Research in Psychology and New Solutions to World Problems - Essay Example

?How has research in psychology led to new solutions to real-world problems? Give at least one specific example from each of these areas of psychology: cognitive, social and forensic. The modern world presents a great many challenges to human beings, and there are many ways in which a better understanding of the human mind can assist people in going about their daily business. This paper examines three specific examples in order to illustrate how research in different areas of psychology has led to new solutions to real-world problems. Research in cognitive psychology has contributed to the maximisation of safety when humans interact with machines in a busy environment, for example, in the case of drivers. Research in social psychology has contributed to the reform of legislation relating to sexual orientation in many Western countries. Finally, research in forensic psychology has led to the design and implementation of tests and protocols which regulate the way that questions are put to suspects and witnesses during criminal investigations. Each of these areas is now examined in turn, highlighting some of the key insights psychological research has gained, and how these have helped to resolve specific problems. Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the way the human mind processes information and comes to decisions. It includes aspects of human experience that most people take for granted, like the way we perceive the world, and the different amounts of attention that we give to things as they happen around us. The modern world is very complex, and people are often required to operate machines, while simultaneously dealing with a multitude of sensory inputs, and this creates a problem because any errors can result in serious accidents causing injury and death to the self and to others. One of the major milestones in many people’s lives is the acquisition of a driving licence which gives that person permission to drive a vehicle on public roads and motorways. Psychological research can be of assistance in this area because it provides hard evidence regarding the ability of the brain to cope with the multiple level tasks that driving involves, from knowing the highway code, to manipulating the controls of the car, judging when it is safe to overtake, choosing a route and navigating, while the same time dealing with unexpected events that can occur at any time. Psychologists have long been aware that there are different levels of cognitive skill involved in driving, and that it takes a relatively short time for people to learn the basic competencies of controlling the vehicle, but considerably longer to acquire “the complex, higher-order perceptual and cognitive skills required to safely interact with the traffic environment” (Deery, 1999, p. 226). This has implications for the age regulations that the government imposes for driving licences, and also for the way that driving instruction and testing is set up. By studying the way that the human mind processes information while driving, psychologists have been able to identify the factors that are likely to cause accidents, and advise car designers, driving instructors, town planning authorities and other professionals in the kind of changes that they need to make in order to ensure that the driving environment as safe as possible for all users and passers-by. Speed limits, road dimensions and markings, colour, size and frequency of signage and all the minute details of vehicle design have all benefited from the insights that cognitive psychology has provided. Some risk factors are endogenous, which means they reside in the driver, as for example the deterioration in reaction time and visual acuity that comes with old age (Ryan et al., 1998), or the fatigue that impairs driver attention after long spells at the wheel. Other risk factors, however, are exogenous, which means that they reside in the environment. One study of driver fatigue noted that a monotonous road environment implies greater fatigue than a road environment that has variety, suggesting that measures could and perhaps should be taken to introduce some element “roadside visual stimulation” into monotonous road environments, in order to alleviate the build-up of drowsiness and fatigue in drivers (Thiffault and Bergeron, 2003, p. 390). Psychologists have also gathered very useful data on the way that drivers apportion their cognitive resources while driving, as for example in an experiment by Wikman et al. (1998) which carefully measured the duration and number of glances away from the road which experienced and inexperienced drivers made when undertaking tasks like tuning the radio or dialling a mobile telephone. The glance duration to tasks inside the car was longer in the case of inexperienced drivers, which confirms the theory that this group is more likely to take risks when driving, and is therefore more likely to lose control of the vehicle due to inattention to the more pressing needs of the driving task. Hard evidence of this sort from research in cognitive psychology has resulted in a tightening in recent years of laws on activities like the use of mobile phones in cars, and so helped eliminate some of the risk in driving situations. Social psychology is a very broad field, and it covers the way people as individuals interact with each other in smaller groups like the family, and in larger groups such as educational establishments, workplaces, and even nation states and online communities. One area which has been the subject of a great deal of research in recent years is that of sexual orientation, meaning not just the acquisition and performance of male and female gender roles, but the development of a variety of identities including homosexual, bi-sexual and transgender. For most of the twentieth century, variation from the heterosexual “norm” was categorised even in psychology textbooks as “perversion”, “deviant” or as some kind of “disorder” which implied an impairment of mental health (Diamant, p. 4). Towards the end of the twentieth century there has been a major revision of the standard medical textbooks and clinical tests used to determine mental health categories, and sexual orientation is now the term used to describe variation in the sexual identities or behaviours that exist in society. Some research into the experiences of people who do not identify with the heterosexual majority has confirmed that lesbians, gay men and bisexual people have a higher incidence of mental illness than heterosexuals but theorise that this difference is due to social factors such as stigma and prejudice, which cause people who are different from the majority to experience greater levels of stress (Meyer, 2003). This has implications for society because it suggests that political and social change is needed to prevent the stress occurring in the first place. New policies for gay marriage and anti-discrimination examples of change have occurred to deal with the problem of prejudice and stress, thanks in part to research into sexual orientation. Forensic psychology can be defined as “that branch of applied psychology which is concerned with the collection, examination and presentation of evidence for judicial purposes” (Gudjonsson, 2002, p. 1). Many psychologists have investigated the linked phenomena of “interrogative pressure” (Baxter et al., 2006) and “interrogative suggestibility” (Bain and Baxter, 2000) which refer to the extent to which people are influenced to answer questions in a particular way when they are being interviewed. One outcome of this area of psychological research is the “Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale” which measures some of the effects that can occur in a criminal investigation when people are subjected to questioning (Guddjonsson, 1983). The value of this work is that it highlights factors in the personality of the interview participants, as well as in the protocols used for interviewing, which may influence the outcome. This scale, and other measurement tools, can be used to ensure that the investigative process is conducted fairly, and with awareness of variables which can cause unreliable evidence to be produced. Significant work has also been done on the phenomenon of false confessions, for example. By analysing data on miscarriages of justice, psychologists have discovered that some people make deliberately false statements under interrogation because of they have an unconscious compulsive need to confess, while others confess due to coercion by investigators, and other reasons for false confession can include a desire to protect a family member or associate, or even a “morbid desire for notoriety” (Conti, 1999, p. 21). Psychological research which categorises and defines these different factors has influenced the way that investigators conduct their interviews, and it has enabled criminal justice professionals to make better judgements about whether a confession is authentic or not. This is extremely important in the criminal justice system, because courts place a lot of weight on confessions, and they very often lead to convictions, which is a serious consequence for all concerned. Overall, then, these examples show that research in these three branches of cognitive, social and forensic psychology have led to a deeper understanding of how the human mind works in a complex world, and have informed our systems and processes in ways which help society. The examples above have illustrated how research has clarified the problem of risk in driving, the negative effects of prejudice on people who have a sexual orientation which is different from the majority, and the problem of suggestibility which can result in unfair convictions. Thanks to the evidence provided by researchers in these three areas, and the theories and recommendations they have developed, improvements in current practice have been made, with consequent benefits for all concerned. References Bain, S.A. and Baxter, J. S. (2000). Interrogative Suggestibility: The role of interviewer behaviour. Legal and Criminological Psychology 5, pp. 123-133. Baxter, J. S., Boon, J. C. W. and Marley, C. (2006). Interrogative pressure and responses to minimally leading questions. Personality and Individual Differences 40, pp. 87-98. Conti, R.P. (1999). The Psychology of False Confessions. Journal of Credibility Assessment and Witness Psychology 2 (1), pp. 14-36. Deery, H. (1999). Hazard and Risk Perception among Young Novice Drivers. Journal of Safety Research 30 (4), pp. 225-236. Diamant, L. (1995). Sexual Orientation: Some Historical Perspective. In L. Diamant and R.D. McAnulty (Eds.) The Psychology of Sexual Orientation, Behavior and Identity: A Handbook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 3-18. Gudjonsson, G.H. (1983). A new scale of interrogative suggestibility. Personality and Individual Differences 5 (3), pp. 303-314. Gudjonsson, G.H. (2002). Forensic Psychology: A Guide to Practice. Hove: Routledge. Meyer, I.H. (2003). Prejudice, Social Stress, and Mental Health in Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Populations: Conceptual Issues and Research Evidence. Psychological Bulletin 129 (5), pp. 674-697. Ryan, G.A., Legge, M. and Rosman, D. (1998). Age Related Changes in Drivers’ Crash Risk in an Older Driver Population. Accident Analysis and Prevention 30 (3), pp. 337-346. Thiffault, P. and Bergeron, J. (2003). Monotony of road environment and driver fatigue: a simulator study. Accident Analysis and Prevention 35, pp. 381-391. Wikman, A., Nieminen, T. and Summala, H. (1998). Driving experience and time-sharing during in-car tasks on roads of different width. Ergonomics 41 (3), pp. 358-372. Read More