UNIT 2

Example of a Discussion Thread Post

The Discussion Thread Question

Your text describes the controversy over whether or not true altruism exists. Does true altruism exist as Batson (1991) claims, or is all prosocial behavior driven by selfish motives such as the rewards of helping? Analyze research on both sides of this controversial issue, and provide support for your conclusion.

The Response

Altruism

How does one define altruism? Altruists International defines it as “loving others as oneself, behavior that promotes the survival chances of others at a cost to ones own, and self-sacrifice for the benefit of others” (What Is Altruism, n.d.). Daniel Batson defines altruism as “motivated by the desire to increase another’s welfare” (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2006, p. 361), while David G. Myers defines it as “a motive to increase another’s welfare without conscious regard for one’s self-interests” (2005, p. G-1). The question that arises, while trying to define altruism, is whether or not it is selflessly motivated or if there are benefits to the person helping.

Debate between Altruism and Egoism

Is the motivation behind altruism true or are our behaviors egoistic? Brehm, et al. define egoistic as “motivated by selfish concerns or simple conformity to socialized norms” (2005, p. 360).

Batson thinks it is a combination of both, that the motivation is, at least, partly altruistic (Brehm, et al., 2005). He bases his hypothesis on the idea that the consequences of empathy may be the basis for altruism (Brehm, et al., 2005). Therefore, our desire to help is “influenced by self-serving and selfless considerations” (Myers, 2005, p. 490).

(This shows you how to incorporate text information. There is more to this posting response, however, I think you get the picture! )

You should also be including your experiences, examples, and point of view in your posting. You can do this while you are discussing the text or other source information or save it for the end of your post.

Examples of In-Text Citations

Multiple AuthorsLearned helplessness theory has been an area of psychology since the 1960’s. The theory, developed by Martin Seligman and other psychological researchers, began as a result of animal studies involving inescapable shock (Minor, Dess, Ben-David, & Chang, 1994).

A study which explored this topic looked at the developmental issues that may be the cause of depressive attributional or explanatory style in children (Cole, Warren, Dallaire, LaGrange, Travis, & Ciesla, 2007).

Single Author

While similar experiments with humans did not work as well, or the same as, those with animals, Seligman and his colleagues began exploring the effect of learned helplessness with human subjects (Myers, 2005).

Multiple Authors Used More Than Once

Martin Seligman and his colleagues developed their theory of learned helplessness after conducting experiments on dogs (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005).

They found that dogs who were given shocks in an inescapable situation did not try to escape even when in a situation where they were able to escape (Brehm et al., 2005).

Quotations

In order to fit within the learned helplessness paradigm, there must be an “experience of uncontrollability, that is, a random relationship between an individual’s actions and outcomes, aversive uncontrollable events over which the subject had no control” (Nun & Thompson, 1996, p. 128).

Authors Taken From A Within A Single Text with Quotes

“These expectations of uncontrollability give rise to various deficits” – associative, motivational, and emotional, among others – and “interfere with subsequent controllable learning” (Maier & Seligman, 1976; Overmier & Seligman, 1967, as cited in Ramirez, Maldonado, & Martos, 1992, p. 139).

Author Used in Text with Immediate Citation and With Quote

Seligman (1975, as cited in Bodner & Mikulincer, 1998) claimed that the problems that are caused are similar to the psychological issues found in those who suffer from depression.

McKean (1994, as cited in Cemalcilar et al., 2003) stated that “the behavioral and motivational effects include passivity, giving up, and procrastination; the cognitive effects include decreased problem-solving ability, frustration, and lowered self-esteem/ and the emotional deficits usually involve dysphasia or depressed mood following negative outcomes” (p. 66).

Authors Name(s) Used as a Part of Text

According to Cemalcilar, Canbeyli, and Sunar (2003), researchers first used experiments which used “aversive events such as bursts of loud noise, electric shocks, or difficult problems” (p. 65) and were modeled after animal studies on learned helplessness.

Seligman (1975, as cited in Bodner & Mikulincer, 1998) claimed that the problems that are caused are similar to the psychological issues found in those who suffer from depression.

References: Used at the end of a Discussion Thread Post or used at the end of a Paper.

Journal or Periodical (Magazine)

Bodner, E. & Mikulincer, M. (1998). Learned helplessness and the occurrence of depressive-like and paranoid-like responses: The role of attentional focus. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(4), 1010-1023.

(All references should be double-spaced and indented from the second line down.)

Textbook or Reference Book: Single Author or Multiple Authors

Myers, D.G. (2005). Social psychology (8th ed.). NY: McGraw Hill

Brehm, S.S., Kassin, S., & Fein, S. (2005). Social psychology (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin

Robinson-Riegler, G. & Robinson-Riegler, B. (2008). Cognitive psychology: Applying the science of the mind. (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Websites – this is the area that has changed with the 6th edition.

Maldonado-Duran, M. (2005). Child abuse & neglect: Reactive attachment disorder. Retrieved from http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic2646.htm

Parentstages. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.parentstages.com/content/earlychildhooddev.asp

Families.com. (2003). Peer Influence. Retrieved from http://issues.families.com/peer-influence-1213-1217-iemf

American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). (2006). Retrieved from http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/overview.html

Wittgenstein’s tractatus and the logical viewpoints of Frege and Russell (2006). Retrieved from http://www2.scu.edu.tw/philos/p2/Wittgenstein%27s%2520Tractatus.ppt+frege+and+russell&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=9

APA 6th Edition Changes

• Reference for an electronic book with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI): [Click link]

• Author, A.A. (year of publication). Title of

work. doi: xxxxx • Rios, C.L. (2007). Writing without fear. doi:

xxxx

Chapter 3: Basics of Perception and Awareness

The focus of the Unit 2 seminar is to investigate the quirky ways in which our minds make sense of our environment.

We will explore what we mean by unconscious and conscious processing and our attention.

We will discuss phenomena such as subliminal self-help and subliminal messaging in music, and explore amazing cognitive processes that occur in everyday life, such as inattentional blindness, and selective and divided attention.

Seminar Question 1

How is it that we can fail to notice obvious changes or events in our visual environment? Basically, we can be staring right at something and not see it! The text refers to this strange phenomenon as "inattentional blindness." Using examples from the text, illustrate how this happens.

Websites on Inattentional Blindness

• http://viscog.beckman.illinois.edu/flashmovie/15.php

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

• You can copy and paste these to a webpage to view.

Seminar Question 2

Subliminal self-help has become a popular method for assisting us with all sorts of issues. What does our text say about the phenomenon of subliminal perception and what is actually occurring?

What are your personal thoughts about the effectiveness of subliminal self-help books, tapes, or videos?