Psychology in our Day to Day Life - Essay Example

Psychology in our Day to Day Life Introduction This is a research work based on an interview which is designed to analyze the factors about the application of psychology in our day to day life. This piece of research work is an attempt to describe various factors related to psychology like personality, attitudes and a person’s feelings of race, ethnicity, religion etc. I interviewed David Calabrese, a 26 years old college student from California. David Calabrese is on his final year of Master of Business Administration and is in hope of becoming a marketing manager of a Logistic. The interview with David gave me a success pathway in my academic career as it helped me understand psychological factors and its application to one’s life. Learning and Memory When David was asked about his personality and attitudes, it was turned out that he seems to be observational type of learner. His learning style resembles to that of observational or vicarious learning style. David feels that his behavior is structured with observing and learning from observation. He said “I learn new information from others through my observation and I remember things by recalling the model behavior that I once observed”. According to a group of psychologists, social learning theory focused on the idea that people learn not just from experience, but also from watching what is happening to other people or through hearing about others (Morris and Masito, 2002, p. 216). Many of our activities are first learnt from seeing how other people around us do the same. Morris and Masito (2002) gave good example for this. We start driving carefully; even in the very starting point, because, we see what happens when people drive without care (p. 216). In the interview, it was turned out that David recalls many of his past incidents more accurately, but same time, he is not able to recall every thing from his past. He is well aware of his ‘short term’ and ‘long term’ memories. He said: “I never forget some numbers like my credit card, bank account, pass port and my home phone numbers. But same time, I cannot remember any of my friends cell phone numbers and their details but only their names”. David’s answer was interesting to me. I discovered that I am also same. I never forget my card’s PIN number and passwords. But same time, I forget many phone numbers that I even very often used to call. Morris and Maisto (2002) stated that short term memory is like a working memory and it keeps information for a shorter period of time (p. 229). The short term memory has multiple tasks to perform at a time and as there is competition between these tasks, neither one will be performed because of its limited capacity (Moris and Maisto, 2002, p. 230). The long term memory can keep information for longer period of time. According to Morris and Maisto (2002), what ever we learn, that is stored in our long term memory (p. 232). It is obvious that short term memory has less capacity and limited space for keeping information, but long term memory has more space for storing information (Morris and Maisto, 2002, p. 232). While discussing learning preferences, David said that he would like a library or calm atmosphere for learning than his house, because, his mind is very easily distracted with background noises and disturbing environment. The environment is an important factor that affects one’s information processing and learning habits. It is obvious that a person can concentrate more in a calm and quiet atmosphere. There are some learners who may prefer learning at home and they are less likely to get distracted by background noises. I could find from this interview that David’s study habit is very similar to that of mine. Most people try to be in calm settings when they want to read, or to concentrate on something. Being at home is extremely difficult for many to concentrate on anything as they are easily distracted by children, radio or TV sounds and other background noises. According to Morris and Masito (2002) attention is “the process of selectively looking, listening, smelling, tasting and feeling” (p. 227). When we need attention to certain information, the nervous system functions as a filter by which only those stimuli that meet certain requirement can enter in to our brain cells (Morris and Maisto, 2002, p. 227). Those who prefer their homes for reading and are not easily distracted by background noises, and are still able to concentrate on grasping information, filter out unnecessary background noises. Their filtering system seems to function well and hence only required information is entered in to their nervous system. Myers Brigs test and personality Personality is an important factor that plays significant role in a person’s learning habits. I requested David to take Myers Briggs Personality Test from similarmind.com. It was amazing that the result of his test was quite similar to my result that I took the same test a few weeks ago and it gave me new lessons of personality and similar minds concepts. The similarmind.com helped me find similarity between both of our minds. When David took Myers Brigs test, the result showed him as ‘persuader’ personality. The result showed a formula of ENFJ with the following percentages. Extroverted (E) - 55.88%, Intuitive (N) 57.14%, Feeling (F) 59.38% and Judging (J) 62.86%. Similarmind.com gave him additional information about his personality that he is an outstanding leader of groups. He can be aggressive at helping others to be the best that they can be. This type represents 2.5% of the total population. When I revised my test result that I took a few weeks back, I found it surprising that both these results are bit closer. My personality was showed as ESTJ with detailed percentage analysis as Extroverted (E) 51.28%, Sensing (S) 55.56%, Thinking (T) 59.46% and Judging (J) 68.57%. My personality is described as ‘administrator’ representing 8.7% of the total population. ‘Administrator’ personality seems to be very responsible and much in touch with external environment (similarminds.com, 2009). David was surprised to see the result and he agreed that this result is best matching his personality traits. Motivation When David was asked whether he has ever been motivated by his parents or teachers and why he thinks he was motivated in such times, it is turned out that he feels motivation as a major factor that influenced in developing his personality. He answered: “I was very often motivated by my parents and others and it made me feel rewarded of my personality. I think motivation helped me structure and develop my personality”. David feels that motivation has contributed much in developing his personality. For me, it was interesting. I also feel same. When someone rewards me with good words or good deeds, that definitely in turn motivates me and my personality is developed accordingly. Morris and Maisto (2002) describes motive as “a specific need or desire that arouses the organism and directs its behavior toward a goal” (p. 329). I realized that there is closer relation between motivation and behavior. When a person is motivated, his specific need or desires like hunger or achievement are satisfied and this in turn prompts goal-directed behavior (Morris and Maisto, 2002, p. 329). When discussing motivation, David is asked if he is self monitoring in relation to his personality. He paused a while and answered “Off course, I am self monitoring, because I know what I am doing and I always care my thoughts and activities when ever I am motivated. I am always aware of which reward I deserve when ever I am motivated”. David feels that when he is motivated, his personality is affected thereby. David is of the opinion that motivation is has the strongest influence on his personality and attitudes. While noting these points, I thought about my personality and factors that have stronger influence on it. As David responded, motivation is one of the factors that can influence and develop one’s personality. But, I strongly feel that good and encouraging environment is another important factor that helps me become happy and enthusiastic and thereby develop my personality. For instance, being around my family members has greater influence on my attitudes. When David was asked about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, it was turned out that he is both intrinsic and extrinsic. He said “I will be encouraged to do something if I can enjoy it or some thing can make me happy of it”. Intrinsic motivation refers to a type of motivation which is provided by the activity itself. Extrinsic motivation is a type of motivation that derives from the consequences of an activity (Morris and Masito, 2002, p. 332). When I thought about mine, I felt a bit differently that I am more motivated to do things that are more enthusiastic and enjoyable rather than some doings that are boring or are compelled on me by others. Effect of race, gender and ethnicity on personality David was asked about his thoughts regarding the role that race, ethnicity and gender play on structuring one’s attitudes and personality. David responded “I do have my own assumptions when I meet people by their ethnicity or sex or race as I believe others too do have”. I also strongly believe that race, ethnicity and gender can play significant role in structuring attitudes and personality. It is basically the effect of environment on one’s behavior. From the people around us, from the surroundings we live in, from the cultures our ethnic group is linked to and from the religion we belong to, we experience different things that directly or indirectly help develop our personality accordingly. People from different from ethnic groups grow in different cultures and in different places and this is how they perform different attitudes and behavior. Conclusion The purpose of this paper is to research and analyze factors about the application of psychology in our day to day life. This research work presents the summary of an interview I conducted focusing on learning, personality, and attitudes. I compared and contrasted the responses of interviewee to my questions and I developed a research based on what I learned from this course. References Morris and Maisto (2005), Psychology: An Introduction, Chapter- 5, 6, 9, 11 & 15, Twelfth Edition, Prentice-Hall Similarminds.com (209), Jung’s personality test, Retrieved from http://similarminds.com/jung_word.html Read More