DRESS GATE — 3 ARTICLES & VIDEO

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DRESS GATE — 3 ARTICLES & VIDEO

DESCRIPTION

Strangely there has been a controversy that erupted over the internet regarding whether a woman’s dress was “white and gold” or “blue and black.”  Numerous articles and arguments ensued and apparently have been raging around the world.  What color is the dress?  Why is the dress judged so radically different?  Is it due to perception? The effects of web transmission?  Screen pixel activation?  Three articles are presented:  the first is simply an announcement of the controversy over the dress.  The second is an article derived from an interactive graphic found in the first article.  The third is an article that attempts to explain the phenomenon.  Lastly there is a video from a CBS news report with an expert who weighs in on the many reasons that people perceive the dress differently.

Article #1:  The White and Gold (No, Blue and Black!) Dress That Melted the Internet

SOURCE & LINK:  New York Times, February 27, 2015, by Jonathan Mahler

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/business/a-simple-question-about-a-dress-and-the-world-weighs-in.html?nlid=38200791&src=recpb

(shortened URL)   http://tinyurl.com/kycuknc

Article #2:  Is That Dress White and Gold or Blue and Black?

SOURCE & LINK:  New York Times, February 28, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/28/science/white-or-blue-dress.html?nlid=38200791&src=recpb&_r=0

(shortened URL)   http://tinyurl.com/ngmsnhl

Article #3:  The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress
SOURCE & LINK:  WIRED Magazine, February 2015

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/

VIDEO SOURCE:   CBS NEWS, February 27, 2015

LINK TO RESOURCE

(There is a brief commercial before the video plays.)

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/neuroscientist-weighs-in-on-dressgate/

 

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•What is sensation?  What is perception?
•How does the eye sense color?
•How does the brain perceive color?
•What factors influence perception?
(This can be couched in terms of nature-nurture or naive-experience continuum.)
•What color is the dress?  Why do individuals see it differently?
(This can also be part of a discussion on optical illusions as well.)
•Can the students think of other similar situations?
(Consider the Stroop effect.)

TAGS

sensation, perception, naive-experience continuum, optical illusions, color blindness

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK — 3 Sites Devoted To Optical Illusions

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WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

DESCRIPTION

Three sites devoted to optical illusions.  These sites can be called up on a computer or device and projected to a class.

URL 

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/

http://psych.hanover.edu/Krantz/tutor.html#Sensation and Perception

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/graphics/index.html

NOTE:

The color illusions can be used in conjunction with the DRESSGATE discussion (March 23, 2015 Psychology Update) or as a stand-a-lone part of a sensation and perception lecture.

APP OF THE WEEK — Optical Illusions

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APP OF THE WEEK

NAME

illusions of the brain (Android – free)

illusions of the brain

Eye Tricks HD (iOS – $.99 – worth every penny)


EyeTricks

DESCRIPTION

Description from Apple Store

Eye Tricks HD is the largest collection of best ever Eye Tricks Illusions for your iPad!

Features:
● Does not require an internet connection
● Simple, convenient interface
● Several view modes
● A huge number of pictures
● All eye tricks are sorted into groups
● Favorites function
● Slideshow mode
● Any picture can be saved in the photo library
● Any picture can be used as wallpaper

Description  From Google Play Store

iLLUSIONS OF THE BRAIN (ANDROID)

Optical illusions: when your brain can’t believe your eyes!

The best collection of optical illusions with explanations for each of them. Amazing images subdivided by scientific categories and with the explanation of the mechanisms behind them.

Discover how your brain is fooled by the sight of these amazing images!

Play with your friends, try to beat your brain!

And now you can share the images with your friends.

The categories currently present are:

* Motion and psychedelic illusions
* Geometric illusions
* Hidden images
* Troxler’s fading
* Color illusions
* Ambiguous illusions
* Paradox illusions
* Autostereograms
* Illusory contours
* Afterimages

Optical Illusions (also called Visual Illusions) can use color, light and patterns to create images that can be deceptive or misleading to our brains. The information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain, creating a perception that in reality, does not match the true image. Perception refers to the interpretation of what we take in through our eyes. Optical illusions occur because our brain is trying to interpret what we see and make sense of the world around us. Optical illusions simply trick our brains into seeing things which may or may not be real.

HOW TO USE THESE APPs

First go download the app to your device.  Familiarize yourself with the particular illusions that best fit your Sensation & Perception lecture.  Connect your device to a projector and then show to your class to both discuss and engage your students.

WHEN GRIEF WON’T RELENT

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WHEN GRIEF WON’T RELENT

DESCRIPTION

Jane Brody, of the New York Times, examines the topic of complicated grief.  She contrasts the normal grieving process with “…complicated grief, an extreme, unrelenting reaction to loss that persists for more than six months and can result in a serious risk to health.”  Interviews with those who treat grief and cases are discussed.  How complicated grief differs in the symptom picture and  and etiology are also mentioned.  The last part of the article discusses treatment.  NOTE:  The website of the week from the American Psychiatric Association can be useful in regards to the diagnosis of this problem.

SOURCE:

New York Times,  February 16, 2015, By Jane E. Brody

Original Article:

Complicated Grief, M. Katherine Shear, M.D.
New England Journal Of Medicine (2015), 372, 153-160.

LINK TO RESOURCE

(shortened URL)   http://tinyurl.com/mmz49vc

 

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•What is the difference between grief and complicated grief?

•What are the likely triggers for complicated grief?

•Should grieving be considered a disorder at all? Or part of the normal response to a loss?

•What are the suggested treatments for complicated grief?

 

 

ARE THE PRIMARY CAUSES OF MULTIPLE PERSONAL DISORDER PSYCHIATRISTS AND PSYCHOTHERAPISTS?

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DESCRIPTION

Dr. Scott Mendelson, MD, examines the ever increasing numbers of individuals diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder. He points out that since the diagnosis became its own diagnostic category in the DSM-III, the sheer numbers have been increasing more in a decade than in a century. He points out that “…the numbers of cases of MPD are far higher in North America than in any other part of the world. Many suspect that this surplus of MPD cases is the product of American culture and over-indulgent psychiatrists and psychotherapists.” He further discusses the proliferation of websites and reports on the increase in personalities (or “alters”) as well therapists reporting patients who claim “alters identified as lobsters, chickens, gorillas, unicorns, rabbits, robots, Mr. Spock, aliens, and God.”

SOURCE:

Huffington Post, January 31, 2011, Scott Mendelson, M.D.

LINK TO RESOURCE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-mendelson-md/the-primary-causes-of-mul_b_812919.html

(shortened URL)    http://tinyurl.com/ksztsrx

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•What is Multiple Personality Disorder?

•What are the symptoms? How is it diagnosed?

*Is the increased prevalence due to an actual increase in the disorder, better diagnostics, or a type of “hysteria” that sweeps through the media?

•According to the article, how does a particular disorder suddenly gain in popularity? (This can be discussed in terms of other disorders such as ADD, ADHD, OCD, and so on)

 

 

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK — American Psychiatric Association DSM 5 Website

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WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

American Psychiatric Association   DSM 5 Website

URL    

http://www.psychiatry.org/practice/dsm

DESCRIPTION

Though this version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is somewhat controversial and problematic in the eyes of many professionals, it is still important in understanding how abnormal behavior/psychopathology are now characterized.  By now all introductory Psychology texts have had to revise chapters to include DSM 5.   This website from the American Psychiatric Association (the other APA), can be helpful to those who want to understand the DSM-5 from that perspective.

NOTE:

WHEN YOU VISIT THE WEBSITE, Click on the link at the end of the last paragraph – to be taken to a page that discusses some of the disorders.

YOU WILL SEE:   “Please CLICK HERE to learn more about DSM-5“

– to be taken to a page that discusses some of the disorders in the right hand column of the page.

THE MODERN ASYLUM

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THE MODERN ASYLUM

DESCRIPTION

Dr. Christine Montross summarizes:  “…three ethicists from the University of Pennsylvania argued in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the movement to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill has been a failure.”  In her article she points out the deinstitutionalization has proved to be a failure and that the movement has actually become “transinstitutionalization” in that the shift to housing the severely mentally ill has been out of a psychiatric hospital to inadequate boarding homes, medical hospitals, and prisons.  She provides examples how how inadequate care, funding, and policies, have made matters worse.  She further points out that the three ethicists recommend a new asylum model similar to one that is now used for dementia patient long term treatments.  “A new model of long-term psychiatric institutionalization, as the Penn group suggests, would help them.“

SOURCE:

New York Times, February 18, 2015, by Christine Montross, MD

Original article:

Improving Long-term Psychiatric CareBring Back the Asylum

Dominic A. Sisti, PhD; Andrea G. Segal, MS; Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD
Journal of the American Medical Association (2015), 313(3), 243-244.

LINK TO RESOURCE

(shortened URL)   http://tinyurl.com/oqvt65t

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•What is deinstitutionalization?   Transinstitutionalization?

•According to the author, how has deinstitutionalization “backfired” in the treatment of severe mental heath disorders?

•What are the causes/problems of the boarding home and halfway houses?

•What is in a new model that is proposed that would be helpful to make changes in how our society treats severe mental illness?

LOVE ONLINE IS ABOUT BEING REAL, NOT PERFECT

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Love online is about being real, not perfect

DESCRIPTION

“University of Iowa researchers find people prefer online profiles that present potential love interests who are successful, humble, and real” … We wondered, ‘What do people like in a dating profile?’” Wotipka (author of the study) says. ’Whom are they most likely to contact? Whom are they most interested in meeting?’”  The authors presented approximately 300 men and women with profiles of the type found in the online dating service, OK Cupid.  The profiles differed in how grandiose to humble the self-presentations sounded, as well as how “real” (true to life) the subjects information was about themselves (warranty) in other words real and authentic.  The participants generally chose not the high over the top profiles but those that were more to the humble side and authentic (real).

SOURCE:

Iowa Now (University Of Iowa), 2015.02.11, By: Sara Agnew

LINK TO RESOURCE

http://now.uiowa.edu/2015/02/love-online-about-being-real-not-perfect

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•What data does Social Psychology tell us about attraction?
•What are the pros and cons of this type of study? Could it be replicated?
•How can we use research to study real world situations such as dating?
•In general, for class discussion, would the students agree (or disagree) with the results?

 

APP OF THE WEEK — EXPLAIN EVERYTHING

Posted by & filed under Psychology App of the Week, Psychology Update.

APP OF THE WEEK

EXPLAIN EVERYTHING

ExplainEverything

iOS & Android   ($2.99)  (click on the platform of your device)

DESCRIPTION

From Google Play Store and iTunes Store

“Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere.

Explain Everything has been a top paid education tablet app since its release in United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Finland.

Now it is also running on Android phones, having a unique user interface designed for the phone.

Create slides, draw in any color, add shapes, add text, and use a laser pointer. Rotate, move, scale, copy, paste, clone, and lock any object added to the stage.

Add photos, videos, shapes, import PDF documents from local storage, Google Drive, Dropbox or insert a fully functioning web browser window. Export MP4 movies, YouTube videos or save Explain Everything projects locally, to Google Drive and to Dropbox.”

Here are two videos:

The first from the App developer:

 

This YouTube tutorial is from Learning Technology at Ohio State

GENES TELL ONLY PART OF THE STORY

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Genes Tell Only Part of the Story

DESCRIPTION

Dr. Zuger presents the case of Barbara who is addicted to alcohol, various drugs, has a plethora of physical/medical problems and who is generally non compliant with treatment (both medical and psychological).   The author begins by stating President Obama’s goal of researching the genome to learn the causes of the diseases and to subsequently develop treatments.   Dr. Zuger makes the case that biology alone would not solve Barbara’s problems but need to focus on the environmental and life-style choices as well.  From the conclusion of the article:
“Announcing his initiative, Mr. Obama specifically celebrated a future in which one’s genes would no longer spell one’s medical destiny. But genes are seldom the whole story behind illness and are possibly not even the sternest of the medical fates that control us. Perhaps some of the others, like environment and lifestyle, will someday, somehow be corralled as well.”

SOURCE

New York Times  February 16, 2015   By Abigail Zuger, M.D.

LINK TO RESOURCE

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/genes-tell-only-part-of-story/?emc=edit_hh_20150217&nl=health&nlid=38200791&ref=healthupdate

(shortened URL)  http://tinyurl.com/qduy8nh

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•Ask the students how they would go about an assessment of the case in terms of a BioPsychoSocial analysis.

•How do the students view Barbara’s problems?  As free-will bad choices or as due to deterministic influences in her biology and environment?

•Can the students separate their knee jerk reaction to the case (opinion) and look at the situation from a social science point of view?

•Discuss what Barbara’s prognosis (outcome) would be predicted?  How is a prognosis determined?