Before my dreams to become a teacher, I had once hoped to become a psychologist. Mainly because I like to know, understand, and help with others' problems. I hadn't realized how much actually went into psychology.
There is SO much that goes into psychology, a lot of which is interesting. I will try and contain some of my excitement and try to inform only what is necessary...
Like all science, psychology contains a whole method when approaching any experiment or theory. But what I noticed after taking a couple of classes, psychology's method was it's own.
There are 3 main types of study when approaching psych: Case Study, Survey, & Naturalistic Observation.
Through these studies, psychologists are able to observe behavioral and mental processes.
Examples of experiments:
The Bobo Doll Experiment by Albert Bandura
Bobo Doll = those annoying blow up toys that no matter what a little child did to it, it would always stand right back up.
Bandura basically showed a video of a woman hitting, kicking, throwing, etc, a bobo doll to some little children. Afterward, he let the children into a room filled with different toys, including a bobo doll. A group of children that did NOT watch the video played nicely with all the toys and didn't show any violence toward the doll. But the children that did see the video copied many of the same actions and even showed a prone to using (toy) weapons even though the video had no sign of any weaponry.
Video documentation of the Experiment [if you skip to 1.20 (ish) you can get straight to the bobo doll violence]
Little( or Baby) Albert by John Watson
Watson basically classically conditioned Little Albert to fear white, furry things. While there was no initial fear for any of the cute little creatures, Watson rang a loud bell every time Albert would reach for the white rat. Albert grew to actually fear the rat and Watson also discovered generalization by placing other white and/or furry animals in front of Albert and the reaction was the same as with the white rat.(Note: this experiment was done before all the child abuse laws and such were put in place)
Video Documentation of the Experiment [skip to about 1:40 for when Albert learns to fear the rat]
Sad ending to the story though. Albert's adopted mother discovered what was going on with the experiments before Albert could be desensitized. There have been many speculations on what happened to Little Albert but most recently, APA has uncovered the mystery. Poor Little Albert died at the age of 6.
Through experiments like those above, much of modern day psychology was able to be discovered.
The Bobo Doll experiment helped progress education in behavioral studies (associated with aggression). It encompassed human behavior and child development.
Little Albert also helped along behaviorism and helped establish conditioning and pointing out how fears weren't inborn but were mostly learned behaviors.
If you haven't noticed by now, much of psychology's learned research is all based upon cause-and-effect relationships.
"If X then Y"
or
"If not X then not Y"
By manipulating one or more factors, experimenters can discover how certain independent variables affect dependent variables.
Which brings us to independent and dependent variables...
These variables are basically just the different factors in an experiment.
The dependent relies on the independent. While there should only be ONE independent variable, there can be MANY dependent.
The independent variable is the change or changes that are caused by the experimenter.
Dependent(s) change due to the independent.
Another variable is the Controlled variable that may or may not influence the dependent.
Experiments and studies are a HUGE part of psychology. Almost all of modern-day psych would not exist without experimentation and the method that goes along with it. But, an experiment does not only have to be conducted for educational or even meaningful purposes. An experiment could be performed to figure out whether or not apples or oranges hurt more when thrown. ANYTHING can be done with experimentation.
Just in case you thought that was all Psych encompassed, below are just a couple of assignments/project from my AP Psych class in high school.
These next 3 documents I posted on Scribd and they are just vocabulary words from some chapters of my old psychology book. They contain the definition and an application of the term.
Ch15Terms-APPSYCH Ch16Terms-APPSYCH
Ch18Temrs-APPSYCH
This is a jeopardy/baseball game I made pertaining to Thinking & Language sections of psych.
I love this post! I think it's my favorite so far.. But it could be because I'm going into the Psychology field. :) I always learn something new or interesting from your posts.. So thank you for helping me be more intelligent. :)
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