Brief Survey of Psychology

Psychology seems to be like the science of perception turned into prejudices. I know there is a lot more to it than that, but that seemed to be what Kevin was focusing on. This does not mean bad prejudices like racial prejudices, but good ones like when I go to sleep tonight I will wake up tomorrow. I believe I will wake up tomorrow because I woke up today, if I did not believe that I might have a hard time getting to sleep since I would fear not waking up. So when people who saw a picture of a young girl, then they were shown a picture of both the old woman and the young girl together, they were very likely to fist see the young girl.

I like to think that I am able to think outside the box, but when told to draw four continuous lines through nine points in a box, my mind was unable to think outside that box! Psychology is a power tool because it allows us to take a step back and look at the big picture of individual behavior. We are more able to notice behavior that we take for granted, such as blaming outside influence for our failures, and attributing our success to our own hard work. I would like to think that now people know they how they attribute success and failure, that they would change their ways, and give credit where credit is do, plus attempt to right there wrongs.

A topic that I believe could be studied from a social psychologist perspective, is the "Why do they hate us?" ideology following September 11 2001. Most believe they hate us because they desire our freedom, something for which we pride ourselves. Few people will even attempt to look for the real reasons, such as the 432 + governments we have overthrow since the Regan Administration or the arms we sell to tyrannical dictators. No it must be something good we did, because we only see the good we do. Conversely we only see the bad they do, that's right the Koran is only about a Jihad and all the people in the middle east wear towels, so that's why all the people in the middle east hate us, because the towels give them fevers, therefore they are crazy. If anyone is using this logic, I suggest losing

the ball-cap, taking off the cowboy hat or getting out of the sun, because it just might be them with the fever who is going crazy.

Having the knowledge to analyze ourselves as such is very powerful, and useful. Being able to acknowledge the problem is the first step to solving