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The Virtual labs (below) are online laboratory simulations and videos that enable you to perform experiments in anatomy and biological dissections from the relative comfort of your computer.
Lab 1: Anatomy and Dissection

A. Complete the following online dissections:
Earth worm
What structure in the earthworm has a similar function as the human heart? Explain your answer.
What do two earthworms exchange during mating? Explain your answer
Do earthworms have a front and back end? Explain your answer.
What characteristics distinguish an annelid from other worms?

Fetal Pig
Use the Anatomical References guide. To what region of the body does dorsal, ventral, anterior, and posterior refer to?
Investigate the Nervous system. Name four large regions (lobes) of the brain and indicate roughly where they are located in the brain and their associated functions.
Supplemental:
The Human Brain
Alternative lab for Comparative Anatomy
Alternative lab for Comparative Anatomy – Alternative Formats
– PDF Document (960.0 KB)
Lab 2: Human Impacts

A. Read about the global water crisis and learn about water management and calculating water footprint:
1. Science for the People (list)
2. Waterfootprint.org:
Describe the water crisis. How is it impacting women and children?
Describe what the water footprint is and how it is estimated.
Calculate an estimate of your water footprint.
Describe three ways that you could reduce your water footprint.
B. Carbon footprint:
1. Science for the People (list)
2. Terrapass
3. C Footprint Ltd
Describe what the carbon footprint is and how it is estimated.
Calculate an estimate of your carbon footprint.
Describe two ways that you could reduce your carbon footprint. Check some tips here.
Describe two approaches to lowering our carbon footprint as a nation that you would advocate we adapt society wide.
Supplemental:
The Water cycle
Water crisis.
International comparison Carbon Footprints
Ecological Footprint estimator 1
Ecological Footprint estimator 2

PS2006 Social Psychology Coursework and Marking guidelines

The coursework for this module is slightly different from a standard essay. It is designed to get you to think about the applications of social psychological research that might be relevant to real-world issues now.

So in this assignment, you need to put yourself in the situation where you, as someone who knows a lot about social psychology, have been asked by the head of an organisation to prepare a 1,000-word report on the social psychology research relevant to a particular problem they’re trying to solve.

SCENARIO:

The Department of Health is concerned about the number of smokers in the UK. The minister wants to understand why some people make no effort to give up despite being aware of the serious health risks associated with long-term cigarette use. So she wants a social psychologist to report on how people deal with dissonant ideas, and to look at ways in which cognitive dissonance research might be used to motivate people to stop smoking.

 

The Department of Health is concerned about the number of smokers in the UK. The minister wants to understand why some people make no effort to give up despite being aware of the serious health risks associated with long-term cigarette use. So she wants a social psychologist to report on how people deal with dissonant ideas, and to look at ways in which cognitive dissonance research might be used to motivate people to stop smoking.

A report on this topic should be focused on research into cognitive dissonance. There’s very limited credit to be had for giving lots of statistics about smoking, or talking about other techniques used to cut smoking (say from health psychology), although if they can be framed in terms of dissonance reduction then good credit should be given. Social psychology research into tackling smoking (e.g., effects of social support, comparison, norms) can get a little credit even if not explicitly dissonance related, but really the emphasis should be on dissonance research.

A typical report on this topic would do several things. It would give a good definition of cognitive dissonance, and use that to explain our strong motivation to reduce dissonance. It might talk about some of the ways in which dissonance can be reduced – e.g., changing attitudes, changing behaviour, etc. Coverage of the way in which attempts to reduce dissonance can lead to attitude change would probably follow. Specifically, experiments looking at things like effort justification and induced compliance/counterattitudinal behaviour should be discussed. Credit here should be given for precise descriptions of these fairly subtle experiments. It’s very easy to describe them in ways that are slightly wrong and therefore cannot possible lead to the conclusions drawn. Credit should also be given for attempts to relate these findings to smoking, either by including experiments that directly address smoking or similar health behaviours using dissonance (e.g., Cooper & Axsom, 1982, for obesity could be applied to smoking cessation programmes – it’s in the textbook, so it will probably be a popular one), or by taking the more general findings and trying to come up with plausible ways in which they can be applied to the issue of smoking.

 

 

 

In this scenario, there are several universal things to bear in mind:

1. You should mainly be drawing on the material covered in one or more of the first five lectures of this course. If you find yourself focused on other material, you’re probably not writing about the right stuff. Bear in mind that the assignment is asking for a social psychologist’s perspective on an issue, so you should be talking about research in social psychology throughout.
2. The main body of your report should be a briefing on existing research and theory in the appropriate area, and should be referenced in exactly the same way as a normal essay. If you want to make recommendations for action then that’s fine, but they all need to be backed up by solid evidence. Throughout, you should present research evidence to support the points and arguments you make.
3. The recipient of the report is bright and well-educated but knows nothing about psychology, so be careful to define any jargon.
4. The recipient is also very busy, and has many other reports on other topics to read. They will not read more than the first 1,000 words. You need to ensure that your writing is clear, concise, and makes it obvious what the key issues and findings are. For this assignment you are not required to use the usual double-spaced 11pt font, and you are welcome to use bullet-points, emphasis or any other formatting techniques you like to make the report as readable and engaging as possible. You can also use the City University logo or other graphics if you think that will make it more compelling. However, formatting will not contribute to the mark you receive – your mark will only be based on the written content.
5. Bear in mind that this kind of report is the sort of thing you could show in (real) future job interviews, to demonstrate communication skills. It is also the sort of task that you could find yourself doing for real in later life. (Your lecturer has written many reports of this nature over the years.)
6. It might be worth having a look at real reports on other topics that the government has commissioned from psychologists, to give you an idea of what they might look like. But bear in mind the specific requirements of this assignment with regard to content and presentation of evidence.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277593/What_works_to_improve_wellbeing.pdf (What works in improving wellbeing)

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/295847/07-1178-obesity-lifestyle-changes.pdf (The psychology of obesity, including the effect of attitudes and norms)

Explanations of the stages of human emotions. The strategies used by sellers and retailers, and the reason people fall for these repeatedly, and the outcome emotions due to this: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/148227/1/The_Psychology_of_Consumer_Detriment.pdf

Word Limit

A maximum of 1,000 words, excluding references. In line with the commercial style of this report, any text beyond 1,000 words will not be read or marked – there is no plus-or-minus 10% leeway here. You will not be penalised for going under 1,000 words, but if you are hundreds of words below 1,000, it is unlikely that you will have included enough content to get a high mark.

Several years ago, some vehicle models were launched with HUDs. The speed, distance traveled, fuel level, and time was displayed over the windshield of the car instead of on a panel on the dashboard.

Explain why this may have been a problem in terms of divided attention.

Describe your thoughts on the pros and cons of this design. Related to attention many people may probably think they are aware of almost everything in their environment.

Explain why this intuition is not correct. Describe change blindness and explain the effect of cultural differences on change blindness. Comments from Customer use these as one source to write.

Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience 4th Edition E. Bruce Goldstein Library of Congress Control Number: 2014934186 Student Edition: ISBN-13: 978-1-285-76388-0 ISBN-10: 1-285-76388-2

A 56-year-old patient with newly diagnosed stage I hypertension has been referred to you for counseling regarding lifestyle modifications. He is married with four children; two in high school, two in college. His job as a senior vice-president for a major retail chain requires that he work long hours and frequently eat at restaurants. He smokes two packs of cigarettes a day, has a body mass index (BMI) of 29 kg/m2, and a waist–hip ratio of 1.6. He usually drinks one to two dry martinis to relax after he gets home from work.

In your initial post answer the following questions:

How would you develop a realistic plan to help this patient reduce his blood pressure and prevent complications?
Which risk factors would be among your top two or three priorities for this patient, and what interventions or recommendations would you provide for modifying these?