IT'S PERSONAL

It’s Personal

Perceptions of Psychology…Then and Now

Charney 2015

We spend our entire lives trying to understand the mind and our behavior. We strive to understand and explain thought, emotion, and behavior and to understand and explain how we think, act and feel. As most people already realize, a large part of our lives involves psychology and how it is dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues. It's difficult to capture just a brief definition of psychology, but topics such as development, personality, thoughts, feelings, emotions, motivations, and social behaviors denote just a portion of what psychology seeks to understand and explain. Furthermore, psychology can be applied to a multiplicity of issues that impact health and daily life including performance enhancement, self-help, motivation, productivity, and so much more…

As with anything in life, we develop a good sense of the importance of the “live and learn” resource. No matter what I typed in week one about what my perception of psychology is, I was only slightly close to understanding…but still so far away from knowing the truth. All I was able to do was to skim the surface of a definition not knowing exactly how deep the brain burrows into our darkest conscious and unconscious thoughts. The human being expresses emotions and movements that only a supreme being could possibly produce, from the moment we are born.

Unknown, 2009

Innate you say? Can this be possible that our very heart and soul of our being starts from when we are a mere fetus?  How do newborns know that sucking their thumb is incredibly soothing? How do newborns know that sleeping in the fetal position is the most comfortable and calming position to lie in? How do newborns know the woman holding them is their mom when they cannot focus their eyesight or control any bodily functions? Is it smell, taste, touch, sound, vibrations…how do we know? Does an infant already have a grasp of perceptual intuition from a mere nine months in the womb?

It has been a learning experience to discover that the explanation of psychology is impossible to give a precise definition too. It is about the mind and our behaviors, but it goes deep into the mind from the moment the zygote becomes an embryo. It is learning that the brain, as it develops, is beginning to develop the predestined life that child is going to experience. Not only are we destined to be developing by genetics but genetics must combine with the environment to complete the growth process. We must adapt not only physically but mentally and psychologically. Every neuron in our brain, every firing synopsis is triggered by development, personality, thoughts, feelings, emotions, motivations, and social behaviors. (Feldman, 2012)

Topics with Impact

Psychology is a study that is necessary for any degree no matter what level you choose to graduate at. It is a study that opens minds and helps with an understanding of human nature. It allows the comprehension of unexplained actions and gives behaviors, whether good or bad, a humanistic approach.

As a discipline counselor, I am constantly challenged by students. The challenges are normally different depending on the student and the severity of his/her punishment, but most of the students consistently choose to follow an informational social influence.  An informational social influence is when we do not know how to behave, we copy other people. They thus act as information sources for how to behave as we assume they know what they are doing. A so because we care a great deal about what others think about us, this provides a safe course of action at the very least, they cannot criticize us for our actions. Public compliance occurs when we copy others because we fear ridicule or rejection if we behave otherwise. (Cialdini, 1993)

Another challenge for me in my position as a discipline counselor is the promise I made to the school district that I will tutor students who are placed in my care so that they may not miss any assignments taught by their teachers. This alone makes for a trying day when dealing with students that have lost their drive to learn. The drive to learn is replaced by new stimuli in which behavior problems tend to stem from.

So, my readers may understand, we must remember a very important thing. We all have needs which lead to internal stimuli prodding us into action, driving us to reduce those stimuli by satisfying the relevant needs. Drive theory and Drive Reduction Theory are necessary drives, otherwise, our needs would not be satisfied. It is important for the person to perceive the stimulus and response in order to learn. If enacting of drives is frustrated or the driven action does not satisfy needs, this can lead to anxiety and other negative emotions. (Hull, 1943)

More often than not, we have a student that suffers from cognitive dissonance and my job is to try to get the students to stop and see if they can find the inner conflict. If we discover together that their conflict is put there by somebody else’s suggestions, then the only alternative is to not to play anymore with them. Now dissonance becomes an uncomfortable feeling of tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind and at the same time. Dissonance is often strong when we believe something about ourselves and then do something against that belief. If I believe I am good but do something bad, then the discomfort I feel thus is cognitive dissonance. Dissonance is most powerful when it is about our self-image. Feelings of foolishness, immorality and so on are dissonance in action. (Festinger, 1957) (Festinger L., 1959)

            

Unknown, Cognitive dissonance and why you never quit the job you hate, 2014

Impact approach to social change Social change center around three factors- locality, issues and social categories. Anthony Wallace view social movement as an attempt by local population to change the image or models they have of how their culture operates. An important component of social movement that distinguishes it from the general category of collective mobilization is the presence of an ideology. A student strike involves collective mobilization and is oriented towards change. But in the absence of an ideology a student strike becomes an isolated event and not a movement. A social movement requires

a minimum of organizational framework to achieve success or at least to maintain the tempo of the movement. To make the distinction clear between the leaders and followers to make clear the purposes of the movement to persuade people to take part in it or to support it, to adopt different techniques to achieve the goals - a social movement must have some amount of organizational frame-work. A social movement may adopt its own technique or method to achieve its goal. It may follow peaceful or conflicting, violent or non-violent, compulsive or persuasive, democratic or undemocratic means or methods to reach its goal. (Unknown, Impact of Technology Change, 2014)

References

Charney, M. (2015). Master of Perception: The Psychology of Professional Advancement. Retrieved from http://recruitingdaily.com/master-of-perception-the-psychology-of-professional-advancement/

Cialdini. (1993). Informational Social Influence. ChangingMinds.org. Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/informational_social_influence.htm

Feldman, R. S. (2012). Psychology and Your Life (2nd, ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

Festinger L., C. J. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.

Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row & Peterson.

Hull, C. (1943). Drive Theory. Principles of Behavior.

Unknown. (2009). What babies say on the inside of the womb. Retrieved from http://amazingdata.com/what-babies-say-on-the-inside-of-womb/

Unknown. (2014). Cognitive dissonance and why you never quit a job you hate. Retrieved from https://vivifychangecatalyst.wordpress.com/tag/cognitive-dissonance/

Unknown. (2014). Impact of Technology Change. Oriented towards social change. Retrieved from http://www.sociologyguide.com/social-change/impact-of-technology-change.php