AU Blogspot

In response to Stanford Prison Experiment Video Post:

WOW! Some experiment. Now, as to what the experiment teaches or doesn’t teach is the ultimate question.

It has been 35+ years since that experiment was done. There have been loads of changes in the prison system since the Stanford experiment. So, what happens today when you put good people in a bad situation? Well, there are a lot of factors that affect how that good person will react. For example, I know a person who was an exemplary citizen and that individual ended up serving 2 years in a state facility. That person was considered a model inmate, worked in the law library, and when released became heavily involved in criminal law and the justice system.

So, I think that how a person reacts to that environment depends a great deal on how their inner psyche has developed. I do not believe that most “good” people will deliberately injure someone simply because a person in authority has told them to do so.

I have many examples from a life of military and exposure to criminal inmates that debunk that ideology.  But, those are simply my thoughts.  GREAT video.

Betty
Student
Ashworth University School Of Health Care

Nick Worthey won the grand prize in Atom Film’s Intel Indies Film Contest for this animated story of the universal nature of power and greed. The film poses some interesting questions about the use of power, and also about the karma we create with our actions. (more…)

In 1971, Dr. Phillip Zimbardo conducted a controversial experiment to test humans’ behavioral responses to captivity, i.e. how humans react when placed in varying authoritative and submissive positions within a controlled environment.  This experiment became known as “The Stanford Prison Experiment”—the implications of which have both fascinated and frightened the psychiatric community at large for more than three decades.  I’ve included the first part of an excellent documentary for you to watch.  After viewing this documentary, I’d be curious to know what you think Zimbardo’s experiment teaches us about the human psyche, if any such lesson can be learned within so-called “controlled environments” like Stanford’s make believe prison.  Let us know what you think in the comments section.  We’ll talk again soon… 

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

Thanks Ryan, this video was really eye opening and scary at the same time! I watched the rest of the programs.  Mr. Rushkoff has a few other programs I plan to watch—all seem interesting.  

I shared some of the information with my teenager and we had a nice conversation. The new generation is being raised with a weak set of values making them very vulnerable to the marketing by people who don’t care about their well being. The more aware we are of the tricks being played, the more capable we are of resisting and giving them the tools they need at a young age not to be vulnerable to this kind of marketing.

Thanks again for sharing such thought provoking topics.

Trina
Student
Ashworth University School Of Health Care

The insights of cultural/media theorist Douglas Rushkoff are always contemporary and often prescient.  He was deciphering the social codes of the virtual psyche, lifestyle, and marketplace before such concepts were formally identified by the so-called “machine.”  The Merchants Of Cool is a brilliant analysis of the incorporation of youth pop-culture that Ruskhoff created while working as a correspondent for PBS Frontline.  This is a very entertaining documentary.  You’ll learn a lot too.  Let me know what you think in the comments section.

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

              Thanks to Boris Anthony for permission to use this Photo.

Marshall McLuhan’s groundbreaking theories on media communications and the psycho-social impact of technological development made him both a very respected and controversial figure beginning in the 1950’s.  Seen by many as a prophet of our contemporary media filtered age, McLuhan’s famous “the medium is the message” theory, in which the communications medium itself (microphone, television, computer, letter) is more directly related to the meaning and ultimate impact of a given message than the actual “content” (intellectual/rational meaning) continues to gain depth as the decades pass.

I recently discovered an excellent audio-video archive of McLuhan’s work on the CBC web site.  This is a great primer for our psychology students unfamiliar with his work and I strongly encourage you to check this archive out by clicking here.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts on McLuhan, a thinker who still truly remains ahead of his time. 

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University Psychology Program

Slavoj Žižek is arguably the most irrerevent, brilliant, and provacative thinker in the history of Slovenian thought.  Renowned for wildly “psychoanalyzing” topics ranging from idiotic celebrity scandals to Hitchcockian symbolism to post-marxist economic theory in the span of one sentence, Žižek has himself earned somewhat of a celebrity status and cult following.  One of Žižek’s specialties is the reversal, in which he will relentlessly breakdown and analyze a concept with such precision and depth, that the way one had previously thought about that particular concept is completely twisted on the surface to the point of reversal, and one is often left thinking, “Why did I never notice that?”—viewing the world from a new perspective.  Žižek is a complex madman, so this video, horrible lighting included, can only at best serve as a glimpse, but can any one of us wish for anything more than that?

Ryan Rode 
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University 

           Thanks to Gaetan Lee for permission to use this Photo.

Renowned as one of the most gifted, original, and charismatic thinkers in the world; V.S. Ramachandran is a neurologist with an almost preternatural understanding of the brain’s deepest mechanisms and the nature of consciousness.

Ramachandran’s insights into such facinating enigmas as phantom limb syndrome, synesthesia, and capgras delusion continue to both inspire and puzzle the psycho-scientific community, while his entertaining presentations always promise to dazzle even the most cynical of audiences. Check out the following video from the TED conference. Lose your mind.

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

Photo courtesy of Pedro_Simoes

In my spare (ha ha) time, I really need to sit down and compile a list of videos for classroom use, especially in biological psychology. So many new ones are popping up each day. I think the days of publishers providing a DVD of video clips along with textbooks are soon to be over.Nature launched their new site recently, and although the content covers the many branches of science found in the journal, several are appropriate for biopsych. I really enjoyed the clips on Brain-Machine Interfaces, and I plan to use with my students next quarter. I’ve always had a love for linguistics (I’m such a party girl), and the Language Evolution clips caught my eye. Evolution topics are well-represented, with clips on Neanderthal DNA and Hominid Evolution and Development. For fun, I had to watch the Moray eel films.

I liked the way the films featured the scientists working on the topic, discussing their work in their own words. Students, especially those with grad school plans, really need to see this.

Dr. Laura Freberg
Creator of Laura’s Psychology Blog
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Since receiving her Ph.D. in Psychology from UCLA, Dr. Laura Freberg has earned a reputation for being one of the leading educational minds in the psychology field. She’s the author of numerous well respected textbooks and currently serves as a Professor of Psychology at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA. Dr. Freberg has been incredibly gracious in offering to share her insights with the Ashworth University student community and we are thrilled to have her as a member of our contributing bloggers’ network. Visit Laura’s great website and Laura’s Psychology Blog to learn more about her life and work. Thanks Dr. Freberg! 

               Thanks to Alicia Yeah for permission to use this Photo.

I’m sure many of you, like me, may find yourself in front of the television watching everything under the sun from time to time.  I won’t speculate on why, but I tend to gravitate towards animal-nature programs when I’m visiting the family.  If the program centers around animal psychology, then I’m set for at least an afternoon of random thoughts.  The PBS Nature produced special I’m linking to today deals with animal intelligence, a topic that anyone interested in the mysteries of the human psyche will find fascinating.  I think you’ll draw some intriguing parallels as you progress through this video, which is rather long, so I recommend that you watch it in parts, processing your thoughts as you go along.  Click on the image above to watch this video and be sure to share your perspectives with the community.  Take care. 

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University