Readings and Thought Paper

The primary readings are chapters 3 and 4 from Deacon, with 1 and 2 recommended as background.

Thought paper.

Are the Chimp studies presented in Deacon relevant to Human language?

Pinker for example would argue that nothing has ever been shown in Chimps that even remotely resembles human language.

thought paper for 22/9

Evolutionary Psychology makes some strong claims about differences between males and females in the human species. These cannot easily be seen as politiclly neutral. What role (if any) should the political implications have on the evaluation of their claims. Illustrate point by reference to a specific claim and the evidence presented.

Thought Paper

How do Tooby & Cosmides use the Wason Selection Task to make evolutionary claims about our reasoning?

Readings for Next Week

Readings for Seminar Paper 9
15 September 2009

Buss, David M. (1998) Sexual Strategies Theory: Historical Origins and Current Status. The Journal of Sex research. 35(1) 19-31 Download

Buss, David M. (1995) Psychological Sex Differences: Origins through sexual selection. The American Psychologist 50 (3) 164-168 Download

Cosmides, L. and Tooby, J. (2005) Neuro-cognitive adaptions for social exchange. in Buss D. The handbook of evolutionary psychology Download

Reminder: Readings for Seminar 8 on 8 September 2009

A reminder about the readings for Seminar 8 on Tuesday 8 September 2009 - the first seminar on Evolutionary Psychology:

Cosmides & Tooby - Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer
(available at: http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.html)

and

Badcock reading (distributed in class)

Thought Paper Topic:

What role does the assumption of modularity play in the program of research in Evolutionary Psychology outlined by Cosmides and Tooby?

Remember - Michael Pitman is on teaching replacement as of 7 September, so please direct queries about the second half of the course to Mike Greyling in the first instance.

Michael Pitman will be available for consultation on Tuesdays between 10h00 and 12h00 during the fourth quarter.

Thought Paper for Seminar 6

The thought paper topic for Seminar 6 (on Edelman's theory of consciousness) is as follows:

What role does value play in Edelman's theory of primary consciousness?

Thought Paper for Seminar 3

The topic for your thought papers for Seminar 3 on Tuesday 28 July is as follows:

What is Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis?

Thought Paper for Seminar 2

The topic of the thought paper for Seminar 2 is as follows:

Is there a tension between ideas of soft assembly and decentralised control (Clark) and evidence for neonate imitation by way of a mirror-neuron system (as discussed by Gallagher and Johnson)?

Readings for Seminar 2 (21 July)

As discussed yesterday, the readings for Seminar 2 are as follows:

Clark - 'The Situated Infant'*
Johnson - 'Big Babies'
Gallagher - 'The Earliest Sense of Self and Others'

The reading 'The Embodied Mind'* by Lakoff & Johnson is assumed to have also been done as background reading.

(* indicates readings that can be found in the PSYC3014 Reading Pack from 2008)

Michael P's Consultation Times - 3rd Quarter

Michael Pitman's consultation times for the 3rd quarter are as follows:

Wednesday 11h00 to 13h00
Thursday 14h00 to 15h00

All other times by appointment, to be arranged (preferably) via email.

Please also note that these times are subject to change, especially when meetings have been called at late notice.

Readings for Seminar 1 (14 July)

Two readings for our first seminar are now available in the Main Office. Please ask (nicely!) for the Mind, Brain and Behaviour readings – they are in a box under the counter, clearly labelled. One is a reading by Leahey, the other a reading from Hergenhahn. Each set should be paper-clipped together.

In addition to these two history of Psychology readings, you also need to access and read the following article via the University’s e-journal portal:

Goertzen, Jason R. (2008). On the possibility of unification: the reality and nature of the crisis in Psychology. Theory & Psychology, 18 (6), 829-852

Your 1-2 page thought paper for Seminar 1 should succinctly address the following (double-barrelled) question: Is there a crisis in Psychology, and is it worth worrying about?