Powerful Pulleys
Students continue to explore the story of building a pyramid, learning about the simple machine called a pulley. They learn how a pulley can be used to change the direction of applied forces and move/lift extremely heavy objects, and the powerful mechanical advantages of using a multiple-pulley system. Students perform a simple demonstration to see the mechanical advantage of using a pulley, and they identify modern day engineering applications of pulleys. In a hands-on activity, they see how a
Discovering Friction
With a simple demonstration activity, students are introduced to the concept of friction as a force that impedes motion when two surfaces are in contact. Then, in the Associated Activity (Sliding and Stuttering), they work in teams to use a spring scale to drag an object such as a ceramic coffee cup along a table top or the floor. The spring scale allows them to measure the frictional force that exists between the moving cup and the surface it slides on. By modifying the bottom surface of the cu
Alien Ink Graphic Novel
Alien Ink Graphic Novel
Turkey in the World
Turkey's international role has grown in recent years as its economy has boomed under the direction of Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davutoglu's much-vaunted 'Strategic Depth' foreign policy doctrine. But as Turkey goes to the polls in a general election, what will be the impact of the result on its international role? This event marks the launch of a major new research report from LSE IDEAS entitled 'Turkey's Global Strategy'. Professor Michael Cox is Co-director of LSE IDEAS and
1.4.10 Unfinished business When people die suddenly we can never be sure that they have done and said what they want and are able to do. Meg’s long term-illness gave her a lot of time for reflection and preparation, so that while her death was sudden and she was unable to see her younger son, she also had the opportunity for conversations with people about her death. However, there may have been last-minute wishes that Meg was unable to express. Li’s sudden stroke may have left her with things unsaid, but her
Keynote Panel: The Golden Age — A Look at the Original Roots of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive
2
Moderator: Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
* Emilio Bizzi, MIT Institute Professor; Founding Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
* Sydney Brenner, Senior Distinguished Fellow, Crick-Jacobs Center, Salk Institute
for Biological Studies
* Noam Chomsky, MIT Institute Professor, Emeritus; Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
* Marvin Minsky, Professor of
Heading to Omaha
VUCast Extra: Vanderbilt’s baseball team leaves Nashville on its first journey to the College World Series. Go ‘Dores!
3 Problems with quantification One of the main problems with the medicalisation of death and dying is the idea that science has all the answers. Illness and dying carry the same degree of unpredictability and uncertainty as all everyday life events. So when service providers draw on medical knowledge and experience to offer some certainty and in one way to quantify the dying experience, it can be difficult to challenge. Indeed, there is a tension between wanting certainty and hoping for things to be different. Campaigner a
1 Expectations and administrative pressures The medical prognoses and diagnoses of dying raise expectations of what will actually happen to the dying person. For example, someone is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, they will be given a forecast that covers the estimated length of time before death, any likely symptoms, the development of the illness, and possible treatment(s). Of course, these types of medical expectations are not unique to death and dying: they are found in all treatments of illness, and no doubt you will have had
4.2 Using antidepressants for grief In addition to tranquilisers, antidepressant medication may be considered when a person approaches a doctor for help following bereavement. Prescribing doctors may feel under pressure to ‘do something’ to help the person who presents to them. Neither party may be aware of other options that may be effective in helping in these potentially difficult situations. Indeed, local support groups, psychotherapy, counselling and other possible alternatives may not be readily available.
Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission:
Text
References Next steps After completing this unit you may wish to study another OpenLearn Study Unit or find out more about this topic. Here are some suggestions: 4 Conclusion This unit has explored the social impact of psychology and provided a brief historical overview to explore the diversity of psychology as a discipline. You have read about the different kinds of data that are used as evidence and the different types of methods used to gather these data. You have also gained an understanding of the ethical issues that need to be considered when conducting research. The material for this unit is taken from the introductory chapter to the course DSE212 3.8 Summary Because the subject matter of psychology (ourselves and non-human animals) is complex and reactive, psychologists have to choose from amongst a wide range of methods. Psychologists make use of methods that aim to maximise objectivity; they also use methods that focus on and explore subjectivities and meanings. Depending on the topic they are researching, psychologists can choose to adopt an outsider viewpoint or an insider 3.7 Ethical considerations Since psychological research is mostly done on people and animals, it is often the case that the observations or experimental interventions that a psychologist might want to make have the potential to harm participants and hence raise ethical issues. Furthermore, consequences that might not be directly undesirable for the participants might raise more general ethical principles to do with moral standards and values. Psychologists have increasingly become aware of ethical issues and recognised 3.6 Different paradigms and different methods These different methods alert us to the fact that psychology is not just one enterprise, but a series of interlocking enterprises in which psychologists have different views about the best ways to try to understand or explain people and their behaviour and experience. These are arguments about epistemology; that is, what questions to ask, what sort of evidence to look for, what sort of criteria to use to evaluate explanations, and what sort of methods to use. All knowledge and al 3.4 Observations Observations are the most direct method of getting information about people's behaviour. In everyday life we all frequently observe other people. Psychologists have devised a range of methods for systematically observing other people. These range from participant observation through to highly structured and targeted observations. In participant observation, the researcher is part of what is being observed and writes up notes whenever possible. Sometimes these notes include an insider v 3.3 Psychological tests The most commonly used psychological tests, such as intelligence tests and personality tests, are highly structured forms of self-report where participants have to solve problems or choose from fixed alternatives on a questionnaire. Researchers then work out a score for each participant that gives information about their intelligence or personality. These tests are different from ordinary questionnaires in the way they are constructed and pre-tested. They are tried out on large numbers 1.2 Boundaries between mental health and illness What do you think it means if someone is described as ‘mentally healthy’? Think of all the different ways of descr
Activity 1: What is mental ‘health’?
