Journal

Complete a journal documenting your development of the SLU Core Value of personal development regarding your understanding of the application course content to your life. Each journal entry will be 1-2 double-spaced pages in 12 point font. 

Week One 

This week 1double spaced page in 12 point font.

This week you will reflect on ethics in animal research. Ethics regarding animal use in research, answer the following questions in your journal entry. 

1. Why are ethical practices important in animal research?

2. How does the biopsychologist justify the use of animals in research?

3. What were your thoughts on this topic before starting this class?

4. Has anything changed after studying the material?

Week Two

This week 1double spaced page in 12 point font. 

For this week’s journal entry, choose a drug that interests you and describe how the drug works at the synaptic level.

1. How does the drug influence synaptic mechanisms?

2. Does it raise or lower certain neurotransmitters?

3. How does it accomplish this?

Week Three

This week 1double spaced page in 12 point font. 

For this week’s journal assignment, choose a website that you visit often and using the information about visual perception, detail how the site is being processed by users and how can it be improved for better processing of the information. 

Now that you have a better understanding concerning the limitations of what actually gets processed by our perceptual/cognitive systems, consider how information is presented to us in the world. The example here being a website that you are familiar with. Carefully examine this website and discuss how the site could be improved for easier information processing. You can also detail what the site does well.

Week four

This week 1double spaced page in 12 point font. 

For this week’s journal entry, lets go to the movies!!! Watch one of the films below:

The Bourne Identity

Memento

Total Recall

The Man without a Past

Hitchcock’s Spellbound

Then answer the following questions: 

1. Do the symptoms presented in the film fit with the information about brain damage and loss of specific aspects of memory you have learned in this module?

2. How accurate is Hollywood here?

Remember, that the goal of drama is to entertain not educate, so often there are many scientific liberties in film. For example, the movie Memento has both realistic and fictional symptoms as portrayed in the main character. Point out specific examples to support your points.

Week 5 

This week 1double spaced page in 12 point font. 

For this week, reflect on your own or another’s mating choices. Consider the choice from the perspective of an evolutionary psychologist. Why was this person chosen as a mate? What were the characteristics of this person that made them appealing from a natural and sexual selection stand point?

Week 6

This week 1double spaced page in 12 point font. 

For this week you will download the free sleep cycle app and monitor your sleep behavior for 5 days. 

The application requires you to leave your phone beside your bed to “listen” to your breathing while you are in bed. It will note your awake, sleep, and deep sleep states. It also provides a so called “sleep quality” measure.

You will keep a record of the nightly statistics and discuss your findings based on the concepts learning in this week’s module.

Consider the strengths and weaknesses of this app. Consider how useful or not this application is in learning about your nightly sleep quality.

Week 7

This week 1double spaced page in 12 point font. 

For this week’s journal entry, you will critically evaluate the legal status of marijuana in the United States. As more and more states vote to legalize marijuana, pitting them against federal law, it’s important for us to discuss the potential effect on Americans. This week present arguments for and against the legalization of marijuana. Feel free to explore websites such as http://www.legalizationofmarijuana.com or other sites to get a sense of the opinions out there.

Week 8

For this last journal entry, you are now in a position to synthesize what you have learned in this course to critically evaluate the use of methylphenidate in the treatment of ADHD in children.

Read the following journal article:

ADHD: a scientific fact or a factual opinion? A critique of the veracity of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Reflect on what you have learned and then provide a 1 page journal entry discussing your opinions on the whether ADHD is, in fact, a real disorder and how should we treat children that are diagnosed with this?