Psychology and Social Issues - Assignment Example

Relationship between Psychology and Society The relationship between psychology and society isa debatable issue, which has continued to raise several opinions of many scholars. Many scholars tend to have varied opinions, some do support that the two issues intertwine while others stand against the two for their relationship. Society is the surrounding of a human being; it is what makes up a wholesome development of a human being. Research shows that both psychology and society have some attachment between them. Each of the two has some dependency’ thus, one should have a better knowledge of psychology, inorder to understand the happening in the society and the behavior of a human being. The society is relevant to the study of psychology, and without it there is no means of having psychologists. With the society, the psychologists can conduct a study to explain the happenings especially the social life of an individual. They tend to affect the performance of each other. They are so dependable for the mutual benefit of each other. Psychology depends widely on the society. Psychological research is relevant to the society it may be important or risks depending on how its conception among the people in the society. The motive that drives the psychological research will eventually determine the outcome, which the research will have in the society. Several researches carried out within the community could be of great benefits to the entire society. The knowledge gained from the research enables the people within the community understand their social, economic, and political behavior (Jahoda, 2007). For example, there is a psychological community based research conducted to know the causes of teenage pregnancies, the people who benefit from this research are from the same society. Such a research case will equip both the parents and the teenage with knowledge of pregnancy cases and they will draw measures against pregnancies from the research recommendation. Psychological research may only be harmful if it has many deceptions in it without the necessary facts, but, rather when only opinions matters (Hunt, 2007). Psychology applies to social issues in the society such as explaining the reasons behind the behavior of individuals. It gives many reasons as to why people may not be able to understand their feelings, emotions and the origins of responses. Psychology is behind the explanation of why people have different talents and skills, why others can be polite while others are aggressive in nature. Psychology affects how one makes a decision on the social issues surrounding life. If psychology tends to explain the personality of people using traits, the results will be underestimation of the social influence power. Psychology has the greatest influence on political issues, that is, it helps to understand the political behaviors (Gergen, 1973). The most psychological influence to an individual is the understanding of group behavior. When dealing with politics, psychologists are on the position of understanding all the factors that comprise a group such as the size, structure, function, conformity, power, and decision-making (Jahoda, 2007). Social and political events have effects on the psychological fields. Violence, for example, may rise from political or social issues. The victims of violence often are psychologically disturbed. The victim’s psychology varies from the original person that was before in the past. Social and political events are factors concerning the psychology of change. The social and political changes of behavior that influence a person’s friends and opponents affect the Clinical psychology as a field of psychology. Voting is a political event, which is also a way of people expressing their views. Some psychologist may view voting as an egocentric act because people vote for their own interest, not as an exercise of democracy. Voting is a habit and its victims become fond of doing it even when they are voting in a partisan or a candidate. One psychologist BF Skinner stated that people learn from their environment. Their behavior and attitude characterize the type of environment they are raised (Stern, 1998). As a science branch, cognitive psychology study mind and mental function. These functions include the process of learning, memory, attention, perception, reasoning, and decision-making among others. Cognitive psychology holds an assumption that a brain is a complex system of computing information. In 387BC, Plato suggested that the seat of all the mental processes is the brain. The idea of Plato got reinforcement from Rene Descartes in 1637. Rene suggested that every born human has innate ideas and forwarded the idea of the mind –body dualism, known as the substance dualism. From that time, many debates are ongoing concerning human thought (Gergen, 1973). Philosophical debates lead to the establishment of psychology as a scientific branch in the mid-18th century. There are three main influences that erupted in the mid-20th century, which promoted and shaped cognitive psychology as an official school of thought. The first influence was the need for understanding human performance due to technology advancement that occurred after the Second World War. The second influence was the developments of computer science, which led to parallels drawn between the functionality of a computer and the human thoughts. Noam Chomsky highlighted his critique in 1959 concerning behaviorism, and empiricism as a result, the cognitive revolution come up (Hunt, 2007). History of psychology is an essential factor that explains a variety of questions such as how, when and why psychology came to be. It helps in understanding the origin and general history of psychology especially for those who wish to major in various psychological field. The knowledge of history of psychology gives one the ability to distinguish psychology from other disciplines such as philosophy and physiology. Many modern developments have shaped the discipline of psychology today. Individuals with interest in psychology as their major should be able to know the history of psychology. Knowing the history will enable such a student note the differences of the modern times and the past. Individuals will learn to appreciate the developments that psychology has undergone. Psychology as a branch of science deals with socially and cultural issues that pertain the life of a person, and their effects human behavior. It deals with the political and moral dimensions of human being; therefore, it is a concern for every interested person of psychological field to note these factors. History of psychology equip a person interested in psychology understand why some psychologists came up with some opinions that turn out to be useful in the field of psychology today. Conclusively, psychology is a science discipline that equips an individual with the knowledge to gain insight of oneself, the society, and the daily events usually occurring. Reference Gergen, K. J. (1973). Social psychology as history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26(2), 309–320. Hunt, M. M. (2007). The story of psychology. New York: Anchor Books. Jahoda, G. (2007). A history of social psychology: From the eighteenth century Enlightenment to the Second World War. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press. Stern, D. N. (1998). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. 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