Psychology-Helpful or Harmful - Research Paper Example

? Psychology-Helpful or Harmful of Science is the pool of knowledge whose main purpose is to explore the hidden realities of the universe and to convert this knowledge into a form which is beneficial and practicable for the human race. Psychology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the study of human thinking and then the development of human attitude and behaviour on the basis of that thinking. There are still areas where this field of knowledge lacks the aspect of practical approach and relevance to the common human life. But this fact does not imply that studying psychology is altogether useless effort. The paper will focus on the same aspect that how psychology is producing positive impacts as well as the loopholes in this arena. Psychology is a way to explore human nature, the factors of attitude and behaviour development, the human psyche, human mindset, perception, learning and the problems associated with all these processes. The study and practice of psychology comprise a vast array of topics and a huge number of classification and specialty areas have settled as a result. Because human behaviour is so diverse, the integer of subfields in psychology is persistently growing and surfacing. Applied psychology refers to scientific study and research that pursues to answer hands-on problems. Applied research is used to discover solutions to routine problems, cure illness, and progress inventive technologies. Psychologists operational in human factors or industrial/organizational fields often do this type of research. Applied psychology is dived into sub categories: It deals with clinical psychology, human factors, Industrial and organizational psychology, Health psychology, forensic and legal psychology and educational psychology. Schizophrenia is an ailment associated with the abnormal perception, illusions, hallucinations and physical disturbances. The disease was first truly discovered with the help of psychology, otherwise it was taken as a curse caused by super natural powers. The myths and fallacies still exist about the condition but psychology is the field which has provided many logical answers to this phenomenon. Thus, psychology has helped to find the hidden cause of many mental diseases by solving the mysteries which would remain unveiled otherwise (Bentall, 1992). Cognitive remediation is an experimental dealing that addresses the cognitive complications that are linked with schizophrenia i.e. memory problems, learning problems. Studies using this intrusion in amalgamation with vocational recovery to progress work functioning have given away some promise, but more study is needed, predominantly that which focuses on refining how well the person with schizophrenia functions in real-life situations as an outcome of this treatment. Development Theory in Applied psychology states that schizophrenia happens when something goes off beam when the brain is developing. Brain development, from the primary stage of foetus development and from side to side to the early years of life, is an awfully intricate process. Millions of neurons are shaped, travel to different regions of the coming into being brain, and concentrate to perform diverse functions. According to several theories, the confirmation of a genetic tendency to schizophrenia is overpowering. The regularity of schizophrenia in the over-all population is less than 1%. Conversely, being related to somebody with schizophrenia significantly increases your risk of developing schizophrenia. Psychological stress has bodily effects and is associated in affecting or contributing to psychiatric disorders together with post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychological stress also exaggerates diseases like high blood pressure and heart disease. It is definitely possible to look in the history of a lot of people with schizophrenia and find historical trauma, but some people with schizophrenia came from loving, supporting homes. One of the many misfortunes of schizophrenia is the guilt that well-meaning people often assign to parents already broken-hearted by the illness of their dearly loved child. Stress plays a momentous role in the control of the disease. However, people with schizophrenia tend to be very profound to stress and adjustment. Psychological stress single-handedly can be adequate to trigger an occurrence. Developing and sustaining a routine is one of the supreme aspects of dodging relapse (Gillha, 1978). Psychology helps in shaping life of human beings, developing their routines and motivation in proper formats to acquire the desired results. Human actions are the results of human thought process, so if an individual is willing to attain some goal, the process could be made easier by contemplating human thought process and this thought process can be controlled to a large extent by the tools and models provided by psychology. Forensic or criminal psychology helps in detecting the crime as well as the rehabilitation programs for the criminals. In addition to that, this area also provides ways and models to learn the causes of crime and to spread the message of peace to the society in general by incorporating the necessary learning in the educational systems. There are still controversies about the effectiveness of psychology in the courtrooms and investigation procedures (Weiner, Freedheim, Goldstein & Schinka, 2003). Gender roles and stereotypes can place limitations on our human rights. If you think of a necessary right such as the right to employment, or to make money, the old-style stereotype of women as housewives has put restrictions and hopes on what a woman is publicly and cautiously proficient of doing. People usually have a choice about how they act and behave. We can act like the stereotypes and dramatize gender roles in relations, which can lead to sadness and possibly fierceness. Then again we can experiment them to have improved and expressive relationships based on likeness and respect. The well-known relation between empathy, helping behaviour and the feeling of attachment to other human beings especially among strangers may be rooted, in part, in the evolved psychology of kinship and kin-recognition (Fiske, Gilbert & Lindzey, 2010). Psychology helps in understanding the student behaviour and then developing the techniques to teach the students in more effective way.Variables like level of student’s skills and capability, parental involvement, attitude of parents and siblings towards school have been studied through this domain of psychology which have in turn, provided a better insight as to how learning can be enhanced (Snowman, McCown & Biehler, 2011). One of the main disadvantages of studying psychology is the little financial value associated with this career and this is the major reason that students hardly go for adopting this line due to financial concerns. If one is more interested in the things and articles that money will buy than in the things and acts done to earn the money, one may find some disadvantages in psychology as a profession with less professional satisfaction and way of life (Super & Super, 2008). Psychology is based on theories and models to a great extent and the quality and precision of these models and theories is still a topic of debate so the results found on the basis of theories and models sometimes exaggerate and sometimes understate the reality. Just as it is said that models and theories are like knives with which one can prepare delicious meals as well as there is an equal tendency of cutting ones hands (Dawson, 2004). Similarly, the qualitative methods used in psychology are too labour intensive and involve too many biases which are associated with observational procedures (Jex & Britt, 2004) One of the major issues faced by the people is today’s time and age is tension and depression. People actually do not have the idea of the root cause of their real issues and just label their problems under the name of depression. This is the irrelevant knowledge propagated among the masses. There should be proper awareness about these terms which can only be achieved through the study of psychology. People should be encouraged to have discussions about their confusions and frustrations rather than being comfortable in association with a certain psychological disorder. Thus, studying psychology and using its leanings in practical life is not an altogether beneficial activity but it could be made useful if properly monitored and modified according to new discoveries and their impacts. Within the last era, applied developmental psychology (ADP) has been developed as a new subspecialization within old-stylealumna programs in developmental psychology. Current definitions of ADP array from a mainly research-oriented discipline to a super ordinate discipline below which clinical, educational, and school psychology organize applications of the developmental data base. This work draws upon numerous mutual themes to reach at a broad definition of ADP. Our approach focuses on ethical concerns accompanying both knowledge peers and knowledge application. In so doing, we rear issues with reference to the need for practicaldevelop mentalists to address questions regarding the influence of planned methods on development in normal and nonconforming populations, discussion to institutions and public policy makers, aptitudes required to conduct developmental education programs, and exploitation of developmental assessment techniques. Psychology is not just an educational subject that exists only in classrooms, mental health offices and research labs. The principles of psychology can be seen everywhere in routine situations involving people. The television commercials and print ads we see every day depend on psychology to progress marketing communications that effect and influence people to buy the advertised products. The websites visited on a steady basis apply psychology to comprehend how people read, practice and understand online evidence. Globalization has increased the importance of learning cultural psychology because it enables a person to tackle cultural diversity and work in a global environment. It provides the necessary exposure and understanding of values and norms which are new and different for an individual. Cultural psychology helps people to think outside their own mind frames, to pass judgements in softer tones, and helps in minimising the images visible to naked eye (Kitayama & Cohen, 2010). The benefits of psychology in the court room are premature if not completely grandiose, and psychology has yet to develop tools and procedures to prove itself in a more impressive way. (Weiner, Freedheim, Goldstein, & Schinka, 2003). Social psychology helps in discovering the roots of relationships and the ways to improve relationships and the attitudes of society in general. Social psychology deals with the unexpected situations in society and the reaction of people to those unexpected situations. Psychology is both an applied and a theoretical topic; it can be exploited in a number of ways. While exploration studies aren't exactly simple reading material for the normal person, the results of these try-outs and studies can have imperative uses in daily life. Psychology is also helpful when it comes to achieving individual goals whether the goal is to resign from smoking, lose weight or study a fresh language. It does not matter if somebody is an office manager or an unpaid worker at a local youth group, having virtuous leadership skills will perhaps be indispensable at certain point in life. Not every person is a natural leader, but a few modest tips scraped together from psychological research can benefit to improve leadership skills. Similarly, communication involves much more than how a person speaks or writes. Research proposes that non-verbal gestures make up a colossal slice of our social communications. In order to convey a message effectively, there is a need to learn how to express nonverbally and to speak the nonverbal cues of those around us. Research in cognitive psychology has delivered a capital of information about choice making. By smearing these strategies to life, one can learn to make cleverer picks. Nobel Prize winning psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky directed a series of readings that observed how people bring about uncertainty and risk when deciding. Following research in this area known as behaviour economics has generated some crucial findings that can be used to make cleverer money controlling adoptions. Another study bring into light that recurrent test-taking may be a healthier memory aid than learning (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). Students who were verified repetitively were able to reminiscence 61 percent of the material while those in the learning group remembered only 40 percent. Aside from all those contributions, psychology can also be a valuable tool for refining your total health. From ways to raise your spirits through exercise and better nourishment to new behaviours for downheartedness, the field of fitness psychology offers a prosperity of advantageous strategies that prove to be restored and more contented. However, psychology can be disadvantageous if there is a failure of defining the actual reason of an act that individuals do, disappointment to distinguish the alteration in situations' concentration according to unlike humans spirit that make humans act in and make the most weirdest decisions. Conclusively, applied psychology is a very wide course covering almost all of the aspects of a human life. Psychology can even help us determine the nature of different species of the world. I would say that Psychology can be extremely helpful if you accept it wholeheartedly, it may be difficult or complex or may even make things highly complicated it has come up with a lot of solutions regarding human mind: the most byzantine creation of God. References Bentall, R. (1992) Reconstructing schizophrenia, London: Rutledge. Dawson, M. (2004) Minds and machines: connectionism and psychological modeling.UK: Wiley-Blackwell Fiske,S., Gilbert, D.& Lindzey, G. (2010).Handbook of social psychology. New Jersey:John Wiley and Sons Gerrig, R. & Zimbardo, P. (2006).Psychology and Life.India: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Gillham, B. (1978). Reconstructing educational psychology. London: Taylor & Francis Jex, S.& Britt, T.(2004). Organizational psychology: a scientist-practitioner approach. John Wiley and Sons Kitayama, S. & Cohen, D.(2010). Handbook of Cultural Psychology New York: Guilford Press Snowman, J., McCown, R. & Biehler, R. (2011).Psychology Applied to Teaching, USA: Cengage Learning. Super, C.& Super, D.(2008). Opportunities in Psychology Careers. USA: McGraw-Hill Professional. Weiner, I., Freedheim, D., Goldstein, A., &Schinka, J.(2003). Handbook of Psychology: Forensic psychology. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Read More