Assignment 1A: Domains of Psychology
1. Memory: Memory is the process that is used to acquire, retain, and then retrieve information in the brain. Memory covers three important factors that psychologist use for processing information: encoding, storage, retrieval. An interesting fact of memory I came across was that people believe their memories are accurate and true, which is not the case. In fact, memory is not absolute and many memories are considered wrong even when believed to be right.
I find the area of memory in psychology very fascinating. The most interesting aspect of memory is the way a brain can withstand great amounts of information at a time and be able to hold it for a long or sometimes a short time span. I believe memory
I always wonder how an animal thinks and processes situations. For example, when an animal is hungry, tired, or energetic, they display it through many physicals ways; verbally or physically. I would find it at a great interest to know the ability their minds have to communicate to a human or another animal.
3. Human Development and Psychology: Human development is the study of how human beings change over their entire lifespan. It is also essential to psychology in the way of understanding how humans learn, adapt, and mature in their lives. Some of the aspects psychologists study in human development is physical, cognitive, social, and intellectual growth.
This domain interested me because of the many different factors included in development. There are several differences from when someone is a child to when they are older. People’s bodies are always developing and changing. I am most interested in the development in children. The development is children is one of the determining factors of life because that is the early stages of growth development in the body and mind. Child development is delicate because they need the necessary care initially to aid in a healthy
Harry Harlow conducted an experiment with monkeys to determine their need for dependence from their mothers. He separated the monkeys from birth and arranged for them to be raised by two types of mothers. One mother was made from bare wires and the other was made of wire and covered with soft terry cloth. Some of the monkeys that had a choice of mothers and chose to spend more time bonding to the terry cloth surrogates. He then made a second observation to separate the infants into two groups and give them a choice between the two types of mothers. All of the monkeys drank equal amounts of milk and grew physically at the same rate, but the monkeys who had softer contact with the terry cloth behaved differently than the monkeys whose mothers were made of all wire. Hallow then hypothesized that the monkeys from the first group benefited an emotional attachment which was nonexistent with the second group. He assumed this hypothesis from small harmful tests that frightened the monkeys in which they would make bodily contact with their mother. As for the other monkeys they panicked and did not resort to comfort from their mothers. He also put a third group in complete isolation which permanently damaged the monkeys. This group resulted in various abnormalities such as blank staring, stereotyped repetitive circling of their cages, and self-mutilation. Harlow also compared the test on monkey to that of children and how powerful the implications are for any and all separations
According to Klaus and Kennell, there are specific events, including skin-to-skin contact between mother and infant that must occur directly following the birth of a primate infant. This maximizes the chances of survival for the newborn not only because their mother is a source of food, but also because they will learn the culture they need to be successful in their environment. In the study, Klaus and Kennell test how much time a baby spends crying when they are separated from their mother. They concluded the increased time in babies that were separated was due to the anxiety that separation caused. The difficulty in this is that the cause of the baby’s distress is subjective. Also the notion of critical period proposed that the bonds and lessons taught during that time could not be developed later.
The cost, in this experiment, was the separation of a baby monkey from its mother. Also, it was forced to endure inhumane conditions by being frightened, not knowing what it did to deserve such treatment. I understand the positive implications that can result from experiments on animals, but only the tests that are absolutely necessary should be performed. In saying this, Harry Harlow crossed the line when he caused the baby monkeys psychological scarring. He had already collected definitive data from the previous wire and cloth mother tests, so this extra step was not called
Harry F. Harlow was an American Psychologist who studied human behavior and development through studies of social behavior of monkeys. Harlow got his BA and PhD of Psychology from Stanford University. Then, later on got a job and did his studies at the University of Wisconsin. Harlow’s experiment consisted of young monkeys being separated from their mother right after birth. Then, the monkeys were raised in the laboratories which had mothers that were made up of wired mesh and another with wood and a terry cloth. When the infant monkeys were placed in the cage with only one mother was equipped with a nipple which was the wired mesh mother. It was placed so the infant monkey could nurse. Even though the wired monkey had nourishment, the young monkey would most often cling to the terry cloth mother. Harlow would place a monkey inside a cage. Then, began to make loud noises against the cage or play recordings that made the monkey feel insecure. The monkey always seemed to go toward the terry cloth mother as it began to get scared. The infant monkey would go for comfort, but eventually would get nourishment from the wired mother.
Memory is an important and active system that receives information. Memory is made up of three different stages sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory. According to the power point presentation, sensory memory refers to short storage of memory that allows an individual to process information as it occurs. Short term memory refers to memory that is only available for a limited time. It is information that is held for seconds or sometimes even minutes. Long term memory refers to memory that is stored for a long period of time and it has an unlimited capacity with the ability to hold as much information as possible. Retrieval is key and it allows individuals to have memories. Episodic memory refers to memory for events that we
Memory is a group of related mental processes that are involved in acquiring, storing, and retrieving information (Hockenberry and Hocenberry page 232). I will be addressing two specific types of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory. Short-term memory holds temporary information transferred from sensory memory or long-term memory. Sensory memory is the first stage of memory and obtains information for a brief amount of time. Short-term memory is also called active memory and is stored in the prefrontal cortex which is the most active part of the brain during an activity. Short-term memory can hold information for roughly twenty seconds, but sensory memory holds information for a shorter amount of time. We usually store things such
Memory refers to storage, for example, our thoughts, knowledge, past experience, retention and recalled information is part of our cognitive mapping. It depends on a person state of mind that’s specific information varies to the content of the information itself. Needless to say, information that is considered interesting, or exciting seems to be better remembered than information that is boring or uninterested. Usually, if information has failed adequately store than the memory can normally result as failure as well. Which means if the storage of information fails to retain (forgetting) or if failure to retrieve the person’s memory fails altogether. The neurons produce activity in other neurons which overtime will be strengthened, that is known to be located inside a person’s long-term potentiation. (Meyers,
Human development describes the life stages of human beings that progress from birth to death. This essay will use theorists Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson to compare early adulthood to middle adulthood focusing on their physical, cognitive, and social development. The essay will also define stress and discuss the best ways to cope with stress.
Harlow’s experiment shows the connection of mother and child using monkeys. From this experiment you can see that withdrawal or removal can cause depression in the rhesus monkeys. Harlow further relates that to children and their mothers. Seeing that there was too much maternal contact he notes that over attachment can cause severe depression.
Memory is the tool we use to learn and think. We all use memory in our everyday lives. Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. We all reassure ourselves that our memories are accurate and precise. Many people believe that they would be able to remember anything from the event and the different features of the situation. Yet, people don’t realize the fact that the more you think about a situation the more likely the story will change. Our memories are not a camcorder or a camera. Our memory tends to be very selective and reconstructive.
Jhon B Watson, a behaviorist, conducted an experiment inspired by the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov to determinate the classical condition in humans. Little Albert experiment was conducted in a 9 month old baby whom a rat is showed to see his r...
Developmental psychology is an area of research devoted to explaining the continuing growth and change that occurs over the course of one’s life. Throughout history many varying theories have been used to attempt to explain the complex process of childhood experiences altering who individuals become as an adult.
In this report I will be discussing the development issues about prenatal development, and the newborn. Developmental psychology is basically a psychology study that focuses on the cognitive, physical, and social change throughout our life span. In prenatal development we learn about nature and nurture, continuity and stages, and stability and change. Prenatal Development is the process in which babies develop from one single cell after making a baby into an Embryo and later on a fetus . An Embryo is the process of a human organism for about approximately 2 weeks after the fertilization though the second month.
Learning to tie shoes and ride a bike requires the encoding, storing, and retrieving of past observations of the procedure. With a lot of practice, children master these skills so well that they are able to remember them the rest of their lives. Memory is the storing of information over time. It is one of the most important concepts in learning; if things are not remembered, no learning can take place. As a process, memory refers to the "dynamic mechanism associated with the retention and retrieval of information about past experiences" (Sternberg 260). We use our memory about the past to help us understand the present. The study or memory in psychology is used in different ways, as well as there are many different ways to study how memory works in humans. In psychology there are many tasks used to measure memory, and different types of memory storages that human's use, such as sensory storing, or short term storing. There are also a lot of techniques that humans use to improve their memory, which they can use to learn, such as mnemonic devices. All these things can be classified as important issues in the study of human memory and ways of learning.
Child psychology, also known as child development, is the study of psychological growth of children; how these mechanisms develop from infancy to adolescence and why they deviate from one child to the next. Child development is associated with biological, psychological, and emotional diversity that occur in humans. Although there is a different advancement for each child, these developmental changes may be greatly determined by genetic factors and experience during prenatal life. The early years of a child’s life are very important for his or her health and development. Parents, health professionals, educators, and others can work together as partners to help children grow up to reach their full potential.
The Human Development’s concepts, theories and so on give me a better understanding to explain why people act in different kind of situation that they have. Make me more appreciate the value of taking Human Development class.