What Is the Scope of Psychology?

Interesting Psychology Topics

Do you know that some people cannot recognize faces? Oliver Sacks, a neurologist who, in his book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" (1985) described the curious case of a man in a restaurant who complained to a waiter about another man staring at him from across his table. It turned out that he was merely looking at a mirror, and the man who was staring at him was himself! This is a case of prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize familiar faces due to damage of a particular region on the right side of the brain. All other functions are normal, except the ability to recognize faces.

Do you know that rewards can strengthen behaviors? Remember the times when you want to do something, but end up chickening from it. It turns out, all that's missing is a reward. According to the law of effect, behaviors, whether studying or taking a bath, become habits through the help of rewards.

Do you know that people sometimes misjudge themselves when they focus too much on situational factors? This phenomenon is known as overjustification effect. In emphasizing salient situational causes, people tend to ignore personal causes in explaining their own behavior. For example, Greene, Sternberg, and Lepper conducted an experiment in 1976 about how rewards can sometimes backfire in the school setting. During the first 2 weeks, researchers introduced math games to 2 classrooms, and then observed their behavior. On the 3rd week, rewards were given in one classroom, but no rewards were given in the other classroom. After several weeks, the rewards were discontinued. Even if all the students were accustomed to the same math games, there was a sudden loss of interest among the students in the previously rewarded classroom. Students from the nonrewarded classroom, on the other hand, maintained their level of interest and engagement since the first week. A closer inspection revealed that the students from the rewarded classroom associated the activity with external rewards (situational factor), while students from the nonrewarded classroom associated the activity with internal rewards (personal factor), that is, finding the math games fun and exciting. In this case, external rewards can be effective in strengthening behaviors only when internal motivation have not yet been established.

Do you know that people sometimes misjudge others when they ignore situational factors? Witnessing a person giving money to a beggar leads most people to judge the person as generous or charitable. What most people often miss are the other factors that could have triggered the behavior, such as the presence of others, in which case, the person is not generous, but needs attention and praise; or, that the money could be coming from someone else, and not the person giving it. This tendency to explain the behavior of others by emphasizing personality attributes, while ignoring situational factors, is called the fundamental attribution error. Basically, the overjustification effect and the fundamental attribution error are lapses in judgment of the self and others. Simply put: "I did it because of something else; you did it because that's who you are." While these assumptions may be correct in certain situations, psychologists, unlike most people, attempt to understand behavior comprehensively, preferring to identify, if possible, all factors that influence the behavior; and, refusing to make hasty conclusions.

Do you know that most people cannot remember what happened during the first 3 years of life? This phenomenon is referred to as childhood amnesia. Interestingly, psychologists have identified many factors to explain this.

Do you know that obesity may occur in response to a history of food deprivation? A research study conducted with rats showed that rats who were previously deprived of food, after being allowed to eat enough to reach their normal weight, thereafter, allowed to eat freely, ate more than the rats with no history of food deprivation. This could well mean that introducing dietary changes suddenly may instead further lead to obesity.

Do you know that children who watch violent cartoons are more aggressive than the children who watch non-violent cartoons? Do you know that this aggression persists even after 10 years? According to the cathartic effect, vicariously experiencing aggression (i.e., experiencing aggression by observing another) can potentially reduce aggressive behavior; however, as research showed, in terms of media violence, it does otherwise.

Reviewing the topics above, we can classify them according to the main subject matter of Psychology. Prosopagnosia, overjustification effect, internal motivation, fundamental attribution error, childhood amnesia, and the cathartic effect may be categorized as mental processes. On the other hand, the law of effect, obesity, and agression may be categorized as behaviors. Despite the conceptual differentiation between behaviors and mental processes, in reality, they occur side by side. For example, in prosopagnosia, facial recognition is the mental process, and the reaction for such limitation or disability constitute a behavior. Additionally, in aggression, perception and memory of media violence are mental processes, and aggressive peer interaction is a behavior.

Evaluating Psychological Claims

The subject matter of psychology is quite broad. More than that, they refer to US, humans, on how we think and act. Because of this, results of psychological research studies may be used to create or change social policies that can significantly affect us. In short, the impact of psychology in our everyday lives is immense. Yet unlike psychologists, who seek to be comprehensive, most people, even policy-makers, arrive at hasty conclusions when presented with certain psychological claims. A course in psychology can help you evaluate psychological claims more effectively. It presents a review of the current state of knowledge in the field, thereby familiarizing you with firmly established psychological facts. The course also discusses the nature of research in psychology, which can provide you with helpful standards and guidelines of scientific evidence.