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University of Maryland - Spring 2004 Instructions -- see Study Questions for Topic III. |
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1. According to Darwin, why are men stronger than women? 2. According to modern biology, why might one expect females to be more discriminating than males in their choice of mates? How does the case of the phalarope support that argument? 3. Summarize Herbert Spencer's opinion on the question of equal rights for women in business and politics. 4. Why, according to Bachofen, did early human societies go through a matriarchal stage? Why did Darwin reject this conclusion? 5. Discuss the obstacles encountered by women who wanted to pursue professional careers in 19th century England and the connection between those obstacles and scientific theories accepted at the time. 6. Identify: Silvester Graham 7. Explain the "variability argument concerning sex differences. 8. How did the Law of Conservation of Energy affect 19th-century debates about sex differences? 9. How does the Victorian claim that women have weaker sexual desires than men contradict one of the arguments that women should refrain from pursuing professional careers? 10. Discuss 2 or 3 of the different feminist responses to those in 19th century U.S. and Britain who urged women not to seek equality or pursue professional careers; evaluate the plausibility and effectiveness of those responses. 11. Identify: Havelock Ellis. 12. Identify: Franz Boas. 13. How did Boas undermine the theory that members of a race have fixed physical characteristics that can be used to distinguish them from members of other races? 14. What are the major advantages and disadvantages of cultural relativism? 15. Discuss the impact of the publications of Margaret Mead on the Nature-Nurture debate and on American ideas about sex differences. 16. Why have women been more successful in anthropology than in most other sciences? 17. Identify: G. Stanley Hall 18. Compare the views of Margaret Mead and G. Stanley Hall on "adolescence." 19. How and when was Freud's theory introduced in the U.S.? 20. Discuss the history of behaviorism before 1930, including its real or metaphorical connections to the clockwork universe philosophy, positivism, Darwinian evolution, and the Nature-Nurture debate. 21. Explain the connection between B. F. Skinner's behaviorism and quantum mechanics. 22. Explain the major difference between the theories of J. B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. 23. How, according to B.F.Skinner, is a scientist "like a pathological gambler"? 24. What were Skinner's 3 principles for improving education? 25. Discuss the history of behaviorism after 1915 including its ethical problems and potential or actual impact on society. 26. Identify: James McKeen Cattell. 27. According to Cattell, Francis Bacon was the 5th most eminent person in history, while Newton ranked only 14th. Comment on the reliability of the method used to reach this conclusion. 28. Explain how Binet measured the "Mental Age" of a child. What is a "moron" according to this method? 29. What is the definition of IQ? Who were the two psychologists (other than Binet) who established this definition? 30. Discuss the development and application of the IQ test and its social/education consequences, from 1900 to 1930. 31. "The average IQ of boys is the same as the average IQ of girls at every age up to 16." Is this a discovery or a social construction? Explain. 32. "The average IQ of blacks is significantly lower than that of whites in the U.S." Is this a discovery or a social construction? Explain. 33. Eugenicists in the 1920s and 1930s predicted that the average IQ of a country's population would decrease from one generation to the next. What was their reasoning? What was the result of James Flynn's test of this prediction? 34. Compare the views of Nordau and Terman on geniuses. 35. Discuss the Nature-Nurture debate in 20th century America, including the role of psychology and anthropology. 36. State one argument in favor of, and one against, the policy of requiring the SAT as a criterion for admission to UMCP. 37. The first hormone to be isolated was estrone [a kind of estrogen] by Aschheim and Zondek in 1927. How did they do it? How did their experiment lead to a pregnancy test? What is the origin of the word "estrogen"? 38. How does progesterone support gestation? Why might it be used as a contraceptive? 39. Identify: "the raging hormones theory." 40. Describe the 20th-century developments in genetics and endocrinology that led to a biological theory of sexual identity, i.e. how an organism, including a human, comes to be male or female. Identify the scientists who made major contributions to these developments. 41. How did scientific research about sex differences in mental ability in the 1970s encourage or discourage girls to choose careers in math or science? Name two publications that may have been especially influential. 42. Although the SAT was originally based on the IQ test, which had been standardized so that boys and girls have the same average IQ, since the 1970s women have tended to score lower than men. How did this happen, and what effect did it have on women's access to higher education? 43. Some feminists say that instructors in college science courses use teaching methods that are more congenial to the learning styles of men than of women, or in other ways create a "chilly classroom climate" for women. Discuss this claim on the basis of your own experience. 44. Does the tenure system in American universities discriminate against women? Explain. 45. Discuss, on the basis of historical and contemporary evidence, the questions: "why don't more women go into science?" and "should women go into science or should science first change its nature in order to attract them?" 46. How did Freud change his theory of sexual seduction, and why was he criticized after his death for this change? 47. Identify: Freudian slip. 48. Identify: Oedipus Complex. 49. According to Freud, why are women intellectually inferior to men? 50. Is Freudian psychoanalysis a science? Discuss why or why not. 51. Identify: "anatomy is destiny." 52. Identify: Alfred Kinsey. 53. Where does Freudian psychoanalysis stand in the "nature vs nature" debate? Explain. |