian "death drive."

[Introvert]

I went to college for a whopping 2 months in '94 and Psych was the one class that I enjoyed. But at the time I just wasn't ready for 13th grade.

[father of lies]

The boy genius I went to high school with was beaten to death in DC. He went for a leisurely stroll by himself at night in college, and was found under a bridge the next day.

[Phritz]

isn't the main (or one of the main) reasons for dreaming to sustain and prolong sleeping?
like dreaming of a river, because you have to pee. or imagining the alarm clock is a church tower... or you imagine all your childhood urges are fullfilled. to trick you into thinking all things that demand attention are inexistant so your brain can find some rest.

[EEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOO]

Getting grants to do psych experiments in order to reconfirm common sense and/or easily observable phenomena must be the greatest academic scam ever. "I need 10 years to experiment to see why attractive females influence the decision-making part of the brain in males."

I suppose the bad part of that is the other professors (esp. the "real" scientists) throw their lunches at you in the cafeteria.

Different phenomenon, but in my experiment with a sample size of one, I've found that there's a direct correlation between lack of scientific evidence, making claims that reinforce common sense, and getting tons of press coverage. Behold this "study" that I was a part of (it wasn't a study, it was an exercise to learn the basics of ethnography):

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

http://www.adotas.com/2010/03/iphone-ah ... unanimous/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/0 ... 90748.html
http://www.thespec.com/News/Business/article/732461
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ ... ck_check=1
etc.

It was on msnbc.com and a bunch other sites as well. No one even checked to see if it was peer-reviewed. This makes it easier to understand why every time an evolutionary psychologist opens his mouth it ends up on the news.

[Necrometer]

When you take an art class, you can take a technique class or a history/appreciation class. The former helps you DO art while the latter helps you COMPREHEND art. From what I've gathered, philosophy classes (never taken one) tend to resemble the history/appreciation mode. Are there philosophy classes which actually train people to be a philosopher? I sort of intuitively sensed that this is something inherent to all people to varying extents, and that those with any gift for it simply need to turn on their brains. But maybe artistic talent is the same way...

[EEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOO]

When you take an art class, you can take a technique class or a history/appreciation class. The former helps you DO art while the latter helps you COMPREHEND art. From what I've gathered, philosophy classes (never taken one) tend to resemble the history/appreciation mode. Are there philosophy classes which actually train people to be a philosopher? I sort of intuitively sensed that this is something inherent to all people to varying extents, and that those with any gift for it simply need to turn on their brains. But maybe artistic talent is the same way...

If you're at a research-oriented university, upper-division philosophy classes should be introducing you to current questions in philosophy and how to work on them. Might be different in places that do more of a continental tradition, where philosophy and history of philosophy tend to blend together.

[Phritz]

Getting grants to do psych experiments in order to reconfirm common sense and/or easily observable phenomena must be the greatest academic scam ever. "I need 10 years to experiment to see why attractive females influence the decision-making part of the brain in males."

with the same logic, you could argue "why find out why the sun rises? it does anyway.". knowing a behavior and finding out the reasons for it and/or be able to predict it, are two different things. and "common sense" is way to diffuse to rely on it - we all have our own ...

see, in philosophy, still no one can prove (ultimately) that any other person in the world is a "thinking being". i will keep assuming it, but some proof would be nice. not going to happen though...
i do agree though that there's a lot of bs researched right now.

When you take an art class, you can take a technique class or a history/appreciation class. The former helps you DO art while the latter helps you COMPREHEND art. From what I've gathered, philosophy classes (never taken one) tend to resemble the history/appreciation mode. Are there philosophy classes which actually train people to be a philosopher? I sort of intuitively sensed that this is something inherent to all people to varying extents, and that those with any gift for it simply need to turn on their brains. But maybe artistic talent is the same way...

there are different schools of philosophy, some will teach you the tools, some will teach you admiration (aka. exegesis). especially "analytic philosophy" should be problem-oriented: teach you how to approach a certain question, analyse the concept and terms used and how to draw conclusions from that. those are usually not the most creative, exciting or effective tools, but they should be universally applicable.
other schools are focused on exegesis - finding out what a certain author (usually hegel or heidegger) might have said about a certain problem.
(beware, i'm certainly biased here)

[Bored, Esq.]

with the same logic, you could argue "why find out why the sun rises? it does anyway.". knowing a behavior and finding out the reasons for it and/or be able to predict it, are two different things. and "common sense" is way to diffuse to rely on it - we all have our own ...

What I was actually referring to is...the tradition here in America of doing the same psychological experiments over and over and over...and getting grant money for them. They've been doing this for at least 30 years at this point. I wasn't saying "no one should look into common sense things", I should have made that clearer...

RE: Grad studies in philosophy, yeah...that's where they finally hit you with the good stuff. By then it's too late for you.

[neckbeard]

I remember my pysche 101 professor. He interrupted his lecture to scold me for sitting with my arms crossed. Said I was vibing him. He always mentioned how he was on prescription happy pillz. We had to do one of those grade school style poster board presentations and I did mine about SUICIDE and he got mad at me for that too. During that one video about that black kid got half his skull blown off or something, but him brain was still in there and he could still think, the chick next to me passed out and was leaning over way towards me snoring in my ear and just held there by the side of her desk.

[ratanda]

I remember I aced it because early on I recognized that all the test questions came directly from material covered by the book. Our teacher was a grad student who did not stray away from the text book at all. Some girl was always amazed that I scored high on exams, and I told her she already had all the damn answers in her textbook. Just read and study and remember it.

I also remember the experiements we had to participate in for credit. They hooked up pads to my palms and had me watch a TV that scrolled different images. They gave me a joystick that controlled the smile on a cartoon face. If you moved it up the face smiles indicating you like the image. And conversely, if you moved it down it would frown. I remember a few pr0n images thrown in there.

Man, that was 16 years ago. Fuck.

[Bored, Esq.]

The boy genius I went to high school with was beaten to death in DC. He went for a leisurely stroll by himself at night in college, and was found under a bridge the next day.

Did not factor negrons into his equations.

[John Jr.]

The boy genius I went to high school with was beaten to death in DC. He went for a leisurely stroll by himself at night in college, and was found under a bridge the next day.

Did not factor dark matter(s) into his equations.

fixed that for you.

[Bored, Esq.]

I remember I aced it because early on I recognized that all the test questions came directly from material covered by the book. Our teacher was a grad student who did not stray away from the text book at all. Some girl was always amazed that I scored high on exams, and I told her she already had all the damn answers in her textbook. Just read and study and remember it.

I also remember the experiements we had to participate in for credit. They hooked up pads to my palms and had me watch a TV that scrolled different images. They gave me a joystick that controlled the smile on a cartoon face. If you moved it up the face smiles indicating you like the image. And conversely, if you moved it down it would frown. I remember a few pr0n images thrown in there.

Man, that was 16 years ago. Fuck.

I know for certain that we also had to go participate as lab rats in grad student experiments, it was part of the "fun" of the class, but for the life of me I can't remember what the experiments were. Maybe I didn't go? Maybe my mind was raped?

I suppose the entertainment of classes like this, really big intro courses, is listening to 18 year old yokels and yahoos trying to contradict the professor, drawing on their vast reservoirs of life experience.

[Bored, Esq.]

The boy genius I went to high school with was beaten to death in DC. He went for a leisurely stroll by himself at night in college, and was found under a bridge the next day.

Did not factor dark matter(s) into his equations.

fixed that for you.

I thought that was too obvious.

[Bored, Esq.]

isn't the main (or one of the main) reasons for dreaming to sustain and prolong sleeping?
like dreaming of a river, because you have to pee. or imagining the alarm clock is a church tower... or you imagine all your childhood urges are fullfilled. to trick you into thinking all things that demand attention are inexistant so your brain can find some rest.

I like this theory...but it doesn't really mean anything to me. I'm sure many people would find it adequate? My father, for example. He has dreams about sitting at his desk working.

[SAUSAGES!!!!!!!!!!]

the thing about sleep is:
* can i sleep for a week straight, then go for another week without sleeping?
* if youre in a coma, do you have a sleep cycle or are you always asleep
* hunting fish, deer, etc. fish are awake at different times of the day each day. its a 36 hour cycle
* peasants before electric heat in the middle ages in the winter. pretty much screwed, have nothing to eat, nothing to farm. human hibernation must have taken place