Category Archives: Blog Prompts

Chapter 1 First Impression Prompts – Research Methods

Hand writing on a notebook Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag "Research Methods" on your post. Here are the prompts for this week: Option 1 For this week’s discussion, I want you to design a research study about a topic you find interesting in psychology. You can choose any topic you would like as long as you relate it to human behavior or mental processes. In your post make sure to do the following:

  • List your research question
  • State your hypothesis (what you think the outcome would be and why)
  • Describe your procedure (what you would have participants do, how you would recruit participants)
Make your research idea something feasible that you could actually do as a student researcher. In other words, assume you have a fairly small budget and a limited amount of time. If you’re a psychology major, ...

A New Beginning

Summer semester starts on July 16th, so in the coming days you will see new posts introducing the students from our summer iteration of General Psychology. The summer version of the course has fewer students, but they will be posting more frequently, so make sure to keep up with our writing for this 6-week course. This is also the first time we're conducting the course completely online, so it's a new adventure for all of us. If you want to know more about me, you can read about my background here. The prompt for the students' introductory post is below: For your first post, I want you to introduce yourself and provide a little background about how you approach the course. In addition to whatever general information you want to share about yourself, please also answer the following questions:

  • Why you chose to take this class? (It is okay to be ...

Week 16 First Impression Prompts – Mental Health Treatment

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, use the tag "Mental Health Treatment." The first impression posts will be due by the beginning of class on Wednesday, 5/2. The refinement posts will be due at 5pm on Sunday, 5/6.

Option 1:

Your textbook lists 4 major types of psychotherapy (psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and humanistic). Rank these types of therapy according to how helpful you think they would be if you needed therapy and explain what it is about each one that you like/dislike.

Option 2:

Former First Lady Michelle Obama contributed a considerable amount of energy and support into a campaign targeting increased awareness of mental health issues called Change Direction. Using the information provided on their website (http://www.changedirection.org) evaluate how effective you think the campaign will be in ...

Spotlight Blog 3 Prompts

Regardless of which option you choose, make sure to use the tag "Spotlight" on your post. Also include the tag listed for the option you choose below. The spotlight post is due at noon on Sunday, 5/6. Option 1 - Use the tag "Social" People are often told to resist peer pressure and think for themselves, but as we've learned, this is more easily said than done. Too often, especially for teens, this advice is not followed with concrete recommendation about ways to resist pressure from others. I want you to identify three websites that provide methods for resisting peer pressure and discuss how likely you think the strategies they provide are to be successful. Make sure to explain your rationale using what we've learned in class and your textbook. Each of the three websites need to be targeted at a different audience but ...

Week 15 First Impression Prompts – Mental Illness

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, use the tag “Mental Illness.” The first impression posts will be due by the beginning of class on Monday, 4/23. The refinement posts will be due at 5pm on Sunday, 4/29. Option 1 Schizophrenia is often depicted dramatically in the media, and has been the subject of many major films like A Beautiful Mind, The Soloist, and Donnie Darko. Less frequently, however, do people get the chance to think about the daily life of someone who experiences hallucinations and delusions. Watch this video which simulates the experience of a person with schizophrenia, share your reactions, and compare this to how you typically see schizophrenia in the media. Option 2 People often associate schizophrenia with the homeless population ...

Week 14 First Impression Prompt

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag "Social." The first impression posts will be due by the beginning of class on Monday, 4/16. The refinement posts will be due at noon on Sunday, 4/26. Option 1: The Implicit Association Test (which can be accessed through this link) is a tool to identify biases which may be outside your conscious awareness. The results of this test cannot determine whether or not you are racist, sexist, homophobic, etc., but they are useful to help you understand yourself and how you interact with others. For this post, you must take two separate IAT tests from the link above. You do not need to share your results if you don’t want to, but ...

Spotlight Blog 2 Prompts

Regardless of which option you choose, make sure to use the tag "Spotlight" on your post. Also include the tag listed for the option you choose below. The spotlight post is due by the beginning of class on Monday, 4/16. Option 1 - Use the tag "Memory" Now that we've discussed how memory works and you've had a chance to think about your own study skills, I want you to critically evaluate websites that give students advice about how to study. If you select this option, I want you to find three different websites that provide advice for studying: one targeted toward college students, one targeted toward middle or high school students, and one targeted toward parents. Evaluate the advice provided on each and compare it to what you know about how memory works (include sources), making sure to correct anything you think is ...

Week 13 First Impression Prompts – Intelligence

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag "Intelligence." The first impression posts will be due by the beginning of class on Monday, 4/9. The refinement posts will be due at 5pm on Sunday, 4/15. Option 1: Many people consider intelligence to be largely determined by genetics, but there is substantial evidence that the environment and social processes play a large role as well. Since schools are a place where children try to determine how smart they really are, it is important for educators to understand the impacts of their subtle or not-so-subtle interactions with students. In your blog post, reflect on your interactions with educators throughout your school career, and discuss what changes to the school system could improve students’ performance ...

Week 12 Blog Prompt – Motivation

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag "Motivation." The first impression posts will be due by the start of class on Wednesday, 4/4. The refinement posts will be due at noon on Tuesday, 4/10. Option 1 America is currently facing an obesity epidemic that some experts have labeled the biggest public health threat we have today. We have all heard the recommendations to eat healthier and get regular exercise. Some people, however, are taking the message of healthy eating too far. A new mental health disorder called orthorexia nervosa has been proposed, in which eating healthy food becomes an obsession. One set of proposed criteria are available here. Look over the criteria and comment on whether or not you ...

Johari Window Bonus Blog Prompt

Hand writing on a notebook As part of our exploration of personality, each of you completed an online Johari Window. This process helps you learn how similar your self-perceptions are to how others see you. For this bonus blog post, I want you to discuss what that process was like for you, how similar your self-description was to what others selected, how valid of a measure of personality do you think this is, and what, if anything, you learned about yourself in this process. Include a link to your Johari window in your post. This bonus post is due Tuesday, 3/27, at 8pm and is worth 1.5 points of extra credit. The post must be at least 250 words long to receive credit. Be sure to use the tags "Bonus Posts" and "Personality." I ...