Week Five Discussion Assignment
1. By the due date, post your response to one of the following three questions on the
discussion page. Please remember to label your initial posting with your name and
the question you are answering (i.e., Dr. Brandhorst – A). This will help organize the
postings for the class and inform your fellow classmates on which question is being
answered.
Video A: A Psychoanalysis of Bruce Wayne (Batman)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRlbV8tNILg
Description: In this clip, Emory psychologist Jared Defife takes a psychoanalytic approach to understanding the fictional character of Batman. He discusses how
traumatic events that Bruce Wayne experienced during his childhood may have
influenced his later development into Batman. He uses psychodynamic principles to
explain how someone’s deepest fears can be transformed into their greatest
strengths.
Questions:
Can you think of other psychoanalytic principles that might help to explain Bruce Wayne’s behavior? How might other approaches to personality psychology
explain Bruce Wayne’s transformation into Batman?
Video B: Hypnosis and Conflict
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbJRX0NRIIc
Description: Researchers provide new evidence that hypnosis may actually alter the
brain activity that’s behind certain ingrained mental processes. This ScienCentral
News video has more on the subject.
Questions:
Why do you think some people might be more susceptible to hypnosis than
others? Why do you think hypnosis reduced conflict in this study? Do you think
these findings could be applied to other, more complex kinds of conflict?
Video C: Voting Influence
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnUs-bQP_Cg%C2%A0
Description: According to this ScienCentral news video, researchers have
discovered that where you vote can influence how you vote. They found that images
that surround you, what consumer researchers call “cues,” could influence your
decisions.
Questions:
Do you think some people might be more easily influenced by environmental
cues? Who might these people be? What are the implications of these findings
for the voting process or for other social phenomena?
2. Read all the discussion postings. By the due date, respond to at least one
posting for each of the two questions you did not answer. In other words, if you
posted to Question a, then you should respond to some who posted to Question
b and c. Please keep in mind that you still have to do other postings