Chapter 1 - Essay - 1. Defend the statement, "Psychology is about n...

Chapter 1 - Essay

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• Defend the statement, "Psychology is about normal people." Describe what psychology is as well as what it is

not in your answer.ANSWER: To understand what psychology is, you have to understand what it is not. Psychology is not exclusively about people with mental disorders. Most of the research that psychologists do focuses on normal processes that occur in all of us, such as how we think, how we learn, how we develop, how we remember, how we speak, and how we interact. To be able to understand the abnormal, we must first have a solid understanding of the normal and have a standard to measure against.

• Compare and contrast the fields of clinical psychology and counseling psychology. Describe each

specialization. In what ways are they similar? In what ways do they differ? Include three similarities and three differences in your answer.ANSWER: Clinical psychology is a specialization that is applied and primarily focuses on psychological disorders. Clinical psychologists mostly engage in psychotherapy and assessments. Counseling psychology is also an applied specialization in which the psychologists focus on improving the daily functioning of people who might be going through difficult times in their lives. Counseling psychologists help people to adjust to temporary situations. Both specializations conduct psychotherapy, often in private practice, with individuals, groups, families, and couples. Clinical comes from the same root as recline, which can help you remember that the person is so impaired that they need bedside care. Counseling comes from the root word to consult, meaning a person needs guidance or advice.

• Compare and contrast the fields of philosophy and psychology. Describe each field while listing their

similarities and differences. Include three similarities as well as three differences in your answer.ANSWER: Philosophers talked and wrote about the inner workings of the mind and the reasons for human behaviors. Their answers to those questions traditionally came from their opinions and experiences, not scientific inquiry. Many of their questions could not even be tested using science. Thus, psychology has that advantage over philosophy. Psychologists study the human mind and human behavior that is grounded in science, rather than just speculation or opinion.

• Describe psychoanalysis and briefly describe its founding father. Was psychoanalysis well received when it

was originally founded?ANSWER: Psychoanalysis is a perspective in psychology that was created by Sigmund Freud. It focused on the unconscious mind and the long-lasting effects of childhood. Freud discovered the "talking cure," which paved the way for psychotherapy. He noticed in his medical practice that when people discussed their nervous disorders and symptoms, they began to reveal thoughts and feelings from childhood that had been previously hidden. Once they brought those experiences to the surface, the patient usually felt better. Freud talked about the existence of an "unconscious," which he described as thoughts and feelings of which the person is unaware but yet have the power to strongly affect the person's life. Then the person can go through the process of psychoanalysis to bring the unconscious thoughts and feelings to the conscious mind. Psychoanalysis drew a lot of attention from academia and physicians as well as the general public. Freud was elevated to a level of fame that was new to the field of psychology. This also elevated psychology to a new-found fame. Freud helped to spread his ideas beyond Europe to the United States. Psychoanalysis popped up in scholarly journals, training institutions, and professional associations. Freud's ideas and popularity continued to rise even after his death.

• Describe the school of thought known as behaviorism, including its founding fathers. How did this particular

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school of thought change the field of psychology?ANSWER: Behaviorism is a perspective in psychology that focuses on observable and measurable behavior rather than on internal thought. Behavior can be observed and measured, whereas mental thoughts and processes cannot. Behaviorists pushed for psychology to be a science by focusing on observable behaviors rather than on the inner workings of the mind. John Watson was the founder of behaviorism, and he worked to discredit introspection and replace it with measuring observable behaviors. Thanks to Pavlov and Skinner, behaviorism flourished and continued to gain popularity for many years. In fact, Skinner became as famous and influential as Freud, if not more so, and helped to promote behaviorism. Behaviorists helped to establish psychology as a science by conducting experiments and relying on the environment for consequences that would increase or decrease behaviors.

• Contrast the beliefs and approach of psychoanalysis to those of behaviorism. Who were the approaches'

founding fathers?ANSWER: Sigmund Freud created psychoanalysis as the "talking cure" that focused on bringing events that occurred in childhood out of the "unconscious" and back to a level of consciousness where the feelings surrounding the childhood event could be discussed. Once those experiences were brought to the surface, the patient usually felt better. While psychoanalysis paved the way for psychotherapy, the scientific method was not used during the practice. The behavioral perspective arose largely as a reaction against the psychoanalytic perspective. Behaviorism is a perspective in psychology that focuses on observable and measurable behavior rather than on internal thought.Behavior can be observed and measured, whereas mental thoughts can only be measured based on the objective behaviors they produce. Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner all helped usher in behaviorism.

• Explain why humanism came about. Describe the main ideas of humanism, including its founding fathers.

How does this school of thought differ from psychoanalysis and behaviorism?ANSWER: The humanistic perspective was born out of frustration. The humanists were fed up with Freud's negativity in his theories, and they were also frustrated with the mechanical nature of the behaviorists. Humanism wanted to shine a light on the personality and all that is good within a person. It is a perspective in psychology that focuses on the notion that human nature is generally good and people are naturally motivated to grow toward their fullest potential. Carl Rogers was the founding father of humanism, and he discovered in his experiences that most people who experienced psychological difficulties were not struggling with internal unconscious drives toward unrestrained aggression or self-gratification. Rogers believed people just wanted to grow and be the best versions of themselves, recognizing that sometimes there are obstacles preventing this from happening. Humanism focused on ideas like conditions of worth, which are imposed by others and force people to choose between being true to themselves and being someone their loved ones would accept. Humanism is in direct opposition to psychoanalysis and behaviorism as it truly focuses on the positive views about human nature. It provided a more positive approach to psychology and left people with hope and optimism.

• Compare cognitive psychology to behaviorism. How are these perspectives alike? How are they different?

How do they approach psychology differently?ANSWER: The cognitive perspective arose largely as a reaction against the behavioral perspective, which came first. Behaviorism is a perspective in psychology that focuses on observable and measurable behavior rather than on internal thought. Behavior can be observed and measured, whereas mental 2 / 4

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thoughts can only be measured based on the objective behaviors they produce. Behaviorists pushed for psychology to be a science by focusing on the behaviors rather than the mind. The behaviorists focused on issues outside of the mind, like observable behaviors and external conditions. Cognitive psychologists focus on the fact that what happens inside the mind is essential and necessary to understand humans and their behaviors. Cognitive psychologists tend to focus on inside-the-mind questions such as how we solve problems, how we make decisions, how we learn languages, what stimulates creative thought, and what influences intelligence. To really answer and examine these questions, a cognitive psychologist would need to consider the behaviors as well.

• Multiculturalism challenges the strongly held belief found in older schools of psychology that an explanation

of human behavior is equally true for all human beings. Describe how multiculturalism challenges this belief and provide an example to support your answer.ANSWER: Multiculturalism emphasizes the influence of culture on behavior and mental processes. Cultural variables, including race or ethnicity, gender, religion or spirituality, age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, geographic region, and disability status, can have a powerful and valuable impact on what we think, feel, and do. This wider understanding of culture means that we all have quite a few cultural characteristics that make up who we are. Even American culture is comprised of many different cultures and exhibits increasing diversity in other areas. An example could be a transgender college student who might have depressive symptoms. When receiving treatment, the psychologist would have to take a multicultural approach and not just assume the demands of college are solely behind the depression.

• Consider Darwin's assumption that getting our genes into the next generation is what drives us. Explain

evolutionary psychology using this assumption. Then describe how being altruistic to a family member helps get a person's genes into the next generation.ANSWER: Evolutionary psychology explains psychological traits (and other things) as adaptations or functional products that have been sustained across evolutionary time. It is used to explain and predict behaviors. Altruism is when a person helps another despite receiving no immediate benefit.Evolutionary psychology would explain altruism by saying that people who helped others were more likely to receive help later on in life. This leads to a better chance of survival, especially if that help was life-saving. Helping a family member is even better because family members carry genes similar to your own.

• Jasha has been diagnosed with anxiety. How would their psychiatrist who believes strongly in the

biopsychosocial theory explain the possible causes of Jasha's diagnosis?ANSWER: The biopsychosocial theory is a comprehensive perspective that emphasizes biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors as influences on behavior. In the case of Jasha, if the psychiatrist treating them believes in the biopsychosocial theory, they would explain that a wide range of factors could and should be considered as potential causes. Biologically, genetic inheritance and chemical imbalances in the brain could be contributing to the Jasha's symptoms of anxiety. Regarding Jasha's internal mental workings, Jasha may have a tendency to focus on the worst possible outcomes, even if they're not really realistic, which can cause and maintain elevated levels of stress. Socially, Jasha may be going through a period of their life where they have to make a lot of difficult and important decisions about their future, which would impact their family and other relationships. The culture in which they were raised may also not be supportive of indecision or seeking advice, adding to Jasha's stress about life choices. Other examples of biological, 3 / 4

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psychological, and social factors could be present in any given patient's case, and according to the biopsychosocial theory, not all three factors need to be given equal weight, and one factor may outweigh the others.

• Why is critical thinking so important to the field of psychology? Explain three of the common errors in

thinking that can be overcome with critical thinking, and provide examples of each from your own personal experience.ANSWER: Critical thinking is an inquisitive, challenging approach to ideas and assumptions. It is essential to any advancement in science because it questions ideas. Critical thinking helps to debunk pseudopsychologies and encourages psychologists to generate new ideas. Critical thinking allows us to become less dependent on "commonsense" ideas, especially when those ideas contradict each other. When we critically think about a subject matter, we can better avoid and/or overcome common errors in thinking, such as the confirmation bias, belief perseverance, bandwagon fallacy, emotional reasoning, authority fallacy, antiquity fallacy, and black-or-white fallacy. Confirmation bias is where someone tends to prefer and focus on information that confirms what they already believe. Belief perseverance is where someone maintains a belief even when there is ample evidence suggesting it is incorrect. Bandwagon fallacy is evident when someone believes something simply because many other people believe it. Sometimes, people may believe something because of how it makes them feel rather than how logical or factual it is; this is called emotional reasoning. When someone believes something simply because an expert or authority figure believes it, this is referred to as the authority fallacy. Antiquity fallacy occurs when someone believes something just because people have believed it for a long time. Last, the black-or-white fallacy is where someone takes an extreme belief or polarized position on a matter when a more moderate belief/position would be more accurate. Student examples will vary.

• When psychologists conduct scientific studies, they have one of the three goals: to describe, to correlate, or

to experiment. Describe each goal, including how they differ from one another. Include an example of each goal.ANSWER: Descriptive research is research in which the goal is simply to describe a characteristic of the population in terms of a particular variable. The researcher would specify a group of people and then measure some quality, behavior, or other feature within that group. In correlational studies the goal is to see how variables correlate (or relate) with each other. Whereas descriptive research focuses on variables in isolation, correlational research focuses on how variables interact.Experimental research is research in which the goal is to experiment by manipulating one variable while measuring how another variable responds. An example of descriptive research could be describing aggressiveness in 5-year-old males as opposed to aggressiveness in 10-year-old males.An example of a correlational study could be looking at the relationship between student attendance and student grades. An example of experimental research could be a double-blind experiment, testing out a new antidepressant medication versus the current leading medication with clinically depressed patients.

• When would you use an experimental research design? Provide an example of an experiment, and be sure to

identify the critical components such as the independent variable, dependent variable, experimental group, control group, and random assignment.ANSWER: An experimental research design would be used when the goal is to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between two variables by manipulating one and observing changes in the other. Here is

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