WEATHER, ONEONTA, NY

LES DOWNING'S   HOMEPAGE   PSYCHOLOGY

LINK TO COURSE INFORMATION

Small town boy, from Kankakee, Illinois, breaks out of the Midwest

to become a small town Psychology Professor in Upstate New York.

       

I was the first in a large family to go to college. In 1959, with the help and encouragement of many, I enrolled 75 miles south of Kankakee at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. I was going to be an architect for awhile, but I made a radical shift in career plans to major in Psychology. I then headed further south, and after more than the usual number of years, received a Masters, and in 1970 I completed a Ph.D. in Psychology, from Southern Illinois University, in Carbondale, Illinois. Then, for six years, I taught and did research in the Graduate Social Psychology program at the University of Georgia before moving to New York State, where I taught for three years at Union College in Schenectady before becoming a part of the State University of New York  (SUNY) at Oneonta, New York.  I have for some time been a full professor at SUNY Oneonta, teaching and writing and doing research primarily in the area of Social Psychology, with an occasional foray into Industrial/Organizational Psychology. I also teach a graduate course at SUNY Binghamton.

        For more detail on my academic history,
       see my curriculum VITA.

      

My current interest is the Social Psychology of Cults and Other Powerful Groups, especially as related to ideological conversion and commitment processes.  I teach a course on that subject, "Social Psychology: Belief and Commitment in Groups," (PSYC 264), and I have been writing a book, Fragile Realities: Conversion and Commitment in Cults and Other Powerful Groups, chapters of which my students read for the course.  I have also recently taught a Senior Seminars on "The Psychology of Extremism," "The Holocaust," and "The Social Psychology of Good and Evil."




FAMILY and FRIEND

My children, Emily and Andrew, as well as our extended family and friends around the country, are both subjects and invited guests to a family page, used primarily for display of pictures and additional personal information.  Emily, who is currently working on her Ph.D. in Philosophy at Cornell University, is married to Adam Muller, a professor in English Literature at the University of Manitoba, at Winnipeg.  They have a home in Winnipeg, but are currently living in Ithaca NY.  Andrew works in the financial district in Manhattan, and lives in Brooklyn, though he is currently, and for two years, living in Shanghai, China, developing a branch office for his company.  Let it just be said that family and friends are a very important part of my life.

EMILY

ANDREW

My Extracurricular Interests

Gardening, Cooking, Eating and Drinking Sailing, Traveling, and Watching Movies, Designing and Building Things: Stained Glass, Photos, Sculpture, Paintings, Collages, Woodworking, Houses, Decks, and Furniture.

In February, 2004, I was fortunate to be invited to travel with a group of Archeology students and their professor, Renee Walker, to visit Mayan ruins in Belize and Guatemala. Here are a two pictures from that trip.

 

BELIZE TRIP (2/27/04 - 3/07/04)

VENICE 2006 - CARNIVALE (with Emily)

Contact me by e-mail - downinll                DOWNINLL@ONEONTA.EDU

TANDEM STORY

A TANDEM STORY

Here's a prime example of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus", offered by an English professor from the University of Phoenix: The professor told his class one day: "Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person
will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. (sic ... Think about if this is even possible!)
As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will
e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth.

Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

The following was actually turned in by two of his English students, Rebecca and Gary.


THE STORY:

(first paragraph by Rebecca)

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind
off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

(second paragraph by Gary)

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon
4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. " A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere
and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had never had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4.
"Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She
stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.
(Gary)

Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

(Rebecca)

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic
semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary)

Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of FUCKING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels!"

(Rebecca)

Asshole.

(Gary)

Bitch

(Rebecca)

FUCK YOU, YOU NEANDERTHAL!

(Gary)

Go drink some tea - whore.

(TEACHER)

A+ - I really liked this one