Monday, January 31, 2005
It's Late
Well, another week has eclipsed and I’m only slightly worse for the wear. Intramural basketball had begun and our clinical psychology program is fielding yet another minacious fivesome. In actuality, the team has never won a game and I doubt there exists a defensive scheme, not even the “box in one” (sup Klink), that could save us from ourselves. Worth noting, it’s not for lack of effort that we continue to fall short of the “W,” we just can’t seem to put the ball in the basket.
Michelle will be gracing the Deep South with her magnetic presence this Friday and I look forward to that with great anticipation. We feel somewhat spoiled having seen each other one “short” month ago. Unfortunately, our plans for the week haven’t always melded especially well. You see, while I was instructed to clear my schedule, I suggested she bring several novels in anticipation of long hours in the library. Funny, I just noticed I wrote, “instructed” for Michelle’s plea and “suggested” for mine…I’ll let you guess who wins out here. Her trip will overlap with Marti Gras, however, and if we can find a ride down to New Orleans, we may just check that out. If not, there will be many more years to look forward to.
Life in the classroom has been pleasant thus far. I’m presently enrolled in four classes: Introduction to Clinical Skills, Research Evaluation, Quantitative Methods II, and Advanced Social Psychology. It should be no surprise to most of you that my least favorite is Quant. II. Fortunately, the other three classes are well taught and interesting. I was thinking the other afternoon about YOUR (my friends and family) familiarity with the field of psychology and what it is that I’m studying down here. I’m fairly confident everyone knows why I’m here, but the field itself, how much DO you know about it? (And yes, I understand that’s a difficult question to answer.) I like to think I don’t know the answer to my own question because I spend the majority of my time listening and learning from the rest of y’all.
Hopefully without offending anyone, allow me to reference a few of the cornerstone studies in psychological research. Interestingly enough, these studies coincide with a list of unacceptable, by today’s standards, studies outlined in an “Ethics & Research” lecture I sat through in Research Evaluation. I’ll start with two:
The Stanford Prison Experiment is an infamous study exploring how good people act when placed in an evil place. Many parallels with the recent abuse of Iraqi prisoners can be drawn and while many of you are undoubtedly familiar with the study, I’m guessing/hoping that few are cognizant of its finer points. Attached in an informative link constructed by Philip G. Zimbardo himself.
http://www.prisonexp.org/
Milgram’s Obedience Experiment was inspired by Hitler’s regime and consisted of a series of experiments on obedience to authority, which he conducted at Yale University in 1961-1962. He found, surprisingly, that 65% of his subjects, ordinary residents of New Haven, were willing to give apparently harmful electric shocks-up to 450 volts-to a pitifully protesting victim, simply because a scientific authority commanded them to, and in spite of the fact that the victim did not do anything to deserve such punishment. The victim was, in reality, a good actor who did not actually receive shocks, and this fact was revealed to the subjects at the end of the experiment. But, during the experiment itself, the experience was a powerfully real and gripping one for most participants. Attached is the link where I drew my synopsis:
http://www.stanleymilgram.com/milgram.html
On a slightly unrelated note, while the Tuskegee Syphilis Study wasn’t a part of psychological research, it was highly unethical and if perhaps you weren’t already familiar with it, read on! Beginning in 1932, 600 low-income African-American males, 400 of which were infected with syphilis and monitored for 40 years, even though a proven cure (penicillin) became available in the 1950s. The study was designed to document the natural history of the disease and as incentive, these men were offered free health care and told that they were being treated for "bad blood." This unfortunately was untrue and government officials went to extreme lengths to insure that they received no therapy from any source. The study was finally stopped by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1972 only after its existence was leaked to the public and it became a political embarrassment. Feel free to reference the attached link if you’re so inclined:
http://www.med.virginia.edu/hs-library/historical/apology/report.html
Michelle will be gracing the Deep South with her magnetic presence this Friday and I look forward to that with great anticipation. We feel somewhat spoiled having seen each other one “short” month ago. Unfortunately, our plans for the week haven’t always melded especially well. You see, while I was instructed to clear my schedule, I suggested she bring several novels in anticipation of long hours in the library. Funny, I just noticed I wrote, “instructed” for Michelle’s plea and “suggested” for mine…I’ll let you guess who wins out here. Her trip will overlap with Marti Gras, however, and if we can find a ride down to New Orleans, we may just check that out. If not, there will be many more years to look forward to.
Life in the classroom has been pleasant thus far. I’m presently enrolled in four classes: Introduction to Clinical Skills, Research Evaluation, Quantitative Methods II, and Advanced Social Psychology. It should be no surprise to most of you that my least favorite is Quant. II. Fortunately, the other three classes are well taught and interesting. I was thinking the other afternoon about YOUR (my friends and family) familiarity with the field of psychology and what it is that I’m studying down here. I’m fairly confident everyone knows why I’m here, but the field itself, how much DO you know about it? (And yes, I understand that’s a difficult question to answer.) I like to think I don’t know the answer to my own question because I spend the majority of my time listening and learning from the rest of y’all.
Hopefully without offending anyone, allow me to reference a few of the cornerstone studies in psychological research. Interestingly enough, these studies coincide with a list of unacceptable, by today’s standards, studies outlined in an “Ethics & Research” lecture I sat through in Research Evaluation. I’ll start with two:
The Stanford Prison Experiment is an infamous study exploring how good people act when placed in an evil place. Many parallels with the recent abuse of Iraqi prisoners can be drawn and while many of you are undoubtedly familiar with the study, I’m guessing/hoping that few are cognizant of its finer points. Attached in an informative link constructed by Philip G. Zimbardo himself.
http://www.prisonexp.org/
Milgram’s Obedience Experiment was inspired by Hitler’s regime and consisted of a series of experiments on obedience to authority, which he conducted at Yale University in 1961-1962. He found, surprisingly, that 65% of his subjects, ordinary residents of New Haven, were willing to give apparently harmful electric shocks-up to 450 volts-to a pitifully protesting victim, simply because a scientific authority commanded them to, and in spite of the fact that the victim did not do anything to deserve such punishment. The victim was, in reality, a good actor who did not actually receive shocks, and this fact was revealed to the subjects at the end of the experiment. But, during the experiment itself, the experience was a powerfully real and gripping one for most participants. Attached is the link where I drew my synopsis:
http://www.stanleymilgram.com/milgram.html
On a slightly unrelated note, while the Tuskegee Syphilis Study wasn’t a part of psychological research, it was highly unethical and if perhaps you weren’t already familiar with it, read on! Beginning in 1932, 600 low-income African-American males, 400 of which were infected with syphilis and monitored for 40 years, even though a proven cure (penicillin) became available in the 1950s. The study was designed to document the natural history of the disease and as incentive, these men were offered free health care and told that they were being treated for "bad blood." This unfortunately was untrue and government officials went to extreme lengths to insure that they received no therapy from any source. The study was finally stopped by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1972 only after its existence was leaked to the public and it became a political embarrassment. Feel free to reference the attached link if you’re so inclined:
http://www.med.virginia.edu/hs-library/historical/apology/report.html
Thursday, January 20, 2005
"TA-ing"
Today I discovered that half (10 hours) of my assistantship this semester will be spent as a teacher’s assistant for one of USM’s four Introductory Psych 110 classes. The other ten hours will be spent running subjects in the lab, much like last semester. It’s an appointment that I look forward to with more optimism than trepidation. Other graduate students and professors openly lambaste the intellect of our undergraduate counterparts and think nothing of it. Before harboring equally venomous suppositions, I’d like to assess the carnage for myself. It’s my distinct impression that most of my peers far outshined their classmates while studying at the undergraduate level in large universities and because my experience was anything but, I give thanks.
Returning to the teacher’s assistant position, I recall a conversation I had with Alf midway through his first year teaching English in China, where he described his frustration at the hands of his students’ lackadaisical attitudes and unwillingness to contribute in class. He vowed to change his own apathetic ways if ever he should return to the classroom because of the experience. Now, while I don’t actually believe him, I can say that I’m pulling hard for a similar experience.
Finally, earlier this morning I was studying my new set of chompers in the mirror, marveling the way the silver sparkled just so, when a stroke of pure genius struck. Well, had it been PURE genius, the idea would have occurred prior to having cut the check…alas, because it did not, I’ll settle for a stroke of moderate amusement. Even though I discussed these matters with no one, save Michelle, I’ll assume we all knew/figured that I opted for braces in a moment of profound weakness. I can assure you, the decision had little to do with excessive teeth grinding or a jaw that clicked…we’re talking VANITY here folks. What occurred to me this morning was that a few skillfully crafted gold teeth, right there in the front where the bling-bling shines brightest, could have compensated for the overcrowding and had me looking dyn-o-mite! Sure, the gold tooth on the bottom would have looked more like a gold sliver with all that crowding, but I’d have been the coolest graduate student in Southern Mississippi, hands down!
Returning to the teacher’s assistant position, I recall a conversation I had with Alf midway through his first year teaching English in China, where he described his frustration at the hands of his students’ lackadaisical attitudes and unwillingness to contribute in class. He vowed to change his own apathetic ways if ever he should return to the classroom because of the experience. Now, while I don’t actually believe him, I can say that I’m pulling hard for a similar experience.
Finally, earlier this morning I was studying my new set of chompers in the mirror, marveling the way the silver sparkled just so, when a stroke of pure genius struck. Well, had it been PURE genius, the idea would have occurred prior to having cut the check…alas, because it did not, I’ll settle for a stroke of moderate amusement. Even though I discussed these matters with no one, save Michelle, I’ll assume we all knew/figured that I opted for braces in a moment of profound weakness. I can assure you, the decision had little to do with excessive teeth grinding or a jaw that clicked…we’re talking VANITY here folks. What occurred to me this morning was that a few skillfully crafted gold teeth, right there in the front where the bling-bling shines brightest, could have compensated for the overcrowding and had me looking dyn-o-mite! Sure, the gold tooth on the bottom would have looked more like a gold sliver with all that crowding, but I’d have been the coolest graduate student in Southern Mississippi, hands down!
Friday, January 14, 2005
Correlational versus Experimental
Maintaining a blog while attending graduate school is often times a difficult thing to do, if for no other reason than, I feel guilty spending time away from other more productive endeavors (ie. studying). Repercussions of the aforementioned circumstances are either poorly constructed postings or no postings. You've all witnessed both.
Benjamin, I had intended to operationally define correlational research and offer its alternative, but failed to do so as time wore on. Correlational research investigates the relationship between variables, whereas experimental research involves the manipulation of research conditions, allowing us to form conclusions about cause and fact. Correlational research provides us with useful information on what, if not why, people do, think, and feel. These studies are typically easier to conduct and involve observation, surveying/testing, and reading and thinking. This is a methodology commonly employed by social scientists when an experiment can't be carried out for ethical or practical reasons. Its major downfall is that they can't establish causality between the variables being investigated.
Benjamin, I had intended to operationally define correlational research and offer its alternative, but failed to do so as time wore on. Correlational research investigates the relationship between variables, whereas experimental research involves the manipulation of research conditions, allowing us to form conclusions about cause and fact. Correlational research provides us with useful information on what, if not why, people do, think, and feel. These studies are typically easier to conduct and involve observation, surveying/testing, and reading and thinking. This is a methodology commonly employed by social scientists when an experiment can't be carried out for ethical or practical reasons. Its major downfall is that they can't establish causality between the variables being investigated.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Ain't Got Time To Bleed (Part 2)
I refuse to waste time apologizing for not posting...those who know me well, expected as much. What my brother views as the prostration of our family name, I see as the validation of many years of sporadic letter writing and belated question answering. Fortunately, over the holidays I was able to speak with most individuals who frequented this blog in better times. For those I wasn't able to see, well, I suppose I am a little sorry.
The three week reprieve I had in Minnesota were well deserved and much appreciated. Michelle and I spanned the entire state in her new Accord as we visited her sister and brother-in-law in Rochester, my parents in Bemidji, and the rest of her family (minus Maggie) in Albany. In-between, we managed several runs, dinners, movies, shopping expeditions, parties, a trip to the casino, basketball game, and one or two quiet nights in St. Paul. All the running around, while making for exciting times on the one hand, also sped up the break on the other. As my departure for Mississippi approached, I began to wish we had spent more nights trapped in the dark confines of the apartment whining of boredom and watching the clocks grind to a halt.
Additionally, while home I learned that my distress here in graduate school was more palpable than I'd previously thought. My mother is worried about my mental health, Aaron mentioned that the blog had a distinct freakout quality to it, and I caught Marye watching me on more than one occasion with a worried and motherly look in her eye. (Marye, if I'm misrepresenting you, I apologize...it might have been a tinge of narcissism, which surfaces from time to time.) Yeah, yeah, it's true, times were hard, but I'm doing just fine and plan on taking this one semester at a time.
So, the braces are on now. Well, not exactly...they've put brackets on both the top and bottom teeth, stretching back until the four gaping holes in my smile. Behind those gaps are two teeth, where spacers were placed in between all four sets in anticipation of encircling the tooth just dorsal to the gap with a metal band and having it act as an anchor, drawing the crowded teeth back. Cool, huh?
Earlier today I was perusing through a series of journal articles for my thesis proposal and came across a few that I thought might prove interesting to my readers. Unfortunately, I can't specify the exact thrust of my study within the realm of religiosity research at this time, but today's reading beckoned the following questions...What drives individuals to religion for extrinsic purposes? Furthermore, who is driven to religion for extrinsic purposes? Extrinsic religion is the use of religion for outside ends such as security, status, or solace. Previous research has indicated that individuals scoring high on religiosity measures experience longer lives, greater subjective well-being, volunteer more (if you're African American), engage in fewer risk behaviors, recover more quickly from various surgical procedures, and commit suicide less frequently. Of course, this is a general trend and isn't true for everyone, mediating factors do exist in the relationship, and other less desirable associations, such as reduced openmindedness are also reported. That being said, ample evidence is available supporting future religiosity research. My research would be correlational, which seems to irk some of my peers for reasons unknown and having it anything other than correlational would be highly unethical and troublesome. Altering religious beliefs isn't anything I could ever sneak by the Internal Review Board, nor is it an activity I'd like to engage in.
The last snippet I've got for everyone is a study conducted by Kausar Suhail and Haroon Rashid Chaudhry titled, "Predictors of subjective well-being in an Eastern Muslim Culture." The authors hail from Pakistan and report, among other things, that the mean life satisfaction across nations looks something like this (I've omitted a few for brevity's sake):
On a scale from 1-10 w/ 1 being very dissatisfied and 10 being very satisfied
Bulgaria 5.03
Russia 5.37
Belarus 5.52
Latvia 5.70
Romania 5.88
Hungary 6.03
Japan 6.53
Nigeria 6.59
Korea 6.69
Pakistan 7.07
Spain 7.15
Argentina 7.25
China 7.29
Brazil 7.38
Norway 7.68
United States 7.73
Netherlands 7.77
Canada 7.89
Denmark 8.16
Switzerland 8.36
Later on, the authors write, "Studies conducted in affluent countries have shown a surprisingly weak correlation between income and happiness whereas Diener and Diener have reported a moderate correlation between the two in poor countries such as Bangladesh and India." Continuing on, "It has been pointed out that wealth is like health: Its absence can breed misery, but having it is no guarantee of happiness. In the current study, work satisfaction appeared to be the best predictor of life satisfaction and personal happiness."
The three week reprieve I had in Minnesota were well deserved and much appreciated. Michelle and I spanned the entire state in her new Accord as we visited her sister and brother-in-law in Rochester, my parents in Bemidji, and the rest of her family (minus Maggie) in Albany. In-between, we managed several runs, dinners, movies, shopping expeditions, parties, a trip to the casino, basketball game, and one or two quiet nights in St. Paul. All the running around, while making for exciting times on the one hand, also sped up the break on the other. As my departure for Mississippi approached, I began to wish we had spent more nights trapped in the dark confines of the apartment whining of boredom and watching the clocks grind to a halt.
Additionally, while home I learned that my distress here in graduate school was more palpable than I'd previously thought. My mother is worried about my mental health, Aaron mentioned that the blog had a distinct freakout quality to it, and I caught Marye watching me on more than one occasion with a worried and motherly look in her eye. (Marye, if I'm misrepresenting you, I apologize...it might have been a tinge of narcissism, which surfaces from time to time.) Yeah, yeah, it's true, times were hard, but I'm doing just fine and plan on taking this one semester at a time.
So, the braces are on now. Well, not exactly...they've put brackets on both the top and bottom teeth, stretching back until the four gaping holes in my smile. Behind those gaps are two teeth, where spacers were placed in between all four sets in anticipation of encircling the tooth just dorsal to the gap with a metal band and having it act as an anchor, drawing the crowded teeth back. Cool, huh?
Earlier today I was perusing through a series of journal articles for my thesis proposal and came across a few that I thought might prove interesting to my readers. Unfortunately, I can't specify the exact thrust of my study within the realm of religiosity research at this time, but today's reading beckoned the following questions...What drives individuals to religion for extrinsic purposes? Furthermore, who is driven to religion for extrinsic purposes? Extrinsic religion is the use of religion for outside ends such as security, status, or solace. Previous research has indicated that individuals scoring high on religiosity measures experience longer lives, greater subjective well-being, volunteer more (if you're African American), engage in fewer risk behaviors, recover more quickly from various surgical procedures, and commit suicide less frequently. Of course, this is a general trend and isn't true for everyone, mediating factors do exist in the relationship, and other less desirable associations, such as reduced openmindedness are also reported. That being said, ample evidence is available supporting future religiosity research. My research would be correlational, which seems to irk some of my peers for reasons unknown and having it anything other than correlational would be highly unethical and troublesome. Altering religious beliefs isn't anything I could ever sneak by the Internal Review Board, nor is it an activity I'd like to engage in.
The last snippet I've got for everyone is a study conducted by Kausar Suhail and Haroon Rashid Chaudhry titled, "Predictors of subjective well-being in an Eastern Muslim Culture." The authors hail from Pakistan and report, among other things, that the mean life satisfaction across nations looks something like this (I've omitted a few for brevity's sake):
On a scale from 1-10 w/ 1 being very dissatisfied and 10 being very satisfied
Bulgaria 5.03
Russia 5.37
Belarus 5.52
Latvia 5.70
Romania 5.88
Hungary 6.03
Japan 6.53
Nigeria 6.59
Korea 6.69
Pakistan 7.07
Spain 7.15
Argentina 7.25
China 7.29
Brazil 7.38
Norway 7.68
United States 7.73
Netherlands 7.77
Canada 7.89
Denmark 8.16
Switzerland 8.36
Later on, the authors write, "Studies conducted in affluent countries have shown a surprisingly weak correlation between income and happiness whereas Diener and Diener have reported a moderate correlation between the two in poor countries such as Bangladesh and India." Continuing on, "It has been pointed out that wealth is like health: Its absence can breed misery, but having it is no guarantee of happiness. In the current study, work satisfaction appeared to be the best predictor of life satisfaction and personal happiness."
