FINAL CLASS DAY & DROPPING LOWEST GRADE

TODAY IS MONDAY MORNING JULY 6, 2009

This post incorporates information from earlier posts.

Your assignment for class on Monday, July 6 is the following:

Read CH 6: Empiricism, Associationism, & Utilitarianism. This will be your QUIZ due Tuesday by 2PM. This will be your last QUIZ for Summer I and must be sent by the deadline. Grades are due at TSU by Wednesday.

Read BIZ CHS 7 & 8 for discussion.

BOTH QUIZ & BIZ assignments will arrive via new post by Friday, at noon. This will allow a head start for finishing ALL WORK BY Tuesday 2 PM.

DROPPING LOWEST GRADE POLICY

I have had a long tradition of dropped the lowest grade of the semester. I am prepared to continue that directive on the following conditions:

All students must attend our last class session today.

If you are happy with prior grades, you have the option of dropping all of the work--both biz & quiz assignments below. In class today, you give me a note saying, you opt out of the final quiz & biz assignments, but only if you're happy with your grades; otherwise, I will count both biz and quiz as your last grades and drop the lowest of all quizzes. (As you know, I expect all PSYCH MAJORS to complete all reading assignments as this is your career!

For those who want the final QUIZ & BIZ to count as a grade complete the following by TUESDAY...

Here's your BIZ Chapter essays:

BIZ CH 7: Rationalism

Preface: This chapter is about restoring faith in human knowledge after centuries of skepticism and church scholasticism; a priori knowledge is either 'reasoned speculation' BEFORE facts are known, or based upon facts per se that are common sense and anyone could understand, such as all bachelors are unmarried; these two components characterize rationalism's 'best guess' or 'best bet'. This is in contrast to empiricism's focus on experience as the 'true teacher' and most dependable agent of knowledge. Yet, both philosophical perspectives are interwoven in the philosophers and their philosophies presented in this chapter.

1. From page 146, explain how Descarte's famous saying, cogito ergo sum reflects a rationalistic perspective.

2. Spinoza disagreed with mind-body dualism of Descartes. In the second column, second full paragraph of page 149, summarize how the 'psychological' and physiological' represent sides of the same coin.

3. On page 158 under Contributions of Rationalism summarize in the paragraph beneath how restoring faith in human knowledge provided an intellectual foundation for 'new sciences' such as psychology.

BIZ CH 8: Mechanization & Quantification

Preface: Science cannot exist without quantification as 'weighing and measuring' is the reductionism demanded by science. Today, laboratory science is abased upon measurement: that is, measuring dependent variables based upon independent variables.

1. Descartes is viewed as the founder of modern philosophy. On bottom of page 165, second column to upper page 166 first column, choose two strong arguments of those presented that support his famous theories.

2. How significant to modern neuropsychology was the Bell-Magendie Law? See page 170 for details.

3. Discuss how Franz Joseph Gall's false start with 'faculties' localized in specific brain regions reflected in the shape of one's head, known as phrenology, led circuitously to the modern quest for understanding the relationship between mental and physical aspects of 'mind'. Would neuroscans of the brain have helped him out of his pseudoscience?

4. Discuss one major contribution each for Paul Broca, Carl Wernicke, & Charles Sherrington.

QUIZ 5 CH 6: Empiricism, Associationism, & Utilitarianism

Preface: Experience equates to Empiricism. Hence, observation and experience is elevated in Empirical philosophy as rationalism is diminished.

1. On page 119 top of second column, summarize the contributions of Francis Bacon.
On page 120-121 define what Bacon means by 'Idols' and then characterize one Idol as an example.

2. On page 123, second column, third paragraph, & page 125 first column second paragraph, summarize Locke's influence on education based on his empirical philosophy. What did Voltaire suggest about Locke's influence in education on page 125, second column second paragraph ending with the section on George Berkeley?

3. Summarize what Hume believed to be the nature of self? See page 130 bottom of first column.

4. Refer to page 131 second column, last paragraph to answer why David Hume is considered to be a central figure in the history of psychology.

5. Define assocationism, utilitarianism, and psychological hedonism. Also, why is John Stuart Mill influential in the history of psychology?

The End. You have officially taken your last quiz for PSY 410.