Showing posts with label psychology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychology. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Brevard Community College
I am incredibly grateful to the Liberal Arts Department at Brevard Community College. They were willing to take a chance on my as an adjunct instructor a little over eight years ago. I interviewed for an adjunct position in psychology a year after receiving my M.S. in I/O psychology. The department head must have seen something in me, or was desperate for instructors. Rather than hire me immediately, she gave me a sample syllabus and asked me to come up with my own for a standard General Psychology course. She called me back and offered me two classes the following spring--January 2004. The first class I ever taught was Human Development, at 8 a.m. on a Monday morning. I had a Human Adjustment course that same semester. These were both on the Melbourne campus. I had no idea what I was really doing, but I managed to wing it through my first semester. My daughter was turning 2, my husband was finishing up his M.S. in ocean engineering, and I was working on my M.B.A. Thinking back on it, I am amazed that I made it through that first semester. The following fall I got a call to teach at my alma mater, Florida Tech, in the School of Business (just after completing my M.B.A.). I also got called by the BCC Cocoa campus to teach a General Psychology course. I was teaching 4 classes, at 3 different campuses. I have managed to teach at least 1 class each year since that first semester. I don't know if I would be as confident to teach any psychology course thrown my way if BCC had not continued to offer me the opportunity to teach new subjects. I have taught general psychology I & II, human relations, human adjustment, and human development. These are all introductory courses, but not all adjuncts teach them. Most adjuncts teach one specific course (primarily general psychology) and are rarely asked to branch out beyond that. I'm a utility player, with apparently wide experience. I never thought I could be so adaptable, but Brevard Community College Liberal Arts Department gave me the opportunity that sent me on my current path.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Simpsons
The Simpsons has been running so long for a myriad of good reasons. The storytelling is great and multileveled, which makes re-watching episodes a joy instead of a nuisance. The characters have developed quite a lot over the years, while still maintaining the core of their personalities, much as a real human being would. The only difference is that they don't actually age. If they did age, Bart or Lisa (the timing of their births is a little weird and hard to pin down exactly) would be my age. I think one of the success secrets of the show is the acknowledgements of the fans that they slip in every now and then--referencing past episodes in later ones, openly questioning things as a fan would ("Which Springfield?!" "Wait, if Marge is 34 and Bart is 10, then she didn't have him right after high school!" "'I thought you were dead.' 'No, I've just been gone for a while.'"). It's a geeky show with a main stream appeal. The Simpsons is the first family show we shared with our daughter and she's just as hooked as we are.
What appeals to me the most, however, is the fact that I can use the show to illustrate concepts in my classroom. There is at least one episode for every major topic in psychology. Stress and coping have several episodes ("Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala[annoyed grunt]cious", "Hurricane Neddy", "Make Room for Lisa" are just a few I use in my classroom). There are many that concern therapy and mental disorders (e.g. "Stark Raving Dad", "There's No Disgrace Like Home", "Fear of Flying"). I have found episodes that are appropriate when discussing intelligence, critical thinking, work and team development, vocation selection, parenting, morality, compliance, conformity, obedience, cults, mob rule, hypnosis, drugs and hallucinations, sexuality, gender issues....The list goes on and on. I'm pretty sure that I could design an entire psychology course centering around The Simpsons and still get the point across to my students. In fact, I hope to do just that some day, when I'm not too busy working on my pet research project or teaching classes/grading papers. Sadly [or maybe, since this is an optimistic blog, luckily], only the first 14 seasons (and season 20) are out on DVD at the moment, and some of the more recent episodes fit in to some topics better than older ones. Yet, I still try to incorporate an episode in my class whenever I can. It breaks up the monotony of lecturing. Infusing humor into a class also helps my students see a lighter side to these sometimes heavier subjects.
Perhaps the show works so well as a teaching tool because it doesn't try too hard. I'm sure the writers did not design the episodes to work hand-in-hand with my lectures. They just naturally fell into place that way. I mention many other shows in my class and many characters, books, movies, etc., as illustrations of the topics, but nothing is used more often than The Simpsons. It's just endured for so long for so many good reasons. I would not mind it sticking around for another 20 years, as long as the quality of the storytelling stays at the same level it has since the beginning.
What appeals to me the most, however, is the fact that I can use the show to illustrate concepts in my classroom. There is at least one episode for every major topic in psychology. Stress and coping have several episodes ("Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala[annoyed grunt]cious", "Hurricane Neddy", "Make Room for Lisa" are just a few I use in my classroom). There are many that concern therapy and mental disorders (e.g. "Stark Raving Dad", "There's No Disgrace Like Home", "Fear of Flying"). I have found episodes that are appropriate when discussing intelligence, critical thinking, work and team development, vocation selection, parenting, morality, compliance, conformity, obedience, cults, mob rule, hypnosis, drugs and hallucinations, sexuality, gender issues....The list goes on and on. I'm pretty sure that I could design an entire psychology course centering around The Simpsons and still get the point across to my students. In fact, I hope to do just that some day, when I'm not too busy working on my pet research project or teaching classes/grading papers. Sadly [or maybe, since this is an optimistic blog, luckily], only the first 14 seasons (and season 20) are out on DVD at the moment, and some of the more recent episodes fit in to some topics better than older ones. Yet, I still try to incorporate an episode in my class whenever I can. It breaks up the monotony of lecturing. Infusing humor into a class also helps my students see a lighter side to these sometimes heavier subjects.
Perhaps the show works so well as a teaching tool because it doesn't try too hard. I'm sure the writers did not design the episodes to work hand-in-hand with my lectures. They just naturally fell into place that way. I mention many other shows in my class and many characters, books, movies, etc., as illustrations of the topics, but nothing is used more often than The Simpsons. It's just endured for so long for so many good reasons. I would not mind it sticking around for another 20 years, as long as the quality of the storytelling stays at the same level it has since the beginning.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Teaching Psychology
They say you learn more by teaching. This is very true, especially in psychology. We have spent the last two weeks on the topic of stress and coping and each time I teach about it, I am reminded of the good habits of coping that I sometimes forget. Quite possibly the best coping mechanism, the one that certainly changed my life the most, is reflected in this blog itself. True, I haven't updated this blog in quite a while. Most of that is due to a busy life, sometimes it was because I could not think of a topic.
Well, today's topic is teaching. The lesson I have learned and have re-emphasized in my life and with my daughter has been the idea behind Rational Emotive Behavior therapy, Gestalt therapy, Cognitive Behavioral therapy, and Monty Python. Put simply--"Always look on the bright side of life!" Granted, there is much more theory and practice in the actual therapy methods mentioned, however, it boils down to a matter of perspective.
I have found that changing my view point to one of more optimism, more logic, and more a critical thinking has reduced the potential stress I experience on a regular basis. Yes, sometimes I do meet a frustration initially with an expletive (not necessarily a cuss word [Nutbunnies is not usually offensive]), yet I quickly remind myself to slow down and think about the situation with a 360 degree view (or at least a 180 to get the opposite viewpoint). This is a lesson that I hope my students eventually have drilled into their brains, as I have noticed that something like 99% [note that 84% of statistics are made up on the fly to try to prove a point] of the stress people experience is directly or indirectly due to their insistence on worrying about a decision that has already been made. Usually that decision is to see the stressor in a negative light. [Okay, I would actually like to see some real statistics and I know it is possible to develop a research study--or find one--that demonstrates the correlation, if not causal effect, between cognitive appraisal and stress experiences]. This is the greatest lesson I learned while teaching psychology.
I have learned other lessons, as well. I have learned basic biology and anatomy (being required to teach the biological brain chapters encourages me to look up the information myself so I don't look like too big of a fool during the lessons). I have reinforced my education in motivation and personality. Most importantly, not only am I refreshing my memory on the topics, but I am also finding new ways to actually APPLY the material to my everyday life, not just in the classroom. That's what I love about teaching psychology. The subject is not just academic and scientific, it is also very applicable to the real world.
Things like using and recognizing compliance tactics, acknowledging an individual's unique motivational sphere, and understanding how and why people operate and think differently via the influence of their personality and past experiences has helped me to navigate the social realms much more easily. I do not have a slew of friends (real or Facebook--I don't use FB much any more besides checking in with some interest groups) or hundreds of followers on Twitter (@eowyn35 is my username, but I only tweet about my craft projects as a personal rule), nor do I have any readers of this blog. However, I have my methods for interacting with others that keeps my stress at a minimum and I am teaching many of these methods to my daughter. So far she has been able to self-correct some of her self-defeating behaviors (pessimistic thinking, irrational cognition). As a result, she is able to handle her very busy schedule with relative ease, has less difficulty with the less-than-perfect social interactions at school than I ever did, and is a mentally healthy child. She still has problems, I still experience stress, but I believe our stress levels are much lower than they could be if we did not apply these lessons from psychology.
Teaching keeps the information fresh in a teacher's mind. Some lessons in a subject are more useful than others. The most important thing is to find a useful way to apply it. The more I teach, the more I find ways to apply my knowledge and plant idea seeds in my students' mind gardens. Whether those seeds grow for them is a choice they will have to make for themselves. I have been enjoying the fruits of my harvest for 8 years now and I hope to continue to do so for many more years to come.
Well, today's topic is teaching. The lesson I have learned and have re-emphasized in my life and with my daughter has been the idea behind Rational Emotive Behavior therapy, Gestalt therapy, Cognitive Behavioral therapy, and Monty Python. Put simply--"Always look on the bright side of life!" Granted, there is much more theory and practice in the actual therapy methods mentioned, however, it boils down to a matter of perspective.
I have found that changing my view point to one of more optimism, more logic, and more a critical thinking has reduced the potential stress I experience on a regular basis. Yes, sometimes I do meet a frustration initially with an expletive (not necessarily a cuss word [Nutbunnies is not usually offensive]), yet I quickly remind myself to slow down and think about the situation with a 360 degree view (or at least a 180 to get the opposite viewpoint). This is a lesson that I hope my students eventually have drilled into their brains, as I have noticed that something like 99% [note that 84% of statistics are made up on the fly to try to prove a point] of the stress people experience is directly or indirectly due to their insistence on worrying about a decision that has already been made. Usually that decision is to see the stressor in a negative light. [Okay, I would actually like to see some real statistics and I know it is possible to develop a research study--or find one--that demonstrates the correlation, if not causal effect, between cognitive appraisal and stress experiences]. This is the greatest lesson I learned while teaching psychology.
I have learned other lessons, as well. I have learned basic biology and anatomy (being required to teach the biological brain chapters encourages me to look up the information myself so I don't look like too big of a fool during the lessons). I have reinforced my education in motivation and personality. Most importantly, not only am I refreshing my memory on the topics, but I am also finding new ways to actually APPLY the material to my everyday life, not just in the classroom. That's what I love about teaching psychology. The subject is not just academic and scientific, it is also very applicable to the real world.
Things like using and recognizing compliance tactics, acknowledging an individual's unique motivational sphere, and understanding how and why people operate and think differently via the influence of their personality and past experiences has helped me to navigate the social realms much more easily. I do not have a slew of friends (real or Facebook--I don't use FB much any more besides checking in with some interest groups) or hundreds of followers on Twitter (@eowyn35 is my username, but I only tweet about my craft projects as a personal rule), nor do I have any readers of this blog. However, I have my methods for interacting with others that keeps my stress at a minimum and I am teaching many of these methods to my daughter. So far she has been able to self-correct some of her self-defeating behaviors (pessimistic thinking, irrational cognition). As a result, she is able to handle her very busy schedule with relative ease, has less difficulty with the less-than-perfect social interactions at school than I ever did, and is a mentally healthy child. She still has problems, I still experience stress, but I believe our stress levels are much lower than they could be if we did not apply these lessons from psychology.
Teaching keeps the information fresh in a teacher's mind. Some lessons in a subject are more useful than others. The most important thing is to find a useful way to apply it. The more I teach, the more I find ways to apply my knowledge and plant idea seeds in my students' mind gardens. Whether those seeds grow for them is a choice they will have to make for themselves. I have been enjoying the fruits of my harvest for 8 years now and I hope to continue to do so for many more years to come.
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