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Psychology is the science of investigating the sources, development, and differences in our consciousness and our various behaviours. Through research, we can discover patterns, causes, and changes in our actions. Isolating these findings can give us additional knowledge that mere introspection might be blinded to, since so many of our actions are instinctual. The most obvious applications of psychology are in those areas that seek to change human behaviour. For instance, marketing that seeks to influence how people spend money, policing tactics that attempt to deter crime, or fitness programs that encourage a healthier lifestyle. One area that specifically interests many is the psychology of relationships. Understanding behaviour can help one become more likeable. A particular area that I have sought to use psychology is in body language. I have tried to be more conscious of standing firm and closing the body when I need to portray confidence (such as in public speaking), and opening up at social events (such as when I am hosting). Industrial psychology involves researching the effect of body language on job applications and how things like eye contact and facial expressions change how others view us.
Ethics in psychological research refers to the principle that experiments should never cause, or risk causing, substantial or irreversible harm to their participants. Psychological experiments look at groups that have certain characteristics or experiences and compare them with control groups that lack them. In many cases it is easy to give participants these experiences, perhaps the experience of being observed by a superior while taking a quiz. However, if the experiences are harmful, then it is unethical to expose participants to them. Trauma from disturbing images is a serious topic of research, with immediate applications to helping veterans recover from war. But inducing trauma in participants would be severely unethical, since it constitutes substantial harm and can not be undone after the experiment. What is interesting to me is the evolution of ethics over time. We think of ethical norms as absolute, yet they have changed significantly over the years, with many past experiments now considered highly unethical. What prompted these changes, and what does that mean for how ethics might shift again in the next decades?
Twentieth century psychologists such as Erik Erickson, Jean Piaget, and Lawrence Kohlberg were interested in categorising the development of the human mind into distinct stages of development. Each one of them came up with a unique system that explained the process of moving from an ignorant, illogical child into a capable adult. Erickson’s theory was the psychosocial theory of development and it involved eight stages all the way up through old age. Each stage is an opposition between two mental concepts, for example, initiative vs. guilt is the third stage which takes place around the ages from three to six. Compared to other lifespan theories it appears to be much more detailed: Piaget’s cognitive theory only had four stages that ended at age twelve. Yet I wonder is it detailed enough? As a teenager, I would say that the first five stages have mapped onto my life with relative accuracy. But as I grow older will it continue to feel accurate, or will life develop me in ways that are largely unforeseen by Erickson’s schema?
Sleep is a unique state of consciousness is characterised by greatly reduced movement and sense perception. The term consciousness refers to the level at which we recognise stimuli, so sleep is considered a relatively low level of consciousness. While sleeping, we do not process distinct thoughts or feel sensations. During sleep we commonly experience dreams. Most frequently this happens during REM sleep, where our muscles are paralysed so that we do not move about in reaction to dreams. Sometimes, one experiences lucid dreams in which they realise they are dreaming and can think as if they were in a state of wakefulness. I personally am a deep sleeper and rarely have lucid dreams or move much during sleep. However, my father is much more likely to move during vivid dreams. I recall sharing a bed with him in a hotel where I was awoken in the night by him bolting upright during a dream, something he did not remember in the morning. Attached is a link to an album by the post-minimalist composer Max Richter called ‘Sleep’. In consultation with neuroscientist David Eagleman, Richter wrote the eight-hour long album as a lullaby meant to accompany you during the stages of sleep, and it was performed live in front of a sleeping audience in 2015.
Sensation is the base process of a signal being processed by a sense receptor, such as a beam of light hitting the eye or something brushing up against the skin. This is distinct from perception, which is the actual mental recognition of that information. Though the two might seem to go hand-in-hand, most of our sensations are not recognised by the brain. Usually our brain filters out the feel of our clothes against our skin or static objects in our peripheral vision. Sometimes we consciously change our perception. Intentional blindness occurs when we focus on certain stimuli causing us to ignore others. In the case of optical illusions we perceive sensations differently, even though they are qualitatively the same. The picture attached is a classic example, where the shadow causes the two squares to look like different shades of grey when they are in fact the same. As a philosophy major, it is interesting to note how the sensation-perception distinction relates to the mind-body problem and the problem of consciousness. Rene Descartes in his Meditations remarked on how the connection between sensation and perception seems so arbitrary. How and why does our consciousness make the leap from signals travelling through nerves into the neurons to the idea of ‘this feels hot’ or ‘that looks red’?
Reinforcement is the addition or removal of a stimuli in order to make a behaviour more common. Positive reinforcement adds a reward, and negative reinforcement removes something that was unwanted. There is also positive and negative punishment, which attempts to make a behaviour less common through adding or removing stimuli. This behaviour modification through the cause-and-effect associations created by reinforcement and punishment is called operant conditioning. When I first started piano lessons, my teacher used positive reinforcement to encourage practise. I accumulated points by learning songs, which I could them exchange for a variety of toys or candies. An example of negative reinforcement would be how my councilors at summer camp would encourage us to stay hydrated by offering to clean the lunch table for of us if we drank enough water. The photo attached is a Skinner Box, a device invented by psychologist B. F. Skinner. The rat in the box experiences positive reinforcement by receiving food every time the lever is pulled after a light flashes,
causing him to learn the behaviour.
Problem solving refers to the ways which our brain attempts to overcome given difficulties. It is a component of intelligence, and different methods of problem solving might exemplify different types of intelligence. For example, in Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory, analytical intelligence is associated with mathematical, academic problem solving, whereas creative intelligence is associated with more out-of-the-box thinking. The different types of strategies include trial and error, algorithms, and heuristics. Today I was trying to stop light from coming in my room, and I utilised trial and error. First I attempted to adjust the blinds, then to block the window with a pillow, and finally covering it with a towel. How does problem solving change with age? Do we grow to prefer more advanced solutions like algorithms over brute trial and error, or are our preferences constant?
Hunger is a sensation that is triggered by the body when it needs food. If the stomach is empty it shrinks, sending signals to your brain. When your blood sugar drops, the pancreas and liver also send signals that prompt hunger. Once you have eaten enough, the opposite sensation of satiation is triggered by the same organs causing you to stop eating. Psychological and genetic factors can change how often you feel hungry. Prader-Willi syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes someone to feel powerful, perpetual hunger, and bulimia nervosa is a mental disorder that leads to binge eating. While dieting, you often need to find ways to reduce hunger other than eating. Drinking tea, crunching ice, or engaging in light exercise are common methods that have worked for me. The visual representation is a bowl of french onion soup, because
I'm hungry and could really go for one right about now. My question is, how much can hunger be ignored by the brain? We
can choose to consciously ignore sensations for a time, but would hunger ever build up to the extent where it can not be ignored?
Trait theory is one of the many ways psychologists have attempted to understand human personality. It breaks our natures down into distinct traits based on behaviours. At its core, this theory is rather intuitive since everyday we use words to refer to people's personalities. This man is 'kind' or that child is 'annoying'. But one of the difficulties is getting the massive list of traits down into a helpful system. Gordon Alpert started with a list of 4.500 words that could be used to describe people, and Raymond Cattell narrowed that list to 171 words. Nowadays, we use a five factor model called the 'big five' that measures the traits of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism along a scale. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lt. Commander Worf (right) came from the Klingon race who score extremely low on the agreeableness trait. His suspicious, hostile nature often clashed with Captain Picard who was an empathetic diplomat by heart and scores highly on agreeableness.
Initiation is the joining of a group or team, and studies have shown that we tend to think our groups that have a difficult initiation process are better than ones with an easy initiation. This is an effect of cognitive dissonance, which is the stress that comes from believing conflicting ideas. We do not want to think that the time and money we spent getting into a group was wasted, so we are biased towards maintaining that the group is good. For many, college can be a source of this effect. The difficulty of applying and the money spent on tuition can make you think it is better for you than it actually is. However, I wonder how much the mental drive to justify these costs makes us actually get more from a group. Perhaps it might cause you to invest more time or take it more seriously, which can actually increase the benefits compared to an easy-initiation
group you are not inclined to care about.
Industrial and organisational psychology, abbreviated as I/O, is a sub-discipline of psychology that focuses on workplace applications to human motivation and productivity. It can further be broken down into three categories. Industrial psychology looks at jobs requirements and their applicants. It might consider which questions are best to ask to asses capability. Organisational psychology considers employees and their relationships. It might suggest to improve morale by celebrating an employee of the month. Finally, human factors psychology focuses on the dynamic between employees and the tools they use. It might move the placement of a warning light and change its colour so employees are more likely to notice it. Recently standing desks have become increasingly popular, with evidence that they possibly make you feel more energetic and reduce back injuries. The accompanying XKCD webcomic jokingly suggests that a 'running desk' would be even more ergonomic.
The studying of mental disorders and how they can be detected, prevented, and treated is called psychopatholgy. The field is complicated by issues in determining exactly what a mental disorder is. We instinctively think of it as something abnormal, but that alone is a broad and subjective definition. Currently, the American Psychiatric Association uses a fourfold criteria where disorders must: 1) significantly disturb the psyche, 2) originate in a determinable dysfunction, 3) impede normal living, and 4) not be caused by normal cultural expectations. Psychologists refer to the DSM5 as a manual for categorising the established mental disorders and the research on them. French philosopher Michel Foucault wrote his book Madness and Civilisation on the shift in European perception of mental disorders. The Renaissance termed it madness and gave it a spiritual meaning as a subversive critique of rationality. Then the Classical age rejected the more positive view and instead termed madness a rejection of rational values and sought to imprison the 'insane' as criminals. Finally, the Modern
age re-framed the issue as an illness, something that could be
cured by normalising new behaviours. While Foucault's model
is not perfect, it highlights how the concept has evolved.
In psychology, experiments need to be held to certain ethical standards. This involves having the subject be aware of what they will experience, actively consent to participating, and not develop long-term adverse side-effects. Reinforcement is the psychological process of manipulating behaviours through punishment or reward, as in giving a child candy when they complete a chore. Experiments involving reinforcement easily run the risk of breaching ethical codes. For one, testing the effects of severe punishment, like physically beating subjects when they do not engage in an activity, would be unethical. And in general, the changed behaviour could persist outside of the experiment which would be unfair to the subject if the change is significant or unwanted. But do these necessary ethical limitations create a limit to what we can study? If we can not test reinforcement in extreme or brutal conditions, what other ways are there to ethically learn about how malleable our behaviours are?
When we encounter everyday difficulties, we employ problem-solving techniques to reach solutions. A common technique is breaking a problem down into components to better understand it. I/O psychology is a sub-discipline that analyses how we relate to our work. It involves ergonomics, which looks at how we understand the tools we use. A pioneer of ergonomics was Alphonse Chapanis, who had a PhD in psychology. In WWII, he investigated the problem of Boeing B-17s crashing on the runway due to pilot error. He analysed the steps that were involved in landing and found that it involved retracting the landing gear and the flaps, but that both actions were controlled by identical adjacent switches. He tested out a solution: putting shapes on the switches, so they could be distinguished by touch. This greatly reduced the frequency of crashes, proving his solution to be effective. These type of ergonomic problem-solving stories fascinate me and I would love to learn more.
Sleep is an altered state of consciousness regulated by the body. It is characterised by dramatically less movement and sense perception than when we are awake. Hunger is a sensation triggered in the brain by our bodies when they require food. If we go without eating for an extended period, our blood glucose levels start drop and they are replenished by glycogen stores in our liver. This is what keeps us from feeling hungry when we are asleep. Additionally, when we wake up we often feel less hungry than when we went to bed. Studies have shown that hormones that regulate hunger, ghrelin and leptin, are at different levels after sleep and likely are affected by the quality of our sleep. Researching more about how sleep changes our hunger and metabolism as part of learning how to sleep better would be an interesting line of inquiry to continue.