​Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters
Authors:  Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa
ISBN:  978-0-399-53365-5
 
APA Style Citation
Miller & Kanazawa (2007).  Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters.  Penguin Group:  New York, New York.

Book Description
Many Introductory Psychology classes address the lessons of Evolution with an introduction to the historical work of Charles Darwin and the modern proposals of David Buss.  Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters can provide instructors with touch points for evolutionary psychology that can be introduced in each unit throughout the course.
Authors Alan Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa were both initially rational choice sociologists who moved on to the field of evolutionary psychology. They challenge the traditional social science perspective of environmental determinism, and take issue with those who promote the environment as the sole factor driving human behavior. Instead, the book devoted to the ideas of behavioral genetics claiming that this perspective can better help explain human preferences, emotions, values, thinking and behavior.  Miller and Kanazawa claim to use logic and evidence in each of the ideas proposed, but make some leaps to conclusions that are consistent with their explanations of behavior.  The authors challenge the arguments of social scientists who argue that evolution stops at the neck.  While social scientists have acknowledged the existence of changes to appendages and sexual organs attributable to evolution, they have not emphasized the impact of evolution on thoughts and cognition.  In order to better understand their perspective, social scientists must accept that people are animals.  Humans are unique in some measure because they have adapted to their environment but like other animals, much of their behavior is dictated by inherited behaviors.
Inevitably, reproductive issues are one of the first issues tackled.  The authors pose that men are more likely to become jealous than women in relationships because they are less certain about the paternity of their offspring and do not want to waste time and resources on children to whom they are not genetically related.  This gives rise to the well-known argument that men are driven to have many children insuring that their genes will be passed to the next generation. 
The discussion of mating of course leads to a discussion about attraction.  The authors contend that men prefer blonds because with age women`s hair gets darker indicating that their fertility is waning.  A low hip-to-waist ratio demonstrates a similar level of fertility and when women are beyond their child bearing years, they tend to move away from the .7 ratio which acts as a visible (if unconscious) indication of fertility.  This preference for blue eyes has been more of a mystery, but the authors propose that it is easier to tell when the pupils dilate on someone with blue eyes.  Pupil dilation is related to sexual interest and if the pupils have not dilated then this is perhaps an indication that the individual is not interested and one should move on.  This is much more difficult to assess in those with darker eyes.  This preference for younger, more fertile women is demonstrated in films in which older men often partnered with much younger women but rarely the other way around (The Graduate being the exception). 
Men and women often misread signs of interest with men overestimating women`s interest and women underestimating men’s interest.  The evolutionary explanation for this may be that women have a much greater investment in offspring, so the ability to mate is limited to the number of children a woman can have over her reproductive cycle women must devote at least nine months to each child.  For men, the investment is limited which means they can have many encounters and if they read a signal of interest from a woman incorrectly they may have missed an opportunity.  By this same account only 0.47% of societies practice polyandry (a woman having many husbands) while 83.39% of societies practice polygyny (this can exist simultaneously or serially so those societies with lenient divorce rates are considered by the authors to be polygynous).  The authors argue that monogamous relationships are a relatively recent phenomenon in human history and actually fight against one`s natural inclinations.  They use evidence of earlier female development in polygynous societies in which early development meant more attention from older resource rich men. 
Those couples with sons have lower divorce rates than those with daughters.  The reasoning from the authors is that a son inherits his wealth from his family and greater wealth for males often leads to more reproductive success regardless of physical appearance.  It is important then that parents provide their sons with as much wealth as possible.  Parents can do little to improve their daughter`s reproductive success aside from keeping them alive and healthy (although modern surgical techniques may be changing this).  The Trivers-Willard hypothesis provides the basis for the books title suggesting that sons from wealthy parents have more access to a large number of women making reproduction more likely but if the poor have beautiful daughters they may achieve the same level of reproductive success by partnering with these resource rich men.  The authors argue that women look for a man who is willing to make an investment in their relationship and thus why they argue “Diamonds are a girl`s best friend”.  There is no usefulness in a diamond except for a demonstration of commitment to a relationship and commitment in a relationship is more likely to lead to the production of children.  The authors also argue that handsome men may make bad husbands because they are more prone to cheat and take advantage of the opportunities they have to mate more frequently. 
The Savannah principle explains why are human`s brains are still stuck in the stone age while our environment has changed.  In one example, the authors suggest that many people have become obese because our brains cannot yet comprehend that we have supermarkets and food available and we do not have to binge of fats and sweets in order to survive through a time in which food resources may be limited or non-existent.  In addition, this is what may explain superior spatio-visual skills in men who thousands of years ago allowed them to follow animals, those with better spatial skills would be better hunters and were more likely to live.  Similarly, women who had good object location memory would be more likely to remember where fruit bushes and trees were located and would reap a fuller harvest. 
University of Cambridge Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen presented pictures to newborn babies and found that boys gazed at mechanical mobiles longer than girls and girls preferred to look at human faces.  Given that these infants were one-day old, this leaves little room for learned differences and may be attributable to genetic gender preferences as opposed to learned differences as the social science model suggests.  Vervet monkeys have also demonstrated early preferences for gender typed toys (a soft doll versus a ball) but no difference for gender neutral toys.  Baron-Cohen also describes the autism as an example of the extreme male brain.  He believes the male dominated careers are a result of brain differences in males and females with men opting for careers that demonstrate their preferences for Visio-spatial tasks such as engineering and science and females opting for careers rich in empathy such as teachers, social workers and caretakers. 
Miller and Kanazawa do not claim political correctness and some of the declarations are likely to cause pause for those from a social science background.  Some of the conclusions drawn need more substantiated evidence (which may be explained by exploring the many references provided).  The authors conclude with a few ongoing questions for evolutionary psychologists demonstrating that this model has not worked for an explanation of all human behavior.  Homosexual behavior is one that evolutionary psychologists continue to ponder as well as why soldiers are willing to proudly die for their country leaving virtually no possibility of mating.  This book is worth a careful read for social scientists if only examine the origins of human behavior from a perspective that is very different from the lens most social scientists are used to using.
 
​
Psychological terms and people
Deep structure in Language
Surface structure in Language
Cultural Determinism
Behavioral Genetics
Intrinsic Motivation
Reproductive Success
Autism
Empathy
 
People
David Buss
Charles Darwin
Simon Baron-Cohen
Noam Chomsky
Margaret Mead
 
Additional Resources:
Our Ancestral Mind in the Modern World:  An Interview with Satoshi Kanazawa
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201101/beautiful-people-have-more-daughters
 
Psychology Today:  Beautiful People Have More Daughters
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201101/beautiful-people-have-more-daughters
 
The Telegraph:  Attractive People Have More Daughters
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201101/beautiful-people-have-more-daughters
 
The Telegrpah:  Inconvenient Truths about out Evolution
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/inconvenient-truths-about-our-evolution-2146994.html
 
Symmetry and Celebrity Faces
 http://www.buzzfeed.com/omarvillegas/heres-what-15-celebs-would-look-like-if-their-faces-were-sym?bffb#.sb8pL2E7e
 
Create and Average Face
http://www.faceresearch.org/demos/average
 

Prepare for the AP Psychology Exam While Playing a Game with iScore5!
 
iScore5 AP Psychology has a newly updated app dedicated to helping students score high marks on the AP examination.  The new version contains a new 100 question practice exam and 2 sample FRQ questions with full rubrics.  The app is designed to be entertaining and engaging for students. It functions like a game and helps students to master over 800 vocabulary words for AP Psychology.  The app questions have all been written by experienced AP Psychology teachers or College professors of psychology all of whom are also AP exam readers. The app is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets. 
 
The iScore 5 AP Psychology app is available for $4.99 in the iTunes store for Apple or Google Play for Android.
iTunes  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iscore5-ap-psych-2016/id1084611907?mt=8
Google Play  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iscorePysch
 
The interactive interface of the app is easy to navigate, and students may choose to return to study mode to practice basic vocabulary at any point during the game. Within each level including the study mode the questions and practice items are organized according to the fourteen units outlined by the official College Board AP Psychology course outline.
 
How to Play!
 
Study Level:  During the study level 800 key concepts for students to master organized by each of the AP Psychology units are presented in a flash card format.  The study level is available for review at any level of the game. 
 
Level 1:  Provides 20 vocabulary terms at a time for each unit, so it is recommended that students play this level often as the app generate a different set of terms each time the student plays.
 
Level 2:  This level contains a set of multiple-choice questions in an AP format for each of the 14 AP Psychology units at the easiest level of difficulty.  The correct answer for each question is explained regardless of whether or not the student answered correctly or not.
 
Level 3:  This level contains a set of multiple-choice questions in an AP format for each of the 14 AP Psychology units at a medium level of difficulty.  The correct answer to each question is explained regardless of whether or not the student answered correctly or not.
 
Level 4:  This level contains a set of multiple-choice questions in an AP format for each of the 14 AP Psychology units at the most challenging level of difficulty.  The correct answer for each question is explained regardless of whether or not the student answered correctly or not.

Level 5:  The final level consists of a brand new 100-question sample AP Psychology exam.
 
BONUS: Students can earn additional points that are based on their knowledge of famous psychologists. 
 
Sample FRQs:  The newly revised app also offers students 2 AP style FRQ questions with full rubrics for students to review and score their own work.
 
The iscore5 AP Psychology app provides students with a fun and entertaining way to review for the exam.  Because all of the questions are crafted by expert AP Psychology teachers and college psychology professors, the quality of the questions is very similar to what will be seen on the AP exam.
  
Social Media
For more information about iScore5 AP Psychology, visit the company website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
 
Website:
http://www.iscore5.com/apreg-psychology.html
 
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/iScore5APPsych/?fref=nf
 
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/iScore5APpsych
 
 

Do No Harm:  Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery
Author:  Henry Marsh
ISBN:  978-1780-022-5920
 
APA Citation
Marsh, H. (2015).  Do No Harm:  Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery.  Thomas Dunne Books, Macmillian; New York.

Book Description
In Do No Harm, Dr. Henry Marsh, a well-known British neurosurgeon, takes readers on a behind the scenes look at the day-to-day life of a neurosurgeon.  Neurosurgeons work specifically with diseases and injuries of the brain and spinal cord.  Given the necessities of life involved with central nervous system function, precision and a deep understanding and brain and spinal cord structures and functions is essential for the work, because even a minor error can lead to paralysis or death.  Dr. Marsh discusses the intricacies of brain surgery and the challenges such as freeing an aneurysm from the surrounding brain and blood vessels quickly before the patient has a stroke.  All of this must occur while also trying to avoid hitting major arteries which would likely cause a quick death from loss of blood.  Dr. Marsh also addresses technologies that allow surgeons to perform their job more easily and result in higher rates of success. 
 
Most of the surgeries Dr. Marsh conducts involve tumors in the brain. One-quarter of all of the blood pumped by the heart goes to the brain, so any mistake in surgery can be lethal in a matter of a few seconds.  Marsh details a different case study in each chapter in which he identifies the symptoms of the patient, the prognosis for recovery, the specifics of the procedure, and the outcome by reporting on whether or not each case was a success.  Each of these cases demonstrates a different ailment of the brain and spinal cord, and he provides great detail regarding the challenges of each illness and the many unknown and potential complications of surgery. In some of the cases Dr. Marsh describes how his patients have recovered and are back to their normal lives fairly quickly, in others they may have paralysis and others still they may not have survived the surgery.  Dr. Marsh feels that if neurosurgeons are open about their mistakes, other surgeons can learn from them and help more people, but in the litigious nature of the medical system, it is difficult for doctors to be upfront and honest about the mistakes they may have made during surgery.  Marsh discusses his trials with patients who have sued the hospital over his perceived mistakes.  The hospital administration takes the brunt of the case work, but all neurosurgeons must live with the mistake for the rest of their lives.  Marsh recalls the details about the cases that did not work out in far more detail than those that were successful.  As he reminds himself of these cases, he tries to be more successful with future cases, which may be similar.  The families of the lost patients do not always blame the surgeon and in some cases in which patients are harmed or killed the neurosurgeon did everything right, but the patient may still not survive the invasive procedure.  The pressure on neurosurgeons is enormous given the significance of each movement during a procedure.
 
Marsh also details the increasing bureaucracy of working in a public hospital.  He must deal with a constant as lack of beds for patients and overwhelming paperwork when all he wants to do is care for his for patients.  Even a powerful neurosurgeon like Marsh finds himself a victim of this bureaucracy because of a lack of operating space, brain scans that will not load on a new computer system, or wasted time spent searching the entire hospital for a patient who has been moved multiple times without any record of where they have been placed.  At times it is difficult to like Dr. March as he berates younger surgeons or residents and hospital administrators while also recognizing that his skill as a neurosurgeon is highly sought after, and he is clearly very good at what he does.  It is clear that Dr. Marsh loves neuroscience and neurosurgery and enjoys the challenging cases that other surgeons often bring to him looking for assistance and recommendations.
 
Dr. Marsh talks in great detail about some of the cases in which surgery will not help the patients live much longer or cases in which the risk of the surgery is greater than the benefit to the patient.  Telling the family and the loved ones of the patient that the surgery will not “cure” or even help the patient is basically giving them a death sentence.  Some neurosurgeons go through with unnecessary surgeries because they cannot bring themselves to have this discussion with the patient’s family.  It is also possible on rare occasions that the patient overcomes all odds and lives far longer than anyone expected which may make the surgery viable.  Even in a routine surgery, a surgeon must follow informed consent by telling the patient of the potential risks of the surgery so that they move forward with full knowledge of what will happen during the surgery and what may go wrong.  Patients often put all of their trust in their surgeon even when the surgeon does not have much experience with the particular surgery they will be conducting.  Many patients believe that if the surgeon is well known they must be good at all types of surgery and Marsh indicates that patients rarely question how much experience a surgeon has with cases similar to their own, even with extremely rare cases. Marsh can relate to the tension and anxiety family members face as his own son suffered from acute hydrocephalus as a toddler.  In this case, Marsh was the nervous father pacing the hallways of the hospital wondering about his son’s prognosis.
 
Discussions with patient’s families must also take place immediately following long and strenuous surgeries.  Medical school and years of experience still do not prepare one for telling someone that their wife, father, son, etc. has died in surgery or will not be the same after the surgery.  Marsh claims that even after all of his years in practice, giving bad news to families is one of the most difficult parts of the job. 
 
Marsh gets calls for advice while on holiday, in the middle of the night or when he has just left the hospital for the day.  He discusses the many failed marriages of neurosurgeons because of the never-ending nature of their job.  Marsh also cites the need to psychologically remove one’s self from the situation to preserve their own well-being and not to become too nervous about the surgery taking place.  Initially, the psychological removal seems cruel, but Marsh insists that this is a necessity to continue with the job. Do No Harm reveals a very personal side of the life of a neurosurgeon and introduces the many challenges of the job but most importantly the happiness the surgeon, patient, and family feels when patients recover from brain trauma.
 
Other Related Resources
The New Yorker:  Anatomy of an Error
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/18/anatomy-of-error
 
NPR podcast:  A Neurosurgeon Reflects on the “Awe and Mystery” of the Brain
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/05/26/409719011/a-neurosurgeon-reflects-on-the-awe-and-mystery-of-the-brain
 
Henry Marsh talks about Neurosurgery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGUrNt6K5HE
 
Interview with Dr. Henry Marsh on “Do No Harm.”
http://www.thesamueljohnsonprize.co.uk/news/qa-henry-marsh-his-longlisted-memoir-do-no-harm
 
The New Statesman:  Life and Death at his fingertips:  Watching a brain surgeon at work
http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/03/life-and-death-his-fingertips-watching-brain-surgeon-work
 
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
René Descartes
Aneurysm
Arachnoid Mater
Benign Tumor
Cerebrospinal Fluid
CT Scan
Dissociation
Epilepsy
FMRI
Frontal Lobe
Hydrocephalus
Informed Consent
Malignant Tumor
Meninges
MRI
Neuroradiologist
Neurosurgeon
Optic Nerve
Phantom Limb Pain
Pineal Gland
Pituitary Gland
Sylvian Fissure
Temporal Lobe

​The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscience 
Author:  Kent A. Kiehl PhD
ISBN: 13: 9780770435868
 
APA Style Citation
Kiehl, Kent (2014). The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscience.
New York: Broadway Books.

Book Description
Author Dr. Kent Kiehl is a neuroscientist whose research involves utilizing brain imaging and clinical interviews to study mental illness especially criminal psychopathology.  His research has involved taking mobile fMRI machines into prisons to study the brains of inmates he has determined were psychopaths based on clinical interviews and the Hare Psychopathy Test.  Kiehl is currently a Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Law at the University of New Mexico.  He has compiled brain scans from over 3,000 offenders at eight different prisons.  Dr. Kiehl is the protégé of the world famous expert in psychopaths and creator of the influential psychopath checklist, Dr. Robert Hare. The book opens with Dr. Kiehl’s first encounter with a psychopath during his graduate work at a Canadian prison.  The book traces Kiehl’s career and depicts how a variety of academic experiences led him to become an expert in this field.  His early work using EEGs to examine the brain waves of killer whales, experience with fMRI machines, and clinical work under the leading expert in psychopathy all contributed to this interesting research area.  His research eventually led him to conduct fMRI research on prisoners and has resulted in the discovery of important physiological differences in the brains of psychopaths.  His work provides insight into the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of psychopathy. 
 
The author gives a thorough explanation of a question that comes up in nearly every introductory or abnormal psychology course, “What is the difference between a psychopath, a sociopath, and an individual with antisocial personality disorder?” The term psychopath was first used by the German psychiatrist J.L.A. Koch (1841-1908) to describe individuals who exhibited these traits throughout their entire life history and across most areas of their lives.  Koch narrowed the term to differentiate these individuals from others who were merely criminals.  Koch’s use of the term psychopath was based on biological causes.  This purely biological explanation for psychopathology soon was criticized by the growing influence of Behaviorism.  If individuals were blank slates at birth, then the traits described by Koch would have environmental causes.  The term sociopathy was first used in the 1930’s and was created to describe individuals with the same traits as psychopaths but whose cause was social and not physiological.  The simple answer then is that psychopaths are created by “nature” and sociopaths are created by “nurture.”  For the author, the terms sociopathy and psychopathy are very different.  Sociopathy would involve a very wide range of individuals who behave in antisocial ways as a result of negative environmental influences whereas psychopathy is a concept based on genetics and biology with measurable brain differences. 

Today, psychopathy is diagnosed based on the 20 items of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, the clinical rating tool considered the gold standard for the assessment of psychopathy.  The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised is given by a trained clinician who conducts a semi-structured interview lasting approximately two hours and collects extensive additional files on the individual.  The additional files often include police reports, assessments completed by other mental health workers, family history, employment history, educational records, childhood history, and criminal history.  Based on this information the individual is given a score for each of the 10 traits that describe the affective, impulsive, and antisocial symptoms of psychopathy.  Each item receives a score ranging from 0-2.  A score of 0 indicates that the trait is not present in the individual, a score of 1 indicates the trait describes the individual in some areas of their life, and a score of 2 indicates that the trait is present in all aspects of the individual's life.  The 20 traits on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist- Revised are described in detail in the book and are listed below:

1. Glibness (insincerity or thoughtless) and Superficial Charm
2. Grandiose Sense of Self-Worth
3. Need for Stimulation
4. Pathological Lying
5. Conning/Manipulation
6. Lack of Remorse or Guilt
7. Shallow Affect
8. Callous/Lack of Empathy
9. Parasitic Lifestyle
10. Poor Behavioral Controls
11. Promiscuous Sexual Behavior
12. Early Behavioral Problems
13. Lack of Realistic, Long-Term Goals
14. Impulsivity
15. Irresponsibility
16. Failure to Accept Responsibility for Own Actions
17. Many Short-Term Marital Relationships
18. Juvenile Delinquency
19. Revocation of Conditional Release (Repeated failure to learn from punishments)
20. Criminal Versatility

The author doubts that the average clinician can diagnose psychopaths accurately because they have difficulty reliably detecting the affective criteria such as lack of empathy, guilt, and remorse.  One common mistake that leads to overrating on the affective criteria is an excessive focus on the index crime (the one specific bad thing that the individual did which often leads to arrest).  For an individual to be diagnosed as a psychopath, these traits must be expressed across multiple areas of their lives and have existed for most of their life as evidenced by events from childhood.  One trick that the author suggests is to evaluate the individual on the psychopath checklist without using any information related to the index offense.  An actual psychopath would receive a high rating on traits even if the index offense were not included.  Also, according to the author, non-experts are often prone to giving excessively high scores across all areas if an individual has committed an extremely horrific crime, which may or may not be warranted.  The best way to prevent misdiagnosis is to have clinicians who work with individuals in forensic settings to undergo specialized training. 
 
In a fascinating chapter, the author examines the historical records to evaluate two infamous individuals according to the Psychopath Checklist-Revised.  The two individuals were both nineteenth-century presidential assassins:  John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln and Charles Guiteau, who assassinated President Garfield. The author draws upon the historical record and provides the reader with insight into how the criteria are measured and assessed.  Based on the author’s assessment of the historical record Charles Guiteau scores in the 99th percentile of psychopathy by scoring a 37.5/40 on the Psychopath Checklist-Revised.  John Wilkes Booth, on the other hand, earned an 8.4/40 on the checklist which although is two times the score of the average American male is below average for a criminal and not high enough for a diagnosis of psychopathy.
 
The text also discusses how psychopathy relates to the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder found in the DSM-5.  The DSM does not include psychopathy as a specific diagnosis but does include antisocial personality disorder.  According to Dr. Kiehl, the DSM antisocial personality disorder criteria will result in getting a clinician about halfway to a diagnosis of psychopathy according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised.  If an individual meets the criteria for antisocial personality disorder, then they likely have a very difficult personality.  The author advises that clinicians working in forensic settings not even bother with the antisocial personality criteria but instead begin immediately by using the Psychopath Checklist-Revised instead of the DSM.  Kiehl also provides insight into the DSM diagnosis of conduct disorder, which he believes is flawed because it is based entirely on observable criteria without reference to emotional, interpersonal, or affective characteristics associated with psychopathy.  Since nearly 80% of individuals who are given a conduct disorder diagnosis outgrow the antisocial behaviors, the author argues that it is of little utility because it does not predict which children are likely to develop psychopathy or lifelong personality problems.  Clinicians in secure juvenile facilities do not even bother conducting assessments for conduct disorder since nearly all of the children would meet the criteria.
 
The Psychopath Whisperer offers an amazing level of insight into the diagnosis of psychopathy but also makes a large number of connections to various units across the psychology curriculum.  As a result, the book is an excellent resource to add high-interest material to units including the biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, abnormal and treatment, motivation, and emotion, personality, testing and individual differences, learning, and cognition.
 
Other Related Resources

Author’s Websites
http://kentkiehl.com/
The author’s site includes links to articles related to neuroscience, law, and psychopathy as well as videos and other resources. The website also has information about Dr. Kiehl’s research.
 
http://www.psychopathwhisperer.com/
This website includes author Kent Kiehl’s blog and other resources that are specifically related to the book.
 
http://www.mrn.org/people/kent-a-kiehl/principal-investigators/
The Mind Research Network’s website that includes resources, research articles, and information about Kiehl’s project.
 
Wired Interview with Kent Kiehl, Ph.D. about the Psychopath Whisperer
http://www.wired.com/2014/04/psychopath-brains-kiehl/
What It’s Like to Spend 20 Years Listening to Psychopaths for Science: An interview with the author about his research and the stories behind the book.
 
NPR Story:  Inside A Psychopath's Brain: The Sentencing Debate
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128116806
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Paul Broca
Sigmund Freud
Phineas Gage
Michael Gazzaniga
Robert Hare
Patient HM
John Nash
Peter Salovey
Adderall
ADHD
Affect
Amnesia
Amygdala
Anterior and Posterior Cingulate Cortex
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Atkins v. Virginia (2002)
Behaviorist Theory
Bipolar Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder
Callous and Unemotional (CU) Trait
Child Psychopathy Scale
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Conduct Disorder
Corpus Callosum
Death Penalty
Delusion
Depression
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders (DSM) III, IV-TR, 5
EEG (Electroencephalogram)
Ego
Emotional Intelligence
Empathy
Factor Analysis
Frontal Lobe
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Hallucination (auditory, command, visual)
Hippocampus
IQ
Juvenile Justice System
Limbic System
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Orbital Frontal Cortex
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Prefrontal Cortex
Psychopathic Trait
Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)
Recidivism
Schizophrenia
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Self-Report Inventory
Sleep-Wake Disorder
Sociopath
Substance Abuse
Youth Psychopathy Checklist
 
 
 

Ambler Warning
Author:  Robert Ludlum
ISBN:  978-0312990695
  
APA Style Citation
Ludlum, R. (2006).  Ambler Warning. New York, New York:  St. Martin’s Paperbacks.

​Blog Contributor: Joseph Swope, PhD
Institution: Northwest High School
Germantown, Maryland
Website:  http://swopepsych.com/
Email:  [email protected]

Book Description
This is a fiction book that explores and uses many of the concepts in a psychology class to hook the reader.  Imagine Paul Ekman and Jason Bourne combined into one super spy.
People are communicating machines.  More than any other trait it is our ability to communicate that defines us.  While language is critical, what about the other messages, signals, and signs that help us read each other?  Paul Ekman has spent his career showing us that our facial muscles are hardwired to our emotional processing modules of our brain.  Most people have some ability to read the expressions and thus the emotions of others.  What if there was a person who was so good at it, so intuitive, he could read others’ intentions before they consciously knew what they themselves were going to do?
 
Hal Ambler wakes up in a psychiatric hospital designed for former clandestine agents who are deemed too unstable to walk free with government secrets.  Worse than the restraints and forced medications is the fact that he has no memory of himself or why he is trapped.
Using his gifts at reading peoples’ expressions, body language, and voice cues, Hal Ambler begins to unlock not only the cause of his confinement but also the reason for his amnesia.  With each question answered more spring up until he doubts his name, his recently uncovered memories, and even his very sense of self.  Did his amnesia come from a past event or was it forced upon him by those who don’t trust him?  For a man who can read others effortlessly, having no knowledge of himself is torture in and of itself.
 
Note: While this was ghost written and probably not the best book with Ludlum’s name on it if you want a great read that might also hook your students, this book is fun.
 
Note: This book does not explicitly teach psychology to the reader. Still, for students who want to see what might be possible by applying concepts in their textbook, this book could be the hook that draws the into the curriculum.

Other Related Resources
http://www.paulekman.com/micro-expression-training/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Loftus
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Paul Ekman
Brain Washing
Amnesia
Bottom-Up Processing
Deduction
Display Rules
Duchenne Smile
Emotional Control
Implanted Memory
Intuition
Involuntary Committal
Micro Expression
Mirror Neuron
Neuroleptic
Psychiatric Hospital
Retrograde Amnesia
Somatic Nervous System
Stockholm Syndrome
Top-Down Processing

​Chasing the Scream:  The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs
Author:  Johann Hari
ISBN:  978-1-62040-890-2
 
APA Style Citation
Hari, Johann (2015). Chasing the Scream:  The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.  New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

​Book Description
Johann Hari’s Chasing the Scream is a compelling if one-sided examination of the history of the war on drugs.  The book is controversial because of an earlier plagiarism incident involving the author, the topic of decriminalizing drugs, the graphic depictions of cartel violence, and the physical, psychological, and social abuse suffered by addicts.  These factors may make the book unsuitable for some high school students.  In 2011, the author was found guilty of plagiarism and misrepresenting information from interviews.  Furthermore, it was found out that the author spitefully altered the Wikipedia sites of his critics. In an attempt to alleviate concerns about credibility, the author includes 73 pages of detailed source notes and an explanation of his research process.  On the books website, the author has shared audio files of fact-checking sessions with each of the figures quoted in the book who are still alive.  The book website allows readers to hear the actual voices of the individuals whose 400 quotes fill the book. Some of the contributors’ photos are included in the quiz about the war on drugs on the main website.
Hari’s book is the result of three years of research that took him on a thirty-thousand-mile search to trace the history of the war on drugs, which began over 100 years ago.  Much of the book is based on historical and current accounts of individuals impacted by the war on drugs.  Hari begins by describing the interrelated factors that connect three key figures at the start of the drug war:  Harry Anslinger the federal bureaucrat, Arnold Rothstein a New York criminal boss, and the singer Billie Holiday.  The story begins with the birth of the American war on drugs, which was a byproduct of the end of prohibition in the 1920’s.  Henry Anslinger became the head of the Bureau of Narcotics (today known as the DEA) and began the relentless pursuit of eliminating drugs.  Anslinger would quickly expand his war on narcotics to include marijuana in addition to cocaine and heroin by playing on racism and fear. Anslinger also silenced any criticism, much of which came from doctors who were successfully treating heroin addicts through maintenance methods.  Anslinger’s department forcibly closed many clinics and thousands of doctors were arrested for providing drugs to their patients.  Most doctors were given heavy fines, but some were given prison terms (five years for each prescription). Hari argues that despite contrary views, Anslinger was able to impose his views on drugs onto the nation.  Arnold Rothstein, whom Hari portrays as the original drug kingpin created the model for the modern drug cartel is another central figure in the history of the drug war. Rothstein controlled the drug trade and was able to accumulate enormous profits, which enabled him to buy and control politicians and law enforcement officers. 
This process continues today and can be summed up with the phrase “plato o plomo” (silver or lead) coined by Mexican cartels suggesting that officials accept bribes or be killed.  The war on drugs according to Hari has led to the control of drugs by dangerous criminals.  Finally, Hari includes the singer Billie Holiday whom he portrays as one of the first victims of Anslinger’s war.  Holiday’s troubled life and struggles with alcohol and heroin made her an early high-profile target of the man who launched the war on drugs.  Based on research from diaries and other records, Hari outlines how Anslinger and his bureau relentlessly pursued Billie Holiday to make her an example for others.
The book chronicles the heart-wrenching stories of specific victims of the war on drugs from Billie Holiday to the present.  The individuals portrayed include innocent victims caught in the crossfire, a transsexual crack dealer and gang leader in New York City, Roaslio Reta a former killer for the Zeta cartel, and the addicts in an Arizona women’s prison who endure hardships under Sherif Joe Arpaio who were forced to work chain gangs in 110 plus heat wearing t-shirts labeling them as DRUG ADDICT.  The prisoners in Sherif Arpaio’s chain gangs were forced to chant the following:
We’re in a state of shame
Couldn’t get our lives strait
We’re headed back to intake
We’re here without our kids
We lost our hope
We gave up dope
 
Sherif Arpaio publicly calls the prison he runs his “concentration camp” and although there is an air-conditioned prison in the area, the inmates are forced to live in tents in the desert.  The tents, which were donated by the military and date to the Korean War era, are freezing in winter and reach temperatures of 140 degrees in summer.  Meanwhile, the sheriff has ordered the air-conditioned prison facility to be used as an animal shelter. In Chasing the Scream, the author tells the story of one Arizona prisoner, meth addict Marcia Powell, who was kept outside in a metal cage by guards with no water, no bed, no bench, and no cover from the 106-degree heat.  She had been in solitary confinement where she swallowed a razor in a suicide attempt. 16 guards had the opportunity to help her, but she was left to die a horrific death in the cage in the desert.  Hari describes how the United States imprisons more individuals for drug-related offenses than all of the nations of Western Europe imprison for all crimes.
 
The book also discusses the stories of many of the individuals who are fighting for a more just and humane solution to the problems of drug abuse.  These individuals include individual family members, addicts, doctors, and government leaders.  Marisela Escobedo, a mother in Mexico who sought justice for her child who was murdered by the cartel walked more than 1000 miles from Juarez to Mexico City to ask for assistance from President Calderon.  Despite her long march through the desert and the exhaustion of her life savings, the President refused to meet with her.  She later learned that a member of the Zeta cartel had murdered her son, which was why the killer was never prosecuted.  Marisela refused to give up on her son and ended up being murdered by the cartel outside the state capitol building.  Leigh Maddox, a state trooper involved with the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) advocates for a new approach to the war on drugs.  LEAP is an organization of current and former police officers, judges, and prison officers who advocate for ending prohibition on drugs in order to bankrupt drug gangs.  Bud Osborn, a poet and homeless addict who worked to bring change and rights for addicts in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver.  Gabor Maté and Bruce Alexander, who proposed alternative theories of addiction, Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland, who supported and promoted decriminalization and the creation of heroin clinics. 
 
Critics have challenged Hari’s criticism of biochemical theories of addiction as being oversimplified.  But the book provides compelling case studies of individuals on the front lines of the drug war and highlights possible alternatives to the current model.  The book ends with examples including Switzerland, Portugal, and the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington and their attempts to address the problems of drugs through decriminalization. 
Although one-sided, Chasing the Scream will challenge you to think about the consequences and costs of the war on drugs. 
 
Other Related Resources
 
Book Website
http://chasingthescream.com/
The website for Chasing the Scream includes audio of the quotes from sources used in the book organized chapter-by-chapter.  Any individual quoted in the book was given the opportunity to review the material written by the author and correct mistakes or add information.  The audio fact checking files allow the reader to have confidence in an author who has been previously found to have plagiarized sources.  The site includes a quiz to test your knowledge of the war on drugs, information about the author, news stories, links to organizations protesting the war on drugs, and videos.
 
Author Johann Hari’s TED Talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong
Author Johann Hari’s 2015 TED talk about his book Chasing the Scream is his description of a compelling theory about the cause of addiction and why the current approach has not been effective.
 
Guardian article by Johann Hari
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/12/johann-hari-chasing-the-scream-war-on-drugs
 
Bruce K. Alexander’s Website
http://www.brucekalexander.com/home-4
The website of Canadian psychologist Bruce K. Alexander whose research on rat park is featured in the book Chasing the Scream.
 
 
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)
http://www.leap.cc/
LEAP is a nonprofit organization consisting of current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities who oppose the war on drugs and policies that do not effectively address drug abuse, juvenile drug use, addiction, and the problems of crime created by criminal control of illegal drug sales. They advocate the following goals: 1) to educate the public, the media and policy makers about the failure of current policies, and 2) to restore the public’s respect for police, which has been greatly diminished by law enforcement’s involvement in enforcing drug prohibition.
 
Heads Up - Drugs and Your Brain
http://headsup.scholastic.com/students/drugs-your-brain
Brochure produced by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) about how drugs impact brain structures.
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Bruce Alexander
Sigmund Freud
Addiction
AIDS / HIV
Alcoholism
Amphetamines
Caffeine
Cannabis
Cocaine
DARE program
Decriminalization
Domestic violence
Drug cartels
Drug education
Ecstasy
Endorphins
Federal Bureau of Narcotics
Harrison Act
Hell’s Angels
Heroin
International Narcotics Control Board
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)
Legalization of drugs
Marijuana
Marijuana legalization
Methadone
Methamphetamine
Morphine
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Opiates
OxyContin
Partnership for a Drug-Free America
Physical dependence
Prohibition of alcohol and drugs
Psychological dependence
Racism
Rat Park experiment
Safe injecting rooms
Schizophrenia
Solitary confinement
Vicodin
Vietnam War
War on drugs
War on poverty
World Health Organization (WHO)
Zetas

​Rosemary:  The Hidden Kennedy Daughter
Author:  Kate Clifford Larson
IBSN:  978-0-547-25025-0
 
APA Style Citation
Larson, K.C. (2015).  Rosemary:  The Hidden Kennedy Daughter.  New York, New York; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co.

​

Book Description
Kate Larson recounts the life of Rosemary Kennedy, the least known member of one of America’s most well-known families.  The Kennedy family attempted to find help for their daughter Rosemary in an era when individuals with intellectual disabilities had few options for educational placement and treatment.  During this time, individuals with intellectual disabilities were often treated as social pariahs rather than being placed in facilities that offered educational and therapeutic programming.  This was true for even for the wealthiest of Americans like the Kennedys. Few options were available for Rosemary’s education even with access to the best educational outlets and tutors in the world.
                                           
Rosemary Kennedy was the third child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy Kennedy and the first girl born after Joseph Jr. and future president John F. Kennedy.  Her mother, Rose Kennedy had planned a home birth for Rosemary as she had done with her two sons.  When the time came, Dr. Good who was scheduled to deliver the baby was busy taking care of those afflicted by the Spanish flu which had devastated the Boston area at the time.  The nurse attending to Rose was not allowed to deliver the baby despite her training in the most up-to-date medial techniques.  Rose attempted to wait for the doctor to arrive, but the baby continued to come and the nurse held the baby in the birth canal for two hours until the doctor arrived which may in part be responsible for the challenges Rosemary would later face.
 
Initially, Rosemary seemed to be a healthy baby, she cried less than her two older brothers but otherwise seemed to develop normally.  In addition to her mother, young Rosemary was attended to by nurses and other household staff who served the Kennedy family.  Joseph Kennedy Sr. was often away building fortune and fame for the family, first in the stock market and later in Hollywood and the political arena.  Rosemary’s father had become one of the wealthiest men in America, he had overcome the challenges of discrimination posed by his Irish and Catholic heritage.  Rose Kennedy also came from a well-known family, her father “Honey Fitz” had served as the mayor of Boston and she was used to socializing in political circles.  These two fast paced, hard driving individuals expected much from their children and did not accept failure.
 
Eventually, the Kennedy’s had six more children (nine in all).   By the age of three, it was evident that Rosemary was not progressing as quickly as her siblings.  As her younger siblings surpassed her intellectual and physical abilities, it became obvious that something was wrong with Rosemary, although the extent of her disability was not yet known.  Rose noticed that Rosemary had trouble holding her spoon and feeding herself.  Additionally, she crawled, stood, and took her first steps later than her older brothers and her younger siblings began to overtake her in their abilities.
 
Rose and Joseph Kennedy expected excellence from their children, in education, sports, manners, and appearance.  Rose kept precise medical records for each child and constantly chided her children about their weight.  Even in kindergarten, Rosemary was labeled as “deficient” and had to repeat both kindergarten and first grade.  Rose attempted to supplement Rosemary’s education herself.  When Rosemary was six or seven, she took the Otis Intelligence test which indicated that her mental age was lower than other children her age.  Rosemary often wrote in mirror writing (backward and upside down) and even when she grew older her writing never progressed beyond that of a third or fourth-grade level.  She often misspelled words, left words out. and wrote on a severe angle. 
 
At the time, there was rarely a distinction made between those who were mentally ill and those were cognitively disabled.  The words, “idiot”, “imbecile” or “moron” were frequently used to describe individuals with a low IQ.  Christian beliefs to which the Kennedy family strongly adhered often blamed parents for their children’s deficits.  Rosemary frequently moved between schools when she did not make progress or when the school decided that she was not the right “fit” for their services.  Rose and Joseph Kennedy often did not describe Rosemary’s true ability level prior to her arrival and the instructors and head masters found that they had more to deal with than they initially anticipated.  Rosemary did receive the benefit of one-on-one tutoring and the patience of some of the instructors allowed Rosemary to make some progress.  She especially loved her time in London at the Assumption House in the English countryside with nuns who employed the new Montessori techniques. Rosemary seemed to do better when academic work was broken up with arts and crafts and other hands-on activities.  At the time, her father was the ambassador to Great Britain and appearances such as Rosemary’s introduction to the King were highly regulated affairs so not to embarrass the Kennedy family.  Rosemary stayed on at the Assumption House after the departure of her family from London, but eventually had to come back to the United States because of the bombings of England during the WWII.
 
Medications and supplements were used, as were special diets and exercise but little seemed to help.  By her late teens, it was apparent that Rosemary’s condition was not improving and perhaps even regressing, she became more and more belligerent and often angry.  It is unclear if this was the result of so much change in her life, her siblings passing her up and living independent lives, or of a change in her condition. Regardless, this made dealing with Rosemary a considerable challenge.  By 1941, Rosemary’s behavior was cause for concern.  Despite her sister’s Kathleen’s (Kick) recommendation against the lobotomy procedure which she had investigated for her parents, (conducted by Doctors Freeman and Watts), Joseph Kennedy ordered a lobotomy for his daughter hoping that it would cure her of her “illness” or, at least, calm her increasingly frequent outbursts.
 
During the surgery, Watts drilled “burr holes” into Rosemary’s skull as she was strapped to a gurney.  She would have felt the leucotome, which was a specially designed tool for the use of lobotomies.  Rosemary was asked to sing, count, and tell stories during the surgery to distract her but also to guide Watt’s work to make sure that her senses were intact.  During the last of four cuts, she became incoherent which prompted Freeman and Watts to end the surgery.  It was immediately evident that the surgery had gone badly.  Rosemary would need years of physical and occupational therapy to regain speech and movement. Rosemary was twenty-three at the time of the surgery.
 
Nearly all of those who received lobotomies were women (82%). The lobotomy was used as a treatment for illnesses such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and depression, but was also prescribed for other individuals who exhibited heightened sexual interest, habitual criminal behavior, or violence. Rose Kennedy did not initially know the surgery had taken place on her daughter (although there are conflicting reports regarding just what she knew) and she did not see her daughter for another twenty years. Many attributed this lack of contact to the embarrassment that Rosemary was not living up to the expectations of a Kennedy, others have said that seeing Rosemary in this state would have simply been too painful for her mother.  Throughout the remainder of her life, Rosemary would have daily support and therapy from the nuns who looked out for her.  She would eventually regain the partial use of her arm, but had to be dressed and fed each day. She was able to swim and slowly regained her ability to walk and speak a few basic words.  Freeman went on to report good results from the lobotomies despite many cases like Rosemary’s in which people basically lived in a vegetative state after the surgery, he went on to perform over 3,000 even after Watts refused to continue as his partner because of the many complication the surgery caused.
 
Rosemary was eventually moved to Jefferson, Wisconsin to live at Saint Coletta School where she had her own cottage and was cared for by the nuns who ran the school. While her story is tragic, the Kennedy’s faced many other family tragedies.  The death of her eldest brother Joe Jr. during WWII, the death of Kick (Rosemary’s older sister) in a place crash in Europe, the assassinations of her brothers Jack and Bobby (both of which Rosemary found out about by watching television) shook the family.  Eunice Shriver (Rosemary’s younger sister) seemed to be the most touched by Rosemary’s situation and began the Special Olympics with her husband Sargent Shriver in Chicago. This event is now an annual event in 200 countries around the world (with 4 million athletes participating).  As president, John F. Kennedy founded the Committee on Mental Retardation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.  He delivered a special message on mental illness and mental retardation in the months before his assassination.  Camp Shriver was created as a summer camp for the intellectually disabled.  Anthony Shriver (Eunice’s son) began Best Buddies which provides employment and leadership opportunities for the intellectually disabled and his brother took over the running of the Special Olympics in 2003.  Rosemary’s younger brother Senator Teddy Kennedy sponsored the American with Disabilities Act and the Handicapped Children Act in Congress
 
Later in Rosemary’s life, her sister Eunice became responsible for overseeing her care and visited her often.  When her mother came to visit, Rosemary became agitated although it is unclear if she blamed Rose for the years of neglect or the surgery itself.  Joseph Kennedy never saw his daughter again and became incapacitated by a stroke later in life.  He provided financially for his daughter and wrote frequent letters to inquire about her well-being, but he was otherwise absent from her life. 
 
Despite Rosemary’s long absence from the Kennedy family record, she may well have done more to influence the work of the Kennedy family and help them understand and promote research and opportunities for the cognitively and physically disabled than any other member of the family.  Rosemary was a “big personality” as those around her at all points of her life indicate.  Her legacy will live on the help others who face similar challenges.  Rosemary Kennedy died in 2005 at the age of 86 in Wisconsin.
 
Other Related Resources
The Tragic Life of JFK’s Sister
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/01/little-known-tragic-life-jfks-sister-rosemary-kennedy/
 
L.A. Times:  Rosemary’s diaries:  Her life before the lobotomy
Brief 1995 article discussing the teenage diaries of Rosemary Kennedy
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-08-06/news/mn-31942_1_rose-kennedy
 
The Daily Mail:  Before and After Pictures of Rosemary Kennedy
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3246802/How-Rosemary-Kennedy-went-vibrant-young-beauty-smiling-brother-John-F-Kennedy-feeble-spinster-misdiagnosed-forced-undergo-lobotomy-seen-touching-photos-Ted-nephew-JFK-Jr-niece-Maria-Shriver.html
 
Rosemary Kennedy’s inconvenient illness
http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/Rosemary-Kennedy/2008/06/17/id/324146/
 
Information on Cognitive Deficits
http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/types/cognitive/
 
Eunice Kennedy Shriver:  The Special Olympics
http://www.eunicekennedyshriver.org/
 
History of the Special Olympics
http://www.sode.org/about/history-of-special-olympics/
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Walter Freeman
Egaz Moniz
Intellectual Disability
Intelligence Testing
Labeling
Prefrontal Lobotomy
Schizophrenia
Stigma

​A Tour of the Senses:  How Your Brain Interprets the World
Author:  John M. Henshaw
ISBN: 13:  978-1-4214-0436-3
 
APA Style Citation
Henshaw, John M. (2014). A Tour of the Senses:  How Your Brain Interprets the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

​​Book Description
Often, one of the most difficult units in an introductory psychology course is sensation and perception.  A Tour of the Senses provides an excellent source of supplemental materials to accompany this portion of the psychology curriculum.  This highly engaging book offers detailed explanations of difficult concepts, interesting stories, current and historical research, and simple classroom appropriate demonstrations for each of the senses. The author, John M. Henshaw is a department chair and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Tulsa.  Because A Tour of the Senses is written by an engineering professor, it provides excellent insight into the field of human factors psychology.  The book is divided into three main parts:  Stimulus, Sensation, and Perception and covers all of the various senses in exceptional detail. 
 
Stimulus
The section on stimuli is divided into electromagnetic stimuli, chemical stimuli, mechanical stimuli, and the overall science of sensation.  In each of these sections, the author provides explanations of the various types of stimuli that reach our sensory receptors.  There are also many interesting accounts of how stimuli are received and perceived differently by other species as well as remarkable cases of humans using senses typically associated with other organisms.  The wide range of animal senses, which differ from human senses in both type and range of ability is examined in the book.  Detailed accounts of the unique abilities of certain organisms such as echolocating bats, ultraviolet radiation sensing honeybees, and snakes that can detect heat waves would all be interesting topics for discussion at the beginning of the sensation unit.  The most unusual animal sense discussed is that of the narwhal, a type of whale with a long, slender, conical shaped tusk reaching up to 9 feet in length.  Although there have been many theories throughout history as to the purpose of this unique appendage (icebreaking, fishing, weapon), the actual answer is even more bizarre.  The tusk is, in fact, the left front tooth of the animal.  The tusk tooth, which is covered with nerve endings, is a sense organ likely capable of detecting changes in the saltiness, temperature changes and pressure changes in the water.  
The opening section details the remarkable story of Ben Underwood, a blind young man who taught himself to see using echolocation.  There are many short videos on Ben’s case available online (see additional resources). There are also exceptional descriptions of difficult concepts such as additive and subtractive color mixing and the just noticeable difference.  An interesting aspect of this section is the detailed attention the author gives to the stimuli responsible for senses such as olfaction, gustation, vestibular, proprioception, which unlike vision and audition are often not given much attention in introductory psychology textbooks. 
 
Sensation
The large section on sensation focuses on how the different sensory organs in humans and other animals have evolved to take in information from the environment.  The process of transduction for each of the sense is discussed in detail, including how the information travels from the sense organs as an electrical signal to various areas of the brain responsible for perception.  The vision section provides a simple demo for illustrating the limited range of the fovea that each student could do individually.  Students should place a quarter over the words on a page so that they can read the lettering above George Washington’s head.  Have students focus on the quarter and without moving their eyes attempt to read the words on either side of the coin.  Typically, it is difficult to identify more than a word or two on either side of the coin due to the limited range of foveal vision.  Although they will be aware of words, they will not be able to read them if they are truly focusing on the quarter. 
 
The importance of visual acuity in relationship to professional athletics is discussed, highlighting how much this sense is responsible for success at the highest levels.  In golf, where athletes can enjoy a much longer career span, declines in vision often lead to the end of a career.  Many top golfers such as Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh have had laser eye surgery to increase their visual acuity to twenty-fifteen or better to improve their putting ability.  In other sports such as baseball, tennis, and football exceptional vision is often one of the aspects that separate the best in the sport from others. In recent years, more and more top athletes have begun incorporating eye exercises to train the muscles that control eye movement. 
 
The chemical senses are explored in great detail and also include various disorders related to problems with smell and taste.  The taste section includes demos and detailed information about supertasters, sensory interaction, and the history of the search for an effective sugar substitute. Anosmia or the complete absence of smell is likely present in 2 million Americans.  The loss of smell that occurs as part of the aging process is called Presbyosmia.  Some individuals experience an overly sensitive sense of smell (hyperosmia) and others with parosmia sense as unpleasant what many others perceive to be pleasing scents.  The use of dogs and other animals whose sense of smell is greater than humans is explored in terms of how animals have been successfully trained to find explosives, bodies, and drugs. Dogs have been trained to complete “dog-scent lineups” which may be used in court.
 
The book refers to audition, touch, pain, temperature, balance, and bodily awareness (kinesthesis) as mechanical senses because these are generally activated by the energy of motion or kinetic energy.  Audition, on the other hand, involves the transduction of vibrating (motion) air molecules, balance and body position are connected to the movement of the head and body, and the sense of touch typically involves the movement of one surface over another.  The most detailed section relates to hearing, and the book examines the structure of the inner ear from an engineering perspective.  There are also excellent explanations for various types of hearing loss and solutions designed to assist individuals with these disabilities.  As in other areas of the book, examples of animals with exceptional sensory abilities are examined to find ways to engineer artificial senses for human use. Research regarding touch and pressure sensation has led to advances in robotics including surgical applications.
The vestibular sense is especially quick at interpreting the position of the head.  If you shake your head from side to side while reading this text, you are still easily able to focus on the words and read the material due to what is called the vestibular-ocular reflex.  The vestibular-ocular reflex is a sophisticated coordination between the vestibular sense and the muscles that position the eyes.  If you keep your head and eyes stationary and move the book from side to side, however, you will not be able to read the text as well. Just as there are hearing and vision tests given by doctors, there are also tests for the vestibular sense.  Doctors examine patients for balance related problems by using the “rapid head impulse test” explained in the book.  One of the most interesting sections is how sensory illusions can impact pilots.  As a result of these common illusions, pilots must trust their instruments because their perception has been disrupted by errors in vestibular perception.  Problems with proprioception are rare but also possible. Without proprioception, no movement can ever be automatic, and even simple actions such as sitting up, walking, or holding a cup become incredibly difficult.
 
Perception
The final section of the book details how perception occurs in the brain including various examples of perception problems due to problems in the brain as opposed to problems in sensory organs.  There are methods for enhancing or replacing human sense organs and sending information directly to the brain.  One of the first perceptual issues discussed is the problem with recognizing faces. Some people are exceptionally good at remembering faces, and other have little or no ability in this area.  Those who are very skilled at facial recognition are sometimes referred to as super-recognizers.   On the lower end of the curve is a condition called prosopagnosia or “face blindness” in which individuals have difficulty recognizing faces including friends, family, or even their own face.  Prosopagnosia may be present from birth or acquired as a result of damage to the area of the brain that specializes in facial recognition. Individuals with face blindness may need to use the less sensitive object recognition systems in the brain.  Face blindness is estimated to impact approximately 2% of the population with more than 6 million individuals experiencing dramatic impairment.  Also, some individuals suffer from an even less well-understood condition called phonagnosia, which is essentially the sound equivalent of face blindness.  For example, these individuals can identify general features of a voice on the phone (e.g. gender, age, pitch, accent) and can understand what is being said, but do not recognize the person who is speaking even if it is a close friend or family member.  Phonagnosia involves a perceptual problem specifically related to damage in the areas of the brain responsible for processing voice recognition of familiar people.

The author provides a detailed section differentiating between bottom-up and top-down processing including several examples and demonstrations.  Bottom-up processing occurs when the brain takes unfiltered signals received from sensory receptors and breaks them down into individual packets of information. Top-down processing, on the other hand, involves the process by which the brain applies meaning to the information it receives by using background knowledge and experience to interpret the information.  A part of top-down processing involves filling in missing pieces of information to create complete perceptions, which is referred to as perceptual completion.  There are also auditory examples of perceptual completion.
 
A Tour of the Senses is a fun, easy to read book that provides a great deal of background information on the area of sensation and perception. As an engineer, the author describes the human sensory perception system but also discusses exceptional sensory abilities in other animals and the technology involved in enhancing human sensory capabilities.  The book is an engaging combination of personal examples, unique stories, research, and practical applications for sensation and perception research. 
 
Other Related Resources
Video documentary about Ben Underwood, a blind teenager who taught himself to see using echolocation
Warning:  A few times during the video Ben Underwood is filmed inserting his glass eyes, which may be startling for some students. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiBeLoB6CKE
 
Testmybrain.org - Are You a Super Recognizer? Determine if you are exceptionally talented at recognizing faces. 
http://www.testmybrain.org/SupersRecruitment.html
 
Rippin’ the Rainbow a New One - NPR Radiolab podcast about color perception in humans and other animals.  The program answers the question of exactly what dogs can see in terms of color.
http://www.radiolab.org/story/211178-rip-rainbow/
 
Why Food Tastes Different on Planes - BBC article about why airplane food tastes different which is an excellent example of sensory interaction. 
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150112-why-in-flight-food-tastes-weird
 
The following links are to a two part 60 Minutes episode on face blindness. 
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-blindness-when-everyone-is-a-stranger-20-03-2012/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8cXus7SNQY
  
World Science Fair Presentation on Face Blindness:  Creation of a bell curve in the audience with ten images.  Images used, however, include many celebrities many students do not know (e.g. Fred Astaire, John F. Kennedy Jr., Audrey Hepburn).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s6kQdyyxOE
 
Faceblind.org – Harvard website which provides detailed information on Prosopagnosia including several tests of face blindness.
http://www.faceblind.org/
 
Pride and a Daily Marathon –Video about Ian Waterman who suffers from a rare neurological problem that involves a complete loss of his kinesthetic sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNX_3OPVQTs
 
King of Fruits –Videos related to the Durian fruit, which is considered a delicacy in parts of Southeast Asia but is seen as repulsive by Western tastes. http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/malaysia_durian
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQj-hFfmYkQ
 
Absolute Threshold, Difference Threshold (JND), Weber’s Law https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVhiezByMSU
 
My Stroke of Insight - TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor based on her book My Stroke of Insight referenced by the author in the section on neural plasticity.
http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight?language=en
 
The Science of Scent – TED talk by biophysicist Luca Turin referenced in the book. He is the subject of Chandler Burr's book The Emperor of Scent. He is currently working on developing an artificial nose.
https://www.ted.com/talks/luca_turin_on_the_science_of_scent

Video – Oliver Sacks on Face Blindness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5bvnXYIQG8
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Pierre Paul Broca
Charles Darwin
Rene Descartes
Sigmund Freud
Joseph Francis Gall
Sir Francis Galton
Hermann von Helmholtz
William James
Carl Wernicke
Agnosia (Prosopagnosia, Phonagnosia)
Broca’s area
Cochlear implant
Color <ixing (Additive and Subtractive Color Mixing)
Color Blindness
Critical Period
CT, fMRI, MRI, PET
Echolocation
Facial Recognition
Genome
Gustation
Hearing
Just Noticeable Difference (JND)
Macular Degeneration
Myopia
Neural Plasticity
Olfaction
Pain
Parkinson’s Disease
Perception (Bottom-Up v. Top-Down)
Pheromones
Photoreceptors (Rods and Cones)
Presbyopia and Presbyosmia
Proprioception
Psychophysics
Supertaster
Synesthesia
Transduction
VestibularSsense
Visual Cortex
Wernicke’s Area

​On the Move:  A Life
Author:  Oliver Sacks
ISBN:  978-0-385-25254-3
 
APA Style Citation
Sacks, O. (2015).  On the Move:  A Life.  New York:  Random House.

Book Description
Oliver Sacks was born in England but has travelled and lived in Canada, California, New York, and Australia.  In Sacks’ latest and final book, he reflects on his life, friendships, and patients.  Sacks was born the youngest of four brothers to physician parents.  After completing medical school, he embarked on a trip to Canada and thus began his life “On the Move”.  Sacks is a man of many interests who is well known for books about patients with unique neurological disorders or amazing talents which he wrote about in Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, An Anthropologist on Mars and many more.  On the Move depicts the complex man behind the many stories that have become synonymous with his name. 
 
Sacks had a long time interest in ferns and would visit botanic gardens on a nearly daily basis regardless of his location to sit with his favorite ferns.  He loved music and theatre and often spent his evenings enjoying a play or listening to a concert.  He played piano and had his parent’s piano shipped from England to New York so he could continue to enjoy it.  Sacks became fluent in Hebrew after spending time living in a kibbutz.  When he was younger, he spent his weekends on his motorcycle and would often drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back in a single weekend for the solitude riding brought him.  Sacks swam nearly everyday in his younger years and until jellyfish surrounded him near his home just outside of New York City, he kept up this ritual.  One summer Sacks even rented a room in the basement of an old Inn in upstate New York just so he could enjoy swimming in the nearby ponds and lakes. Sacks would swim for hours and often came up with some of his best writing while out for a swim.  He would leave the water to scribble some notes onto a soaking wet pad to be deciphered later.  Sacks was an avid hiker and would walk nearly anywhere he could until old age slowed him down.  Even after major back surgery he would take the arm of his long-time assistant and amble down to his office to write while standing because sitting was too painful. 
 
Shortly after arriving in the United States, Sacks became a competitive weight lifter and trained on Venice Beach in California.  He was quite successful and broke many records in the squatting category.  Sacks also loved the elements on the periodic table.  One of his friends threw him a birthday party in which all of the guests arrived dressed as elements and Sacks was thrilled at the thoughtfulness of this gesture.  He collected elements, which he kept on his desk and delighted in their touch and the differences between each specimen. 
 
Early on, Sacks thought he might be interested in becoming a marine biologist or a zoologist, but during his time at Oxford he became interested in neurophysiology.  During this time, he read Maynard Keynes’s Essays in Biography, which he credits with sparking his own desire to write clinical biographies.  Later, A.R. Luria’s Mind of a Mnemonist cemented this desire.  It was also at this time that he began attending lectures related to psychology and became interested in visual perception, which would remain an interest throughout his life.
 
Sacks speaks fondly of the many mentors he had throughout his life both professional and personal, from the kindly Dr. Kremer at Middlesex hospital in England to the friends with whom he enjoyed theatre and books.  He surrounded himself with those who he found inspirational and his genuine gratefulness for these friends comes though in his writing.  Author Thom Gunn became a lifelong friend after they met in the 60s in San Francisco.  On the Move is named for one of Thom’s poems of the same name.
 
On the Move
At worst, one is in motion;
And at best,
Reaching no absolute, in
which to rest,
One is always nearer by not
keeping still.
 
Sacks saved many of the letters he exchanged throughout his life and includes many quotes in the book, from his aunt’s encouraging letters about travel and self-discovery to physicians inquires about his case studies.  Sacks also shares his perspective regarding his brother’s decent into schizophrenia and the toll it took on the family as he moved between psychotic states and periods of relative calm. 
 
Sacks shares his concerns and self-consciousness to the response of his books both in the popular media and from those in the medical field.  While Sacks recalls himself as a “failed” surgeon and lab researcher, the passion he has for the patients he encountered over a lifetime of trying to bring their stories to light is clear.  His “failure” may well have been the happiest mistake for those who were able to read and learn from the narratives he provided to help understand the humanity behind the clinical diagnoses.
 
Other Related Resources

PBS obituary for Oliver Sacks
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/oliver-sacks-neurologist-acclaimed-author-dies-82/
 
New York Times, article about Oliver Sacks on the day he passed away
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/science/oliver-sacks-dies-at-82-neurologist-and-author-explored-the-brains-quirks.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
 
New York Times:  Opinions July, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/opinion/my-periodic-table.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
 
New York Times:  Oliver Sacks Learning he had Terminal Cancer, February 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/oliver-sacks-on-learning-he-has-terminal-cancer.html?gwh=305D116A960AAC56758646057B2890E8&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion
 
Desktop Fridays:  A tour of Oliver Sacks desk
http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/12/02/2010/desktop-diaries-oliver-sacks.html
 
Resources Related to Specific Oliver Sacks Case Studies
 
Clive Wearing
Radio Lab episode about Clive Wearing’s story:
http://www.radiolab.org/story/91578-clive/
 
Life without memory video about Clive Wearing from the Mind series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c62C_yTUyVg
 
Stephen Wiltshire –Human Camera
Stephen’s Wiltshire’s official website which includes biographical information, photos of his artwork, videos, and even a store where you can purchase prints.
http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/index.aspx
 
Video demonstration of Stephen Wiltshire’s talents from the BBC documentary Fragments of Genius:  Understanding Savants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8YXZTlwTAU
 
Video of Stephen Wiltshire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxVFd51NvWg
 
Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin’s official website
http://www.templegrandin.com/
 
Temple Grandin’s TED talk:  The World Needs All Kinds of Minds
https://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds?language=en
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Jerome Bruner
Noam Chomsky
David Hubel
Lev Vygotsky
Torsten Wiesel
Alzheimer’s disease
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Catatonia
Clozapine
Color blindness
Encephalitis
Huntington’s disease
L-dopa
Language acquisition device
Migraines
Myelinated nerve fibers
Natural Selection
Parkinson’s disease
Peripheral nerve fibers
Proprioception
Propagnosia
Psychedelic drugs
Right/Left hemisphere functions
Schizophrenia
Thorazine
Tourette’s syndrome
Visual agnosia
Visual Illusions

Gifted Hands:  The Ben Carson Story
Author:  Ben Carson M.D.
ISBN:  978-0-310-33290-9

APA Style Citation
Carson, B.  (1990).  Gifted Hands:  The Ben Carson Story.  Review and Herald; Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Social:  Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect
Author:  Matthew Lieberman
ISBN:  978-0-307-88909-6

APA Style Citation
Lieberman, M.  (2013). Social:  Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect.  New York:  Crown Publishers.

Book Description

Social by Matthew Lieberman explores the importance of social connections in the brain with regard to improving interactions with others and decision-making. Lieberman explains that our social brain is our default network.  When we are not otherwise occupied, or when we daydream, our mind immediately moves to thinking about social interactions.  Even when we are trying to focus on other tasks, thoughts of social interactions often creep into our mind and take over.  Lieberman argues that this natural inclination to default to social issues indicates that this is how our brain is most comfortable and how humans are biologically wired.  Our attention to the social network seems to be almost reflexive.  Social regions of the brain are often associated with medial portions, whereas cognitive areas are often linked to the lateral portions of the brain.  Evidence that social and cognitive portions of the brain are separate can be seen in children with Asperger’s, who  score low on social tasks, but often score above average on tests of abstract reasoning because these disparate regions and responsibilities allow these individuals to excel in one area but not others.

Lieberman uses the 1984 presidential election between Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan as an example of the importance of making social connections.  Concerns about Reagan’s age kept creeping into the campaign.  In the last of debates leading to the election, Reagan used his wit to pick on Mondale’s “youth and inexperience”.  Those who could hear the audience’s laughter in the debate saw a resounding success for Reagan, but those who could not hear the laughter of the audience believed that Mondale had won a definitive victory based on the evidence he presented.  The debate ultimately catapulted Reagan into the lead because he was able to “connect” with voters. This social connection with Americans kept Reagan’s approval ratings high throughout his presidency.

Evolutionary psychologists speak to the benefits of creating bonds with others because it can lead to reproduction and survival advantages.  If we can predict what is happening in the minds of others, we can better cooperate and coordinate with them.  According to Lieberman, social adaptation moves from a connection, to mindreading (predicting the behaviors of others), to harmonizing as deeper levels of social connection develop.  In order for an infant to thrive, they need to receive social support.  This period of dependence on the mother is longer for humans than any other species.  Lieberman argues that this is one of the first demonstrations of the importance of social connections and demonstrates how humans benefit and thrive from connections to others.  Psychologists John Bowlby and Harry Harlow both explored the importance of early social attachment.  Harlow contended that social support was as important, if not more important than biological necessities. 

Conversely, social rejection or isolation is often more long lasting that physical pain.  Social isolation speaks to the importance of socialization in that many consider solitary confinement to be the most severe of all punishment.  In another example of the detriments of social isolation, a multi-nation study found that about 10 percent of children between the ages 12 and 16 are bullied on a regular basis.  85 percent of bullying behavior is non-physical, but can frequently lead to permanent damage.  Those who have been bullied are seven times more likely to report being depressed and four times more likely to make a suicide attempt than others.  Lieberman reports similarities between individuals who have been bullied and those who have chronic physical pain. 

Humans are far more likely than others animals to work together; Lieberman refers to humans as “supercooperators”.  Humans rely on each another and pool resources in the hopes of creating a better collective outcome.  Some may help others because they believe that others will reciprocate in the long run.  It is when we do not know if others are going to cooperate that things get more complex.  In the prisoner’s dilemma, in which someone does not know if their partner will compete or cooperate, both parties are likely to compete as they feel that this provides the least risk and greatest potential benefit.  However, in the prisoner’s dilemma people will still choose to cooperate more than one third of the time.  Mutual cooperation produces the greatest amount of activity in the ventral striatum leading Lieberman to explain that cooperation activates the reward system as an end to itself.  Lieberman argues that a similar feeling is found in altruistic acts.  Even though we often believe that social supports are in place if we ever should need them, many studies have confirmed that happiness comes from the act of helping others in and of itself.

The ability to take another’s perspective also allows for smoother social connections because it allows us to more accurately predict behavior.  Studies involving theory of mind allow researchers to determine if children can take the perspective of another.  Generally, this ability begins to form in children between the ages of three and four. This skill may allow children to interact more smoothly with others and develop a sense of empathy and understanding that those without theory of mind cannot. Mirror neurons also allow us to learn by watching others.  Faulty mirror neurons may provide an explanation for those suffering from autism, but Lieberman also discusses the limits to making these simple conclusions without further study.  Theory of mind and mirror neurons help us understand others better or as Lieberman calls it, mindreading. 

Lieberman closes by emphasizing the power that social networks can have on happiness and well being.  Despite people’s drive to make more money, no link has been found between income and increased subjective well-being.  There is however, a strong link between happiness and strong social networks.  Lieberman worries that with more dependence on technology we are becoming less social and therefore limiting our present and future happiness.  He points out the power of Facebook and other social networking sites as evidence for people’s desire to connect with others even in a more technical world.  If business leaders can learn from research to motivate workers not by financial incentives but rather by relatedness, fairness, and status people will likely feel better and work harder.  Those looking to raise money can make more progress by sharing stories about the people who are being helped rather than about the money being raised and educators can focus on creating places of learning in which students feel like they belong to a cohesive group.  Social networks act on reward centers in the brain and activate the production of dopamine which in turn activates the prefrontal cortex and improves working memory a mutual benefit for all. 

Other Related Resources
Matthew Lieberman’s Social Cognitive Lab:  UCLA
http://www.scn.ucla.edu

TED Talk:  The Brain and its superpowers, Matthew Lieberman
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-Social-Brain-And-Its-Superp      

The Atlantic:  Social Connections Make a Better Brain
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/social-connection-makes-a-better-brain/280934/

Interview with author Matthew Lieberman
http://vimeo.com/82096074

Social Psychology Network: Matthew Lieberman
http://lieberman.socialpsychology.org

Psychological Figures and Concepts
John Bowlby
Rene Descartes
Harry Harlow
Abraham Maslow
Daniel Pink
Altruism
Asperger’s syndrome
Attachment
Cooperation vs. competition
False belief test
Hierarchy of needs
Hypnosis
Intrinsic motivation
Mirror neurons
Muller-Lyer illusion
Prefrontal cortex
Primary/Secondary reinforcers
Prisoner’s dilemma
Reciprocity
Stroop effect
Theory of mind
Working memory

 

Brain on Fire:  My Month of Madness
Author(s) Susannah Cahalan
ISBN:  13:978-1451621389

APA Style Citation
Cahalan, S. (2012).  Brain on Fire:  My Month of Madness.  New York:  Simon and Schuster.  

Book Description

Susannah Cahalan chronicles her journey from a successful young reporter at the New York Post to a paranoid, seemingly psychotic patient at NYU medical center only a few weeks later.  Susannah experienced numbness accompanied by sudden seizures and hallucinations and became increasingly paranoid and combative.  Cahalan cannot recall many of the events during this time, but through her investigative skills as a reporter and impeccable records kept by her family and boyfriend, she was able to put together the pieces of her strange journey. 

The first symptoms came with the thought that a bedbug bite had made her ill; this first delusion was a sign of the strange experiences that would continue to grow increasingly more frightening in the subsequent weeks.  Susannah had an interview with John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted for work, during which she could not concentrate or put together fluid questions.  After missing a few days of work and experiencing strange feelings, she visited her doctor only to be told that she had mono or perhaps that she was drinking too much.  Her hallucinations continued until the point where she believed that her father had killed her stepmother and that he was an imposter, taking the form of other people in order to gain access to Susannah and cause her harm.   In addition to the hallucinations and delusions, she had out of body experiences and periods of rigid catatonia.

Eventually, Cahalan was admitted to NYU medical center and placed on the epilepsy ward because of her seizures.  Her family fought to keep her out of a psychotic ward even though her symptoms displayed themselves as psychosis.  She continued to experience false beliefs and hallucinations such as paintings coming to life, and people taking on different forms.   She also believed that she could read other peoples thoughts and make them age.  Susannah’s first diagnosis was schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.  Susannah’s family and boyfriend refused to accept this diagnosis, because it was not consistent with all of her symptoms.  Finally, they were introduced to Dr. Najjar, a neurologist at New York University who agreed that Susannah had been misdiagnosed.  Dr. Najjar administered a test that revealed the misdiagnosis; this was “the clock test” in which a patient is simply asked to draw a clock. Susannah had drawn all of the numbers on only the right hand side of the clock, indicating that she was neglecting her left visual field. Further studies revealed that the disease seemed to be restricted to her right hemisphere (which is not true in all patients).  It also impacted her hippocampus prohibiting her from transferring information from short-term to long-term memory, her amygdala, which impacted her emotional responses, and her prefrontal cortex, which impacted higher order thinking and planning.  Susannah’s right hemisphere was enflamed and as a result she was given a brain biopsy in which doctors’ cut into her skull to remove a part of the brain for analysis. Doctors also took a spinal tap to check her cerebrospinal fluid and finally arrived at the correct diagnosis.  The diagnosis from Dr. Najjar was anti-NMDA encephalitis.   Anti-NMDA encephalitis is a very rare disorder, which had first been diagnosed only two years earlier.  Through a treatment of steroids, immune therapy, and plasma exchange, Susannah recovered and returned to work 7 months after the initial diagnosis.  Full recovery is possible in roughly 75-80% of these cases and anti-NMDA encephalitis has been diagnosed with more frequency since Susan’s 2009 experience. 

Without the refusal of her family and doctor to accept her initial diagnosis, Susannah may have spent the remainder of her life in a psychiatric ward or perhaps even worse, may not have lived past the initial brain inflammation.  Susannah now speaks to many groups to spread the word about this disorder and to help individuals suffering to be properly diagnosed.  There is about a 12% relapse rate, but Susannah with the exception of slower reaction time on the left side of her body has minimal residual effects.  There is no known reason why the disease came on at the time it did, but seems to be much more prevalent in women (about 80% of cases) and may be ignited by a virus.  For teachers and students Cahalan writes in an engaging style and discusses in an approachable manner the significance of many areas of the brain and the tremendous damage even a small malfunction can cause.

 

Other Related Resources

TED talk:  Susannah Cahalan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQvqAaOLBnw

Katie Couric Clip with Susannah Cahalan
http://katiecouric.com/videos/brain-on-fire-susannah-cahalans-medical-mystery/

Book Reading and Discussion at Oblong Books
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAQs2pmN3Sg

Dr. Drew Interview with Susannah Cahalan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL0QUicAljQ

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Elizabeth Loftus
Henry Gustav Molaison (H.M.)
Amygdala
Bipolar disorder
Delusions
Schizoaffective disorder
Schizophrenia
Hippocampus
Encephalitis
MNDA receptors
Anti-NMDA encephalitis
Prefrontal cortex
Hallucinations
Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IVR)
Occipital Lobe
Auditory cortex
Medulla
MRIs
CT scans
PET scans
Catatonia
Parietal Lobes
Right and Left Hemisphere functions
Blood-Brain barrier
Neurotransmitters
Wechsler Intelligence Scale
Neuroplasticity
Placebo
Teratomas

Subliminal:  How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior
Author(s):  Leonard Mlodinow
ISBN:  978-0-307-47225-0

APA Style =Citation:
Mlodinow, Leonard (2012). Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. New York: Vintage Books.

Book Description
Subliminal provides insight into how modern neuroscience is revealing the ways in which our unconscious minds influence a wide range of our behaviors. The author Leonard Mlodinow is a physicist who has had a very diverse career including working as a Hollywood screen writer and an award winning video game designer has the ability to make complex scientific research accessible, engaging, and entertaining making this a book suitable for both instructors and students.  Early psychologists were limited to methods such as introspection, free association, observation, implanting electrodes, and studying behavior of animals after damage to examine the unconscious.  Modern methods now include advanced scanning equipment which allows specific and scientific examination of how the unconscious mind operates.   This book chronicles numerous interesting and enlightening studies which highlight the ways our unconscious minds influence our behavior.  Unlike the unconscious dominated by sexual and aggressive urges and unresolved childhood conflicts described by Freud, Mlodinow shows us that thoughts which are unconscious are adaptive. Unlike in the Freudian model where unconscious thoughts are blocked through defense mechanisms such as repression neuroscience reveals that these processes are inaccessible because of the design of the brain. 

The book is organized into two halves each of which is packed with current, relevant research including both controlled experiments and fascinating case studies.  The first half of the book is titled The Two-Tiered Brain and describes the modern understanding of the unconscious.  The author separates conscious from unconscious cognition and provides evidence for how the unconscious mind influences such diverse behaviors as who we marry, who we vote for, what we order in a restaurant, how much we enjoy food, what products we buy, the prejudices we hold, the perceptions we form, and the memories we create.  Research shows that not only do we make often significant decisions based on unconscious reactions, but that after the decision is made we use our conscious minds to explain that we did this in a logical and reasoned manner. 

The table above (page 19) illustrates the five most common surnames in the United States and the number in each box indicates how many marriages occurred between individuals with each of these name combinations according to a three state study done in 2004 in raw numbers.  Along the diagonal in bold is highlighted the number of marriages that occurred between individuals with the same surname.  Individuals with the last name of Smith marry other Smiths three to five times more frequently than individuals with any of the other common names.  This illustration of the power of similarity in attraction according to social scientists is example of an unconscious bias for those with which we have much in common.  Research also indicates that the brain region known as the dorsal striatum controls much of this unconscious bias.  Mlodinow highlights the influence of the unconscious regarding financial decisions with research showing that Wall Street traders are more likely to invest in the initial public offerings of companies with whose ticker symbols were simple or easy to pronounce vs. those with more complicated names.  Individuals are generally secure in the knowledge that the important business, personal, and career decisions are the result of careful conscious thought but are often unaware of the important unconscious influences that led them to their conclusions.  The chapter titled The Importance of Being Social discusses the unconscious aspects of the human desire and the ability to understand the thoughts, emotions, and intentions of others which is often called “theory of mind” or TOM.  In addition to intelligence the author believes the largely unconscious process of TOM has been instrumental in building human civilization.  The book recounts Stanley Milgram’s six degrees of separation experiment and provides the results from a 2003 replication using email to highlight how connected humans actually are to each other.  The results in the email study were similar to Milgram in that each time it took an average of five to seven steps before reaching its intended destination.

The second half of the book is titled The Social Unconscious and it examines how our unconscious minds allow us to rapidly interpret and communicate via non-verbal signals.   In one interesting experiment researchers filmed a variety of subjects with about twelve small lights spread around their body in a dark room so that only the lights were visible.  If the participants were stationary it gave the appearance of a meaningless collection of lights, but if they moved viewers were able to determine a large amount of information about the individual wearing the lights. Viewing the lights in motion allowed individuals to identify gender, and even the specific identity of the person if they already knew them simply by how they walked.  If actors wearing the lights portrayed specific emotions, viewers were easily able to correctly identify what was being demonstrated.  Subliminal makes sophisticated scientific research about the unconscious mind easily understandable to a wide range of readers by using humor and accessible language to make interesting case studies, anecdotes, and research experiments come to life.  This book provides insight into the unconscious influences that impact our interactions with family, friends, bosses, coworkers, and strangers and illustrates how this knowledge can allow us to make better decisions and better predict the behavior of others. 

Other Related Resources

Leonard Mlodinow giving a 50-minute presentation at Google regarding his 2008 book titled The Drunkard’s Walk:  How Randomness Rules Our Lives and discusses various types of cognitive biases.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0sLuRsu1Dohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0sLuRsu1Do

Leonard Mlodinow giving a 50-minute presentation at Google about many of the concepts related to his current book, Subliminal.  Mlodinow’s talk includes many demonstrations such as ones about the anchoring bias and false memories, which could be used in the classroom.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ-IfVHJH58


In the book the author presents research about the subliminal aspects of the developmental psychology concept of theory of mind (TOM).  TOM is the ability to understand the thoughts and intentions of others and predict their behavior which begins to develop around the age of four.  Although some aspects of TOM are conscious, much of our ability to read the intentions of others occurs as an automatic aspect of the unconscious mind.  The basics of TOM are a critical part of cognitive development in children which can be tested by a false belief test.  The following video offers a short demonstration for students of how theory of mind develops in children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hLubgpY2_w

Psychological Figures and Concept
Charles Darwin
Paul Ekman
Sigmund Freud
William James
Stanley Milgram
Muzafer Sherif
Stanley Schachter
Wilhelm Wundt
Anchoring bias
Blindsight
Change blindness
Confabulation
Duchenne Smile
Emotion
Eyewitness testimony
fMRI
False memories
Gender stereotypes
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
In-group bias
Introspection
Language
Memory
Motivation
Neuroscience
Norms
Overconfidence
Prejudice
Social neuroscience
Split-brain research
Theory of mind (TOM)

Mean Genes:  From Sex to Money to Food Taming our Primal Instincts
Author(s):  Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan
ISBN:  978-0142000076

APA Style Citation
Brunham, T., & Phelan, J. (2001).  Mean genes:  from sex to money to food, taming our primal instincts.  New York:  Penguin Books. 

Book Description
Burnham and Phelan have written another book examining the cross over between economics and psychology.  The book describes how our genes that may have helped us in in past may actual inhibit our natural behaviors in modern society in order to be more healthy and productive.  Rather than use genes to excuse and limit our behavior, the book attempts to move us towards understanding how our genes impact behavior and then moving beyond our genes to lead a more effective life.  Burnham describes the book as “The Nurture of Nature”.  The recommendations in the book attempt to help readers lead a more active and healthy life.

Eating
The book describes Chantek an orangutan who has access to as much food as he wants and as a result, he grows to over 500 pounds.  When placed on a diet, Chantek eats his crayons and will do nearly anything to find food.  Because humans long lived as hunters and gatherers obtaining food took up a great deal of their time.  Now we live in  society in which high fat food is readily available but our sedentary genes still create a desire to limit activity in order to save our energy.  The authors suggest that in order to eat better, one must create a plan.  They recommend getting a bag of chips and splitting in in half upon opening the bag and immediately disposing of the second half so that you are not tempted to eat the second pile once you have finished the first.  They describe having a brownie snack on an airplane in which there is no distraction and one might be tempted to eat an entire brownie.  In order to not eat at least part of the brownie, they recommend spreading the mayonnaise provided in the lunch on half of the brownie so that they will not be tempted to eat it later.  Although many diets deprive people of desirable foods, the most successful ones involve having individuals be vigilant about what they eat by focusing on portion control rather than complete deprivation.  In this way it is easier for people to maintain good eating habits and continue to keep weight off for a longer period of time. 

Money
Because humans have a desire for immediate reward and often want to spend our money as soon as we have it to spend, the authors recommend creating a savings plan with one’s employer to have money removed from a paycheck before ever seeing it.  In this way the temptation to spend he money is removed and the savings account will continue to grow. 

Drugs
Caffeine as well as illicit drugs activate dopamine pathways in the brain and become nearly instantly addictive.  The “Just say no” campaign” has generally been unsuccessful because the desire to feel the “high” out weighs the desire to quit the drug.  Using drugs such as Antabuse can act as counterconditioning and diminish the desire for alcohol and cause nausea when alcohol is ingested.  Similarly nicotine patches have found that nearly 40% of individuals are successful in quitting smoking when using a patch versus 5% when trying to quit on their own.  Methadone has been used in a similar way to help heroin addicts to stop using the drug.

Beauty
Cross cultural studies of attractiveness have found that generally, people agree on what is beautiful.  Clear-skin, symmetrical faces and a .7 hip to waist ratio which seems to suggest the likelihood for reproduction are preferred by men.  Women seem to place more emphasis on status, which from an evolutionary perspective can help with the rearing on children .  The authors suggest that by remaining physically fit we can be more attractive to potential or current mates in which case one might want to re-read their section on food.

The benefit of this book is helping to better understand our behaviors and try to modify those behaviors that are prohibiting us from reaching our goals.  The book is full of recommendations for living a healthier and more productive life.  For the high school instructor, much information can be used in the social unit regarding attractiveness, Consciousness for drug use and abuse and cognition for risk taking behaviors.  Motivation is covered in the chapters on food and the theme of evolutionary psychology run throughout the book.

Other Related Resources
Mean Genes book website
http://www.meangenes.org

Video interview with the authors of Mean Genes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgxYtOv8_pk

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Charles Darwin
Altruism
Competition vs. cooperation
Counterconditioning
Dopamine reward pathways
Endorphins
Evolutionary psychology
Facial symmetry and attraction
Gender differences
Happiness
Hip to waist ratio and attraction
Human genome project
Hunger motivation
Learned phobias
Metabolic rate
Risk-taking
Sexual motivation
Sexual preferences