Psychology

Carmen G.11

Psychology term paper

Chapter 1: Mind, behavior and science.

In this chapter, we were introduced to Psychology including its definitions, goals and tasks. Psychology is the science that deals with mental processes and behavior. I chose and took this subject with great interest of analyzing the humans' behavior and mind which requires the use of the scientific method to analyze and solve the problems with an open mind. For me, the scientific method is perfect as it works carefully without biases and questions only the truth and facts to reach a conclusion. I think that it should be used for everyone as usually, our conclusions are based on our personal biases, expectations and predictions which are not justified. I always judge circumstances with my own perspectives and biases. Now, I will make good use of real life reports, behaviors and surveys to derive to a conclusion and not judge under my own expectations and biases.

Correlational methods are something that I can relate to as they work well for me. It uses many factors hence forming a mutual relationship to understand, predict and control behavior. It enables me to find out how strongly related they are to each other as different sources are used to generate a correlation coefficient after conducting a controlled experiment which is again not based on any personal biases in an orderly manner.

Dr George Albee's primary prevention formula is important and I really liked it because it decreases the problems in our lives which mean that it will also decrease the stress and pressures that we have to go through.

All these have sharpened my critical thinking skills as I have learned more with detailed research. I have understood more of these techniques and how they can be used and how they can be applied. Applying these techniques to my everyday life gave me an open mind requiring appropriate evidence.

Chapter 2: Biopsychology

I was introduced to Biopsychology, the other branch related to psychology. It is a specific branch of psychology that analyzes more about our brain and neurotransmitters. It shows how our behaviors are affected by them, showing a combination of both basic psychology and neuroscience.

Biopsychologists often look at how these biological processes interact with emotions and other mental processes. I was eager to know how it works and how our brain can actually affect our behaviors. Different parts of the brain and their functions were introduced. I was very much impressed by the cerebral cortex, the basis of consciousness divided into two hemispheres symmetrically. They are both important. The left hemisphere controls our language, feelings of anxiety and negative emotions. Now whenever I feel negative or anxious with my inability to memorize, I know it's all happening at my left hemisphere. The right hemisphere is however, the contrast of the left hemisphere as it is the opposite with positive emotions, facial recognition and spatial interpretation. These 2 hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum and can be disconnected by severing it. I realized the importance of the hemispheres as they are independent and help in relaying information to allow me to adapt to the environment.

The endocrine and nervous systems are part of my development too as they help in my growth through puberty, my digestive system, and arousal. The nervous system is divided into 2 divisions, the parasympathetic and sympathetic division. I appreciate the parasympathetic division more as it helps to calm me down in times of emergency during the sympathetic division and turns things back to normal.

They apply to me as these are all parts of my everyday life. They affect how I behave in both positive and negative manners.

Chapter 4: Psychological development

Chapter 4's psychological development increased my interest further more than the other chapters. How? I have a one-month old baby brother and I got to learn how they gradually mature, react and most importantly their advances as they grow through the months. Developmental psychology is the scientific study of age related behavioral changes which occur as a child grows up. This field examines change across a broad range of topics including: motor skills, problem solving abilities, conceptual understanding, acquisition of language, moral understanding, and identity formation. I was fascinated with the development of the human brain. Adolescence is important to me as I am a teenager between childhood and adulthood, going through the stages of puberty. I fully agree that most adolescents are satisfied with their living but are too over concerned with their appearance and social acceptance. In actual fact, this results in a low self esteem which is the feeling of being inferior to other people. I accept my life but at the same time, I care a lot about my appearance and how I appeal to all my friends. I need my peers to accept me, that is why I act like how I feel is normal to behave.

Most teenagers do whatever their peers do to be socially accepted such as smoking which however I don't think that adolescence is a very important stage of life that we go through because we might be misleaded. We get influenced really easily at the stage of life where we picked up all the bad habits from. Forming good relationships comfortably with everyone are good enough. We do not have to do things such as smoking when we know that it will harm us. I realized that all these happened because we are going through a stage of searching for our own identity. It is normal as it happens to everybody. Not only can I relate to that but everyone can too.

However, as I have not reached adulthood yet, I am not in the position to judge it yet but by observing my parents, I can tell that their lives are organized into 2 groups of love and work. Our parents love us so they work hard to bring us good things to support the family. Aging is a terrible thing to me as everything decreases such as our memory and our ability to remember things. What I found amusing was that, when we reach dementia, we can actually recall the memory during our childhood. My great grandparent suffered from dementia, which is how I know how strange it is.

I agree with Kubler Ross's stages of dying as most people should react in such a manner