PAGATPAT, Elise Faith K.

Foundations of Psychology

September 14, 2013 Final Exam

1. How can we best use psychology to understand why people think, feel, and act as they do? a. Human behavior is complex and it can be both interesting as well as useful to learn the reasons that motivate certain behavior. Psychology gives us a better understanding of people and this knowledge is useful in different situations in everyday life. Psychology gives us an insight into the complex working of the human mind. Through Psychology, we can have a better understanding of oneself. Let's be honest, who isn't interested in understanding themselves better? We all must have at some time or the other solved those personality tests in magazines and websites to understand the strange working of our mind. There is no better way of understanding yourself than through the knowledge of psychology. Questions like "Why you feel the way you do?", "Why you behave in a certain way?" and "How did you become the person that you are today?" can all be understood through an understanding of psychology. Isn't that amazing? Once you understand your behavior, you can accordingly work at it. Moreover, it can help you deal with negative emotions effectively. Psychology helps increase our ability to empathize with others. Most issues between people arise because they fail to understand each other. They simply cannot understand the other person's point of view. Psychology helps you understand why people think the way they do and what causes their reactions. As a result, you are able to empathize with people. You may not agree with them, but when you see the reason behind their belief or point of view, you will be able to understand them better. Psychology gives way to greater adaptability in social groups. With an increased ability to empathize with others, you will be able to adapt better in any social group, be it at school, college, work or other community groups, where there are different types of people. Many a time, you may have felt out of place in one or more of these groups because you cannot relate to anyone. Learning psychology will help you understand that even though we feel that no one else feels the way we do, it is actually not so. When we realize that there are many others like us, we will be able to adjust better. Working in teams is essential in most professions and knowledge of psychology will help in building your team spirit. Psychology helps improved communication skills. Psychology explains how people communicate and what works best. By understanding this, you can use appropriate gestures and a method that will help you improve your communication skills and make it more persuasive and effective. Understanding the psychology of human communication will also make it easy for you to avoid making the mistakes that lead to a communication breakdown. The result of improved communication skills is healthier relationships with people. Moreover, in certain professions like in sales, human resource, media and many 1

more where communication is the key, knowledge of psychology can prove to be particularly beneficial. Psychology also enhances our problem solving skills. Knowledge of psychology will also help you in solving everyday problems more effectively. When you have an understanding of how people are likely to react in a certain situation, you can deal with the situation in a better way. Moreover, an understanding of your own thinking and psychology will enable you to deal with problems, without losing your temper. You will analyze situations and deal with it more pragmatically, than you otherwise would. Lastly, Psychology gives us a better understanding of people. Psychology enables you to understand people better, to look at them in a new light with a broader perspective. It will help you to make sense of a person's irrational emotions and reactions. As a result of this, not only will your relations with them improve, but you will also be in a position to assist them with their emotional turmoil. You do not need to be a professional counselor to assist people with their problems, you can use your knowledge to guide friends and family. 2. As psychologist, our concern lie less with particular behaviors than with general principle that help explain many behavior. Relate this question to the assigned topic. (Assigned topic is PERSONALITY DISORDERS) a. The scientific study of psychological disorders is known as abnormal psychology. When one deviates from a norm, or the accepted behavior in a society or culture, people term it as abnormal behavior. It is studied, researched and treated by clinical psychologist, psychiatrists and social workers. Personality disorders are similar to physical illness. There are different types of psychological conditions that can affect an individual. The many myths pertain to the term 'mental', as one can't see the chemical imbalance in the brain. The person suffering from such psychological imbalances himself doesn't realize, what is going wrong with him. History shows how people misunderstood the abnormal personality disorders and imprisoned or banished patients from the main society. Each and every person has a personality. The way a person thinks, behaves and expresses emotions are specific to each individual. These traits, specific to an individual mindset get converted into disorders, when the behavior becomes extreme and inflexible. Most of these conditions begin in childhood and develop into a full-blown personality disorder in adulthood. Any trauma emotion or mental, suffered during childhood, may lead to it. Such people are affected by their own thinking about themselves and the world around them. They experience emotions different from the normal pattern and function differently in society. They cannot control their impulses at times and become a danger to themselves and others around them. There are various principles, beliefs, techniques, and approaches in Psychology but all of those aim to give us a better understanding, a unique view, and an enlightened perspective on why humans behave a certain way. Psychologist view humans as a whole 2

and not by parts. Humans might suffer a specific disorder but we usually have look at the bigger picture rather than the details. The therapies we give involves not only the patient but also their families and their environment. 3. How do values influence your work and its application being a psychologist? a. Values are psychological objects. Although we cannot see or touch them, they are every bit as real as any physical object. People may dedicate their entire lives or even give up their lives to pursue their values, as so many loyal patriots have done fighting for values of freedom, equality and human rights during the past two centuries. We all have values that determine our decisions and guide our lives. Those who value their individuality take responsibility, are self-reliant and act with self-respect. Those who value truthfulness cannot bring themselves to tell a lie. Those who value family or friendship sacrifice their personal interests for the good of others. Those who value goodness cannot bring themselves to do something they know is wrong. We express values in our relations with other people when we are loyal, reliable, honest, generous, trusting, trustworthy, feel a sense of responsibility for family, friends, co-workers, our organization, community or country. On a more physical level, we may place great value on cleanliness, punctuality, orderliness, accuracy, quality, and physical perfection in whatever we do. Understanding one's own core values is integral to becoming self-aware. Self-awareness, in turn, helps us understand how people perceive us and allows us to identify the personal qualities that we would like to change. Values influence our choices, but our choices also influence our values over time. If we neglect to examine the congruence of our actions with our values, our actions may be guided by immediate concerns and instant gratification rather than our values. Over time, we come to take for granted the choices that we repeatedly make even if they are initially incongruent with our values, and our values begin to drift as well. Understanding of one's personal values is useful for time management. Most of us have the opportunity--not to mention the encouragement--to do more things than we'll ever have time to do. Consequently, we need to wisely select the tasks that we'll work on. A clear picture of our personal values allows us to rank the tasks on our "to do" lists according to how closely each task is associated with what's really important to us. Finally, having a clear set of personal values helps us build the credibility and trust that facilitate leadership. Trust is a willingness to take a risk and make oneself vulnerable. We are more inclined to trust people when we understand their values, and observe that their actions are congruent with those values, because we can reliably predict how they will act.