Psychology 101

I will be starting the last week of this class this week. I have learned more about neurons, and how spycholigists conduct experiments on mice, rats and pigeons. I have had some interesting conversations though. This last week we had to discuss how birth order effects intelligence-according to research the more children one has the lower the IQ of the younger children. I pointed out that if this were true it probably had little to do with intelligence and family size and more to do with the lack of attention children get, because both parents are working and/or there is a lack of funds for opportinities. But it seemed more likely that the findings could not be trust, because almost every study tested all of the children in a family at the same time, so at the point of the test the oldest might be 25, next 22, 19, 16. The conclusion that older siblings are more intelligent than younger in this case is very flawed, the real results show that older people are more intelligent on average than younger people.

The whole text has a slight anti-family flavor. This next week we are supposed to discuss gender roles. I read the chapter on that yesterday. The idea that maybe it is good for each of the sexes to have different roles was, of course, never mentioned, only that we should all try to become androgonous. It was interesting that all of the research revolved around the differences in the work place concluding that women are at a disadvantage. There was no research about the roles at home where more women excel. All studies, theories and recommendations were on how to allow the sexes to be equal in the work force. My question is, if everyone is so busy in the workforce who is going to take care of the home? Of course, since having too many children is bad for their intelligence maybe we should give up the home.

I think my teacher will be glad to get rid of me, as I am afriad I am not very quiet. She has told me I do not understand the topic, while not correcting my "faulty" thinking and still giving me an A. She also made the comment that I need to go do some research when I disagreed, but did not bother to point me in the direction I should go. I have asked her to explain herself on a couple of statements she made, and she has completely side stepped. I just can't buy the "All mighty educator" thing and it is disrupting her feeling of power I think. According to the text "power" is the primary motivator of teachers and in our modern system I can certainly believe it. Oh, that there was a certified home ec BA online. Actually, I think it is probably good for me to see some of these issues so that I can further understand why people believe some of the things that they do.