Archive for month: July, 2020

Unit Assignments Unit II PowerPoint Presentation

Imagine that you are a practicing psychologist, and you are the featured presenter for the upcoming psychology conference. Your chosen topic centers upon factors that influence human behaviors and cognitions. In your presentation, you want to teach the audience about biological, evolutionary, and environmental factors that influence behaviors. To do this, you will need to prepare a PowerPoint to present to the audience. In your PowerPoint presentation, be sure to include the below concepts: Identify ways in which the environment can both nurture and thwart mental ability. Explain how nurture and nature play interactive roles in shaping behavior. Summarize the effects of some of the main neurotransmitters in the brain, and list four hormones that influence behavior. Your PowerPoint presentation must be at least eight slides in length, not including the cover slide and reference slide. In addition to your textbook, you must use a minimum of one scholarly source. Any information from an outside source that is used should be cited appropriately according to APA format. You may use the notes field in PowerPoint to expand on your ideas, if necessary, but this is not required. Your presentation style should appear professional, using appropriate formatting and graphics. If you have never created a PowerPoint, or if you want to brush up on your skills, watch this tutorial created by the CSU Writing Center to learn tips and best practices for creating a PowerPoint: http://columbiasouthern.adobeconnect.com/powerpointbestpractices/ 

 D.A.

When looking at the idea of psychological testing, one sees that the specifics are meant to be noted for the results to test what the topic, that is chosen, ends up being. These tests end up being short cuts to the information needed within the discussion being analyzed. These tests often help in court cases to prove different given factors that are often not determinable without the non biased being presented.

One example of the testing would be the child custody cases that arise in the court system. The courts often use a Parent Responsibility Evaluator (PRE) to evaluate and understand how each parent is using there parenting time. Sometimes within this process the evaluator, normally a licensed therapist, will give different forms of evaluation paperwork, or tests to determine the mental state of the parents involved. This process can be damaging for a parent if they are not honest during the PRE and the judge or magistrate is able to see through the process (Patterson, 1996). However the testing is useful to give insight as to how each parent gets along, or tries, with the other.

In the PRE process both the personality and screening tests would be helpful as they show how the parents are personally and they also screen for different given factors within the custody process. This would include abuse, gatekeeping, emotional damages forced upon the children and harassment being done on either side. The strengths with these tests are that they both focus upon presented facts as well as statements that can be verified (Reynolds & Livingston, 2013). The weaknesses would include dishonesty on either side, as well as the children being afraid to speak on behalf of one side or the other. My research comes from my own personal experience with the above testing processes and the amount of time it can take to prove your worth as a healthy, loving, parent.

Patterson, C. H. (1996). MultiCultural Counseling: From Diversity to Universality. Journal of Counseling and Development , p. 1.

Reynolds, C., & Livingston, R. (2013). Mastering modern psychological testing: Theory & methods. Pearson Higher Education.

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Diverse Social Groups

Identify two social groups or populations with identifiable similarities and differences (for example, two different religious groups, two different Hispanic groups, two different family structure groups). Provide an overview of the similarities and differences between the two groups and how a social worker would engage with them differently. Support your discussion with the text, articles, and other literature.

Instructions for the test
Read the instructions carefully so that you can properly write the assigned essay. The due date for this essay is Thursday,October 1, 2015. The text should be handed in, printed and stapled, following a Microsoft Word format, a letter size twelve (12) and a spacing of one and a half (1.5) between sentences (or line spacing in the paragraph options). The extension of the work should not be less than three (3) pages or greater than five (5) pages of content.
At the end of your essay you will list the References used. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. The written essay should be a product that reflects your understanding and interpretation (substantiated with arguments, evidence and reasoning, expressed in a clear, consistent, and accurate matter) of the assigned readings and discussions in class. DO NOT USE INTERNET SOURCES and limit yourself to the assigned texts.

ESSAY Instructions:
To understand the validity of an instrument we must critically assess the core concepts that supposedly are being defined, measured and applied in a psychometric test. Having that in mind we have, during the second unit, critically revised the concept of “Intelligence” since the beginnings of “mental tests”, in the late XIX century, until the more recent theories of Intelligence developed in late XX century (specially during the 1980s and 1990s). For that reason the purpose of the this test is to elaborate a single essay that discusses the following:
1. How certain interpretations of the concept of evolution influenced the instrumentation and measurement of “Intelligence” in the “Nature vs. Nurture” debate at the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century.
2. The problems and limitations regarding how “Intelligence” has been measured, defined and applied.
3. How recent theories, specially Robert Sternberg’s and Howard Gardner’s theories, have tried to solve some of these problems and limitations.
It is advisable that you take into account the following “guidelines” when elaborating your discussion:
1. Take into consideration the historical overview regarding the theory of evolution and individual differences as discussed in class and on Hergenhahn and Hanley’s (2014) text. It also advisable to look at Sternberg’s (2003) historical revision of some of the theories of Intelligence.
2. Focus on one of the recent theories, either Sternberg’s or Gardner’s, giving examples on how they prove that “Intelligence” cannot be reduced to what usual and traditional psychometric tests measure.
3. Use at least two (2) of the assigned texts. 

Assigned texts (in the order they were assigned).
Hergenhahn, B.R. & Henley, T.B. (2014). Evolution and Individual Differences. In B.R. 1. Hergenhahn & Tracy B. Henley, An Introduction to the History of Psychology (279- 319). Belmont: Wadsworth.
Sternberg, R. (2003). Intelligence. In Donald K. Freedheim & Irving B. Weiner, Handbook of Psychology: Volume I, History of Psychology (135-156). New Jersey: Wiley & Sons.
Sternberg, R. (2009). The Theory of a Successful Intelligence. In James C. Kaufman & Elena L. Grigorenko (Eds.), The Essential Sternberg (71-101). New York: Springer.
Gardner, H. (1989). Multiple Intelligences Go to School: Educational Implication of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Educational Researcher 18 (8): 4-10.
Gardner, H. (1995). Reflections on Multiple Intelligences: Myths and Messages. The Phi Delta Kappan 77 (3): 200-203, 206-209