Thought-Provoking Question #2

Psychology

Tuesday, July 11th

Please answer one of the questions that follows by July 11th:


Chapter Three in the course text discusses states of consciousness, including psychoactive drug states. The questions below relate to this topic. Please choose one and answer it fully.


1. Considering what you have learned about the effects of drugs (legal or not) on the brain, have you changed your ideas about drug use? What is your current attitude about the use of drugs? If you were to tell your younger brother, sister, cousin, neighbor-or anyone else about whom you care-about using drugs, what would you say? Do you think explaining any potentially negative effects of drug usage to someone else would change your own behavior?

2. Timothy Leary, among others, conducted research with college students to study the effects of hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD. Have you read any studies by Leary or by other psychologists, psychiatrists, or doctors concerning their research either with college students or with mental patients? What have you heard about this type of research? Do you know anyone who has participated in these clinical studies? What legal and ethical concerns do you think might be or have been raised in this research? What might be the dangers and the benefits of this research both for the individual participants and for society? (More information on Timothy Leary can be found on the internet). One site is: http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/timothy_leary.html