A topic within the subject of Psychological Foundations of the Adult Learner - Research Paper Example

Article 1 According to Letivin (2002), the cognitive theory of psychology states that, the mind process information in relation to their environment. For example, the kind of life people live is greatly affected by the community that surrounds them. For example gender stereo typing affects the performance of many women. In most communities courses such as engineering and medicine are normally done by men since they are perceived to be better in mathematics and sciences. This hinders most girls from pursuing such courses since they believe they cannot perform well in sciences and mathematics.

Article 2 According to Melcher (2011), the behaviorist theory of psychology explains human behavior in relation to response, reinforces and stimulus. It tries to explain that people do what they do depending on the consequences and stimuli of their actions. They simply weigh if the benefit out way the consequences and based on this they decide to do something or not. Most girls perceive mathematics and sciences as hard courses hence they do not see the need to work hard to pass, since they can do better in humanities and languages.

Article 3 Humanistic theory focuses on the mental state of a person from their child hood till when there are adults. They theory tries to explain that our decisions and actions are based on our morals which depend with what people went through as children. The values which were instilled into a person while they were children greatly influence who we are today. It also tries to explain that our mental status is mostly determined by what we went through physically or mentally. Since childhood most female children believe that their fathers are the family’s source of living and their mother do simple jobs to earn a little extra income.

Due to this their grow up with that mentality believing they cannot achieve things that require hard work. This makes them loose interest in sinces nad mathematics subjects hence failing them. (Brabant and Hochman, 2004). In their journal, Brabant and Hochman (2004) try to explain adult learning using the humanistic theory of psychology. They put across that weather people will have a good attitude towards education when there are adults greatly depends on the adults’ childhood. For example if when someone during childhood was surrounded by people who did not value education, they in turn do not value education when their adults.

For instance there are families which believe in farming alone as a source of income. You will find that children who come from this family only go through basic education as a government’s requirement. After that they join their family business which is farming which does not require any education. Article 4 Heeden et al (2010), explain the foundations of adult education using the cognitive theory of psychology. This is where they argue that importance of adult education greatly depends with the environment in which a person comes from.

For example people from upper class societies live a life where ladies’ upkeep is maintained by their husbands, boyfriends or parents. This has in turn resulted in women not doing well in advanced courses like engineering since they believe they should not pressure themselves too much since their needs will be catered for. This makes them lack interest hence performing poorly in sciences and mathematics. Conclusion In conclusion all the principles of psychology can be used in