General Psychology Paper

Laura Ones
Mrs. Lisa Harder
General Psychology
May 5, 2012
                                                          Concepts of General Psychology
Introduction
As I thought about what I could write about in this paper it was difficult to narrow my thoughts to only five essential concepts I have gleamed from this class. The vast amount of information in the field of psychology and the interrelatedness of its subjects also makes choosing these topics difficult. However, I based my choices off of this question: What really matters when we study psychology? To this question, I answered “people.” Thinking like a psychologist, I decided that I would try to write about as many aspects of the whole person that I could. Therefore, I chose to write about our views of early life (nature and nurture), our relations with people (social cognition), how we process and make decisions (reasoning), how we learn (observational learning), and our moral development. I believe these are five areas of psychology that are truly important.
Nature and Nurture
As we think of human life, it is important to think about what life is. According to the text, “a new life is initiated when the sperm penetrates the egg” (319). This begins the process of growth and maturation of a new human being. From this point, both the genes (nature) and the environment (nurture) play key roles in development and have a great affect on the very beginning stages of life. The nature of a child is something that they acquire at conception and are unchanging from this point. How the child is nurtured, on the other hand, has to do with external factors. Many negative external events can occur as the baby grows inside the mothers womb, such events are called teratogens. Illness, alcohol, drugs, caffeine, smoking, diet, pollution, and stress some of the most common teratogens. Positive shaping events also exist. These may include a healthy diet, listening to music, speaking to the child, etc.
So, how does this connect with our views of early life? It connects because our start often determines our finish, or in this case, the rest of our life. At birth, a child is vulnerable to the mothers actions. Any negative external force can cause the child to develop problems throughout their lifetime. When we analyze personality and actions, we may need to look back to a person’s prenatal existence and the nurturing they have experienced. This will give us a better view of who they are and why. The nature and nurture concept is not limited to ones prenatal existence, it affects children as they grow outside the womb. The environment that a person grows up in is one of the greatest factors to how that child will turn out. A child that lives in an un-loving and abusive environment will grow up to be a different person than a child who grows up in a loving and non-abusive home. Their ideas about love, punishment, right and wrong, authority, and fear will differ. A persons environment also affects how they view themselves. An individual who grows up in a negative, critical,  and non-accepting environment they are more likely to have issues with self-worth and identity. Another example of this can be seen through the influence of friends. A teenager who has rebellious friends will most likely be rebellious. The desire for a child to fit in and be loved can rule how they react in these situations and instead of taking actions to flee such environments, they choose to adhere to it. In some cases, this sort of nurturing can be dangerous.    
I believe that the concept of nature and nurture has a lot of truth to it. As a teacher, I believe that it will be very important to know my students backgrounds, as it would be for a psychologist or psychiatrist. To truly know why a person is the way they are, we need to examine their past. They may believe that their past does not affect who they are today but, ultimately, it does. Even the act of trying to flee from a painful past shapes a person’s actions and attitudes towards the world and people, therefore their past is shaping who they are today, which brings us to the next concept.
Social Cognition
Our attitudes and behaviors also affect how we interact and view people. Social cognition entails how we view people and the social world (475). When we talk about attitude in light of social cognition we are talking directly about how a person evaluates the world, it’s people, places, and things. According to the text, there are three areas of this evaluation: Affect, behavioral, and cognitive (475). Affective entails the feelings that a person has toward another person, thing, or issue. For example, if a relative came to you and stated that they would be getting a divorce, because of your attitude toward divorce, you would feel a certain way about your relative. This is an example of affective as described by the text. The second area of evaluation is behavioral which refers to how you naturally act toward a person, thing, or issue. It can better be described as having a certain inclination to follow through with a certain behavior at a certain time. Just as your feelings changed when you heard your relatives were getting a divorce, your behaviors would change. Lastly, cognitive is related to your prior beliefs about a person, issue, or thing that affects how you view it. When we analyze a person it is important to study how they interact with people.
You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat others. However, I believe that a person’s true character is not seem by looking at how they treat strangers but rather how they treat those they are close to. There is a strange dichotomy that happens in social cognition. Those that a person loves the most, they get the most annoyed by or upset with and those that they love do not love in this way they seem to get along with perfectly. I believe there are many factors to this social attitude. First, when a person believes that they will not loose someone’s love, their actions reflect this belief and they are not afraid to admit they are upset or argue with these people. We know that they have seen us at our worst and we do not mind. On the other hand, when we relate to those that we have not earned the love of, we find ourselves putting on our people pleaser hats and trying to gain their approval and love. Does this not seem backward? Those that we have something to loose we often treat as such and those we have nothing to loose we treat as royalty. This reality is sometimes disturbing.
Another issue that is present in our world relates to social media. Over the years, our society has been influenced by media, our culture clearly reflects that. Success, power, sex, good looks, drinking, homosexuality, and many other things have been widely displayed for our nation to soak in and with which to adhere. The “social norm” is often not created by a person’s social surroundings, but rather by the media that the social group exposes themselves to. The attitudes and actions of social groups across the nation are often no longer specific to a certain region or area. Instead, because of media, the nation is becoming more and more the same in how they act, the trends that they follow, and the music they listen to. I believe media and celebrities, and people’s constant desire to follow them, are taking away the individuality of the nations people. A box has been created by the media and everyone tries their best to stay within that box so to not offend others or be labeled the “odd one.”  
In sum, social cognition is a huge part of our world and what makes a person who they are throughout their lifetime. Humans are relational beings and they require a certain amount of approval from their social surrounding. I believe that analyzing a person social life is one of the most important ways that a psychologist can get a glimpse into a person’s internal state. How we feel, behave, and what we believe about people is a direct reflection of our spirit. Just as believers have faith and act on it, so everyone has beliefs about people on which they act. This brings us to the topic of moral development.
Moral Development
Our morals are a huge influencer as to how we treat people and live life. Our morals are at the core of every decision we make. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated that “If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values--that  all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.” There is a time in every man’s life when he must take a step back, look at the world, and decide what he believes. Until he does this, he will never be able to continue forward. This is a problem for many.
As is the same for most concepts of this paper, our morals shape our attitudes, behaviors, and feelings about our world. Our ability to distinguish right from wrong is a key part of moral development and starts from youth. According to the text Piaget understood this and, although he did not dive deep into the study of the moral realm, he still loved telling stories to children that allowed them to analyze a character and make moral judgments (341).  This tradition was carried on by Kohlberg in his studied about moral dilemmas and how men and boys acted on these dilemmas. Kohlberg’s famous story was, in short, about a husband who needed to buy medicine for his dying wife from the town druggist who recently discovered a new remedy for cancer. The druggist would not drop the price of his drug from the price he set it at for his own profit. The husband broke in and stole the drug. The question that Kohlberg sought to address through this story simply was “Should the man have done this? Why?” Dilemmas such as this do not completely define our morals, but they do aid in our development of them.
Kohlberg also stated that there are three levels of moral development, the preconventional level, conventional level, and postconventional level. The reconvention level has to do with the authority that is involved in a moral dilemma and the power they have to command or instruct. The conventional level focuses on the rules of social order. Following or breaking any such rules may classify you as a “good” or “bad” person. Lastly, the post conventional level focuses on the abstract principles that shape our obedience or rebellion of rules. These three areas, according to Kohlberg, shape how we discern what is right and necessary in the realm of a moral dilemma.
I believe that moral development and action are non-existent apart from God. Some may say they do not believe in God, but their morals prove not. Our society has created a set of standards and rules based on “right and wrong” and do not attribute these known rules to a higher power. How can this be? What is right and wrong unless we have something to base it off of? Every idea has to have a donor. The ideas, concepts, or theories that we study today can be tied to a person who presented it but who first presented the idea of morality, right and wrong? We can not tie these principles to anyone in our worlds history and yet our ancestors lived by these same standards. The only explanation to this is that there is a God who established all things and set our world into motion. Now, what does this have to do with moral development? Well, I believe that there is one defining point when it comes to deciding where you stand. This defining point is God and whether you choose to believe in Him or not. This shapes what we believe and how we grow. Discovering the moral stand a person takes helps us understand how they reason and live.       
Reasoning
Reasoning is deciding what follows and idea (211). When a person reasons, they problem solve, even if the problem has only taken the form of a thought. There are two types of reasoning, deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning follows  the path of general to particular, we take a rule and make examples of it. Inductive reasoning follows the path of specific to general, we take an example and infer a rule. When we are able to see our world clearly, without interruptions or distortions, we are able to reason correctly. However, when our view is interrupted by external factors, we will not be able to reason clearly and will end up making an illogical decision. This is a problem.
As I see it, reasoning is a daily part of life which is perfected through life experience. This being said, I believe that our ability to reason and our level of wisdom are highly correlated. Wisdom is the ability to look at a present situation and apply past learning to make a future decision (present, past, future decision making). Many people believe that they have the ability to reason and yet they continue to fall into the same pattern of negative behaviors and make the same wrong decisions time after time. If a person can be trained to look to the past to make a future decision they will most likely make a wise and reasoned decision. However, we need to remember that having the ability to reason well does not mean that we will always make the right choices. There are often, as stated earlier, external factors and interruptions that force us to make the wrong decision. This is why learning to look at things from different angles is important. Most likely, the same external factor that affects one outlook will not affect the next.
There are two areas that I would like to discuss regarding our ability to reason and the factors that shape this skill, the environment and genetics. As a person develops their ability to reason, they are under the constant influence of the environment. From media to family relations, to friendships, people are impressionable and persuadable. People are tossed and turned by their desire to please others but also do what is right. Often these are conflicting desires. This is when a  person’s morals come into effect. This is why it is important to know what you believe or you could be caused to compromise in areas that you really do not desire to do so. This is the environmental battle that we must face when we are attempting to reason. The other battle, or rather reality, that we must face is that of genetics. The truth is that all people are not able to reason equally, some have a greater innate ability to do so. This being said, we must not look down on people for being, as we say, “illogical” or “impractical”, they may not have the gift to reason and think through issues and events clearly. Those that have a gift to reason and use logic will need to come alongside those that do not and teach them the skills and techniques to do so.
As we analyze the makeup of individuals, we nee to remember that we are not all the same. Those that excel in one area will not always excel in all areas. We need to work together and teach our strengths and continue learning to improve our weaknesses.
Observational Learning 
Learning is a huge part of life, it is a lifelong process and will shape who we become.  Observational learning happens as you view others actions and attitudes and then act in this same way, we could say that this falls into the category of “monkey see, monkey do” (148-149). Bandura’s study on observational learning was an attempt to study the level of impressionability of children. Three groups were formulated; one group watched a man beating up a Bobo doll, one group watched a man play with tinker toys and ignore the Bobo doll, and the other did not preview an adult. The results were in line with the principles of observational learning. The children who saw the adult abuse the Bobo doll did the same while the children who saw the adult playing nicely with tinker toys did not take any aggressive act toward any of the toys in the room (as did those in the non-observing group). This proves that people, children especially, are vulnerable to being shaped by their environment. This fact should shape our actions.
I believe that it is of high importance to understand the concept of observational learning. It is important as a future teacher because it reminds me that my students will watch my actions and follow them. I desire to be a good role model for them to follow. This begins with my attitude towards school at the present moment. I often find myself wishing that I was not in school and waiting for the day when I will be “free” of homework and the constant desire to please my professors and earn good grades. In doing this, I have allowed my focus to be directed toward the unimportant aspect of learning. Learning is not about getting good grades or checking a box on my to-do-list, it is about gaining knowledge that I will use throughout my lifetime. My attitude now will shape my future attitude toward school and teaching. Although I may think that I will be able to teach my students to love learning and be thankful for their mind this will not be possible unless I model this for them.
Also, it is also important as an overall resident of this world that I think about the things that are influencing my life, intentionally or unintentionally. We live in a sinful and selfish world and if we do not guard our hearts against such attitudes we will assume them ourselves. This relates to psychology in so many ways. Human psychology is centered on the fact that we are dwellers of this world and, therefore, we fall into the practices of those of this world. The truth is, personally, I do not want to participate in many of the worldly practices that I see on a daily basis. However, through viewing these practices I am more apt to practice them. This is why it so important that we guard ourselves, mind body and soul and cling to the truth of the Bible and the practices that are encouraged through it.
Conclusion
Throughout this paper, we can see there is a common theme; we are affected by the world in which we live. This is not rocket science but I believe that we often do not take it as seriously as we should. In particular, those that understand the weight of sin in our world should be cautious on which they base their morals, reasoning, friend choices, and their views of life. One of the main things that I have learned in this class is that our mind makes all the difference. In all that we do, we use our mind. This is one reason it is important to know our mind and how it works. With such knowledge, we will be more equipped to control it. Through the grace of God and an obedient attitude to follow His will, we will take the path of wisdom, peace, justice,  truth, and love.  

Things that bring me joy!

Cyber Bullying: Definition and Help

Cyber bullying Defined: A form of internet use in which one party seeks to prey upon another party; The use of internet to put-down, minipulate, tease, or belittle another person; being cruel or overbearing to another through the use of texting, internet, and the like; the act of computer hacking or misusing the information given by another.

Cyber bullying is a growing problem in our world. Here are some helpful sites to battle it:




http://www.isafe.org/imgs/pdf/education/CyberBullying.pdf

http://www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying

Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNumIY9D7uY

http://www.cyberbullying.us/

Academic Honesty

Academic honesty is a very important part of a successful educational system. I believe it is important to live with integrity and this is something I will teach my students. I will teach this to my students through, first, helping them understand my boundries for my classroom and enforcing those boundries regarding academic dishonesty. I will teach my students that academic honesty is a value for life. Honesty in their education will carry over to future jobs and families. Living with integrity may not be the easiest road to take, but it is definately the most rewarding. I believe that students need to learn life lessons in the school setting. There is no better place to learn them. I will seek to equip my students to be honest, loyal, and truthful citizens as well as students.

Digital Citizenship for Teachers

Digital citizenship for teachers is quite a bit different than that of students. A teacher should be knowledgable and wise about technology for many purposes that students do not have to worry about. Here are a few of those reasons: (1)they need to have boundries for social networking; (2)they need to be knowledgable enough to catch students misusing it; (3) and they need to be knowledgable in order that they might plan for and accomodate students needs. Expanding on the reasons above, (1) boundries are extremely important for teachers on social networking sites because those sites are not private. Your employers, students, and the public in general can all see what you are saying. Time and time again teachers have been fired for what they say on their facebook. These sites are not as private as we may think! Be cautious and wise. (2)Students often misuse technology. Because we live in a technology dependent world we often will find that students are overusing, misusing, or even abusing technology. We need to be able to catch these acts and teach them to think for themselves and to not be dependent on technology to think for them. (3)Planning and accomodating for students is a huge part of education. Technology is an amazing tool for teachers while trying to teach in a school where inclusion is valued. Students may often need help from technology and through a knowledge of it teachers will be able to assist and provide ways in which it can be helpful. Students with disabilities have often benefitted from the use of technology as well as those who do not have disabilities. Technology is a wonderful tool for teachers. Through knowing it, we will be equipped to use it properly.

Philosophy of Education

My philosophy of education is as follows:
I believe that our minds are a gift from God. This being said I believe that we should use them for the purposes God intended. Education is just one way we can use our minds to glorify God and give back to Him through using His gift to us. Education allows us to become better individuals through broadening our minds and looking outside only what we see and experience and looking to what others see and experience. This is an awesome tool for growth!
Also, education is an area which is beneficial to all. Not only do we grow from a good education but, also, others can grow through our participation in bettering the world. Our minds are powerful things. When we use them to our full potential there is no doubt we will change the world for good. In my future classroom, I want to instill in each student a realization of their minds potential and the things that they can do with a good education. I want to teach my students to have a love for learning and a good work ethic to match.