Psychology and Technology

STS 015
Spring 1995
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lecture: Tuesday 11a-1p

Section: Wednesday 11a-12p

Professor Sherry Turkle
Program in Science, Technology and Society
MIT Room E51-201C
253-4068/sturkle@media.mit.edu
Tina Taylor, Teaching Assistant
All selections included in reader except where noted by *.
* = to buy or on reserve.

Week 1. February 7. Introduction and Overview

Lewis Mumford, "The Monastery and the Clock" from Technics and Civilization (New York: Harcout, Brace & World, 1963).

Week 2. February 14. Transitional Objects and the Technological World

D.W. Winnicott, "Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena" from Playing and Reality (London: Tavistock Publications, 1971).

Seymour Papert, "The Gears of My Childhood" and "Turtle Geometry: A Mathematics Made for Learning" from Mindstorms (New York: Basic Books, 1980).

Week 3. February 21 Objects to Think With: Piagetian Perspectives

Tuesday, February 21. No lecture (Monday class schedule).

Wednesday, February, 22. Section as usual.

Jean Piaget, "Consciousness Attributed to Things" and "The Concept of Life" from The Child's Construction of the World (New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1929).

Sherry Turkle, "The Evocative Object" and "Child Philosophers: Are Smart Machines Alive?" from The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984).

February 28 -- First paper due

In the spirit of Seymour Papert's "The Gears of My Childhood," write about an early experience with an object (it could be anything, from a spinning top to a toy typewriter, to cardboard boxes to pieces of string) and reflect on your relationship to it, the possible impact it had on you (cognitive and/or emotional) at the time and the possible impact it has had on your later development. (8 pages)

Week 4. February 28. The Psychology of Object Design

Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (New York: Doubleday, 1990).*

Week 5. March 7. Styles of Approaching Technology: 1

Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (New York: W. Morrow, 1984) pp. 1-79. *

Week 6. March 14. Styles of Approaching Technology: 2

David Shapiro, "Obsessive-Compulsive Style" and "Hysterical Style" from Neurotic Styles (New York: Basic Books, 1965).

Sherry Turkle, "Child Programmers: The First Generation" and "Hackers: Loving the Machine for Itself" from The Second Self (ibid.).

Week 7. March 21. Gender Psychology and Technology

Sherry Turkle, "Computational Reticence: Why Women Fear the Intimate Machine" from Technology and Women's Voices, Chris Kramerae (ed.) (New York: Pergamon Press, 1986).

Carol Gilligan, A Different Voice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982) selections. *

Week 8. March 28 - Holiday (Spring Break)

Second Paper due for Class on April 4.

In the style of Donald Norman, analyze an object (in home, in dorm, at MIT) that manifests particularly poor design. Use Norman's categories to explain what is problematic about the design. (In the past, VCRs and answering machine have proved an endless source of amusement.) (4-5 pages)

Week 9. April 4. Artificial Intelligence and Self-Reflection

John Searle, "Minds, Brains and Programs", The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(1980).

Sherry Turkle, "Artificial Intelligence and Psychoanalysis", Daedalus, v.117 n.1 (Winter 1988).

Week 10. April 11. Virtual Communities and the Self: 1

Amy Bruckman, "Identity Workshops", unpublished manuscript.

Sherry Turkle,

- Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs", Mind, Culture, and Activity, v.1 n.3 (Summer 1994).

  Leslie D. Harris, "The Psychodynamic Effects of Virtual Reality", Arachnet Electronic Journal on Virtual Culture, v.2 issue 1.

Week 11. April 11. Virtual Communities and the Self: 2

Tuesday, April 18. Holiday - No lecture
Wednesday, April 19. 11-12. Section as usual.

"Rosanne Allacuquere Stone", "Will the Real Body Please Stand Up: Boundary Stories About Virtual Cultures" from Cyberspace: First Steps, Michael Benedikt (ed.)(Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991).

Rosanne Allequerre Stone, "Violation and Virtuality", unpublished manuscript.

April 19 -- Third paper due (in section)

Find three friends who enjoy playing computer games. (The games could be in the style of Mortal Combat; they could be MUDs, they could be in the style of Myst.) Interview these three people about their relationship to the game or games they most enjoy. What is the "holding power," the meaning, of the game for them? For example, do they see themselves as a character in this game? Do they project themselves into the game? Do they like its "story?" Why? Does the game touch on themes important to their "outside" lives? (10 pages).

Week 12. April 25. Reproductive Technology and the Self

Barbara Katz Rothman, The Tentative Pregnancy (New York: Viking, 1986).*

Gena Corea, et. al. (eds.), "Transforming Consciousness: Women and the New Reproductive Technologies" from Man-Made Women (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1987).

Week 13. May 2. Technology in the Home

Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi, The Meaning of Things (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1981).*

Week 14. May 9. Brain Imaging Technology

Joseph Dumit, "A Digital Image of the Category of the Person: PET Scanning and Objective Self-Fashioning", unpublished manuscript.

Joseph Dumit, "Desiring a Beautiful Image of the Brain: A Cultural Semiotics of Functional Imaging", unpublished manuscript.

Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto" in Simians, Cyborgs and Women (New York: Routledge, 1991).

Week 15. May 16. Photographic Technology and the Self

Susan Sontag, On Photography(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).*

Final -- A three-hour final examination will be given during final examination week. Please see final examination schedule for time and location.

Book to buy (or get in library) --

Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (New York: Doubleday, 1990).

Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (New York: W. Morrow, 1984).

Carol Gilligan, A Different Voice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982).

Barbara Katz Rothman, The Tentative Pregnancy (New York: Viking, 1986).

Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi, The Meaning of Things (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1981).

Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).

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