Curious Minds :

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Curious Minds

• Considering Motivation and Collaboration in
  Abnormal Psychology Design
• Norma Wolford, M.S. - Madonna University

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Abstract

•   In this presentation I will examine
  strategies that encourage the natural curiosity
  of students in order to establish a collaborative
  learning environment that promotes student
  success in an abnormal psychology course.  I will
  discuss my experiences teaching abnormal
  psychology in a private university setting and
  present ideas for course design that build on
  areas of student interest and appeal in order to
  promote successful learning.  The design paradigm
  will be influenced by environmental factors,
  culture, technology, instructional practices, and
  learning styles.  Specific techniques will be
  shared that focus on motivating students by
  utilizing content highly interesting to them
  content areas such as classic and contemporary
  art, film, and music. Practical implementation of
  course activities will be demonstrated as the
  presenter engages the audience in the learning
  process. Positive student response to these
  techniques, as well as the benefits and
  challenges associated with their use will be
  discussed.

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Thoughts on Curiosityand Education

•  Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain
  characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
  (Samuel Johnson)
• Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One
  cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates
  the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the
  marvelous structure of reality..
• It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal
  education. (Albert Einstein)
•    
• Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.
  (William Arthur Ward)

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Topic Suggestions Encouraging curiosity, adding
relevance

• Song of the Week thinking about familiar songs
  in a new way
• Weekly Art-ifact exploring the art and science
  of psychology
• Literary Gems pondering the relationship
  between temperament and creativity through
  literature
• Psychology in Film reviewing film from a
  psychological perspective
• In the News bringing the latest front page news
  into the classroom
• Hot Topics discussing/debating current
  controversies in the field of psychology

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Song of the Week
http//youtube.com/watch?vbd2B6SjMh_w

• I remember when, I remember, I remember when I
  lost my mindThere was something so pleasant
  about that place.Even your emotions had an
  echoIn so much space
• And when you're out thereWithout care,Yeah, I
  was out of touchBut it wasn't because I didn't
  know enoughI just knew too muchDoes that make
  me crazyDoes that make me crazyDoes that make
  me crazyPossibly video versionAnd I hope
  that you are having the time of your lifeBut
  think twice, that's my only adviceCome on now,
  who do you, who do you, who do you,
• who do you think you are,Ha ha ha bless
  your soulYou really think you're in
  controlWell, I think you're crazyI think
  you're crazyI think you're crazyJust like
  meMy heroes had the heart to Lose their lives
  out on a limbAnd all I remember is thinking, I
  want to be like themEver since I was little,
  ever since I was little it looked like funAnd
  it's no coincidence I've comeAnd I can die when
  I'm doneMaybe I'm crazyMaybe you're
  crazyMaybe we're crazyPossibly

Crazy Gnarls Barkley
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Weekly Art-ifact

• 'Vincent' (Starry Starry Night) Montage/Music
• http//youtube.com/watch?vHFxhI_NgNBU

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The Context and Colors

• Starry, starry night.Paint your palette blue and
  grey,Look out on a summer's day,With eyes that
  know the darkness in my soul.Shadows on the
  hills,Sketch the trees and the daffodils,Catch
  the breeze and the winter chills,In colors on
  the snowy linen land.

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The Expression

• Starry, starry night.Flaming flowers that
  brightly blaze, Swirling clouds in violet
  haze,Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china
  blue.Colors changing hue, morning field of amber
  grain,Weathered faces lined in pain,Are soothed
  beneath the artist's loving hand.

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The Emotions

• For they could not love you,But still your love
  was true.And when no hope was left in sightOn
  that starry, starry night,You took your life, as
  lovers often do.But I could have told you,
  Vincent,This world was never meant for oneAs
  beautiful as you.

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The Legacy

• Now I think I know what you tried to say to
  me,How you suffered for your sanity,How you
  tried to set them free.They would not listen,
  they're not listening still.Perhaps they never
  will...

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Literary Gems
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The Professors Book Club
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Psychology in Film
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Psychology in Film
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Psychology in the News
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In the News

• Experts Shy From Instant Diagnoses of Gunmans
  Mental Illness, but Hints Abound By JOHN
  SCHWARTZ and BENEDICT CAREY The New York Times
  April 20, 2007
• The video testament that Cho Seung-Hui mailed to
  NBC during the intermission in his killing spree
  offers a compelling peek into the troubles that
  shaped a gunman, experts in forensic psychology
  say.
• Dr. Michael Stone, an expert on personality
  disorders and killers, said in an interview that
  he saw in the videos a paranoid person with
  sadistic traits, possibly psychotic. These are
  people, he said, who might see conspiracies all
  around, and who have so little empathy that they
  can do the most heinous things almost as if they
  were whittling wood.
• Mr. Chos taped rants, and his peers
  descriptions of him as a classmate, suggest a
  blend of severe and specific personality
  problems, said Dr. Theodore Millon, dean and
  scientific director of the Institute for Advanced
  Studies in Personology and Psychopathology in
  Coral Gables, Fla., who has designed testing
  questionnaires used in many colleges.
• People with so-called avoidant personality
  disorder shun social situations because of a
  paralyzing dread of disapproval or criticism.
  Those with paranoid personality disorder nourish
  a deep distrust of others and see insults and
  malicious meanings in almost every interaction.
  Both are stubborn patterns of behavior that can
  begin in adolescence or earlier.

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Hot Topics Opinion-Editorials

• Op-Ed Columnist The Morality Line
• By DAVID BROOKS (Published New York Times
  April 19, 2007)
• Over the next few days, well ponder the sources
  of Cho Seung-Huis rage. Therell be no shortage
  of
• analysts picking apart his hatreds, his feelings
  of oppression and his dark war against the rich,
• Christianity and the world at large.
• Some will point to the pruning of the brain
  synapses that may be related to adolescent
  schizophrenia.
• Others may point to the possibility that an
  inability to process serotonin could have led to
  depression
• and hyperaggression. Or we could learn that he
  had been born with a brain injury that made him
• psychopathic. Or perhaps he was suffering from
  the ravages of isolation.
• It could be, for example, that he grew up with
  some form of behavioral illness that would have
  made it
• hard for him to interact with and respond
  appropriately to other people. This would have
  caused others
• to withdraw from him, leading to a spiral of
  loneliness that detached him from the world and
  then
• caused him to loathe it.
• Over the next weeks, we could learn these or
  other things about Cho Seung-Hui. And as we learn
  the
• facts of his life, well be able to fit them into
  ever more sophisticated models of human behavior.
  For
• over the past few decades, neuroscientists,
  evolutionary psychologists and social scientists
  have made
• huge strides in understanding why people even
  murderers do the things they do
• In short, the killings at Virginia Tech happen at
  a moment when we are renegotiating what you might

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Concluding thoughts

• Student Response
• Challenges and Solutions
• Questions
• Thank you!
• Contact information
• nwolford_at_madonna.edu
• 734-432-5766

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References

• Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers
  do. Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.
• Brockman, J. (Ed.). (2004). Curious minds How a
  child becomes a scientist. New York, NY Pantheon
  Books.
• Gabbard, G.O. Gabbard, K. (1994). Psychiatry
  and the Cinema. Washington DC American
  Psychiatric Press, Inc.
• Gardner, H. (1993). Creating minds. New York, NY
  Basic Books.
• Hansell, J., Damour, L. (2008). Abnormal
  psychology. Hoboken, NJ John Wiley Sons.
• Potkay, C.R., (1992). Teaching abnormal
  psychology concepts using popular song lyrics.
  Teaching of Psychology 9(4), 233-234.
• Roman, B., Kay, J. (2007). Fostering curiosity
  Using the educator-learner relationship to
  promote a facilitative learning environment.
  Psychiatry, 70(3), 205-208 .