Mind, Brain and Violence
Psychology 121-002
Fall 2005
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10-11:30
4437 East Hall
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Professor Bill Gehring |
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Office: 4052 East
Hall |
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Phone: 763-4381 |
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Email: |
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Office Hours: By
appointment. |
Why do people hurt each other? Violence is everywhere, yet there is still much to be learned about the psychological and brain processes that contribute to violent behavior. In this course we shall examine some of the scientific findings about violence and some of the relevant theories from psychology and neuroscience. We’ll consider how biological and psychological factors interact with an individual's social context and environment to produce violence. Our discussions will include psychological, psychiatric, neurological, and evolutionary perspectives on a wide range of violent behavior, ranging from individual acts of aggression and criminal behavior to war and genocide. The goal is not only to learn about violence, but also to consider, compare, and possibly change our own personal perspectives on the problem.
The specific topics we will cover will include: the frontal cortex and the control of aggression (the case of Phineas Gage), brain damage & violence, media violence, violent socialization, multiple personality disorder, insanity/schizophrenia, PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), the insanity defense, psychopaths, serial killers, batterers, aggression in childhood, rape, obedience, the Stanford Prison Experiment, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, evolutionary explanations and human nature, terrorism, torture, war, genocide and the holocaust, and the problem of evil.
Course format: The class meets Tuesday and Thursday, 10:10 - 11:30, in room 4437 East Hall. This is not a standard lecture-test format course. Instead, class meetings will be largely devoted to exercises, discussions, demonstrations, and films, with a minimal amount of lecturing. The course is not structured to assess your ability to learn a lot of facts (although you will most likely learn a lot) but rather to sharpen your scholarship, critical thinking, and communication skills. Just as important, I hope this course will increase your appetite for learning more about the psychological and brain processes that contribute to violent behavior.
Books: Books are available at Ulrich’s, Michigan Book and Supply, and the Michigan Union Bookstore. I might ask you to purchase one or two additional books later in the semester.
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood,
Jonathan H.
Pincus, Base Instincts: What Makes
Killers Kill,
Coursepack: Coursepack readings will be posted at the Coursetools website: http://ctools.umich.edu/. Most of the articles will be in .PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format. You can download the readings to print them out. Campus computing sites are set up with Acrobat. If you want to use your own computer, there are instructions on the Coursetools site for getting a free copy of Acrobat Reader.
Office Hours/Caffeine: I will not have pre-set office hours. Instead, I will be happy to make an appointment with you if you contact me in class or by email. In addition to talking to me about course material or other related topics, you might want to talk about other things, such as careers in psychology and neuroscience, or other issues. Feel free to make an appointment. Also, occasionally I like to have coffee with small groups of students just after class or at other times, not only so I can have some much-needed caffeine but also so I can get to know you a little better individually. If you want to do this, please let me know.
Grades/Requirements: Because this is not a typical lecture-test course; grading is not based on exams, nor will there be any curve. Rather, grading will be based upon motivated completion of the assignments and participation in all aspects of the course. Getting a good grade should not be difficult: if you complete all of the course requirements on time and attend each class prepared to participate (having read the assignment), you will earn a B in the course. Getting an A simply requires that you do these things with some thought and energy: have you brought in your own ideas, connected ideas about one topic to another, shown improvement throughout the semester, participated actively, etc? These are broad criteria, so if you ever have a question about how well you are doing in the class, feel free to ask me. The requirements are as follows:
1) Regular participation in class discussions and exercises. I recognize that everyone has a different style, and that some people are more forthcoming in discussions than others. Of course, a lot of the discussion that we will do will take place with the whole class. In addition to that, I will be providing other ways to participate: small group discussions, postings on the web, exercises, and debates.
Electronic comments. We will be doing a lot of reading, and one way to participate in the class will be to write about the reading assignment in advance of our class meeting on that topic. I will be asking for this kind of preparation in various ways. Sometimes the discussion will take place on the web, in the “discussion” area of ctools. Other times, I will ask you to write something and submit it to me via email the evening before class (e.g., by 10 pm). I will sometimes supply you with a topic to write about, or I might simply ask you to summarize your thoughts and opinions about the reading. There are a few purposes to this form of participation: it gives me a way to ensure that you read the material in advance of class (without having to give a quiz or exam). Also, it gives me an idea of the things that you find interesting, are confused about, or want to spend time on. When the discussion takes place on the web, reading over others’ comments will help you to comprehend the articles and to prepare for discussing the material in class.
A note about guest speakers: a few times during the semester a guest expert will lead the class. It is important to me that you make particular efforts to come to those classes with questions and comments.
2) Term paper. You will be asked to complete a 7-10 page term paper on a topic of your choosing, based on a search of the published literature on the topic as well as your own thoughts. The paper assignment will include an initial proposal, an annotated bibliography, a first draft, and a final draft.
I will describe the assignments in detail in class in a couple of weeks. The key due dates are:
Paper proposal: Thursday, October 20th.
Annotated Bibliography: Thursday, November 3rd.
First Draft: Tuesday, November 22nd.
Final Draft: Monday, December 19th.
3) Other assignments. There will be other assignments, both in and outside of class, throughout the semester.
Attendance: I will not set a certain number of classes that you must attend and a certain number that you may miss, but it will be difficult for you to participate actively without attending class. Please contact me if you need to miss more than a couple classes.
The bottom line on grades is that I want this course to be interesting, informative, and fun, with less pressure than you might feel in other courses (like Calculus or Organic Chem…ugh). If you put in a good-faith effort, you will do great.
Feedback: During the term
you might have a comment about how the course is being conducted. Always feel free to talk to me about this or
send me email, or you may wish to submit your comment anonymously (e.g., put it
under my office door). I want this
course to be as responsive to your concerns as possible.
Psychology 121-002
Mind, Brain and Violence
Assignment for Thursday, September 8
In the next couple of classes we’ll consider the nature of violence and some of its causes. The first few readings will give you a broad overview of research findings and issues to get us started.
1. For Thursday, read Englander,”The Problem of Violence” (available on ctools). Before 10 pm Wednesday night, post two things on ctools in the discussion area:
a. Under the “Class Introductions” topic in the discussion area, post a short biography introducing yourself to the rest of the class: who you are, where you’re from, what you might study at U of M, why you are interested in violence, and anything else that might be interesting (e.g., favorite music, unusual talents, interesting stuff you did this summer, famous people you’ve met, favorite (clean) jokes).
b. Post your comment on the reading. For this comment, you can write about anything you want: Was there anything in the chapter that surprised you? Why did it surprise you? Are there any kinds of violence or other issues that the author leaves out? Do you agree with her definition of violence? What is a good definition of violence?
2. Sometime this week get the Pincus book. We won’t read In Cold Blood until later in the semester, so you can either get it now or put off that purchase if you want.
Course schedule
1. 9/13/2005 Introduction to Violence
Bushman, B. J. and Anderson, C. A. (2001). Is it time to pull the plug on the hostile versus instrumental aggression dichotomy? Psychological Review, 108, 273-279.
Wilkinson, P. (2004). Columbine, five years later. Available at http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/04/20/columbine_anniversary/.
2. 9/15/2005 – Introduction to the Mind and
Brain
From Kosslyn, S. M., & Rosenberg, R. S. (2001).
Psychology: The Brain, the Person, the World. (pp. 53-77).
3. 9/20/2005 – Brain Damage and Violence
Chapters 1 and 2 from the Pincus book (pp. 15-34).
Chapter 1 from Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ error:
emotion, reason and the human brain. NY:
4. 9/27/2005 --
Mental Illness and Violence
Kirwin, B. R. (1997). The Mad, the Bad, and the Innocent (Ch. 2, The Truly Insane, pp. 38-68). Harper Paperbacks.
5. 9/29/2005 -- Schizoprenia
Niehoff, D. (1999)
The Biology of Violence (pp 25-27, 192-200).
6. 10/4/2005 – Media Violence
Bushman, B. J., & Anderson, C. A. (2001). Media violence and the American public: Scientific facts versus media misinformation. American Psychologist, 56, 477-489
Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2002). Media violence and societal violence. Science, 295, 2377-2378.
7. 10/6/2005 – Dissociative Identity
(Multiple Personality) Disorder
Chapter 10 of the Pincus book
8. 10/11/2005 –
The Insanity Defense
Goldstein, A. M., Morse, S. J., and Shapiro, D. L. (2003).
Evaluation of criminal responsibility. In A. M. Goldstein (Vol. Ed.) and
9. 10/13/2005 and 10/20/2005 – Violentization Theory of Richard Rhodes and Lonnie Athens (No class on 10/18).
Please read the following from Rhodes, R. (1999). Why They Kill.
10. 10/25/2005 -- Psychopaths
Chapters 3-4 from Hare, R. D. (1993) Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us.
Thursday October 27:
No class
11. 11/1/2005 – In Cold Blood
Please come to class having read and prepared to discuss
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.
12. 11/3/2005 – Evolutionary Psychology and
Violence
Waller, J. (2002). Selection from Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing.
13. 11/8/2005 – Family Violence and Children (guest speaker Dr. Sandra Graham-Bermann)
“Intervention for Children Exposed to Interparental Violence (IPV): Assessing Needs and Research Priorities” by Sandra Graham-Bermann and Honore Hughes.
14. 11/10/2005 – Obedience to Authority
Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience
to Authority (pp. 13-54, 179-189).
15. 11/15/2005 – The Stanford Prison Experiment
Zimbardo, P. G. (2004). A situationist perspective on the psychology
of evil: understanding how good people are transformed into perpetrators. In
Arthur Miller (Ed.). The Social Psychology
of Good and Evil: Understanding Our Capacity for Kindness and Cruelty.
16. 11/17/2005 – War and Genocide
Browning, C. R. (1992/1998). Ordinary men: reserve police battalion 101
and the final solution
in
17. 11/22/2005 – War and Genocide
Baumeister, R. (2002). The holocaust and the four roots of
evil. In L. S. Newman and R. Erber (Eds.) Understanding
Genocide.
11/24/2005 – No Class:
Thanksgiving
18. 11/29/2005 –
Hitler
Chapter 11 in the Pincus book
Gross, J. (1998). A
nice pleasant youth. The
18. 12/1/2005 – Terrorism
Atran, S. (2003). The genesis of suicide terrorism. Science, 299, 1534-1539.
Salon.com (2001). The Making of Osama Bin Laden.
http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/11/01/osama_profile/print.html
Optional: Yardley, J. (2001). Portrait of a terrorist. New York Times, October,
10, 2001. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/10/international/middleeast/10TERR.htm
19. 12/6/2005 –
Torture
Bowden, M. (2003). The dark art of interrogation. Atlantic Monthly, October, 2003.
Wikipedia entry on the Abu Ghraib scandal; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_prisoner_abuse
20. 12/8/2005 –
Evil
Powers, T. (1995). Was it right? The Atlantic Monthly, http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/95jul/powers.htm
Selections from Morrow, L. (2003). Evil: An investigation.
21. 12/13/2005 – Ending On a Positive Note
‘Creating caring societies’ from Staub, E. (2003). The
Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults and Groups Help and Harm
Others.