Review of Psychology themes and variations 8th edition by Wayne Weiten - Book Report/Review Example

?Review of "Psychology themes and variations", 8th edition By Wayne Weiten. Chapter 7 Captioning the chapter seven of the book as “Human Memory”, thewriter uses the chapter to treat the concept of memory or mental development. Indeed, we all are born into this world with brains. Biologically, it is the function of the brain to aid the psychological process of memorizing. Relatively, we all have the same capacity of brain at the time of birth. The functioning of the brain however depends on a number of factors to determine how best a person may use his or her brain. Touching on the specific function of memory, Weiten (2010) makes it clear that we all have roles to play in ensuring that we develop our memory skills. He therefore highlights on a number of personal memory application activities that can help us as people improve our memory. Fundamentally, memory development would occur to people who are ready to take up the task and would also elude people who will be lazy in their approach. This is because important concepts such as rehearsal, deep processing and encoding, which are all suggested as ways of improving one’s memory cannot be undertaken if a person is not focused. On a personal application note, students and organized workers are two groups of people who can take advantage of the concept of mental or memory development. Students are constantly required to memorize concepts thought in schools so as to come out with the best of grades in their examinations. Workers are likewise at a constant application of instructions given at the workplace. These people must take advantage of the fact that their destinies of improving their memories lie in their own hands to work on their memories. Chapter 8- Cognition and Intelligence Quoting the American Psychological Association, Hamilton (2001) explains that intelligence has to do with the "ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt to environment, to learn from experience, engage in forms of reasoning, and to overcome obstacles by taking thought." This means that intelligence has to do with the practical application of the brains to overcome daily encounters that demand mental breakthrough. It is not for nothing that Weitein (2010) in writing the eighth chapter of the book related intelligence to cognition. This is because cognition has also been explained to be dealing with “acts of thinking that are associated with judgment and decision making” (Konsynski, 1996). Basically, Weitein (2010) holds the view that cognition is an ability whereas intelligence is an application of that ability. By extension, it could be said that we all are born with a certain level of cognition but not all of us development our cognition much enough to undertake intelligence acts. Educators have a lot to do with reference to cognition and intelligence. This means that the outstanding concept in this chapter is the concept of mental training. This is because they are seen as the major stakeholders for ensuring that students develop their cognition and intelligence. Judging from psychologists like Jean Piaget and Vygotsky, it could be said that even though there is a general understanding that all people go through normal developmental stages in life, the rate and traits of development are never the same. If it were so, all students of the same age and in the same class would perform equally in class. So where as there are natural stages and trend of mental development, educationists are admonished to help their students maximize their abilities and natural tendencies for becoming intelligent beings. One outstanding idea that can be tapped from the concept of mental training is constant practice. Weitein (2010) notes that in the absence of constant practice, there is bound to be forgetfulness. The situation is likened to a person who is building a 15-tower and upon reaching the 12th floor, the whole building collapses. This person would be left with no other option than starting from the very beginning. So whenever we refuse to practice, we tend to forget and have to start building out mental development from the scratch. To proof that this scenario of starting from the scratch is really true, Brobbey, 2010 uses the example of language learning. He notes that people acquire language only to stop practicing speaking the language for a long while and so eventually forget the language all together. To avoid this from happening, teachers and trainers are admonished to give enough room for exercises, practice and rehearsals in the learning setting. Chapter 9 Intelligence is perhaps a gift and if not the best, one of the best gifts of nature. This is because with the intelligence that people have, they are able to devise ways by which they will make earns meet in life. Intelligence is therefore necessary to make human survival possible. Weiten (2010) therefore writes on intelligence and psychological testing in the ninth chapter and one outstanding concept in the chapter is the power of intelligence. It is shown that intelligence promotes creativity and makes human maneuver possible. Intellectual application has today become the order of the day with inventors and gurus in technological advancements becoming the most popular and influential people in the world. But it is good to ask whether any of the inventions and technological advancements could take place in the absence of creativity. The same applies to the talented managers and innovative entrepreneurs. All of these, according to the writer’s understanding are people who create wealth for themselves out of creativity. The challenge is therefore thrown to all and sundry to master their intelligence, make use of creativity and ensure survival. In the midst of global economic hardship, we must challenge and test our intelligence level by ensuring that our creativity makes us live on. Creativity should be preceded by deep reasoning and thinking and accompanied with hard work that seeks to the implementation of the creative plans. With these guidelines religiously followed, no one is likely to be thrown overboard the boat of survival and we all shall be sailing successfully unto the shores of abundance. Chapter 10 Motivation is an important concept in all human live. It is said that motivation is a catylst that ensures that a person functions the way he or she ought to do (Brobbey, 2009). This is like saying that at every point in time, we all know what to do but we may need reinforcement at some point in time to get us doing what we are to do at its best. Motivation is therefore the recipe of best results. Writing on Motivation and emotion as the topic for the tenth chapter, Weiten (2010) relates motivation to emotions and says that our emotions influence our rate of performance given any task at all. Some of these tasks may be as simple things as driving. In such tasks, our present emotions may cause us either to perform below the maximum limit, to the needed maximum limit, or above the maximum. In a natural circumstance however, the best our emotions can do is to get us to the maximum limit. It is only in the presence of motivation that we can go beyond the limit or be lifted from below the limit to above it. Managers and employers are therefore admonished to take advantage of the power of motivation to achieve results in their outfits and to increase productivity. According to Weiten (2010), motivation sparks happiness and happiness is an important emotion to bring about results. When looking for ways to motivate workers, it is important to have a mechanism that will identify the very kind of elements that will ‘turn them on’ to perform. This is because when the wrong form of motivation is given, it would yield not result and employers will be back to square one. Chapter 11 Through the consideration for human ability and development, the writer uses this chapter to focus on the fact that development varies with different sets of people and that depending on the stage of a person’s lifespan we all do not have the same rate of growth and development. To this end, the chapter is named human development across the lifespan. One of the major differences in development across lifespan that can be focused on as a concept is gender. Psychology has a lot of relationship with the gender of a person. In terms of both growth and development, the gender of a person plays several important roles. For instance it is known that at the adolescent stage of a person, males have different developmental and psychological changes from females. By and large, the differences in development lead on to later days in the lives of the people and eventually influence the kind of roles that they take up as adults. In a typical social situation, females will take up less strenuous tasks and occupations whereas males will take up tasks that deal a lot with their strength and vigor. From Weiten’s assertion, parents of growing kids and adolescents are the ones who can have a lot of practical application of this situation of the human development across the lifespan and the differences in human make up in terms of gender. This is said because there are most parents who abuse the fact that gender equality is being preached everywhere to force their female kids and adolescents to take up to lifestyles that do not actually merit their psychological make up as people. Consequently, the females begin to feel that their natural instincts are being undermined and this causes them to withdraw. Chapter 12- Stress, Coping, and Health. The writer dedicates chapter 12 of the book to a health related topic, captioning it as stress, coping and health. The concept – ‘psychological aspect of wellbeing’ can therefore be crafted from the chapter. Psychology has a lot of relation with personal health but this is often ignored. The reason to argue that psychology has a lot of relation with personal health is very simple. According to Medical News Today (2012), “psychology is the science of the mind and behavior.” This means that all diseases and health conditions that concerns the mind and behavior is related to psychology as much as it may be a personal health issue. As numerous as they may be, the writer decided to concentrate on stress. Indeed stress is one of the major psychological health issues that affect most people from all walks of life. Right from children to adults – no one is immune to stress and its attendant consequences. Stress is also not respecter of gender and affects males as much as it affects females. Simply put, stress is a problem that affects anybody who depends on his or her mind in one way or the other. Medically, stress is referred to as a tired brain. So as the author has been talking about issues such as intelligence, cognition and language acquisition, it is important to state that all these functions of the mind put a lot of pressure on the mind, causing it to get tired. Once it is tired, one needs to be abreast with specific ways of dealing with the mind else the stress may degenerate into something bad. There are a number of ways in dealing with stress. Generally speaking, stress in itself may not be a bad situation but the failure to cope with it! First, it is advocated that people should understand how their body functions so that they will be able to tell if they are stressed. Secondly, there should be mechanisms to reduce the stress or relief ourselves of it entirely. The best way to do this is to take a break. Basically, a person is stressed because the mind has been working and is tired. Taking a break therefore means stopping the mind from doing any more work. Exercising, sleeping or playing games are ways of giving the mind a break from stress. Finally, it is important to make it clear that as much as everyone is at risk to stress, there are some people whose risk factors are higher. Typical of these people are those whose work does not involve physical exertion of strength but mental application of their mind. Students and office workers are typically in this group. It is advised that these people take the symptoms of stress seriously and react appropriately to them. Brobbey (2010) believes that just as the continuous exertion of force to a weak muscle can cause a tear, a mind that is forcefully stretched can get ’torn’. This means that there could be an adverse level of mental problem including madness. CITED WORKS Hamilton, K. E. Intelligence, Cognition and Language. 2001. Web. Febraury 22, 2012 Brobbey, Patrick. The Psychology of Motivation. 2009. Press Man Limited: Durban. Print. Cherry, Kendra, Personality Psychology. 2012. Web. February, 15, 2012 Konsynski, Benn. Cognition and Intelligence. 1996. Web. February 22, 2012. Medical News Today. What is Psychology? 2012. Web. February 22, 2012 Weitein, Wayne. Psychology themes and variations. 2010. Cengage Learning: New York. Print. Read More