Study Questions for General Psychology Mid-Term Exam 1- Define psychology and br
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Study Questions for General Psychology Mid-Term Exam 1- Define psychology and briefly discuss its three aspects. 2- Discuss the seven themes pertaining to psychology as a field of study and the study of human behavior 3- Briefly discuss the correlational research method and give an example 4 Discuss the steps of the scientific study of human behavior 5- Briefly discuss the ethical guidelines that apply to research on human subjects in the field of psychology 6- Briefly discuss the difference between the traditional and life span theories of human development. Describe four (4) characteristics of the life span perspective. 7- Briefly discuss four criticisms of Freud's psychosexual stages of development 8- Define or Describe the following: Personality; Superego; the Oedipus complex; Electra complex; Stratified Randomization Individualistic and Collectivist perspectives of the Self differ. stage of human development by employing James Marcia's 9- Briefly discuss three (3) dimensions in which the 10- Briefly discuss the psychosocial theory of the adolescent four modes of resolution. 11- Briefly discuss Erikson's stages of childhood development 12- Discuss the Humanistic Perspective of Human Development Briefly discuss the structure of personality according to the 14- Compare and contrast the Objective and Projective 15- Briefly discuss the social-learning perspective of human 13- Psychosexual Theory of Personality Development. personality tests. Give an example of each. development and give an example to illustrate the concept of reciprocal determinism 16- Briefly discuss the Ecological Theory of human development.Explanation / Answer
Answer 1) Psychology is a science dedicated to the study of behavior and mental processes.Behavior is what people and animals do,for eg, how do certain people behave when they see a dog or how moody you become when you are ill etc.Behaviors are everything that we do that can be directly observed. Mental processes refer to the thoughts, feelings, and motives that are not directly observable. Because psychology is a science, it uses systematic methods to observe, describe, predict, and explain behavior. It's a vast field of studies where mostly every dimension and aspect of behaviour and mental processes are studies carefully, taking into consideration a lot of other factors such culture, nationalilty, sex etc,. It is an attempt to understand what has so far pretty much escaped understanding, and any effort to circumscribe it or box it in is to imply that something is known about the edges of our knowledge, and that must be wrong. Tom Bolling at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington defines psychology as a science of description and application used for the "interpretation, prediction, development, and improvement of human behavior" and that psychology was originally a branch of philosophy. However, the history of psychology is rooted in philosphy, biology, and physiology.Rene Descartes and Charles Darwin strongly influenced the origins of psychology. In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt developed the first psychology laboratory. Wundt’s approach, which emphasized the importance of conscious thought and classification of the mind’s structures, was called structuralism. While structuralism focused inside the mind, William James emphasized the functions of the mind in adapting to the environment. James’s approach was called functionalism.
Structuralism and functionalism were the first two schools of thought in psychology;however, they are no longer followed. We should keep in mind that all the approaches are valid and each has advantages and disadvantages.Contemporary psychology perspective is subdivided into six approaches, namely, Behavioural approach under which study behaviourism and Social cognitive theory, Psychodynamic Approach, Cognitibe Approach, Behavioural neauroscience,Evolutionary Psychology Approach,Sociocultural Approach.
In the 20th century, psychology mostly focused on probelm solving psychological problems,such as mental disorders and social disturbances.The two movements focus on the study of healthy psychology: Huministic psychology and positive psychology.
At the beginning of the 21st century, psychologists Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi proposed a positive movement, one that would place stronger emphasis on positive psychological experiences, such as hope and optimism, creativity, and social responsibility. Humanistic approaches, such as the work of Carl Rogers, has added a great deal to our understanding of what constitutes effective therapy.
The three aspects of Psychology:
Mental Development :Mental development includes such abilities as attending, perceiving, observing, remembering, imagining, thinking, solving problems and growth of intelligence as well as of language. These abilities grow and mature with age or in different stage.
Emotional Development:The term emotion is derived from Latin term ’emovere’ which means to stir, to agitate to move. Hence, an emotion is referred to as a stirred up state of agitation. We feel agitated or excited when we experience anger, fear, joy, grief, disgust, etc.
An emotional state consists of feelings, impulses, physical and physiological reactions. According to wood-worth, Emotion “is a moved or stirred up state of an organism. It is disturbed muscular and glandular activity”. We find different emotional development at various stages of human life.
Social Development:At birth, the child is neither social nor unsocial. When the child grows up, he develops some social behaviour which makes him an acceptable social being. Social development can be defined by Hurlock as social development is the “attaining of maturity in social relationships”.
Garret regards social development as the process whereby “the biological individual is converted into a human person.” Social development is closely associated with mental, physical and emotional aspects of development.
An individual’s social and emotional behaviour is so closely interlinked that feelings of jealousy, shyness, affection and sympathy which are primarily regarded as emotional responses can also be treated as social forms of behaviour.