User talk:Vfrankel

Well done
Good job on setting up your account,. Let me know if I can do anything as you go along. 'Official' Wikiversity welcome below. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 02:32, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

 Hello Vfrankel, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may


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And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! Jtneill - Talk - c 02:32, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

 Hi , I am Percy. Nice to meet you. I love the beach, swimming, fishing, and I am currently doing some research at Wikiversity on oceanography. I am also learning to play piano. What do you like? Can I be your mascot?

Upload
Hi Vfrankel, well done on uploading your e-portfolio so far to: - I've started reading through it, but am wondering whether you would like a hand to get into wiki style on your user page, or whether you would like to stick with pdf? I don't mind, but am encouraging of folks trying wiki style, since it can facilitate collaboration and discussion. Basically, all you'd need to do is start by copying the text from the word processor document, editing your user page, pasting the text, and saving. Then we can work on the formatting (e.g., adding some headings). Once we decide on format, I'm also happy to offer some feedback and suggestions. Hope this helps. Let me know if I can do anything. Sincerely, James. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 09:27, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Licensing
Technically speaking, we also need to apply a license to any uploads which is compatible with the Wikimedia Foundation's stated options, as listed here: License tags. This can all get a bit technical, but basically there is public domain and GFDL-type licenses which allow free use, but require attribution to the author. Let me know your thoughts and I'm happy to help sort it out by adding a license to the page. But if we end up going for wiki text, we'd probably delete the duplicate pdf file. So, let me know what you think. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 09:32, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Description
I've added a brief description to your user page User:Vfrankel explaining how to access the file. Feel free to edit, etc. as you see fit. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 09:36, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Start of some feedback
I'm enjoying digesting your reflections. Quick thought regard this last section; perhaps divide into two parts - it seems to me, one set of comments/critique is around the textbook for this unit, and the second is around the broader "narrative" (or lack of!?) in the degree structure/style/content. Whilst, these are understandably intertwined, I'm thinking that it might be useful to offer a focused critique on the text, and then a broader commentary on the degree. Just a passing thought. This is on my feedback list now, but prompt me if you would like comments about anything specific. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 09:09, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Some links
Have started adding a few links; check the History tab on your user page to look through them. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 09:09, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
 * You could add more if you like - a well-selected link can add "depth" - or feel free to remove the ones if you don't think they "work". -- Jtneill - Talk - c 00:25, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Accountants
At least at first glance, the accountants metaphor reminds me Paulo Freire's notion of "banking" education. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 09:17, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Undergraduate frustration
I think I and we (teaching staff) need to find out more about and listen to the views and experiences of students. I was a very frustrated undergraduate and it almost put me off my love of psychology, but like you I suspect I kept reading in my areas of passion, doing my own writing and "life experiments", etc. then started doing applied research, and later some teaching in academia, etc. My frustration at the time though was more around teaching quality and somewhat around content. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 00:10, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Subpages
FYI, if you want to create subpages, I added some instructions earlier on User talk:MandaG. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 00:29, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Student expectations of lecturers
Feel free to add suggestions to this page. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 05:05, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Read your Rant
Hi, Just finished reading your rant on why this degree sux. An entertaining read! The analogy of the business is good as far as it goes but what I don't understand is why you view those running our course as accountants? I recently attended a seminar at the UC of lecturers who were trying to find new and innovating ways of teaching, which to me suggests that for their part they are making an effort. I also don't think it is really fair to say that they are trying to produce accountants in those that they teach. Maybe my lecturers have been different to those that you have had but I find, particularly in psych (I also do law), that the lecturers tend to encourage thinking outside the box and looking at different methods in how things can be researched and looked at. As for looking at other sciences in psychology development is about genes and brain function does affect how a person behaves or acts emotionally. UC has a few lecturers who do not begrudge having to including these factors in the curriculam at all, in fact I'd go as far to say they have embraced it, both my lecturer and guest lecturer in developmental psych were such people. Therefore I don't think it is detrimental to the degree at all to have this extra knowledge of other sciences. While I still don't agree with the analogy being applied to our lecturers, perhaps I am an accountant as I have no clear idea of where I would like psychology to progress to but I am curious as to how you would like the course to be restructured and what improvements you might suggest?

As far as I can tell thus far social psychology is all about exploring interactions with other people and the environment, which is presumably where psychological discourse emanates? I think saying that those that teach and research in Australia are clueless about the society is a huge generalisation and I think the whole point of subjects such as social, cognitive, learning and I think personality and individual differences (though I have not sat the course and cannot be sure) is about putting the academic side of what we know into context. Every lecture my cognitive lecturer applied real life scenario's and context to every theory she was teaching.

I will concur with you on the lasting relevance of the experimentation model.

What was the folly in your dream? It is well past 1am and I might just be slow but I don't follow... As for the extra large tub of lubricating jelly...I think thats a bit excessive. Students have a choice in the uni they attend and the subjects they pursue, if they feel there is no benefit in what they are being taught, rather than just bend over and take it as you say, they could find other interests.

I really enjoyed reading your views even though finding it at times difficult to see your point of view. I love the Stephen Colbert and John Stewart clips (love the shows!) and will keep an eye out for the pile of ashes outside of James' door. MandaG 15:23, 25 September 2008 (UTC)MandaG

Reply to MandaG
Firstly, thank you for showing enough interest in what I had written to write a reply. I agree with you that my offload about the degree was a rant and that stuff about the lubricating jelly was a bit much. I’m glad you enjoyed the two YouTube clips I included and although it has absolutely nothing to do with my responses to the other comments you made (which I hope you will read as I set them out below), I suspect you might find the following skit by comedian Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin also highly amusing.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

I’m sorry that you found my ideas somewhat unclear. I hope that what I have written below largely addresses your concerns if it doesn’t, please tell me because I can assure you that I will find fault with my expression, and not with your understanding.

I’m also sorry if I gave the impression that I was unhappy with the quality of the teaching staff because it is not what I meant. The main tenet of my argument is one of systemic failure. My point is that we get most of our teaching material from the U.S. and a good percentage of the theory and research we learn originated in the U.S. Some of that theory and research has been influenced by political and economic forces that have nothing to do with good science, just as it has happened in the past and will happen in the future. The current Social Psychology textbook is a blatant example of how political ideology can seriously affect the quality of the discourse. I have written to James in a separate email expressing that a political philosophy in a text is not of itself a sin. I cannot remember reading any text where the author’s worldview has not been woven into the narrative. But it is different with these guys; they have seriously distorted the historical narrative, they have cherry-picked studies, and have attempted to use studies that don’t really support their argument by not providing quantitative data from those studies. They have done this to support their ideological view which, given what I now know about U.S politics, is very right-wing. By essentially being loose with the truth they are giving a very biased and narrow narrative: I know this because I also bought a 2008 Australasian Social Psychology textbook (I have given its title in the text prior to my rant) and the vista presented is vastly different, as is the quality of its discourse.

It is patently obvious to me that our prescribed text is seriously flawed; so why did we get it? Because James and I guess the rest of the faculty gained their qualifications from a system (I’m just talking Psychology discipline here) that placed no store in drawing links between psychological theory and studies and the society from which they emanated. Because if they had been exposed the sort of knowledge I am talking about we would not be having this discussion. I will now give two examples that hopefully will give better clarity to what I mean.

The first example deals with the broad-based but extremely important theme of biological determinism verses blank slate. The second is the much narrower topic of ethics as raised by the APA’s member involvement in the development of torture and the organisation’s involvement in its execution. At this point I want to apologise for what may turn into a lengthy discourse and tell you of Mark Twain apologizing to a friend about the excessive length of the letter he had just sent him by using the excuse that he was pressed for time. If you read about the hours Abraham Lincoln spent crafting the 286 words of the Gettysburg address you will get what I mean.

Biological Determinist vs Blank Slate Debate
The current biological determinist verses blank slate (environment) debate is one with relatively long historical roots. The current debate is fierce and at times quite acrimonious. The key to this acrimony began, as I stated in the Opening Statement of my e-journal, when European colonial power elites needed a better justification for their virtual enslavement of foreign lands and their peoples. The process began with social Darwinism, ‘the survival of the fittest’ (not coined by Darwin but British philosopher Herbert Spencer). This ideology spawned many creatures but I will focus on the one that created the most havoc. Enter Francis Galton, (a name you will remember from Individual Differences) who like many of his contemporaries was extremely worried that the fecund lower classes would destroy Britain’s stock. Even Karl Marx spoke contemptuously of the lumpenproletariat. Galton’s solution was Eugenics which in its positive form saw the superior people matching up with other superior people to produce more superior people. It didn’t take long for negative Eugenics to arise where the unfit people (to use the terminology of the day, morons, cretins, idiots, and congenital idiots) were medically sterilized. Thousands underwent forced sterilization in the U.S and in other countries, particularly in the Scandinavian countries. Just in case anyone reading this might be tempted to think that was not a bad thing, can I direct you to In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity by Daniel Kevles where you will be no doubt shocked how loosely the selection criteria were applied.

On to the scene came Adolf Hitler a rabid anti-Semite who in twelve years turned a nation, which arguably was the most technologically and socially advance country at that time, into one of bestial barbarity. First he used lawyers to draft a series of laws (beginning with Nuremberg hereditary laws) to separate Germans of Jewish ancestry from the rest of German society. Next he co-opted science and the medical profession in particular to carry out a policy of forced euthanasia on social undesirables (beginning first with non-Jewish Germans, who were feebleminded, certified insane, or incurably sick). Then in 1942 in a villa on the shores of Wannsee in Berlin the ‘Final Solution’ was launched. This was a large and sophisticated (in terms of logistics) mass killing operation which resulted in the deaths of some 6 million Jews, and a lesser number of other undesirables which included gypsies, communists, homosexuals, Poles, Russians etc: a death toll including Jews of about 10 million. The German medical profession played a leading role in the day-to-day decision making of life and death. For details see Robert Jay Lifton’s ‘The Nazi Doctors’.

For anyone wishing to understand what it was like to be on the receiving end you could start with Victor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ or any of Primo Levi’s books detailing his experiences in Auschwitz (Third Reich concentration and extermination camp). This tragedy started as a colonial politically and economically driven agenda which high-jacked science; science was used in turn in the absence any real scientific evidence to marginalize then exterminate another group of people. Now whilst Eugenics largely fell into disrepute after the Second World War, forced sterilization programs continued well after the war particularly in the U.S. Back to the present: People on the blank slate side of the argument tend to know this history well and are justifiably concerned lest the biological determinist science be again high-jacked to fulfill some political or economical imperative. If anyone is tempted at this point to write to say that such a thing couldn’t possibly happen today let me assure you that my reply will be neither charitable nor pleasant. Neuroscientist Steven Rose (a blank slater) in his book ‘Lifelines’ argues that it is still common for biological determinist claims to be made that are just not supported by current scientific knowledge. Having read about half a dozen books on genes, genetics and genomes I tend to agree with him. This is an important debate that will not be resolved any time soon. Understanding the dynamics of this debate is important to psychology because in almost every area of psychology (excluding statistics) this dynamic is played out. It happens in intelligence testing, twin studies, biological psychology, psychopathology (through the search for genes for schizophrenia and other disorders), developmental psychology, cognitive, personality, social etc. Why is it important that you know? Well if you know that in the not too distant past millions of people were murdered using false biological determinist scientific claims you might be a little more circumspect about accepting the veracity of any finding that could potentially separate people from the rest of the population and leave them vulnerable to exploitation. Because you never know whether one of those people could be you or someone you love. There is a hell of a lot more I could write about this subject because there is a great deal of information attached to this debate and because I think it is important to know. If I have convinced you of its importance and you are wondering why it has not been seriously broached as an overarching theme in any of your previous units you could always ask your lecturer.

Psychology (APA) and Torture
I am now going to talk about the role of U.S psychologists in the development and propagation of torture in ‘the war on terror’ and the political machinations of the APA leadership in this sorry episode. There is a lot to this and although I will try and make the narrative as clear and coherent as possible you will need to consult the other sources. I have given you some of those links to in order for you to gain a good grasp on the issues.

The pictures of abuse at Abu Ghraib were not the work of a few bad apples. Those pictures showed detainees being subjected to torture techniques that have a long history and in which U.S psychology has played a leading role in their development. Professor Alfred McCoy has written a book detailing this history called ‘A Question of Torture’ (2006). To get a quick idea about what is in the book here are a couple of video links to explain.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=viOgDWYMr-g This part one of eleven parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTA_gkWkA3I This about congressional hearings into the mess (many parts to it)

At the heart of the program of torture were techniques that have been reverse engineered from the SERE program. SERE means ‘Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape’, and is a program that was originally developed to assist American Service people to cope better with torture techniques that they might be exposed to if captured by other countries troops (think cold-war: the Manchurian Candidate). Military psychologists from the SERE training school were consulted and a number of SERE practices were adopted for use in interrogating prisoners, firstly at Guantanamo Bay (U.S. military base), Cuba and then later at Abu Ghraib Prison (also referred to as Bagdad Central prison) in Iraq, Bagram Air base in Afghanistan and other CIA ‘black sites’. U.S psychologists both military and civilian (some APA members, others not) played an integral part in the interrogation processes (they were in the room in an assisting role) as members of Behavioral Science Consultative Teams (BSCT; pronounced ‘biscuit’). After the scandal of Abu Ghraib broke in 2004 gradually more information came to light regarding the torture being perpetrated and the role of doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, interpreters and others in this process. In response to these revelations the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Interpreter Association, and the American Musicology Association prohibited their members from contributing in any way in any interrogation process. However, the American Psychological Association did not (recent news item 26/9/08 APA membership just approved a ban) and because they did not the White House administration could claim (which they did) that they were not torturing because ‘health care’ professionals were overseeing the process. If you want a quick heads-up on the politics driving this then click on the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWAzCPcvDN8

Or go and hire the documentary DVD ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’

The APA leadership did not cover itself in any glory in this sorry tale. For details please consult the following website link.

http://www.democracynow.org/features/apa

For anyone prepared to listen and/or watch (I recommend watch), what is central is the legal definition of torture. Why that is important is made clear by Professor Philippe Sands’ books ‘Lawless World’ and ‘Torture Team’. You need to understand some of these subtleties before you wade into the APA link above because understanding the meaning of the words used with respect to the term ‘torture’ by the APA leadership are crucial for providing clarity. For this I recommend you first watch the following – a five part video of a lecture by Professor Sands regarding his book the ‘Torture Team’ for that clarity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S32b6zgfo-w

Underpinning psychology’s ethical code is the Nuremberg Code. I know this because that is what I was told in two of my previous psychology units. See following link for the code’s articles.

http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/nuremberg.html

The code was created as a response to the revelations that came from the Nazi Doctors’ Trial immediately following the end of the Second World War. See ‘Justice at Nuremberg’ by Ulf Schmidt. The code’s articles act as the underlying basis for the APA’s ethical code. Now to the reasons why I have given you this specific example: For those of you who go to the democracynow link I have provided above, you will notice that the APA President at the time (2007) is a Gerald Koocher (he appears and talks at some length on one of the videos). Gerald Koocher is the co-author of a book on APA ethics which our psychology department uses as a reference text for the teaching of ethics. I like to think of this as what the Rob Sitch character on ABC’s ‘Hollowmen’ refers to as the ‘circle of life’. Some distinguished APA members have described their organisation’s involvement in this whole torture saga as the most disgraceful episode in the entire history of the APA. For those of you who have read this far (I am sorry about the length) and are still wondering what’s the point, it is that psychology like any other academic discipline can be corrupted by outside forces. In the two examples I have given both ideology and political power has led to the corruption of two helping professions: German doctors who willingly participated in genocide and American psychologists who willing participated (and probably still do) in torture; and the APA leadership who gave the Bush administration a fig leaf of respectability by not doing as it should have and immediately prohibiting its members from participating in the torture interrogations.

For those of you who go on to further study in psychology, I don’t expect ‘APA and torture’ will be raised in any of the ethics lectures or tutorials. But it should be. Instead I suspect it will disappear down some ‘1984’ Orwellian memory-hole. I have many more examples of how pressures outside psychology have had a corrosive influence on different aspects of the psychology discipline. I use this knowledge whenever I am presented with new information on psychological theory, experimentation and practice to make judgments about the relative worth of that information and thereby turn it into knowledge. You should be able to do this too, but you can’t, because that knowledge is not made available to you, and it should be.

Dream Analogy
With respect to the question about the dream analogy and the boy in the fable of the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’, the boy states the obvious – the emperor is naked. Psychology as it is currently being taught is also naked. As an intellectual discipline it is pretty much vacant. In comparison to where it has come from (William James etc) its current state is pathetic. Let me use some colorful turns of phrase so you are in no doubt as to what I mean: Elvis has left the building; the lights are on but nobody is at home; the cupboard is bare; the elevator does not go to the top floor; there has been a bank foreclosure; there’s nothing there. Now whilst I will not go so far as to compare the teaching of psychology to the current state of the N.S.W. Labor government which is essentially a flyblown rotting carcass hanging from a tree on a 30 degree hot summer’s day (I’m a labor supporter!) it is giving a very good impersonation of a ‘dead-man walking’. This state of affairs would be manifestly obvious to anyone who has a coherent knowledge of the history of psychology, its philosophical roots and underpinnings and where it fits in world affairs. If you want to a glimpse of what an intellectual discourse sounds like please click on the following link.

http://www.equaltimeforfreethought.org/2007/05/27/show-219-noam-chomsky-chomsky-on-humanism/

Scroll down the page and click on the audio.

Degree Restructuring
Lastly to answer the question as to what a psychology degree could or should look like. This narrative (or whatever other pejorative term you might like to use) is already way too long and what I have in mind would also be pretty lengthy too so perhaps that description is for some other time. What I will say is that it is not very radical as a good portion of the proposed units (but by no means all) are currently being taught at other Australian Universities.

Some more direct feedback
Hi Vfrankel, I am responding to your request for some more direct "grading"-related feedback about your e-portfolio to date. To this end, please consider the marking criteria which refer to regularity (33%) and depth (66%). For the first half of the unit (Weeks 1 to 6), your e-portfolio clearly demonstrates regular engagement with unit activities. Note, however, that this seems to have largely focused around the textbook and critique of the "academic psychology enterprise". It may be helpful to balance this somewhat across the various unit activities, although the e-portfolio should also be shaped to reflect your particular engagements. One way perhaps to better organise the content could be create a subpage(s) to document the more detailed textbook critiques and link from the main e-portfolio to this subpae and/or its specific chapters/sections. This way the textbook critique could also serve a useful stand-alone function (e.g., providing the textbook authors with a succint/coherent set of points to consider or future users of the textbook with some alternative perspectives). The second marking criteria is around depth. Clearly, you have applied considerable depth in approaching key topics examined in the unit. For example, it is clear that you are reading from at least two commonly used social psychology undergraduate textbooks and I think this is a particularly notable depth to your engagement. Some ways "depth" could be further improved could include: providing more accurate referencing (e.g., APA style references to key articles) and/or providing links to more information (e.g., related pages on Wikiversity (e.g., discussions on your talk page, other students' e-portfolios, other pages in the main space, discussion list postings, etc. - e.g., a specific example would be linking to your dialogue with MandaG above.) For content-related aspects of your critique about which you'd like to pursue further action (e.g., engaging other psychology staff), a suggestion is to create either dedicated user subpages, and/or learning/research projects in the main Wikiversity space, clearly state the task/issue to be pursued, and then invite collaboration/dialgoue from other students, staff, authors, researchers, Wikiversitarians, etc. and then let's see what's possible! This way, these projects can potentially have a life beyond this particular unit and e-portfolio exercise. Hope this helps. Let me know if you would like a hand with any "how-tos" and please feel free to offer feedback on my feedback! -- Jtneill - Talk - c 04:56, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Sarah Q feedback on Vfrankel E-portfolio
Hi there Vfrankel. Thanks for providing me with such an interesting e-portfolio to read. Your page provides a very interesting view-point on a number of areas. Maybe it is just that degrees and Universities have become a bit of a money making exercise in themselves, so perhaps the whole point of educating people has been lost and forgotten beneath it all. I have not found the text book that bad (as in wanting to burn it and leave the ashes on the head of schools doorstep). Nice accountant/innovator analogy! I am happy to socially announce that I am the business innovator - so look out for a lot of broke companies! Or hopefully a lot of rich ones....

Textbook
FYI, I've set up a page for gathering comments about the textbook being used in Social psychology (psychology). I've added a brief summary of your critique; feel to free adjust as you see fit. Sincerely, James. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 07:30, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Introduction to US History
I thought you might be interested in this course. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 07:18, 6 October 2008 (UTC)