Psychology Unit 3

1. Psychology Unit 3 • Question # 1 What is psychology? Psychology is the study of human behavior. Psychology comes from two Greek words meaning “the study of the mind.” Psychology is a relatively new science replacing old school things like witchcraft and phrenology.

2. Psychology Psychologists use observation and analysis as two of their major tools of research. There are several different types of psychology, they include: Clinical psychology-to help individuals better understand themselves Social psychology- the study of how individuals behave in groups. Developmental psychology- the study of how and why people age. Experimental psychology- laboratory conditions that attempt to simulate the real world.

3. Psychology Experiment 3-B page 111 in the text. Question # 2 What is heredity? Those traits or characteristics that are passed on to you by your parents. Do you inherit your personality or is that learned behavior based on your surroundings? What is environment? Your environment consists of the people, places, and things that have an impact on you every day. All people go through a process called adaptation to fit into the surroundings they are confronted with each day. If people fail to adapt often times they fail to succeed.

4. Psychology Which is more important your environment or your inherited traits? Experiment 3-C Handout. A noted psychologist to first study human behavior was a man by the name of Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that all people had three parts to their personality, that made them the person that they were. These three parts were the id, superego, and ego.

5. Psychology The id represents the person’s most basic need for survival. Things like food, water, adventure, fun, thrill seeking. The superego is the part of the personality that determines right from wrong, basically your conscience. It tells you went not to do something because of the consequences. The ego is the balance between the previous two. This helps a person to be patient and understanding of others. If a person has an overactive id type personality they tend to get little done because all they want to do is have fun. Type B personalities. If a person has an overactive superego they sometimes are called a “workaholic” because all they want to do is have that constant feeling of accomplishment without any down time. These are often referred to as type A personality’s. A well balanced person has a relatively strong ego that allows them to balance the other two personality types. Normal?????

6. Psychology Question #3 Experiment 3-D Handout. What are emotions? Emotions are described as feelings such as love, hate, happiness, sadness, anger and countless others. Why are emotions an important part of living? Emotions allow you to express yourself and allow you to read other people. How should you use your emotions? Are you an emotional person, are you overemotional, the drama queen type???? Are you the type that never expresses any emotion no matter what the circumstance would be. Do you think that teenagers show more emotions than do adults? Can you give examples of this specifically? Are you an empathic person, are you a sympathetic person?

7. Psychology Experiment 3-E Text pages 116-118 Question # 4 What are the six steps for solving an important problem? Discussion of each. • Define your problem and set a goal. • Approach the problem and your goal with a positive attitude. • Join forces with other people who have the same problem. • Talk with someone you know and trust about your problem. • When you are blocked from your goal and or solution try to remove the block or work around it. Improvise. • If all else fails you may have to revisit your goal and make a revision to it. Ultimately you need to know that you are in charge of every situation, this may not always seem like the case because other people arrange a lot of you life for you but you do determine the outcome.

8. Psychology Experiment 3-F Page 121 text. Experiment 3-G Handout. Needs are items that you must have in order to survive. These include both physical and emotional. Physical would be food, clothing, shelter, protection, sleep, etc. Emotional would be love, safety, belonging, success, etc. Some of these needs you recognize and see called conscious needs and others are hidden and repressed called unconscious needs. All of us have both.

9. Psychology Question # 5 What are defense mechanisms? These are used to protect oneself from emotional pain. Four examples would be: • Projection-you shift your faults and problems to someone or something else. • Repression-you put painful or bad things out of your mind and don’t deal with them. • Denial-refusing to believe that something has happened and not dealing with it. • Rationalization-you tend to make up excuses for problems. For example, I was not done because I didn’t have enough time. Really should have been stated as, I wasn’t done because I didn’t take enough time to do it, or I didn’t budget my time wisely.

10. Psychology Abraham Maslow listed five needs important to every person, they are: • Step 1 needs include, bodily needs food clothing shelter. This is our will to survive. • Step 2 needs include, all of our safety needs. We all need to feel secure and free from harm both emotionally and physically to do our best. • Step 3 needs include, your need to feel wanted and loved. Friendship belonging to groups is included in this step. • Step 4 needs include, things like self-esteem, a good reputation, the freedom to do what you think is right. • Step 5 needs include, the concept of self-actualization, this simply means becoming the best person that you can be. This step takes a lot of time and quite frankly is a never ending process that comes to a close at the moment of death.

11. Psychology Experiment 3-H Text pages 125-128. Question # 6. What is a mental set? A mental set is defined as an expectation of the way things should be or will be. Your mental sets are usually based on past experience, either things you have directly done or things you have taken in through your senses. A mental set generally takes place through learning. This learning is part of an experience pattern as; Perception—thought—action—reaction Learning can be both beneficial and harmful, explain.

12. Psychology Question # 7 How does conditioning work? Conditioning usually consists of a stimulus and a response. A stimulus is anything in the environment that you can perceive that causes you to act. The response is your action as a result of the stimulus. Pavlov taught a dog to salivate by ringing a bell at the same time as he fed them. Eventually the dog would droll simply because they heard a bell. The response was now conditional based on the learning or second nature to the dog.

13. Psychology Dr. Skinner wanted as well to change the behavior of something but he used a little different process. His method was called operant conditioning. This just means that each time his pigeons got close to doing what he wanted them to do he would reward them. Like getting those good grades at the end of the nine weeks. He trained pigeons to turn around in circles, to play a miniature piano, and countless other things. Both of these men changed the behavior of something by a little different means. Schools use both of these techniques all of the time.

14. Psychology Experiment 3-K Handout. Question # 8 What is creativity? Creativity is your ability to see, think, or do things in many new and different ways. Some you will try and you will like, others you may try and go back to what you were doing before. Is creativity a learned or inherited behavior? Can creativity be taught? Experiment 3-L Handout This experiment will show us the really talented people and those that need a little work.

15. Psychology Question # 9 What was the idea behind the Number-Word Talent Test? People who have confidence in what they are doing tend to be more successful and achieve at a higher level. As well the work that they do doesn’t seem to be a chore but rather fun to get done. The text refers to this as a Positive Mental attitude. Tell yourself positive things about your task and it will be much easier.

16. Psychology The text mentions that there are three key items that will help to lead to a PMA, they are: • No matter what you do you win. Even when you lose a ball game maybe you had the best block, or the only home run, or the most spike kill hits. You have won something during the course of the action. • If you think you can do something you can. I somewhat agree with this and I see some issues. I wanted to play professional baseball. I was pretty good in college but never had a look by the pro scouts so settled for coaching softball here for 15 years. Things still worked out fine but I did not accomplish the goal I had set. • Recognize your own talents and recognize your weaknesses. Play to your strengths, if you are good at something stay with it. That does not mean you completely abandon something you are required to do because you don’t like it. It simply means you have to try a little harder at it or find ways to make it work that may be outside of the ordinary. All in all there is really only one person in charge of the outcome of your life and that is you.

17. Psychology Question # 10 What is good mental health? The text suggests the following: • Be a realist, recognize things for what they are and deal with them in that way. • Win as often as you can, but also show some humility in those moments of success. There will be times when the role is reversed. • Use your emotions to your advantage. Don’t allow your emotions to make decisions for you that should have been based on logic. • Approach everything in a positive way. Do the best you can even on those things that don’t necessarily appeal too you. Dance class in college I hated it, now I wish I had done better. • Meet your problems head on and handle them right away. 6. Be aware of who you are. Your heredity and your environment has had a good deal to do with who you are. Know who that person is. 7. Self-actualize. I think Maslow would probably refer to that as a bucket list today. We often times put off doing things until it gets too late or you lose interest in the item.

18. Psychology Question # 11 Describe Erik Erickson’s “Eight Ages of Man.” Erickson was a developmental psychologist who studied people and the process of psychological growth. He like others wanted to see what happened to people as the got older and the changes that took place in each of these stages. They also wanted to see if all people went through these stages at about the same time or if there was a great deal of difference that took place.

19. Psychology • Stage one-Early infancy, birth to about 2. In this stage babies learn to trust or mistrust the things and people around them. • Stage two-Ages 2 and 3. Some parents call this the terrible two’s. The child is starting to gain some independence and has some control over their lives. This is usually associated with “potty training.” This is also known as the age of “no.” • Stage three-Ages 4 and 5. The child’s mind is developing so that they can start to plan and figure out things that are happening in their world. They still love to use the word no.

20. Psychology 4. Stage four- Ages 6 to 11. Often called early adolescence. The child will now attend school on a regular basis. They will learn that the world has rules and regulations to follow. The child is developing friendships and people other than parents and siblings are starting to influence their life. Fairness and respect become important parts of children’s lives at this time.

21. Psychology • Stage five-Ages 12-18, often referred to as adolescence or puberty. Bodily changes are occurring and often times causing a great deal of confusion on who the person is.. There is a greater attraction to the opposite sex, and reproduction is now possible. Adolescents need to be accepted and liked by their peers in order to feel a sense of security. Independence is very important now and children are pushing the limits of it with their parents. The text also suggests that career planning does take place during this time.

22. Psychology • Stage six- Young adulthood ages 18-about 35. The young adult is now independent of their family. They are usually living on their own. They now have a job or are preparing for a career in college or tech school. Young adults usually date and marry during this time and start to raise their own family. They often times move to new places establishing a much higher degree of independence. This is the stage where people supposedly find themselves and truly settle down.

23. Psychology 7. Stage seven- referred to as middle-age. This falls into the years 35-55 or there abouts. A very high degree of independence occurs during this time. As well responsibility for family, finance, and the future falls into this time period. Many people have achieved their highest level of success. They travel experience new things and mature as a person working toward self-actualization.

24. Psychology • Stage 8- ages 55-??????. Your age group would probably refer to this as old age. My age group refers to it as the golden years. I am not quite sure what that means though. This stage according to many developmental psychologists is associated with that concept of self-actualization. All of the things that a person wanted to do in their lives has come to pass. The bucket list has been completed and a person is satisfied with all that has taken place. This is a time of reflection and evaluation. This is the stage where the alarm clock now becomes the opportunity clock. Each day an added bonus to life.

25. Psychology Experiment 3-M page 143 text. Question # 12 What career opportunities are available in psychology? The text mentions three main areas. • Psychologists- these people work in a number of different areas, their focus is always on people and their behavior. • Teachers- People teach about psychology at the high school and college level. • Psychiatrists- these are people that have a degree in psychology but have gone back to school to become a medical doctor with a specialization in human behavior. They can prescribe medicine to treat people.