February 6

Psych 30: Development of Twins in the Womb

Developmental Psychologists study twins, in particular, because their DNA is so similar it reduces the potential variables that can influence personality. That way, they can look to environmental differences if there are differing personalities or abilities in a set of twins.

They have a unique experience in their early embryonic development stage. Follow that in this YouTube video of the National Geographic series In the Womb.

January 13

Psych 30 Inquiry Project 2020

Explanation of assignment – pdf handout and instructional video as overview

Psych 30 Inquiry Project 2020 – inkodo outline  pdf

Possible Topics of Your Study Choice:

  1. Birth order and what it suggests about personality characteristics Macey
  2. Stockholm Syndrome development and studies on the Psychology of it Bre
  3. Gender identity and the potential (trend) of trying to raise a genderless child
  4. Parenting methods to use in trying to correct unwanted behaviours mostly established by nature, like anxiety issues
  5. Looking at the foster care system in Canada/Saskatchewan and the power-struggle between the province and Indigenous services
  6. A study of forced sterilizations in Canada’s history and in Sask in particular – lawsuits against Drs for this practice in Saskatoon even
  7. Studying the process of fertility treatment and its accessibility through Sask health coverage
  8. Studying the process, costs, and occurrences of young people freezing their eggs to secure future pregnancies or egg donations
  9. Marijuana use by teens has been linked as a potential trigger to significant mental health problems – what do recent studies conclude? (The Downside of High documentary – David Suzuki) Ayslee
  10. Studying adult attachment types and impacts on relationships
  11. Social pressures specific to young women, based on behaviours, appearance, and personality  (Miss Representation documentary)
  12. Looking at the impact of Social Media on young people – influences, dangerous trends etc (The Social Dilemna documentary) Lexi
  13. Influence of father figures – how having one in development years supports healthy relationships or the absence of one affects future relationships (What Dads are For documentary) Julia
  14. Psychological impacts after sexual violence or assaults as well as continued/expanded trauma after reporting it (Audry & Daisy documentary) Shannyn
  15. Study the evidence of brain genders – male and female brains. (Documentary linked with a familiar host to you!)
  16. Research the end-of-life experience in palliative care (people places in care and made comfortable until their inevitable death). Documentary link – End Game 
  17. Study the effects of a person going into sensory deprivation for three days – no access to devices, time tracking, etc, that Psychologists believe leads to brain damage as a result. Documentary linked – Isolation

 

Some Gathered Resources for Initial Source Studies (Step 1)

  • Miss Representation documentary – copy on YouTube (w Spanish subtitles)
  • The Downside of High – CCTV website
  • Audry & Daisy documentary – Netflix
  • What Dads are For documentary
    • Search Options in YouTube for Initial Sources
      • You can filter your search in YouTube to look for longer videos on your topic of interest, which may bring up TV Episodes, Podcast recordings of interviews with knowledgable speakers, or Documentaries)

 

Additional Research (Step 2):

  • You Can do a Google Search for Scholarly Journals on your topic; these usually show up at the top of a Google Search.
    Examples below for: Gender Conditioning in Children

    • Notice in the second image you can sort the articles by most recent or most relevant. You’ll also see highlighted in yellow some articles have been Cited more often by other publications. These are articles from Psychology or similarily-focused studied, so they’ll include many statistics, anecdotal examples, and supports for your Part 2 of your research. (You can click on these images to make them larger/more clear to read). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Published Product Options (do this as your ELA B30 Multimedia Video Assignment?)

November 26

Psych 30 Unit 2 Review Resources

We’re trying to wrap up this unit to allow you time for Unit 3 and an Inquiry (Personal Interest) Project.

You decided on an exam Wednesday, Dec 2. 

To confirm, the sections you’re responsible for from this unit include:

  • 2.1 Heredity and Genetics
  • 2.2 New Reproductive Technologies
  • 2.2.1 Documentary – The Great Sperm Race
  • 2.2.2 Assignment – Pregnancy Interview Project
  • 2.3 Labour and Delivery
  • 2.4 Assignment – Documentary Response (Business of Being Born)
  • 2.5 Problems of Prenatal Development
  • 2.8 Emotional Development (what we get through of it)

Supports for Reviewing:

  • Review Handout: 2.11 Unit Two Review – 2020
    This was revised to exclude the material we didn’t study. We’ll exclude parts of the last section that we don’t get through.
  • Unit 2 Inkodo Waldner Notes (diagrams, notes, menstrual cycle)
    Psych 30 Unit 2 – Prenatal Development – notes 202
  • Remember you also have access to my Psych 30 Moodle course that includes images and videos in each section.
  • Socrative Practice Quizzes for Review
    Room Psych30 – question feedback given to explain correct answers
    Room Psych301 – same but questions randomly ordered w feedback for correct answers

Good luck reviewing! Ask for help if you have questions!
You Got GIF - You Got This - Discover & Share GIFs


Additional Visual Resources to Further Support your Review:

October 20

Psych 30 Unit 1 Review & Practice Quizzes

To support your reviewing and allow you to test your comprehension and ability to accurately apply your learning, the following includes higher-level comprehension questions as review (they’re not low-level Blooms questions that simply label or identify terms) and a Socrative quiz that’s only for your own testing/gauging how much you need to study or review further.

4.0 Unit 1 Review 2020 pdf

Confirm with me that I’ve opened the quiz, but you can test yourself at Room #252858 in Socrative. (Oct 2020 it’s open for you) 

 

 

 

2020 Practice Quiz Results – doing pretty good, gang!

 

 

October 19

Psych 30 Who’s Afraid of Designer Babies – ethics

Fertility technology has created many opportunities and uses for this type of scientific ability, but with those advancements also come more ethical questions to consider.

The following PDF article is a Teacher’s Guide for an Australian documentary with a similar name and focus as the documentary we watched in class. You can use it to consider some of the ethical questions posed in the PDF related to issues such as:

  1. the ethics of keeping or removing genetically inherited characteristics in embryos before implantation
  2. the ethics of creating children via IVF that have the same genetically inherited disorder as another of their children, so that the second sibling will be a genetic match and can donate tissue/blood to the sibling
  3. the ethical problems made when you understand the low rate of success in using IVF treatments; many fertilized embryos created (is this the start of “life”) and used but that do not implant.
    1. Or the ethical issue with the extra fertilized embryos that remain frozen – maybe donated or given to medical science for stem cell use
  4. the ethical issue of stem cell use for medical purposes and studies; example Regeneron, the Covid19 treatment medication, uses stem cells from abandoned fertilized embryos which kills the potential of that embryo
  5. the ethical issue of eugenics – the process of manipulating who can reproduce, removing less desirable traits from society through different means, including forced sterilization of groups of people OR removing genetically inherited characteristics from being selected for implantation such as dwarfism or Down Syndrome. The Nazis carried out eugenics experiments with humans in their effort to create a “Master Race” – are designer babies as sinister?
  6. the ethical issue of when Life begins. If some believe it begins with fertilization, the potential for human life, then anything done with an embryo is as morally wrong as abortion.

Here is a list of pros and cons related to the issues from the documentary developed by a previous group of Psych 30 students. Compare your own list to these points, if it helps you develop more of your thoughts on the topic.

Positives of Designer Babies:

  1. selecting a particular sex
  2. preventing sex-linked diseases (hemophilia is more prevalent in males)
  3. preventing genetic diseases or disorders (Down Syndrome)
  4. choosing their capabilities (potential to choose an embryo with strong intelligence or athleticism)
  5. choosing skin colour (for an interracial couple)
  6. undesirable traits can be avoided
    1. some harmful personality traits or looks (anxiety, depression, cleft palate)
    2. avoiding disabilities like Dwarfism
  7. more satisfied parents, after paying high fees for the treatments
  8. balance out the gender of society (more males miscarried than females; more females selectively aborted by some cultural groups)
    1. Nearly twice as many boy babies are conceived as girls, but they are much more likely to miscarry, and by birth, the ratio is roughly 105 boys to 100 girls. WSJ Article
  9. PGD: pre-implantation genetic diagnosis

Negatives of Designer Babies:

  1. unethical practice – the outcome and uniqueness of a baby should remain natural (God-planned)
  2. no going back – may not be satisfied with your results. Treating fetuses/babies as a product of differing values.
  3. costs so much – that type of financial ability is not available for all people or societies (for the rich only, leaving out whole countries)
    1. could result, eventually, in two classes of people globally
  4. products bought like accessories to a desired lifestyle
  5. some parents want “natural” offspring: including disabilities that may arise like blindness or imperfections
  6. the male to female ratio could be radically changed by this selective practice resulting in 5 years, 12 years, 21 years later big societal differences. What happens to the balance of a society: not enough females to date or marry to create families?
  7. naturally designed people versus genetically designed people
  8. long term results are unknown
  9. biodiversity affected – the race balance may be disrupted
October 13

Psych 30: Designer Babies and the Ethics of Fertility Technology

Science is used to support and benefit people in all areas of their lives, from understanding metabolism or sugar intake to supporting fertility of families. But science is limited, at times, in that there can be negative effects of research advancements once time passes, such as the realization of the physical deformaties caused by the morning sickness drug thalidomide. It caused babies to be born missing fingers or caused abnormal facial features. It was an unknown outcome, as are other outcomes that come from research, with time. US fertility clinics face 'ethical conundrum' of what to do with thousands of abandoned embryos - ivfbabble

  1. Use of Stem Cells in Medicine: You watched the documentary Designer Babies to understand the control scientists now have related to the field of fertility. There are ethical questions to consider related to this, though, along with other topics of consideration. One example if the use of stem cells for research in medicine. Recently, President Donald Trump, a Republican who is anti-abortion, was given a medication for his Covid-19 treatment that relies on using stems cells from human fertilized embryos. An embryo is created (the potential existence of life) but destroyed by removing the cells from it. Is there an ethics discussion to be had surrounding this? Do you think it’s ethical to create fertilized embryos if they can be used as a resource to support human medical needs and not for the development to become a baby? Who decides this? Politicians and voters?
  2. Eradicating Gene Mutations: Or what about the types of mutations in genes that could possibly be removed from global societies: blindness, dwarfism, autism, etc? Are some undesirable and societies may decide to spend money to prevent them, which saves money in health care costs down the road, or is that an indignity to the content lives lived by people with these conditions? Consider Down Syndrome, a genetic disorder. Thirty years ago, when there was less superior technology in testing prior to birth, there were more children/adults with Down Syndrome in Canadian society and they integrated well into our schools and work places. Today in Canada, the rate of birth for Down Syndrome is down significantly, directly linked with the ability to diagnose early in a pregnancy and an assumption of termination on the part of some medical providers. In other countries, like Iceland, Denmark, and France, nearly all Down Syndrome fetuses are aborted. Consider – why the difference in social attitude and habits between the countries without and with babies with this disorder?Other topics worth considering/researching:
  3. Changes to the average age of women having their first child – today, many more women wait until after their careers are started to have families
  4. Health care provided by provinces supports/pays for fertility treatment for women within their province – should there be a cut-off age since procedures after a certain age are less successful?
  5. You can also look into the falling male fertility rates globally. Every year, the World Health Organization has to drop the average testosterone rate, because it continues to decline.
  6. Some countries and even provinces in Canada restrict a pregnant mother’s ability to know their baby’s gender prior to birth, in an effort to curb/inhibit selective abortion for female babies. For example, it has been discussed to create a National policy to not reveal a baby gender to an expectant mother prior to 30 weeks gestation, which is past a point of an “unquestioned abortion”.  Ethical pros and cons of this?
  7. Female Infanticide studied globally. You could research to learn which countries have the higher rates of female babies aborted, such as China after its “One Child” policy, where families want their one child to be male instead of female. What have been the repercussions and what is the reasoning for it in that country?
  8. Others: suggestions?


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