Introducing the SNC Physio Psych Blog

Welcome to Fall 2016 Semester! We’ve got about a week to go, but the last week before classes start will surely be a frenzy-filled with last minute emails, preparation, and getting resources in order. So I’m writing this in advance for you when you’re ready to read it.

It’s been an eventful summer to say the least. With the election, Pokemon Go, BIP, and the Olympics, there’s been plenty to keep us busy. I spent most of my summer in De Pere, but also camped in Door Co, spent time with my family & friends across WI, and traveled to Portland(ia) to celebrate my 5 year wedding anniversary. As much as I love my summers and the extra flexibility with my time (that primarily is spent running, biking etc), I’m looking forward to this fall, to meeting you, and to getting back into the swing of the semester.

With that being said, let me tell you a little bit about this course and this blog. The course is Physiological Psychology. This means we will be studying the physiological, biological basis of thinking and behavior. Think brain, body, genes. Think neurotransmitters, hormones, drugs. We will be exploring how these relate to our mind and behavior. Sometimes it will feel like we take a reductive approach (i.e., we are reducing behavior into it’s most basic elements as a “final” or more “accurate” level of explanation). But in reality, we will simply be emphasizing one level of analysis that is important to the field of psychology. This does not mean other levels of analysis are not important and necessary. Rather, this level of analysis will help us answer questions related to brain-behavior relationship, just like the social level of analysis helps us answer questions about human interactions.

This blog and the course Twitter (@sncPsych and #letSNCyourbrain) will be used to curate resources for this course. I have used this site to post helpful examples and a few resources. I will attempt to post weekly or biweekly updates about what we’ll be working on in class. These posts will kind of be like “notes” or summaries. They should help guide your study. Like any notes your instructors post, these can be used at your discretion. You are not required to read all the notes, posts, examples, etc… But they will hopefully be helpful and supplement the text and class. I have also posted information about your assignments and the schedule on the blog – these can also be found in our Google Classroom.

This space is open to the public. This can be scary because it means people can see and respond to content that is placed here. But it also means we are creating digital identities, acting as digital citizens, and forming networks. One goal I have in this course is to create science communication and education resources. The public eagerly engages with psychological and neuroscientific information, and it is critical to provide accurate and meaningful resources to propagate quality information. With your permission, I will use this blog to post your digital media projects. I am excited about these assignments because they truly have meaning, both in how they contribute to global knowledge and in preparing you to use skills many employers expect their young incoming employees to have. What’s more, you won’t be using those skills in the bubble of the classroom, but rather, in the real world.

I am excited for these projects but I’m equally as excited for our sheep brain labs. You will have the opportunity to dissect and study sheep brains throughout the semester. My favorite labs in college and graduate school were anatomy and physiology labs, and of course I have a bias for the brain. I have put together a lab manual to help guide you through these dissections and I look forward to this part of the class. First dissection is on Tuesday already! So we’ll be diving right in. 🙂  Dissection and sheep brain anatomy will help you develop attention to detail, analytical thinking, and patience. More importantly, it’s cool to actually see all the parts of the brain ITF.

Along with lab and your project, we’ll be spending some time in class 🙂 What will this look like? Well, there is a lot of information to cover in this course. To cover this, we’ll have some lecture but many activities as well. Physiological Psychology will certainly be one of the most challenging courses you take. It will likely require you to think and study in new ways compared to other psychology courses you’ve taken so far. I challenge you to keep up with the readings and go back and revisit the readings frequently throughout the semester. The content covered in class will generally reflect what is in the text, but fully understanding, for example, an action potential will not be possible with one reading or one lesson. You’ll have to revisit this information frequently and digest it slowly to be successful.

Sometimes, there is a seemingly large amount of complex content you are just trying to absorb and regurgitate, only to forget it later. Indeed, there is rather little I truly remember from my undergraduate education. But let me explain to you the reason for what may seem like meaningless information absorption. Regardless of what the content is, developing strategies for understanding complex material will be something you carry forward. So if you ever find yourself asking the question, “Why do I need to know this?” I challenge you to change the question and instead ask “How can I come to understand this?” If you focus on the process of understanding the information you will be able to apply this skill throughout your life. When information is at our fingertips, this process is more important than any content. The content is simply what you are practicing on and the exams are one way to assess whether you’ve gone through the process. The exams will also help you determine whether your “how” needs to be adapted.

As always, I am here to help. Please feel free to stop by my office during office hours or email me if you have questions. I look forward to meeting you and enjoying the semester together!