...Psychology and all of its complexity is simply, the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. So why is psychology a science as opposed to being common sense? Because, science can be tested, retested and tested again. There are processes and steps that must be taken to prove something is fact rather than opinion. Psychologists do studies, take surveys and samples of the population or a group of individuals depending on the issue they are testing and the size needed for the tests. Now with all of that being said, I’m going to try to dig into it a little more and see if I can find any similarities between the two. Psychologists are probably just more in tune with their “Common Sense”, And just like in High school when we did science projects and needed to test a hypothesis, Psychologists have fine-tuned their skills to study a hypothesis or what they call a casual hypothesis. But, common sense plays a huge roll in psychology because you cannot test a subject that doesn’t make sense. It must be a reasonable subject with reasonable results. There must be a controlled group and confounding variables, for them to even begin a test. There has to be laboratory observation and case studies. All of these things must coincide with each other to get a practical by-product and must be tested several times to get the average result. Now common sense isn’t as “common” as we think. Some people are naturally aware of their surroundings and very in tune with what we assume is a mutual...
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...kk California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Course Syllabus Winter 2014 Course: PSY 334-01—Cognitive Processes Time: Lecture — Tuesday and Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:50 pm Instructor: Nicholas Von Glahn, Ph.D Office: 5-237 Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday: 11:30 am to 12:00 pm and 3:15 pm to 3:45 pm. Tuesday and Thursday: 1:15 pm to 2:45 pm Phone: (909) 869-4870 (you can leave a message, but e-mail is much faster) E-mail: nrvonglahn@csupomona.edu (best way to contact me) Web: https://blackboard.csupomona.edu/ Course Description: This course is designed to introduce students to the processes humans obtain, maintain, and use information. This course will primary cover cognitive psychology and focus on the information processing theory—the dominant theoretical perspective in the field. Thus, the behaviors humans engage in as they find information in the environment, retain information, retrieve information from memory, process information to meet the demands of the environment, and communicate information will be focused upon. To this end, the following aspects of cognition will be covered: perception, attention, memory, learning, problem solving, reasoning, decision making, language and individual differences in cognition. Text Book: Reisberg, D. (2010). Cognition: Exploring the science of the mind (5th ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Bundled with Zaps: The Norton Psychology Labs ...
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...Jessica James Psychology 101 2/12/12 TOPIC Target Behavior- Confidence My biggest behavior issue that I currently deal with today more than ever is confidence. As I was growing up I had more confidence in myself to try new things, never be afraid of what people thought of me, and to do whatever made me happy. As I have grown older I find it harder to be as secure in myself to do the things I once did as a child. The events in my life that have occurred over the past 10 years have been traumatizing in some way and I cant help to think that those events are the reason my confidence level has diminished so greatly within those years.. I’ve tried to mask my feelings and emotions by acting confident and not insecure in any way. But deep down inside I’m not the “big-headed” person I talk myself up to be. By doing this Behavioral Self-Management project I hope to be able to walk the walk and talk the talk CONFIDENTLY. My plan to accomplish this goal is to first realize what has made me insecure through out the years. Why I have pulled back and lost my confidence and why I have allowed these events to control the happiness and satisfaction with myself in my life. After figuring out what it is that has made me the way I am now, I will have set a list of confidence goals . Accept and appreciate my looks and what is unique about me Not let peoples negative opinions about me manifest into self-hatred Try new activities (things that I would be afraid to do normally) ...
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...True Friendship We will only make a few true friends. A true friend is good to you and reliable. A true friend is there backing you up on all sorts of hard times. They should always be honest and have your back. A true friend knows when your having a bad day. I only have 2 true friends, which are my sisters. Friendship is something that takes time to happen. We may think that having a friend means, We share a friendship, but I do not think so. Friendship to me is getting to know someone so well that we can tell what the person is feeling even when they won't admit it. A friend is a person who will always be by our side when times are bad. When we feel like no one cares for us, it is not true only a true friend does and will know when we are feeling this and will do everything in his or her power to make us feel better. A true friend is some one who will understand what you are saying even if it does not make any sense. If I did not have my sisters in my life, it would change completely. Not a day goes by in which I do not talk to them. They can sense when I am feeling down or when something amazing happened. My sisters are an important part of my life and if I get into a fight with one of them, we make up in a minute because we cannot be mad at each other since we know how much the other one cares for us. My sisters mean so much to me. If everyone was mad at me about something I did, my sisters would stick by my side and defend me. Friends are important...
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...Potential Effects of Divorce Throughout Different Stages of a Child’s Development Nisha S. Sunny Child Development: APSY 203 Professor: Catherine Walker Divorce in the American society is becoming an increasingly common trend as the years go by. Fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce and with each passing year, about 2 million children are brought into a whirlwind filled with changes and chaos after their parent’s separation (Divorce Rate). During this period of turmoil and intense emotion, the child is expected to rebuild numerous aspects of their lives and understand a series of complex events. They are most likely to see the sudden difference in financial stability, new duties around the house and may receive less nurturing from their parents as well. These series of events will lead to a difference in each of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems, which include, the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and the chronosystem. This ecological systems theory primarily puts the center of attention on the quality of a child’s environment and also focuses on how these complex layers will each effect a child’s development through the divorce period. Many may think that while a child of divorce is in their infant stage, that a divorce will not affect their lives. This is mainly because it is believed that the child will automatically grow into a life where they are used to their parents being separated and not...
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...Psych 100 Term Paper Psychological factors can be related to many different problems, one problem that had personally affected me was the grades I got my freshman year of college. I started my college career struggling a little bit and often wondered how I could raise my grades and improve my GPA until I was satisfied with the grades I would get. Coming to college I was finally on my own with no one to wake me up, make me do homework, or go to class. These all led to my GPA not being exactly where I wanted it to be along with a number of psychological factors that have all been introduced throughout lecture and the readings. The four different chapters I can relate this problem most too would have to be those on stress, personality, motivation and social psychology. Stress is one of the main leaders for college students and low GPA’s and I believe it had a lot to do with my original GPA from my freshman year. Living here on campus is extremely overwhelming at first for a freshman here at UMass Amherst. There are so many events that you can attend, RSOs that you can join, and other things in town and campus. It is also the first time moving away from home and that can lead to stress because no one is around to remind you about things that you may forget to do. The classes here at UMass were also extremely different from any classes I took at my high school. I was used to smaller classes of about 20-25 students that were all mostly my friends, now I was being thrown into a...
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...Anxiety in College Students Yasmin Kahsai Grand Canyon University: PSY-102 April 5, 2015 Anxiety In College Students Stress-induced anxiety is an all to common reality for college students. The pressure of suddenly having to map out the entire life when only weeks ago you had to ask permission to use the restroom, is some times just to much to handle. In the first year of college, students are often times away from home for the first time in their lives. They no longer have the support of their parents; financially or emotionally. In order to make up for the lack of financial support, students are forced to work while attending school. This alone is enough to lead to stress-induced anxiety, but that is not all that they have to deal with. Students must also deal with the pressure of making good grades in order to continue on in higher education. While trying to make good grades and balance work, it is not an uncommon thing for them to lose sleep. Insomnia has been known to lead to anxiety. Overall, the overwhelming pressure of adulthood, working to pay for school, maintaining good grades, and lack of sleep are enough to give any college student anxiety. Being an Adult We spend the first eighteen years of our lives being told what we can and cannot do. We have everything from what we eat, wear, study and even what we listen dictated and mapped out for us. Then all of a sudden we celebrate the magic birthday; the big one-eight. Then all of a sudden everything changes...
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...AICE PSYCH AS: Social Approach Study Guide Paper 2 1.a. Situational explanations of behavior refer to how the situation determines the behavior more than the natural disposition of the person. In the subway Samaritan study, the situations drunk and ill conditions an how each affected how many people helped. In the Milgram study, power, place, and formality are used to influence behavior against better judgement. 1. b. Both studies gathered qualitative and quantitative data. In the Piliavin et al study, quantitative data included the number of helpers at a given time and qualitative data included comments. In the obedience study, the quantitative data is the amount of people who stopped at which voltages and the qualitative data includes the...
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...The relationship between risk-adverse and risk-seeking in the framing effect Nina Lesani Douglas College 300065965 Dr. Hajera Rostam Psychology 1200-003 July 10 th, 2014 Relationship between risk-adverse and risk-seeking in the framing effect The way information is presented can greatly impact one’s judgments and decisions on the received information. For instance, the presentation of a cancer treatment in terms of mortality or survival may significantly influence one’s decision whether or not to accept the treatment. It’s important, therefore, to understand the processes behind people’s susceptibility to information presentation and how this may influence their judgements and decisions. The presentation of ideas in different manners influences the way the audience perceives the idea and this phenomenon is called “framing”, as introduced by Tversky and Kahneman (1981), who specifically studied its effects in the decision making preferences of people. The framing effect, such as the one found in the Asian disease problem, is often explained by using Tversky and Kahnman’s (1979) prospect theory. This theory is based on the idea that people value gains and losses differently, and, as such, will base their decisions on perceived gains rather than perceived avoided losses. Thus, if a person were given two equal choices, one expressed in terms of possible gains and the other in possible avoided losses, people would choose the former; even if both achieve the same end results...
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...Jose Vargas, Section B3, TA: Nian Ci Lo, Fun Paper #2 11/10/14 Using the Correlational Method to Study Sleep Through the Lifespan. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the correlational method as a means for examining the relationship between REM sleep and memory. I will describe previous research and then investigate how REM and memory are associated in young people and in older people. In some ways, the sleep patterns of these two groups are very similar, but in some ways they are not. 1 a. One way in which these patterns differ from each other is in the architecture of their sleep. In the normal brain of a young person, the duration of REM sleep increases while the duration of NREM-3 or deep sleep decreases as the night progresses. In infants and babies, REM sleep roughly covers half of the sleep and there is a lot of NREM-3 sleep. However, older people tend to have much less REM sleep than younger people and their NREM-3 stages of sleep become almost extinct, which is why older people are more prone to waking up at night, unlike babies who are heavy sleepers.1 b. REM sleep, also known as paradoxical sleep, is also known to cause genital arousal characterized by erections in males and increased in vaginal fluids in women. While the average young man has erections during nearly half their sleep, older men have erections for only a quarter of their sleep due to the reduced REM that is caused by aging. This may apply to women too. 1 c. Researchers have noticed that there...
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...IQ And Mathematical Learning In the article Motivation, Not IQ, Matters Most for Learning New Math Skills, psychologists study math abilities and habits of thirty-five hundred German students from the fifth to tenth grade. Students’ mathematical abilities were evaluated each year using standardized testing. In addition to this students were given an IQ test and surveys that questioned about their attitudes toward math. As the title of this report suggests they found that IQ was not the main determining factor in how well the student’s math abilities grew. Instead IQ was found to be a predictor of initial math skill and studying and motivation where found to be predictors of growth in mathematical abilities. These findings came as a surprise to the researchers who predicted that intelligence measured by IQ would be a strong predictor of mathematical abilities. This article encompasses the main findings of the researchers into a summarization of their findings. This research in this study is credible and believable but the article leaves out some essential information about the findings that could strengthen or weaken the researcher’s argument and allow the reader to develop their own opinion. In this study the independent variable is the student’s IQ and the dependent variable is the student’s mathematical scores/abilities. IQ tests have long been used as a system to measure the intelligence of the testee. Standardized mathematical testing is an accurate method of measuring...
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...Abnormal psychology: Integrative paper Bonacua, Ronilo A. Naga city Philippines :) I’ve always been intrigued on how external physiological factors such as drugs affect the level of cognitive function of a normal person. It is known for a fact that there are a number of people who encounter harmful interferences in their mind caused by unnatural intakes in the body. This unwanted variable was made as a cornerstone in a recent study in the United States which I believe may be linked to previous topics discussed in my abnormal psychology class. In vital areas such as physiological or multifactorial indicators of depression depicted in the study, I’ve underlined similar reviews in lectures for both minor and major stress disorders show to have apparent vulnerability to related substances. The respondents in the study were young adults ages 17-23 apparently found to have no pre-problematic indications of drug or even alcohol use. The researchers followed only respondents with a pattern of at least five symptoms for a length of time in order to be diagnosed as depressive disorder. Some of the stated are loss of interest, poor concentration, disruptions in appetite and suicidal tendencies. Based on the five year monitoring research of these nearly 200 participants by neuroscience specialist and leading professor in psychology at Duke University Dr. John Curry, only 10 percent of 192 adolescents whom underwent psychiatric treatment later abused drugs. He implied that consistent...
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...In day to day life classical conditioning occurs more than you would think. In the article The Truth of Advertising, “Mass media keeps us in a trance by dispensing a kind of huxleyn “soma” that drives us to confront and consume: to buy the best cars, to the trendiest fashions, to be “cool.” We’re around advertisements every day, from listening to the radio while you’re getting ready in the morning, shopping on the weekends, and when you come home to relax and watch television. The advertisements are always there subconsciously classically conditioning their consumers. “In San Francisco IBM beamed its logo onto the clouds with a laser; it was visible for ten miles in the United Kingdom.” The consumer will remember this specific product in the advertisement if it looked appealing to them and will continuously purchase this product. “Advertising people are morally detached- and proud of it. Thats why they can with an untroubled conscious, promote even a killer product like tobacco.” Basically as long as their company profits the side-effects to consumers don't matter. You’re skimming through a magazine while waiting for your doctor when you come across an advertisement of some delicious looking ice cream, you stop to take a second to indulge because, well, you know you want to. You notice there are so many persuasive and silly words popping out that make you so intrigued you’re practically drooling all over the magazine page. Once you have actually purchased and tasted the...
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...The Inside Aspect of Emotional Intelligence Aspects of Psychology American Intercontinental University Submitted by: Paula Carr June 29, 2014 | Emotional Intelligence 1 What is emotional intelligence? Emotional Intelligence in psychology terms represents an ability to validly reason with emotions and use emotions to enhance thought. Emotional Intelligence affects your success and your personal and professional relationships. Success is 80- 90% linked to emotional intelligence. There is so much more involved in emotional intelligence. In order to adequately define what is emotional intelligence and ways to enhance a persons’ emotional intelligence, these five things must be factored in. The first thing is self- awareness. This term explains its’ self. Having self- awareness means a person knowing their own mood and how that person feels about it, that person knowing their strengths and weaknesses, and that person knowing what options are there for their feelings. Not only does a person need to their emotions, but they also need to know how to handle those emotions, which brings us to the second way to enhance...
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...The transition to college is an exciting time in one’s life. The greatest appeal is the independence college brings, but it is also the greatest challenge. Academically and socially college is much more demanding than high school and to succeed students need to have the self-motivation and will power to find the balance between work and play. To manage my transition to college I had to use my cognitive, emotional, and social competencies attained during youth to thrive in this new environment. My mother has had a huge influence on my success in college. She helped me develop study habits and a strong work ethic in my younger years; I can attribute many of my cognitive strengths to her involvement in my academic life. During my youth she taught me the value of effort and accuracy, rewarding me when I correctly and efficiently completed assigned work. I see now that she was employing a form of operant conditioning, where, if I completed my homework early enough and to her satisfaction, I was able to play board games, socialize with my friends and sisters, or watch TV if I so choose. If not, then I had to forgo these activities. Major theorists such as Edward Thorndike, John Watson, and B. F. Skinner were of the belief that learning was the result of consequences (Huitt & Hummel, 1997). This is why operant conditioning was so successful for me in elementary and high school and why I continue to use it in college. Only when I finish my course work do I allow myself to socialize...
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