Chapter 7: Psychology has a complicated, intertwined relationship with religion. A classic example of this complicated relationship was William James, who like many prominent Victorian-era intellectuals, got caught up in the Spiritualism movement. For some reason, both Old England and New England were hotbeds of this movement. Remnants of it still exist in New York state – particularly in Lily Dale (because it was the home of the Fox Sisters). Now that I’ve given you all that info, find and analyze a nice history of the spiritualism movement in the U.S.
OK, given that some of you are still struggling with the term ‘analyze’, let me be more specific. You might want to address: What is the context? What was going on in the world (U.S.) that made so many people rush to embrace spiritualism? Why do you think so many highly intelligent and prominent people, like James or Arthur Conan-Doyle, became Spiritualists? What do you think the short-term/long-term, results were of the ‘spokesperson’ for Psychology jumping into Spiritualism? These are examples of what I mean by ‘analysis’ or ‘critical thinking.’ Just think about the topic and examine it in an informed discussion.
Chapter 8: G. Stanley Hall really started something. A surprisingly large number of psychologists work in various facets of education. Not just teaching, but also developing various tests, giving diagnostic tests, developing ways to measure effective teaching and effective learning, etc. Find a URL concerning the modern contributions of psychologists to education. Think about this like you did psychologists and the computer folks in the earlier assignment. Keep in mind that educational psychologists and school psychologists overlap but are not quite the same thing.
To be specific, look at my feedback about artificial intelligence. What does this psychology/education relationship mean? How has it affected psychology? Is it a good thing? Bad thing? Are there elements of both? What about the future? Again, THINK analysis. Hope this helps.