Thursday, November 16, 2006
Historical and Cultural Context of the Learning Perspective
The learning perspective emerged in the early 20th century. During that time period, people believed that science will solve everything, and society can progress and develop. They also believed that individuals need to adapt to the environment, similar to Darwin’s theory. Also, the learning perspective was very popular in America until the 1950s. During that time, people in America believed that individuals can overcom barriers to progess and had great optimism about the future since America was still a new country. The learning perpective originated from behavoralism. Because people during that time started to believe in science more, the psychodynamic approach was rejected since introspection was unreliable, and the unconscious was impossible to be studied and tested scientifically. Instead, behavoiralism focuses on observable behavior that could be studied through experiments. This new science, behavioralism, was particularly appealing to the USA, American, which liked to see itself as a new nation. It offered simple explanation of behavior by focusing on how stimuli in the environment effect the responses of people. For instance, Watson’s study of Little Albert offered a simple explanation of a phobia that challenged Freud’s complex explantion that focuesed on the unconscious. Behavioralism was popular because it promised social change by arguing that behavior could be changed if environment was change. Behavioralism was modified by Skinner and changed to the learning perspective. The learning perspective is different from behavioralism because new insights from cognitive and biological perspectives were added to it.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Best of the Century
What do you think are the 5 most important development and why?
Anything can happen within a century. This is true for everything, including psychology. Many discoveries have been made over then 19th Century regarding the field of psychology. The five discoveries that I think are the most important are
1. The discovery that human intelligence develops in stages as we grow older made by Jean Piaget.
Anything can happen within a century. This is true for everything, including psychology. Many discoveries have been made over then 19th Century regarding the field of psychology. The five discoveries that I think are the most important are
1. The discovery that human intelligence develops in stages as we grow older made by Jean Piaget.
2. Discovery of the possibility that nearly everyone has the potential to follow authority to the point of committing murder made by Stanley Milgram.
3. Discovery of how unreliable eyewitness testimony is, and how easily false memories can be implanted in both children and adults made by Elizabeth F. Loftus.
4. Discovery that unconditional punishment has serious and persistent debilitating emotional effects and can lead to depression.
5. The discovery of the “humanistic” approach to therapy, emphasizing the therapist’s genuineness and openness and unconditional positive regard for the client made by Carl Rogers.
I think that the discovery made by Piaget is important because it shows us a clear reason why children see things differently from adults. I think this discovery can help adults understand children more and find a way to interact better with children. I think it can also help us understand why children disagree with adults, it’s not because they want to go against their elders but it is because they do not fully understand the whole point of the situation.
The second discovery made by Milgram that everyone as the potential to follow authority to the point of committing murder is important because I think it can help us understand why the holocaust and many other killings happened in history. In my opinion, not every soldiers involved in the holocaust fully thought it was right to kill people just because of their race, but because it was an order, they felt that it was their responsibility to follow them. This discovery also leads us to many different question of why people have this potential when following authority and not when doing it by themselves. Is it because they do not feel it is their fault because they are just taking orders? Is it because they do it due to fear of the consequences if they do not do it?
I think the discovery made by Elizabeth F. Loftus is important because it can be used to improve the court system. The discovery states that false memory can be easily implanted in both children and adult. This can be both beneficial and harmful at the same time because if a false memory was to be implanted on an eyewitness, the ruling of the court would change drastically according to the eyewitness’s testimony. And because of this, a convict might be released while the victim or other innocent people are punished for what they did not do.
The fourth discovery that I think is very important is the discovery that unconditional punishment can cause depression in the future of a person’s life. This discovery may not provide us a cure to depression or how to prevent it but then we can use it to protect children of younger generation from the effects of depression. This discovery clearly shows that justice, encouragement, and confidence are very important parts of a person’s childhood and lacking one of these may lead to future depression.
This last discovery that I think is very important is the discovery of the humanistic approach to therapy. In my opinion, if this discovery wasn’t made, many more people will be need of psychological help and therapies may not be effective as they are in present days because this approach gives the patient the feelings that they are loved and cared for. I think this feeling can greatly help improve a person’s psychological condition because a lot of these problems come from the inner feelings. These feelings are usually the feeling of being neglected, left out, or uncared for. So by making the patients feel loved and cared for, it would be easier to help them sort out their problems.
There are many other discoveries that were made during the 19th Century that improve psychology, but in my opinion, these five discoveries were the most important ones.
Best of the Century Article
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Psychology a Sceience?
1. What is the scientific method?
Scientific method is a self-correcting process for asking questions and observing nature’s answer.
2. Why do psychologists use this method?
Psychologists use this method to prove theories they have come up with through observation.
3. Do you think psychology is a science? Explain.
In my opinion, I think psychology is a science because it is a study of something you can test. Science is defined in the dictionary as “the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena”. In psychology, human behaviors are observed, identified, describe, tested, and theories are formed; therefore I would consider psychology a science.
Scientific method is a self-correcting process for asking questions and observing nature’s answer.
2. Why do psychologists use this method?
Psychologists use this method to prove theories they have come up with through observation.
3. Do you think psychology is a science? Explain.
In my opinion, I think psychology is a science because it is a study of something you can test. Science is defined in the dictionary as “the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena”. In psychology, human behaviors are observed, identified, describe, tested, and theories are formed; therefore I would consider psychology a science.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
My Motivation
As you can see, this is my IB Psychology blog. So, of course, this blog is all going to be about Psychology!
So...what's my motivation for taking IB Psychology course?
My motivation is my goal to get into medical school, and I think Psychology will be useful in the future. Also, by taking psychology class, I think that I would be able to understand people more. When I hear the word psychology, I think of a psychiatrist. So my thought of Psychology is that it is about the study of human's thoughts and personalities. Even if I don't use what I learn in this class in college, it will definitely be useful for me as I go through life.
So...what's my motivation for taking IB Psychology course?
My motivation is my goal to get into medical school, and I think Psychology will be useful in the future. Also, by taking psychology class, I think that I would be able to understand people more. When I hear the word psychology, I think of a psychiatrist. So my thought of Psychology is that it is about the study of human's thoughts and personalities. Even if I don't use what I learn in this class in college, it will definitely be useful for me as I go through life.
Friday, August 11, 2006
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