Sunny's AP Psychology Blog

Best of the Century

Psychotherapy has broadened in many senses. It has become accessible to a larger portion of society, and is now used to treat a multitude of ‘problems’ including depression, shyness, substance-abuse problems, anti-social behaviors, etc. Like all the other areas of psychology, psychotherapy’s applications have spread through many aspects of society (especially in structured environments such as schools and offices). It has also diversified in terms of methods of treatment, and appropriate treatment for different cases, as well as consideration for patients’ backgrounds (ethnic, religious, etc) has improved the quality of psychotherapy.
Of the twenty great breakthroughs in psychology listed, I thought that the experiment on children’s perception by Jean Piaget, the demonstration of people’s fear of breaking rules by Milgram, proof of the unreliability of eyewitness accounts as shown by Loftus, Zimbardo’s exploration into the extent social roles define behavior, Selve’s identification of stress as well as the varying methods of dealing with it are the 5 most important.
The discovery that children have no concept of conservation demonstrates how we had to develop ideas taken for granted. It has implications for the nature-nature debate, strongly supporting the idea that our characteristics and skills are developed through learning, as we mature.
Milgram’s demonstration is quite significant as it demonstrates how human behavior is conditioned through societal norms and expectations. The human tendency to follow the majority perhaps reflects a herd-mentality, and also gives insights into how absurdities become widespread beliefs and practices.
The memory researcher Elizabeth F. Loftus has possibly saved a multitude of people from unjust punishment, and cleared up confusions in many aspects of society: reliance on eyewitness accounts as truth may have confounding impacts on business, news reports, scientific experiments, religion, etc.
The way the students in Zimbardo’s abortive experiment transformed is a chilling indicator of how humans change according to circumstances. Atrocities in times of war and crisis can partially explained through the effects demonstrated, and it may also have implications for therapy and the reeducation of criminals and addicts.
Stress is a hazard to human health, and the wrong way of dealing with it could have disastrous effects. I think Selve’s statement that different people require different levels of stress in their lives is an important indicator of variations in individuals. The recognition of stress as a health hazard would also allow medical professionals to better help their clients. As a side, it would be interesting to determine how genetics and environment can influence a person’s reactions to different kinds of stress.

Focus: what comes to mind when I hear the word ‘psychology’
- brain
- sleep
- bells
- a couch and an old man with glasses in a chair with a notepad
- marijuana
- yellow
- music
- inkblots
- mentally retarded children
- emotions (love, anger, etc)
- effects of tone
- human resources
- eating habits
- animals
- stress

posted by 미카 @ 12:40 PM