Dr. Oakley Ray has spent most of his career as a psychologist in
teaching and research. He grew up in Western Pennsylvania, attended Cornell
University, served in the U.S. army, then obtained his ph.D. in clinical
Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. Now Dr. Ray is a professor
at Vanderbilt University, with appointments in the Departments of Psychology,
Psychiatry, and Pharmacology. He has received numerous honors and awards
for his teaching excellence and leadership skills and is a frequent lecturer
and consultant for industrial, educational, community, and government groups.
Dr. Ray is the author of the best selling textbook Drugs, Society, and Human Behavior, now in its 8th edition and used in over 400 colleges, universities, and schools.
When he can find time between writing, teaching, and lecturing he enjoys
motorcycling, water and snow skiing, and landscaping.
Some students give psychologists
a hard time when they talk about psychology being a Science with a
capital “S”. What can be predicted? Can it be verified?
Can anyone really believe that psychology is a
Science in the same way physics and chemistry are Sciences? The
only answer to those questions comes
from comparing the predictions of the two fields under similar conditions.
Consider a ball rolling down a hill
– how long does it take to reach the bottom? The physics major
says it’s a snap to figure out. In the early seventeenth century
Galileo arrived at the conclusion that the ratio
of the distance (d) covered to the square of the time (t) elapsed,
always equals a constant – one-half the
acceleration (a) d/t2 = 1/2 a. When the
mass of the ball and the length and height of the inclined plane are
known, everything can be calculated.
But explain to the physics major that
you weren’t asking about a hypothetical ball rolling down a
theoretical inclined plane, but a real ball rolling down a real hill.
The hill has patches of grass, some soggy
ground, some smooth rock and a few dips and depressions between the
top of the hill and the bottom.
Unfortunately the ball, although a true sphere, has a pebble finish
on part of it, is smooth in places, and has
sharp ridges on still other parts. A complicating factor is that
it is raining on some of the hill and the wind is
variable in direction with gusts up to 60 mph. The crowning blow
is that there is no information about how
large or how heavy the ball is or whether it was given a gentle nudge
or a healthy shove to start it rolling.
Now the question is, how long will it take for the ball to reach the
bottom of the hill? (A good final exam
question for Introductory Physics!).
Studying behavior is like predicting
how long it takes for a real ball to roll down a real hill: There are
many unknown and unmeasured variables. Even so, we want to try
to understand and predict behavior. We
do care about behavior – our behavior and the behavior of other people.
That’s where this course will help
you. You will learn about the variables which combine to influence
and control behavior. And, you will
learn some of the rules which can be used to predict, control, and
understand behavior. It’s no snap - but you
can learn the rules, and how to apply them to your advantage.
---- Oakley Ray