Psychological Issues in Historical Studies - Essay Example

?497666JIS12 When looking at the ideas of gender, it is important to think about how this affects people on a biological basis but also on a psychological basis. When we see that a lot of what we see as “gender” is really gender bias. As an example, we see aisles in discount stores that show boys toys separate from girls toys. No matter where we go, these are not put together so the assumption is that boys have one type of toy and girls have another. In light of this, I was particularly interested in what Dr. Mary Gergen said about the empirical studies done by Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) in which sex-biased differences were shown. They showed what other studies have shown, that there are spatial differences between men and women and that women are better in verbal skills. What I wonder, is whether these are different because of the way that children are trained. Do boy children tend to be trained to see things more spatially than girls are shown? Do women spend more time talking and by doing so, increasing their verbal skills? Is this why many men find talking about problems etc., too difficult because they have not been trained in that way? Schultz and Schultz (2008) suggest that that there is bias and discrimination still going on when people come together. In psychology, I have seen this become a problem, especially with some students who may be from the Middle East or other countries at times when the United States feels threatened. Although this may not be what we want to see in psychology, I think it still exists and that we need. The idea of gender intrigues me because today, there is so much going on with it. Some people are changing their genders, feeling they were born into the wrong one. There is an ongoing debate about whether gays and lesbians should be able to marry. Although this may not directly take a look at gender, it does apply in that often gays and lesbians transcend the gender they were born into. It also raises the question as to whether gender is something we are born with or whether it is something that is made by the society in which we live. References Laureate Education (2005). Video Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2008). A history of modern psychology (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth Assignment 3 When I first came into this course, I had some idea of the various areas of psychology because I received them from different courses taken before this course. I think my personal view of psychology would be that it is the study of how people deal with the world around them. I believe that it is more than just a study of the mind, because there are so many different aspects of it. As an example, we brought up the idea of “The Secret” in this class and I believe that it is part of what people are studying today. Those who are following this are attempting to understand a different way of behavior that will help them move forward. It is a belief system that many have adopted and made work for them. I think that counseling has to take into consideration a client’s belief system and the fact that it will not necessarily be the same as that of the counselor. In fact, the counselor may be opposed to the client’s belief system and/or lifestyle, but they may need to have a way of dealing with it anyway or to refer the client to someone else. As a counselor who is a scholar-practitioner, I believe that it is important to continue to read in my field after I leave college and to interact with other scholar-practitioners. I do not believe that we can work in a vacuum and sometimes, realistically, many of us tend to get a degree and then work in an agency for many years without more development. I believe it is important to understand the stressors that people are dealing with on a day to day basis, and to study those areas that we are going to work with clients in. As an example, the world is seeing major stress related to PTSD coming from the war. Because of this, a scholar practitioner is going to need to understand PTSD and the types of things that work well with ex-military personnel. This knowledge is necessary even if we do not go specifically into this field. I believe we will continue to need an understanding of how drugs and alcohol affect the mind, body and spirit of an individual. We need to understand where they are in the process of this also. Are they still using and attempting to get sober? Are they coming to counseling because of a DUI or drug related situation and they have no real intention of getting sober? These are questions we need to ask in order to help clients more effectively who are dealing with these issues. The system of psychology that resonates with me is Gestalt Therapy. However, I also like Carl Rogers’ work. I do not believe that I will choose only one system of psychology because I think that a scholar-practitioner can use more than one. In other words, there are so many different pieces of each system, that a counselor can create their own and use what works with each person. I like Gestalt because it forces an individual to stay in the now moment and deal with their issues. Some people come to therapy and take many years without dealing directly with what is bothering them. They could not do that in Gestalt Therapy. I believe that Rogers’ work also creates an opportunity for client’s to do their own work because it directly relates to the individual. I am a person who likes to deal with my own issues and I would want to work with clients who are ready to deal with their own issues and move forward. I believe that Gestalt Therapy helps them to do this. Assignment 4 I believe what was most valuable to me was the interaction between students in this course. History of psychology can be boring when you are studying it in a vacuum, but with so many different perspectives, one can see the differences quickly. I also think that studying those aspects of each perspective was valuable because it gives an understanding of how people thought at the time and how they influenced the development of psychology. I would have liked to see more information about contemporary psychological issues. I know that we were studying history up to a certain point, but I do not believe there was enough about contemporary issues. As an example, there is so much about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the fact that a large number of soldiers come back with PTSD, it would have been interesting to understand more about this concept and why it is so. Also, there are many students from Libya taking classes in the United States. It would have been interesting to talk about the stressors they may be feeling having come to another country that is now showing unrest. If I were teaching the class, I would put more emphasis on the perspectives. I would probably have gathered outside information about these perspectives (as you did ) to give students a more indepth understanding of what is going on. However, I would not have required so many outside resources that students had to find on their own. This caused more stress in my opinion, because there were no journal articles for some issues that we discussed. I cannot say that my understanding of science and/or counseling have changed. Within the process of working towards my Masters degree, I have had many courses that talked about the history of psychology so this course was not much of a surprise. Read More