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One of the hallmarks of a quality liberal arts education is providing undergraduates the opportunity to wrestle with controversial issues. Yet many teachers feel ill-equipped when it comes to broaching disagreeable topics, managing the resulting heated debates, or helping students to separate their personal feelings from scientific evidence. This book provides frameworks for teaching controversial topics and skills for handling disruptions, so teachers can help students evaluate evidence and develop testable questions. Specific teaching topics covered include: (1) evolutionary psychology; (2) childrearing; (3) sexual orientation; (4) animal experimentation; (5) evil; (6) diversity and social justice; (7) gender and ethnicity; (8) religion; (9) disability; and (10) healthcare policy. Following the List of Contributors, the Foreword, and the Preface and Acknowledgments, this book contains four parts. Part I, Guiding Frameworks for Teaching About Controversial Issues, contains: (1) Frames of Reference: Social Psychological Perspectives for Teaching About Controversial Matters (Dana S. Dunn, Regan A. R. Gurung, and Karen Z. Naufel); (2) Treating Students as Early Career Professionals: The Ethics of Teaching (Maureen McCarthy and R. Eric Landrum); and (3) Preventing and Handling Classroom Disruptions (Kristin M. Vespia and Tonya E. Filz). Part II, Helping Students Arrive at an Empirically Based Conclusion, contains: (4) Seven Tools from Evolutionary Psychology (David M. Buss); (5) Hitting Close to Home: Teaching About Spanking (Elizabeth T. Gershoff); (6) Sexual Orientation, Marriage, and Students of Faith (David G. Myers); and (7) Addressing the Role of Animal Research in Psychology (Suzanne C. Baker and Sherry L. Serdikoff). Part III, Opening Consideration of Multiple Views, contains: (8) Overcoming Discomfort When Teaching About Evil and Immorality (Karen Z. Naufel); (9) Anticipating and Working With Controversy in Diversity and Social Justice Topics (Cheryl B. Warner, Rosemary E. Phelps, Delishia M. Pittman, and Carla S. Moore); (10) Gender Matters: Engaging Students in Controversial Issues (Elizabeth Yost Hammer and Eugenia Valentine); (11) Teaching About Race and Ethnicity (Mary E. Kite); (12) Spirituality and Religion: How Contexts, Developmental Processes, and Personal Experiences Influence Behavior (Dean D. VonDras); (13) Disability as Diversity Rather than (In)Difference: Understanding Others' Experiences Through One's Own (Dana S. Dunn, David J. Fisher, and Brittany M. Beard); and (14) Health Psychology and Policy: When Politics Infiltrates Science (Regan A. R. Gurung and Daniel Bruns). Part IV, Concluding Thoughts and Going Forward, contains: (15) Using Controversies to Teach Scientific Thinking in Psychology: Topics and Issues (Jeffrey D. Holmes).

The purpose of the book is to provide teachers of psychology access to teaching techniques that epitomize "happy tact and ingenuity." The principle influence that teachers have on student behavior occurs in the classroom since, as noted by Erickson and Strommer, (1991), today's students spend relatively little time studying outside of class. When college teachers think about student engagement, they suggest that engaged students really want to learn, exceed expectations, and demonstrate passion and excitement (Barkley, 2009). In this book, the reader will find a host of ideas that should help create passion and excitement in the classroom. In this book, the authors describe engagement techniques that address topics within the context of a particular course in psychology. Each chapter provides an annotated bibliography of activities published elsewhere as well as a new unpublished activity that the author has used. The annotated bibliography outlines exercises and demonstrations that enhance student engagement relevant to the topic area that have been published in TOPS, the "Handbooks for Teaching Psychology," as well as activities recommended in various Instructor's manuals and those available through OTRP. The book is divided into five sections. The first section describes activities that can be used in the social, developmental, environmental, organizational, and cross-cultural psychology. The second section describes activities that can be used to teach sensation and perception, cognitive psychology, intelligence, language and related topics. In the third section, the editors offer teaching techniques relevant to biological psychology, research methods and related topics, as well as history and systems courses. Abnormal behavior, personality, gender and adjustment are all addressed in Section 4. Section 5 is devoted to activities that can be used in more than one course and include topics such as diversity, critical thinking, positive psychology and APA style writing. Section 1, Social and Developmental Psychology, contains: (1) How Engaging Are You? A Review of Teaching Methods to Engage Students in Child and Adolescent Psychology Courses (Aaron S. Richmond and Lisa Kindelberger Hagan); (2) Adult Development: Designing a Retirement and Care Plan for Older Adults (Maya M. Khanna); (3) Classroom Activities for a Course on Death, Dying, and Bereavement (Lisa M. Bauer); (4) Group Dynamics (Donelson R. Forsyth); (5) Engaging Students in Psychology and Law: An Exercise in Jury Selection (Kathryn T. Hendricks and Matthew T. Huss); (6) Engaging Students in Applied Social Psychology (Richard J. Harnish, K. Robert Bridges, Alecia V. Denillo, and Michelle L. Flaherty); (7) Teaching Environmental Psychology: Demonstrations and Exercises (Paul A. Bell, Patricia A. Romano, Thomas C. Greene, Jacob A. Benfield, Britt L. Mace and Gretchen A. Nurse); (8) Activities for Engagement in an Industrial/Organizational Psychology Course (Tracy E. Zinn and Whitney F. Smiley); and (9) Engaging Students in Cross-Cultural Psychology (Stephanie L. Anderson and Richard L. Miller). Section 2, Cognitive Processes, contains: (10) Sensation and Perception: Activities to Promote Learning and Clarify Student Perceptions (Cindy Gibson); (11) Engaging Students in Cognitive Psychology (David W. Carroll and Allen Keniston); (12) Exercises and Demonstrations for Motivation and Emotion Courses (Alan Hughes); (13) Is Your Educational Psychology Class Boring? A Review of Teaching Methods to Engage Your Students (Aaron S. Richmond); (14) Intelligence (Amber Esping and Jonathan Plucker); and (15) Engaging Students in the Psychology of Language (David W. Carroll and Eleni Pinnow). Section 3, Biological Processes, Research and the History of Psychology, contains: (16) Online Teaching Resources for Animal Behavior (Joseph J. Benz); (17) Activities for a Neuroscience Course (S. A. Lloyd, R. A. Shanks, and C. L. Robertson); (18) Physiological Psychology (Frank Ferraro, III); (19) Engaging Activities for Students Who are Learning Research Methods (William J. Lammers); (20) Activities for Student Engagement in a Statistics Course (Tracy Zinn and Whitney Smiley); (21) Activities for Engagement in a Psychometric Course (B. Jean Mandernach and Jana Hackathorn); and (22) Engaging Students in History and Systems of Psychology Courses (William Douglas Woody). Section 4, Abnormal Behavior and Personality, contains: (23) Creating Transformative Experiences for Students in Abnormal Psychology (Anton O. Tolman); (24) Health Psychology (Robin A. Anderson); (25) Engaging Students in Clinical Psychology Courses (Jeanne M. Slattery); (26) Human Sexuality (Karen Rayne and Missi Patterson); (27) Psychology of Religion (Kevin L. Ladd and Michael E. Nielsen); (28) The Psychology of Gender (Isabelle D. Cherney); (29) Personality (Marianne Miserandino); and (30) Teaching the Psychology of Adjustment (Dana S. Dunn, Elizabeth Yost Hammer and Wayne Weiten). Section 5, Activities That Can Be Used In More Than One Course, contains: (31) Ethics of Psychotherapy and Counseling (Mitchell M. Handelsman, Allison Bashe and Sharon K. Anderson); (32) Engaging Students in APA-Style Writing (Lynn A. Bruner); (33) On Happiness: Introducing Students to Positive Psychology (Dana S. Dunn, Brittany M. Beard and David J. Fisher); (34) Teaching about Diversity: Activities that Promote Student Engagement (Christie Cathey and Alexandra S. Ross); (35) Peace and War (Linda M. Woolf and Michael R. Hulsizer); (36) Nonverbal Communication (Don W. Stacks, Mark Hickson III, Jessica Deyo, and Price Walt); and (37) Critical Thinking Activities for the Teaching of Psychology (Paul C. Smith). Individual papers contain tables, figures, footnotes, references and appendices. [For Volume 1, "Promoting Student Engagement. Volume 1: Programs, Techniques and Opportunities," see ED533155.]