Understanding Psychology

Throughout this paper I will be comparing and contrasting what our

textbook and several other books have to say about different topics and

famous psychologists.

In the book “BATMAN and PSYCHOLOGY” it talks about classical

conditioning and how it relates to Batman and his enemies. Just like in the

textbook it says that there are unconditioned responses to unconditioned

stimulus’. One example from this book is when Bruce Wayne falls into a

cave. Wayne doesn’t have to be conditioned to know that falling into a cave

is scary, so it is an unconditioned response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Then when bats fly out at him he is naturally startled as well. But now

when he sees bats he is frightened because he encountered these at a time

of fear (the cave). This is a conditioned response. Another example is when

Batman’s logo is put up in the sky for all to see this makes the citizens feel

comforted and safe, but it scares Gotham’s criminals. These examples

perfectly demonstrate Ivan Pavlov's “Classical Conditioning” theory, and

his experiment that he conducted. Ivan Pavlov conducted an experiment

after he noticed that the dogs began to drool whenever they saw lab coats.

After noticing that the dogs drooled because the people in the lab coats

were the ones who fed him, he tried something. Pavlov or one of his

helpers would ring a bell overtime they fed the dogs, and just like the lab

coats, they slobbered overtime that they heard the bell. He called this

classical conditioning. Wanted to go farther into his study he conducted

another, more famous study, called The Little Albert Experiment. During

this experiment Pavlov and his co-workers took a 9 month old boy and

showed him several cute and cuddly animals such as a white rat. At first

the baby loved the rat, but then the next time Pavlov showed the baby the

rat Pavlov hit a piece of metal with a hammer to make a loud noise. After

many times of doing this and making the baby cry, just the site of the rat

would make the baby scared and cry since it was normally paired with the

loud banging.

The next topic that I will talk about from the book “BATMAN and

PSYCHOLOGY” is Amygdala which the book describes as the part of our

brain that links our motivations and emotions to the stimuli that set them

off. An example of this is like when an electrical or chemical stimulation is

sent to the hypothalamus or the amygdala and it causes the animal to

attack. Another fact about your amygdala in that adolescence that show

strong activation in the amygdala they tend to enjoy watching others in

pain. Just like if someone were to fall and someone nearby watching would

think that it was funny and enjoyable, it would be there amygdala that

triggered this. Now that you have heard what the Batman book has said I

will give you what the text book says which is slightly different. The

textbook said that the amygdala is the part of your brain that has the ability

to associate memories with emotions. It is essentially the emotional holder

part of your brain. Meaning that it controls all emotions, including rage

and fear.

Altruism is the next topic, and this one mostly refers to Bruce Wayne

as Batman. This book “BATMAN and PSYCHOLOGY” defines altruism as

unselfishly helping others despite risk to yourself. And, as you can see

thats what Batman does. He is always helping others no matter what is

going to happen to him. Also, altruism could be a label that you give Tim

and Barbara as well, they are doing the same thing as Batman using there

ability to help others instead of staying safe and just leaving it be. Just as it

says in the Batman book, the textbook defines altruism the same. “Helping

others often at a a cost or risk, for reasons other than rewards”.

I think that anyone who shows this trait is an amazing person. They are

way more brave than most of the people in this world.

The last thing that I am going to talk about from “BATMAN and

PSYCHOLOGY” is Sigmund Freud. Freud key ideas about the phallic stage

originated in his treatment the boy in his Little Hans. Hans suffered from

equinophobia (Fear of horses). He was so afraid that a horse was going to

bite him and so he stayed inside. Han stayed in so much that he fell involve

with his mother and was afraid that his father was going to castrate him.

Freud linked the horse to his father, and the biting horse was his fear of

being castrated by his father. Han had fantasies about killing his father and

marrying his mother. Soon he started to act more like his father which

Freud interpreted as an act of identification. He became more like his father

so that he could get along with him. By doing this his dad wouldn’t

threaten his male parts.

The next book that I am going to be talking about is ‘Captain America

vs. Iron Man Freedom, Security, Psychology’. The topic that I will start off

with in this book is Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The book states

that post-traumatic stress disorder is “a well known consequence that

many people experience”. It also says something along the lines that about

50% of people have been through a traumatic event in their life time, and

only about 10% of women and 4% of men develop this disorder. They

diagnose PTSD when someone experiences a traumatic potentially life-

threatening event and show certain signs and symptoms that can alter

there functionality in life. This Caption America book also says that there

are 4 symptoms that you have to have for at least a month to have PTSD.

The first one is intrusions, which is where you re-experience the dramatic

event through flashbacks or nightmares like when Tony Shark has

flashbacks and nightmares of fighting alien invaders in New York. The

second symptoms is avoidance, this is where you avoid anything that

could be a potential reminder of the traumatic situation, including things

such as people, places, and thoughts. An example of this would be when

Tony Stark stays up for 72 hours to work on a suit to avoid having anxiety

attacks and nightmares. A different example would be how Steve refuses to

date because it reminded him of Agent Carter after his drama of being

frozen. The third symptom is negative changes in the person's mood or

thoughts. This is when a person gets depressed, unmotivated and also has

panic attacks. Tony demonstrates this in the movie Iron Man 3 book when

he starts to have severe panic attacks. Tony also lashes out on his butler.

The last symptom is increased arousal symptoms, these include things like

hyper vigilance, difficulty sleeping and irritability. This is something that

Tony also struggles with these after the Battle of New York.

Now that I have told you what the book ‘Captain America vs. Iron

Man Freedom, Security, Psychology’ has to say about post-traumatic stress

disorder, I will tell you what out textbook says. The textbook defines post-

traumatic as a disorder in which victims of traumatic events experience the

original event in the form of dreams or flashbacks. As you can see the
definitions from both books are about the same. The textbook also states

that this disorder is common among veterans of military combat and

survivors of acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and other catastrophes.

Also it says that there are some things that you can do to help someone

with PTSD.The most popular on is to go to a support group. This is said to

be very help with people with this disorder.

The next topic to be covered is anxiety. Anxiety is a very wide topic,

but the textbook defines it as “a vague, generalized apprehension or feeling

that one is in danger”. While having a anxiety attack people can experience

choking, chest pains, dizziness, trembling, and hot flashes. The textbook

says that stress is normally paired with learning, on a date, or even

inherited from the parents. Studies show that once a person gets bad

anxiety once from an event, they are more likely to skip or try to avoid that

activity as much as possible. Although the book ‘Captain America vs. Iron

Man Freedom, Security, Psychology’ is alike the textbook there are some

slight differences between them. The definitions are the same, but some

examples are different. One example from the Captain America book is that
if someone thinks that they are a good person, they may also think that

they did something wrong which would create anxiety for them through

wondering if they were a good person still or not. Lots of anxiety is caused

by being to hard on ourselves nowadays. Wondering if we are good

enough and what we can do to better ourselves. In the book Steve Rogers

puts himself in very tough positions. Steve is a defender. He helps those

who need it, and when people deny the help Rogers feels down. But, he

isn’t going to lead rejection to inaction which is the main cause of his

anxiety. Rogers continually is looking for people who need help, he brings

himself closer to the people being bullied. The book also states that

“listening to your anxiety can help illuminate where your attention needs

to be drawn.”. Anxiety affects multiple people in their everyday lives.

The last topic that I will be talking about from the book ‘Captain

America vs. Iron Man Freedom, Security, Psychology’ is Albert Bandura.

Bandura is a researcher who studies observational learning, which is a type

of social learning in which an individual learns behavior patterns by first

observing them in others. One of Bandura’s famous experiments was when

he took several groups of children and exposed them to different sets of

modeled behaviors. The groups were exposed to a female doll in a room of

toys, with a Bobo doll(an inflatable punching bag with a clown face on it)

being the main focus. In this scenario the model behaved aggressively

toward the doll, beating and verbally abusing it. In the other scenario the

model did not engage in any of those behaviors. After exposed to this the

kids were allowed to play in a room while being recorded. Research

showed that the children exposed to the aggressive model were shown to

be more aggressive toward the doll rather than the other children who

were not. Bandura also found out that the girls were more affected by the

aggressive display. This is like when Bucky watches Captain America do

good deeds and then he feels like he should go out and participate in these

deeds as well. Now that I have described how Bandura does his action, I

will tell you another topic that has to deal with action.

The next book I will be discussing is “Star Wars Psychology” and I

will be comparing introversion and extroversion in this book and in our

textbook. In the book it describes extroversion as adventurous. It says that

extraverts seek excitement. Luke Skywalker would be an example of an

extravert. In our textbook it says that an extravert is an outgoing, sociable,

active, and lively people. On the other hand the book “Star Wars

Psychology” says that an introvert is someone who is quiet, calm and has a

lack of social interaction. The Jedi would be an example that has

introverted qualities. But, our textbook has a slightly different definition for

the introverts. It says that introverts are more thoughtful, reserves, passive,

unsociable, and quiet.

Another thing that “Star Wars Psychology” talks about is phobias.

In this book there are multiple phobias that are labelled. They are phobias

such as the fear of numbers (Arithmophobia), fear of electricity

(electrophobia), the fear of metal (Metallophobia) and many others. Our

textbook describes phobias as an intense and irrational fear of a particular

object or situation. Psychologists have identified more than 400 phobias.

Now that I have told you about some of the disorders and types of

people described in the book “Star Wars Psychology” and out textbook, I

will tell you about some of the people that are also connected between
them. the first person is Gordon Allport. Allport is a psychologist, and one

of the first to study personality. He helped to form the value scales and

rejected a psychoanalytic approach to personality. To Allport every person

was unique and special. Gordon new the importance of present context and

not the focus’ of the past. In our textbook it calls Gordon Allport a trait

theorist and says that they emphasize the importance of understanding

basic personality characteristics such as friendliness and aggression.

The next, and last person that I will be talking about is Erik Erikson.

Erikson is a developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst who studied

the psychosocial development of human beings. He was a professor at Yale

and Harvard. The book “Star Wars Psychology” also talks about Erik

Erikson. In the book it says that Erikson’s theory of psychosocial

development-where he outlined a series of stages by which people grow

and personality changes over the course of the lifetime- identified times in

life when children are the readiest to learn from others. ready to gain others

habits. Just like in the book how Master Yoda is the mentor to all o the

younger Jedi’s. In our textbook it says that Erikson was a very broad view
of human development. He talks about how when we grow, people expect

more and more out of us. But, how are people suppose to keep expecting

more, when we learned everything important when we were younger?

Now that I have told you several things about several books, topics,

people, and our textbook I hope that your understanding of these topics are

little more clear.

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"14 Surprising Facts about Phobias." Indiatimes.com. Accessed

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"Gordon Allport." Wikipedia. November 30, 2017. Accessed December

18, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Allport.