University of Toronto, Department of Psychology
Psy 3001 2011: Professional Psychology - Research Ethics and Survival Skills
Suggested books for the final essay assignment
A hard copy is due by 3 pm on Monday, April 11, 2011. Hard copies only please. The paper should be double-spaced and may be printed double-sided.There will be no extensions except in case of illness or personal emergencies. I will try to be in my office throughout the afternoon of the 11th; if you don't find me there you may leave your paper in my mailbox in the mail room, which I will check frequently throughout the day (as well as at the end of the preceding week).
The essay should take the form of a book review for Science or Nature or a similar journal, i.e. more discussion and reflection than description of what is in the book. It should be 1500-2000 words long. You do not need to read anything other than the book, although your discussion is expected to reflect material from within the course, if relevant. An annotated list of suggestions follows. These are examples; feel free to suggest your own, but it must be approved. Most of these are in the U of T library system. Although you can start reading anytime, the essay should reflect appropriate material from the whole course.
"Science in fiction" (novels about life in science).
Intuition. Allegra Goodman (2006). Suspected fraud and personal relationships in a genetics lab.
Thinks. David Lodge (2002). Well known for his comic novels about academic life, here Lodge cleverly contrasts the scientific with the literary study of consciousness.
The Bourbaki Gambit (1994) or Cantor’s Dilemma (1989) by Carl Djerassi. The discoverer of the birth control pill wrote several novels about ethical dilemmas in the lives of scientists.
Arrowsmith. Sinclair Lewis (1925). An American classic dealing with the influence of business on science and medicine. Satirical. Still relevant 80+ years later.
Novels based on findings in psychology and neuroscience
Walden II (various editions). B. F. Skinner's classic on the application of reinforcement principles to organization of society.
See the Penn Neuroethics website attached to the January 24 class for a list of science fiction novels exploring implications of findings in neuroscience.
Scientific biography and autobiography
In Search of Memory (2006). Eric R. Kandel. Autobiography of one of the few Nobel prize-winners in our field. A history of modern neuroscience intertwined with his own life history.
The Double Helix (1980). James D. Watson. The now-classic first-person account of the discovery of DNA by a maverick postdoc. Available in several editions.
Rosalind Franklin, The Dark Lady of DNA (2002). Brenda Maddox. A woman’s struggle to build a life in science in mid-20th century Britain. A counterpoint to the previous book in the list.
B.F. Skinner (1993). Daniel W. Bjork.
Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection (2002). Deborah Blum. Fascinating perspective on the change in attitude toward mother-infant relations and the emotional needs of children that was brought about largely by Harlow’s research, problematical though some of it now appears.
Time, Love, Memory (1999). Jonathan Weiner. Weaves together the biography of fruitfly geneticist Seymour Benzer with a gripping account of pioneering research on the genetic control of behavior. By a prize-winning science writer.
Advice to young scientists (two classics, both short but pithy, based on eminent scientists’ reflections on lessons learned in their own careers)
Advice for a Young Investigator. Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1897; new translation by Swanson & Swanson, MIT Press, 1999).
Advice to a Young Scientist. Peter Medawar (1979). Chapter titles include “Sexism and racism in science” and “Aspects of scientific life and manners.”
Ethics in science and related things
The Discovery of Insulin (1982 and later editions). Michael Bliss. U of T’s greatest episode in the history of science, vividly recounted by our most distinguished historian of science. Jealousy and competition are nothing new when a big scientific prize is at stake.
The Drug Trial (2005). Miriam Shuchman. An account of the Nancy Oliveiri case, U of T’s most infamous episode in the history of science.
The Baltimore Case (1998). Daniel J. Kelves. This high-profile case of suspected misconduct in the molecular biology lab of Nobel prizewinner David Baltimore spurred the development of mechanisms for dealing with scientific misconduct in the US.
Do Fish Feel Pain? (2010). Victoria Braithwaite. Very accessible discussion of issues regarding welfare of any species in captivity such as how do we know when animals feel pain and how do we measure what they want.
The Monkey Wars (1994). Deborah Blum. Episodes in the controversy over the use of primates in biomedical research.
Academic Duty (1997). Donald Kennedy. Former president of Stanford and editor of Science reflects on the issues raised by students in a Stanford course similar to psy 3001.
The Mathematics of Sex: How Biology and Society Conspire to Limit Talented Women and Girls (2009). Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams. One of many books on the topic of gender inequity in science. This one is a pretty balanced analysis of its causes by two psychologists.
Am I Making Myself Clear? A Scientist's Guide to Talking to the Public (2009). Cornelia Dean. By a long-time New York Times science writer.