Global Psychology Discussion Assignment
Global Psychology Discussion Assignment
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1. Cereans are an alien race living on a distant planet called Alderaan, and whose bodies function the same way as humans’ bodies do. A galactic scholar has been learning about the Cereans’ evolutionary history. The following is an excerpt from the scholar’s work:
The Cereans first appeared approximately 50,000 years ago. Throughout their evolutionary history, they have lived in a region on Alderaan that gets very little sunlight, resulting in very little exposure to UVR. The Cereans have never migrated elsewhere. Approximately 10,000 years ago, they discovered a food source that provides an ample supply of Vitamin D for their dietary needs.
Based on this scholar’s work, draw a line graph that approximates the expected relationship between the Cereans’ evolutionary history (starting with -50,000 [meaning when Cereans first appeared] and ending at 0 [meaning now]) and their skin tone (smaller value means lighter skin tone; higher value means darker skin tone).
2. Alice complains about how it is unfair that French people eat fattier foods but they have better cardiovascular health than Americans do. Alice is a European-American and blames this difference on genetic differences between European-Americans and French people. Based on existing psychological research, do you agree with her statement? In explaining your answer, please provide two alternative explanations.
3. A collection of societies uses seashells as currency. A large-scale survey suggests that one hundred seashells is the threshold that separates people who are wealthy from people who are not wealthy. Draw a line graph that depicts the expected relationship between the number of seashells a society generally has and a society’s general health outcome as a dependent variable (for which a higher score means better health outcomes).
4. You are trying to convince your parents why studying psychology is not a waste of time. Your parents, on the other hand, complain that psychology is not an exact science due to its subjectivity. They contrast it to modern medicine, which they think is an objective science, such that all doctors agree on all things medicine related. Your parents are, of course, wrong—but how are they wrong? Cite two pieces of evidence from the textbook to support your claim.
