The Specific Mechanisms of Cognitive Change - Essay Example

? Psychology Essay Summarize the specific mechanisms of cognitive change, as described by the information-processing view of cognitive development. Describe a teenager’s new cognitive capacities, and explain how adults can handle the consequences of distorted thinking. It is a norm to associate teenagers with all the rash behavior that happens. It is a common fact that adults believe that teenagers have a tendency to react quickly and without thinking and tend to behave irrationally. There are many who associate thirst for knowledge and thrill to achieve something in their lives as main characteristics in the teenagers. The teenagers undergo a bodily change and according Sigmund Freud they start to feel emotions which were earlier not present. They start coming to terms to their physical needs and hence they even behave irrationally sometimes and they are frustrated many times. During the teenage the signaling and brain connections change themselves and alter in such a way that they can adjust themselves with the growing hormones and the changing status in the society. The gray matter inside the brain increases when the child is growing, but once after puberty, the gray matter starts thinning, the main reason for the thinning is the cognitive development that happens. It has been found that the brain continues to develop well into the twenties of the person. Some of the most common distorted thinking which leads to irrational or objectionable behavior includes (Berk, 2010): Polarized Thinking: This is a very common mistake that teenagers make; they start to develop a broader sense of the world views. They start viewing the world through their own lens, and hence develop opinions about different things in the world. They have a black and white view of things, such as there are only extremes in the things that they perceive, and there is no middle set of arguments for anything. Adults should try and help them improve the thinking process so that they learn that there is a middle opinion of things as well, there are matters that have grey areas and are not settled or resolved. Adults should help them understand issues and problems and tell them the pros and cons of things and then help them decide what to do. Always being right: The teenagers have knack of feeling that they are always right. They do not like to be told that they are wrong. Usually the parents or the elders point out their mistakes without giving them any sort of explanation or any other thing, feeling that they can still tell them off as they did when they were kids. Adults should be very careful when they are telling off a teenager, they should inform them what wrong they had done and what is the issue with their behavior, how can they make it more acceptable. These ways patient dealings of adults with the teenagers when they are wrong will help the teenagers get rid of their bad habits and as well as help them reform themselves. Control Fallacies: The teenagers feel that they do not control their life, and the adults around them, the parents and the teachers are the ones who are in control of their lives. They feel that they have no free will and thus that is the excuse that they most commonly give of their wrong behavior. Adults around the teenagers should make sure that the teenagers learn to own up their behavior and they know that they are the ones in control of their actions and they can therefore control it accordingly. Monica, an obese 22 year-old, would like to participate in a weight-loss program that promotes lasting behavior change. Describe the program elements that she should look for, noting how each element fosters success. As Brad enters early adulthood, he is becoming increasingly concerned about maintaining good health. What suggestions can you offer Brad for fostering a healthy adult life? The program that Monica must look for must be such a program that practices rather than preaches. There are many weight loss centers that focus on how to lose weight and what they can do to achieve the figure they are aspiring for, but hardly any of them focus on how to do it in a healthy and everlasting way. Some of the weight loss program focuses deeply on the pills and the medicines that can be used to shed the extra amount of weight that the people have. A proper weight loss program would have smaller defined goals, it would take the whole plan gradually rather than the plunge that some programs do, as the gradual program, that will contain tips and in fact a complete diet chart that would help lose weight with a combination of proper exercises and workouts. The program should also continuously preach that the person attending is a smart person and the thing that is needed constant perseverance and utmost dedication to the task and a greater level of truthfulness. The trainers at the weight-loss programs should be very motivating individuals who focus on creating a positive environment among the participants and encourages them to feel good about themselves. This will encourage her and make her feel confident about the small milestones that she will achieve. The best way to have a healthy life is to have a good healthy diet and as well as to maintain a good exercising routine to maintain health. Including a lot of vegetables and as well as fruits in your diet would make sure that you remain filled with nutrients and required minerals , even when you are missing out many of your meals. The best way to have a better diet is to take smaller portions of meals and consume it in piecemeal form so that smaller amount of meal may be more fulfilling and thus will prevent junk food consumption on daily basis. The best way to be able to maintain the health plan that he has selected and to keep up with the measures he is taking in regards with his weight by having a friend on board. He should start doing exercise routines in groups and as well as start jogging with friends, this will encourage him and be encouraged to continue his lifestyle. The best way is to cut down on the junk foods. As a person enters early adult hood, the person usually tends to hang out with their friends a lot. While they hang out with friends, it is a norm that people tend to overeat when with friends and as well as indulge in food that they later abhor or worry about. The best way to get rid of this fear would be to bring your friends along and this will help continue the healthy diet that Brad has started to pursue. It is also advisable to enjoy physically challenging activities during vacations as the higher amount of physical activities will help ensure a physically fit body (Schneider, 2001). Discuss some preventative measures adults can take to avoid or slow the progress of cardiovascular disease. Explain the combined gender–racial bias that is especially dangerous for African-American women with heart disease. There is a very prevalent belief that heart disease is a disease that is the most common in men. It was earlier considered that men were more prone to this kind of diseases and the women have a hormonal immunity to the disease, but in the recent years the gap has seemed to reduce and women are getting the same kind of diseases related to heart that were earlier found more common in men. It is not by luck but by chance of the natural built of a woman that woman had immunity but now that is declining and the ratios have climbed up so much so that they are same now. It was underestimated so much that that they failed to account for the fact that the highest reason for the number of deaths of women in United States of America was because of heart attacks. It was recently believed that cancer was the main reason that had killed woman nationwide but in truth the increasing rates of heart diseases are a major factor. The number of woman that dies of this disease is around double the deaths that are cause by cancer. There is always one in every ten women who is prone to this disease. The best way to prevent such diseases is first of all to lead a happy and healthy lifestyle. A tension free relaxed lifestyle is a very important factor that will help eliminate the disease. Also it is highly advisable to reduce the amount of tobacco intake so that there are lesser health risks involved. Smoking tobacco causes chronic illnesses and as well as causes the heart to have damaging accumulations. Also exercising regularly, taking walks are the key to lose those unhealthy accumulations in the arteries which ultimately cause damage. The best way is to have a diet that is free of cholesterol, fats and sodium as they are things that cause damage to the heart and lead to chronic illnesses. Black women are generally considered more prone to heart diseases because they tend to be more overweight than their English counterparts. Black women also naturally tend to have a broader waistline then the white Americans and thus their obesity becomes the major reason for their facing such health risks. Also, the kind of diet that they have consists of fats and lots of sodium which causes fat accumulation in their bodies and makes them more prone to cardiovascular diseases. Also, their poor economic and social status and conditions makes them face higher amount of stress which then results in the cause of their facing higher amount of heart diseases. They tend to have to fret more about their own lifestyle and how to provide for kids and have to face higher amount of domestic violence. This causes a serious flaw in their lifestyles and therefore they tend to be a bit more exposed to the diseases related to heart. But generally in spite of these factors the major issue here is that the diseases related to the heart are increasing throughout the world, and woman are increasingly becoming the victims (Hales, 2011). According to Levinson, what four developmental tasks must middle-aged adults confront in order to rebuild their life structure? Provide examples to illustrate all four. What are possible selves, and why are they important in middle adulthood? The best way to build the life structure is to follow a healthy life style that will help you have better and healthy life. There are four main things that should be followed by an adult so that he can have a healthy lifestyle. He should eat healthy, try to keep down his weight, should not smoke and neither should he drink and he should exercise regularly. There are four seasonal cycles in the theory that has been mentioned by Levinson; Pre-Adult hood Early Adult hood Middle Adult hood Late Adult hood Self-perception or the possible selves is the thought that the person has of himself. If a person has a whole set of feelings related to himself, he assumes about himself and wishes the world to see as he wants to see himself. There are three selves of a person. The future selves of a person, the present selves of a person and the past selves of a person are the three types. Middle adulthood is the part of life when people feel that they are in the middle part of life, they start assessing what they have already done and what they have not. They calculate their own lives and go through it to make sure to find things that they might have missed in their life. They start assessing and planning for future, they start believing that they can achieve things based on their past experiences. The future selves are all about how they want to see themselves. It also helps them design a blueprint for themselves, and helps them map a future path for themselves. In the pre adulthood stage the man is still new to the adult life, they are trying to discover themselves, and they try to look for all the opportunity that they may have. In the early adulthood, they start looking for anchors in their life and try to get themselves settled in the aspects of life. This helps them gain stability in life, and they feel that have achieved something, and then they try to move forward in life, looking for greener pastures and try to achieve more success in their lives. In the middle Adulthood, the adults are far more established in their lives and then they try to look for final settlements. They want to achieve the excellence in life and hence try to get the best of everything around them. In the late adulthood, people have no struggle left for the better or the best; they just try to enjoy the things that they have achieved. They reflect the past and present and wonder what they have, and what they have could achieve had they done things differently. It is along these lines that they continue thinking and they wonder what their future may hold and then they still worry what might they still do to remedy the life that they have. It is these perceptions of oneself that helps the man realize his own potentials and hence makes them utilize them duly the talents that they have and improve the life that they have (Salkind, 2006). What are some stereotypes of late adulthood? How does stereotype threat impact elders’ functioning? What are some cultural differences in aging stereotypes? What are some characteristics of wise elders? Explain the benefits of continuing education for elders. How can educators increase program effectiveness? Late adulthood is the time when you have experienced about the whole of your life, and met quite a lot of people. In the late adult hood a person has gathered a lot of information about life and after meeting a lot of peoples have developed quite a lot of opinions and perceptions of the life and the different people they have met through out. At the time f late adulthood they have passed all the stages of life and hence have quite a lot of opinions with regards to life that they have spent. They have met quite a lot of people in their lives and hence they believe that they have become more experienced in judging people, and as well as they think that making up perceptions of people with the kind of time that they had or the experience that they have had encountered in their lives. There are many biases that people develop as they enter the late adulthood, it is a common of the all the adults that young children are all lazy, and despite having so much computer gadgets they tend to waste away their times and do nothing productive. The adults associate all kind of biases, with relation to religion, cast and ethnicity. Stereotypes cause mental blocks and therefore, never allow the person to think beyond what they have already thought or decided. They usually approach problems according to the mental blocks that they have and therefore, they usually tend to judge the people and the other things in their life through their own lenses and hence end up misjudging things many a times. It is a fact that once a person develops a stereotype then he will always look at the stereotyped things negatively and will fail to see the broader picture. Being unable to look at things through a wider breadth is very damaging as the person may end up having a loss himself. Adults when enter the late adulthood they have developed a serious kind of engraved mindsets and rules for everything in their lives. They tend to fail to try anything new, as they feel safer remaining in their old domain and hence they are very against the concept of change. It is also a part of life that the adults look for safer and comfortable zone hence they never learn newer things or even bother to reconfirm the biases that they have formed. Many of the people who are in the late adults now are still staunch believers of the fact that technology is something that is a bane for the human race rather than any kind of advantage. The most difficult part is that the once humans enter the phase of late adulthood they tend to have firm beliefs in their stereotypes and hence they may have the problem of misrepresentation of the things that they have experienced in their lives. If they get mugged by a black teenager, they will believe that all blacks are representation of muggers and hence always have this in mind that the blacks are poor people who steal from others. The first and the most prominent kind of biases are all related to colors, race and ethnicity (Leyens, Yzerbyt & Schadron, 1994). REFERENCES: Berk, Laura E. (2010) Development Through the Lifespan 5th Ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. American Association of Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Rehabilitation. (2011). Guidelines for pulmonary rehabilitation programs. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Salkind, N. J. (2006). Encyclopedia of human development. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Levine, L. E., & Munsch, J. (2011). Child development: An active learning approach. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE. Bigge, M. L., & Hunt, M. P. (1965). Psychological foundations of education: An introduction to human developement and learning. New York: Harper and Row Stangor, C. (2000). Stereotypes and prejudice: Essential readings. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press Macrae, C. N., Stangor, C., & Hewstone, M. (1996). Stereotypes and stereotyping. New York: Guilford Press. Leyens, J. P., Yzerbyt, V., & Schadron, G. (1994). Stereotypes and social cognition. London: Sage Publications. Hales, D. R. (2011). An invitation to health: Choosing to change. 14th ed.. Schneider, M.-J. (2011). Introduction to public health. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Cooke, J. P., & Zimmer, J. (2002). The cardiovascular cure: How to strengthen your self-defense against heart attack and stroke. New York: Broadway Books. Read More