This learning material is a TEDTalk by Dan Gilbert. It examines the psychology underlying our self-perspective on values and personality as we age. In his talk, Gilbert elaborates on the idea that while humans believe they are not very likely to change social circles or personal preferences over a ten year time period, the opposite is actually true. A quote from Gilbert: "Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished."
The TEDTalks site includes the video itself, along with videos of related topics or others by Dan Gilbert, and discussion features.
Type of Material:
Presentation
Recommended Uses:
• The video is only 6:45; as such, this would be useful as an in-class video or as an out-of-class assignment. It would be particularly useful to have students watch and reflect on what the presented content means to them within the context of a reflective journal assignment. The topic is relevant across general psychology, lifespan development, personality, motivation/emotion and social psychology.
Technical Requirements:
The video is hosted through TEDTalks. A basic web browser is needed, and users must have updated audio and video hardware; audio is essential. No additional software or plug-ins are required. The video works on Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The video addresses the following learning goals. 1) Understand "the self" as a function of human development. 2) Identify factors that influence self-perception. 3) Explore roles of values and value change as a function of lifespan development. 4) Understand rates of change over human development.
Target Student Population:
• As a teaching tool, this TEDTalk is most appropriate for undergraduate psychology students; the topic may be a bit basic for graduate students.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Only basic computer navigation skills would be needed to successfully use this site.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
• The content, while brief, provides an easily understandable yet enlightening view of the topic.
• The topic is presented in an interesting manner that promotes self-application. The presenter is interesting, accurate and relevant. The information and claims are supported with current research, and the presenter discusses how research can be applied to personal lives.
Concerns:
None.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
• The presentation is inherently interesting and is presented in a manner that prompts personal connection. It is a concise teaching supplement that can be integrated in a variety of ways to show the relevance of psychological research (and theory) to students' lives.
Concerns:
• The material does not provide background knowledge on the topic, so use of this resource would require some additional preparation to allow students to connect the findings to course material.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
• The presenter has an engaging, dynamic presentation style. Visual materials within the presentation are interesting and provide effective graphics to facilitate understanding of course material.
• Overall, the site is simple to navigate and incorporates a transcript that is available in numerous languages, making this talk highly accessible.
Concerns:
None.
Creative Commons:
Search by ISBN?
It looks like you have entered an ISBN number. Would you like to search using what you have
entered as an ISBN number?
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
