第6章
. Paradox: “You see me as an upright, stationary three-dimensional figure, yet my image on your
retina is upside down, jiggling around, with only two flat dimensions. How do you see the real
me, given your deceiving retina?”
. Personal anecdote: “Have you ever known someone who suddenly and without any warning lost
his or her memory [became a different person]? Several years ago a cousin of mine. . .”
. Argument: “Freud has done more than any other person to promote the psychological study and
treatment of mental illness by replacing the demons of exorcism with the respectability of
medical science and the reasoned analysis of psychoanalysis. Nevertheless, as far as I am
concerned, his contribution is now backfiring. The long-term consequences of the medical
model and of using unconscious dynamic explanations to explain a basically ordinary process
of maladaptive learning are nothing less than fraud.”
. Relevant media: Start your lecture by reading all or part of an article in the school or local
newspaper that highlights a major point to be made in the lecture.
. Relevant student material: “A student from my other class came to ask me yesterday whether I
might refer him to a psychiatrist. After a long discussion, it seemed evident that his problem
was loneliness, and I do not know a therapist who treats that. How unusual and bizarre a
problem is loneliness? Are any of you afflicted by it? Let us discuss that topic today.”
. Concrete instances (people rather than abstract variables): “It’s hard to imagine that we would ever
be blindly obedient to authority as participants in Milgram’s experiments were. ‘Not me, I’m
different,’ you say. ‘I’d be independent.’ What do you think the people in Nixon’s presidential
cabinet said before the Watergate scandal? Moreover, what about the 900 people who took part
in the mass suicide pact in Guyana? Were they being loyal to their leader, the Reverend Jim
Jones? Dedicated to their cause? Faithful to their religious beliefs? Alternatively, were they
blindly obedient fanatics who were brainwashed by a dictator? Who is absolutely certain they
would not have drunk the poison at Jonestown if they had been members of the People’s
Temple?”
. Shared experiences: “We all know people who. . .” or “I’m sure that you, like me, have been in
love and maybe we have even experienced similar emotions when that union was at its height
and [pause] when the relationship somehow went wrong, failed, died. Let’s examine the nature
of emotions . . .”
. Challenge: “My daughter asked me if blind people ever dream in colors. Who has an answer I
can give her?”
. Turn of phrase: “What’s the difference between a psychologist who studies animal learning and
a magician who uses animals in his act? The psychologist pulls habits out of his rats.”
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. Individualize prior student input: “You recall that in our last lecture a student challenged the
view that pain is a sensation comparable to other senses. Ms. Jones’ pain-as-unique sensation
theory, in fact, fits some new evidence.”
WITHIN THE LECTURE
The material within the lecture should follow a logical order. Among the organizational schemes you can
use are:
CAUSE AND EFFECT
Cite and explain events by referring to their origins. For example, you can discuss how the criticisms of
existing theories led to the development of new perspectives.
TIME SEQUENTIAL
Arrange lecture ideas chronologically. For example, you can explain how information moves from one
memory system to another through a series of steps. Information is encoded into sensory memory, the
important information moves on to short-term memory (where it is rehearsed or lost), and so on.
TOPICAL
Focus on parallel elements of different discussion topics. For example, when teaching the major
psychological disorders, you can discuss their similarities.
PROBLEM—SOLUTION
Follow the statement of a problem with alternative solutions. For example, you might pose the problem:
What are the consequences of frustration?