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Introduction to Unit:

For this part of the unit I want to focus on psychological disorders and how very real
psychological disorders are for many individuals. I want students to understand that although
these disorders may seem uncommon, that even those who aren’t personally affected by these
disorders, that due to a web of connections most of us are touched by illnesses like these. I want
to humanize these illnesses and not demonize them or those affected by them. I want my students
to be aware of these disorders, while also having empathy for those affected. I have gathered
materials that reveal the reality those affected with this disorder face, as well as gathering
different viewpoints. I find that this topic is so important for students to understand in an attempt
to normalize psychological disorders. With each of my documents I hope to push my students to
be open minded and to look objectively at the data and information that is presented to them. I
think it is important for my students to understand that we live in a world of more than just black
and white and that there is more to psychology and the brain than we understand, as it is ever
changing and evolving. I hope to encourage students to want to learn more about psychological
disorders and psychology in general, as it is such as fascinating field of study. A few of the
essential questions we will discuss are: “How does psychology shape our everyday lives”, What
difference might there be in the brains of those with psychological disorders and those
without-that is what do we think is happening that causes a difference”, and “What might the
link between disorders and the brain be and do we or can we find control over it”.

Document 1:
Elmhorst, Minter, Spilis, Prentice Hall® Psychology, 2nd Edition

Analysis: This text clearly relates to my unit plan. It covers all topics I plan to cover over the
course of the semester. I think I will find an ample amount of information related to what my
units will focus on and I believe the textbook will engage the students, while also giving them
the information they need to understand both this part of the unit and all my other units. I think
students will find that this text clearly lays out the scientific data, vocabulary and information
necessary to learn the required material. However I will need to use engaging lesson plans as
well as supplemental materials in order to maintain engagement, ensure they think objectively
and that they think with an open mind. Without being able to really dig into this specific text, I
cannot go into further detail on the content. However I do believe the company provides a
functional and standard meeting/exceeding text for high school students. I think at first glance
students will be able to understand how to utilize the text and its purpose.

Questions:
1. What is psychology?
2. How does it shape our everyday lives?
3. In what ways do we see psychology evolving over time?
Document 2:
Supervenience and Psychiatry: Are Mental Disorders Brain Disorders? Charles M. Olbert
Fordham University, Gary J. Gala University of North Carolina School of Medicine
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/teo0000023​ Found on Psycinfo through lib.msu.edu

Analysis: This study offers a different idea and view of psychological disorders. It offers a
different connection for these illnesses. Although the study clearly states that some mental
disorders are not and cannot be just brain disorders, it does offer how the brain does play a role
in disorders. Although some disorders may not be linked to brain disorders and vice versa, they
are linked to how the brain’s activity does affect each and every one of us and in different way. I
hope that this text will encourage my students to continue thinking with an open mind and that
they will appreciate learning about a study of this kind that requires them to think deeper about
psychology and how it relates to the brain. I think students will be able to think more critically
about psychological disorders after analyzing this study and that they will better understand the
role the brain play in psychology and psychological disorders. I also believe that students often
see mental disorders as something in the head, but not necessarily related to the literal brain. I
think that making this connection to the brain is important and it will facilitate later discussion. I
do however also believe that this article may be long and dry and so I would ensure I highlighted
the most important aspects of the study and I would ensure we discussed the article as a class so
that there were no misunderstanding for the students within the study or with vocabulary. I think
at first glance what students will find from this article is that is is long and not particularly
entertaining at first glance, but I do also think that their interests will be piqued after ready the
abstract, as I was as well.

Questions:
1. How are disorders discussed in this study?
2. Do you think there is the link between disorders and the brain?
3. What do you think about this connection? Do we have control over it?
4. How are psychology and the brain connected? How do they affect one another?
Document 3:
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams- The relations between Dreams and Mental
Diseases pp. 116-117
(This passage from Radestock is actually a summary of an acute observation made by
Griesinger (1861, 106), who shows quite clearly that ideas in dreams and in psychoses have in
common the characteristic of being fulfilments of wishes. My own researches have taught me
that in this fact lies the key to a psychological theory of both dreams and psychoses.)
‘The chief feature of dreams and of insanity lies in their eccentric trains of thought and
their weakness of judgement.’ In both states [Radestock continues] we find an over-valuation of
the subject’s own mental achievements which seems senseless to a sober view; the rapid
sequence of ideas in dreams is paralleled by the flight of ideas in psychoses. In both there is a
complete lack of sense of time. In dreams the personality may be split— when, for instance, the
dreamer’s own knowledge is divided between two persons and when, in the dream, the
extraneous ego corrects the actual one. This is precisely on a par with the splitting of the
personality that is familiar to us in hallucinatory paranoia; the dreamer too hears his own
thoughts pronounced by extraneous voices. Even chronic delusional ideas have their analogy in
stereotyped recurrent pathological dreams (le rêve obsédant).—It not infrequently happens that
after recovering from a delirium patients will say that the whole period of their illness seems to
them like a not unpleasant dream: indeed they will sometimes tell us that even during the illness
they have occasionally had a feeling that they are only caught up in a dream—as is often the case
in dreams occurring in sleep.
After all this, it is not surprising that Radestock sums up his views, and those of many
others, by declaring that ‘insanity, an abnormal pathological phenomenon, is to be regarded as an
intensification of the periodically recurrent normal condition of dreaming.’ (Ibid., 228.)
Krauss (1859, 270 f.) has sought to establish what is perhaps a still more intimate
connection between dreams and insanity than can be demonstrated by an analogy between these
external manifestations. This connection he sees in their aetiology or rather in the sources of their
excitation. The fundamental element common to the two states lies according to him, as we have
seen [pp. 70 f.], in organically determined sensations, in sensations derived from somatic stimuli,
in the coenaesthesia which is based upon contributions arising from all the organs. (Cf. Peisse,
1857, 2, 21, quoted by Maury, 1878, 52.)
The indisputable analogy between dreams and insanity, extending as it does down to their
characteristic details, is one of the most powerful props of the medical theory of dream-life,
which regards dreaming as a useless and disturbing process and as the expression of a reduced
activity of the mind. Nevertheless it is not to be expected that we shall find the ultimate
explanation of dreams in the direction of mental disorders; for the unsatisfactory state of our
knowledge of the origin of these latter conditions is generally recognized. It is quite likely, on the
contrary, that a modification of our attitude towards dreams will at the same time affect our
views upon the internal mechanism of mental disorders and that we shall be working towards an
explanation of the psychoses while we are endeavouring to throw some light on the mystery of
dreams.

Analysis: Freud discusses a view that is less commonly heard about. I believe this text requires
students to think openly and objectively. It requires an understanding of psychology and I think
that a great assignment or project could stem from this article. I think students would benefit
from analyzing the idea of there being a link between dreams and psychological disorders.
Students could dig deeper and relate how specific psychological disorders could stem from the
dream state as is discussed in the excerpt. I think students will appreciate the ability to work on a
project that is not fully based on facts but rather based on their interpretation of disorders and the
ability to find their own connections. A project like this offers them a chance to explore
psychology and they will know that as long as they substantiate their claims and ideas that there
can be no wrong answer. Although students may perhaps find the text itself a bit dry and
uneventful, it is an interesting and a new viewpoint and offers additional insight into the subject
of psychology. I hope as a teacher that this excerpt and an exercise, as mention above, would
lead students to understand that psychology is every changing and evolving and that even they
can make such connections and claims. With there being so much about psychology and the
brain that we don’t know, my students will understand that new discoveries are made everyday
and that even they have the ability to make such discoveries. I think at first glance students will
be able to understand the connection being made between the feeling of being in a dream and
how that relates to how many individuals with psychological disorders may experience the same
feeling.

Questions:
1. What do you think about Freud's viewpoint? Do you think he’s right? Why or why not?
2. How might this relate to other materials we have covered up to this point?
3. What role does the brain play in dreaming?
4. Which psychological disorders can this theory be applied to?
Document 4:
http://www.learner.org/series/discoveringpsychology/brain/brain_flash.html

Analysis: I chose the website I did because it offers resources related to the majority of the topics
I plan to cover in my class. The link opens up to an interactive interface that allows students to
click and move through topics of psychology. The interactive site also asks questions at the end
to gage the students understand and explains the answer. Aside from the discovering psychology
interactive interface, the website also offers a variety of other resources including other
interactive links for both psychology and a variety of other subjects, as well as potential activities
and lesson plans. I think this is beneficial for students because they can use this site as a resource
for psychology and it is something they are able to return to whenever they have access to a
computer. Additionally, it is also a resource they can use for other classes even. I think students
can benefit from a site like this because of the way topics are separated and grouped in a way
that makes it easy to understand and then follows the interaction up with review questions that
allow students to gage their own understanding. I believe students will appreciate a resource that
is user technological and friendly. If the students cannot find something specific they can just
search to find what they are looking for in the site. I think this site with be very accessible for
myself and my students. I think at first glance students will easily be able to maneuver through
the site and understand its purpose as a supplemental resource.

Questions:
1. What are the different contemporary approaches used to understand, treat, and prevent
psychological disorders?
2. What connections can you make between the human brain, it’s different systems and
what they are responsible for, in regards to psychological disorders?
3. What differences might there be in the brains of those with psychological disorders and
those without? That is, what do we think is happening that causes a difference?
Document 5:
-A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Analysis: I chose this film because it shows both happy and sad moments as well as experiences
related to a psychological disorder like schizophrenia. It enables the students a way to relate to
the character, and feel empathy for the character. It allows the students a way to understand just
how real schizophrenia is and how hard it is to understand, for both the person with
schizophrenia and those around the individual. It enables students to make connections between
symptoms and disorders as well as gives them insight into how an individual with schizophrenia
might feel. It highlights the fact them those with a disorder do not always understand the
difference between reality and the disorder. The only downfall of this film is that although
although it is inspired by a true story, it is not fully authentic and some instances are made
theatrical on purpose. However, I believe that the students and I will be able to work through the
movie and reflect on it as we discover and learn more about schizophrenia and other disorders
and they’re very real symptoms and how they relate to the character in the movie. I think that for
those who have never seen this movie that they will not understand clearly the difference
between reality and the disorder being portrayed at first. I think they will have to struggle to
grasp the reality of this disorder in the movie without being given preceding information about
the character and the disorder he faces. Overall I think that the students, struggling to discern
what is reality in the movie, is a testament to how destructive this illness (and others) can be and
I believe it provides them a chance feel empathetic towards the main character. At first glance, I
believe students will clearly see the connection this film has to psychological disorders and begin
making connections to the material they have learned about psychological disorders thus far.

Questions:
1. When watching the film where do you first start to see things that seem outside of the
norm? Is there a certain moment where you had any realizations about the film? A part
where things start to come together/rather than fall apart?
2. What does the main character do that makes him seem like a bit of an outcast? Why is
this important? Would you consider this the first visible symptom of his disorder? If not
what do you think is or was the first visible symptom?
3. What is considered an abnormal behavior? How do you think you would act similarly or
different from those close to the main character?
4. Is it hard to tell the difference from what’s real and what is not?
5. How did he adapt to this disorder?

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