Communicating the Value of Psychology
Position Paper Nagle Catholic College
Danni Carroll

“Psychology is the scientific study of how we think, feel and act. It aims to answer important questions such as what motivates people to behave the way they do and what factors influence the way they think, feel and behave as they grow up and develop” (Fletcher and Garton, 2007).
Psychology is applied to society as a whole; it can help us understand how we as individuals can function as members of society and the values and attitudes to things such as Culture, Social values and practices and Social, Historical and Political Influences. Psychology studies have also taken us into the minds of others and how they react to certain situations; from this psychologists have created the areas of Social Psychology, Relational Influences and Communication that their studies fall under. The study of psychology also lets us find out more about ourselves as individuals such as our Biological Influences, Cognition, Developmental and Personality (Fletcher and Garton 2007).
This position paper is aimed at a year 12 Psychology class studying 3AB Psychology: Self, Others and Society. The class consists 17 students with the majority of the students being female and aged 16-17. The purpose of this paper is to provide the students with a clearer understanding of the Psychology areas of Self, Others and Society.
Case Study 1 – Personality
Personality is defined as the characteristics of a person which remain consistent over time, it is made up the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that make a person unique (Personality and Sport PowerPoint, 2012) (Cherry, 2013)
There have been many theorists who have come up with theories for categorising personalities, such as trait theorists such as Costa and McCrae (1987) who created the Big Five personalities and