...Origins of Psychology Abstract “Psychology has a long past but only a short history.” This simple almost satirical statement by Hermann Ebbinghaus is key to understanding the history and underpinnings of modern psychology. From a flawed seventh century B.C. experiment by the King of Egypt to Socrates, Plato, Hume, Liebniz, and others, psychology has a very long past but only a short scientific history. Philosophical Background In the seventh century B.C., the King of Egypt conducted what many, including psychology historian Morton Hunt, consider to be the first psychology experiment. Though flawed and rudimentary, the king tested his idea that thoughts and language came from the mind. Although unscientific, the idea of the minds overall ability to do more was put to the test. Socrates (460-399 B.C.) often considered and referred to as a father of philosophy, stated “One thing only I know and that is I know nothing.” This realization came when he concluded that philosophy can only begin when one learns to doubt, particularly the thoughts and ideals that each individual holds dear and sacred. In short, real philosophy cannot start until one’s mind begins to examine itself. Again the mind is central and paramount. To modern psychology he gave the Socratic Method of questioning, which demanded definitions...
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...Environmental Psychology Paper Robyn A. Cole August 13, 2012 PSY 460 Edward A. Muhammad, M.S. Environmental Psychology For more than the past ten years, the field of psychology has covered drawn out analysis and delved into the correlation among human beings and the environment. Clayton and Myers state that, “Recent quantitative assessments of the human impact on nature give a sobering picture: the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment found that about 60% of the earth’s ecosystem services are being used unsustainably” (2009, p. 1). This study has implies that ecological changes affect the revolutionalization in human behavior. The force of continuing environmental changes persistently influence human behavior and the progression of human thinking. Each day instances of climate changes will allow for increasing consciousness of the requirement to recycle, reusable plastic bags, and empty bottles, reduction of the garbage that is deserted in the waste dumping sites every year. Case in point, this motivates a knowledgeable community which stimulates inventive ideas and studies. Consequentially, this encourages people and community to feel good and inspires others to improve, recycle, and salvage better. In this paper we will define the discipline of environmental psychology, compare and contrast two major theoretical approaches, and explain the importance of research in the field of environmental psychology. The field of environmental psychology started in the...
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...Historical Perspectives of Abnormal Psychology Nicole Theriault PSY/410 October 8, 2012 Dr. Sevet Johnson Historical Perspectives of Abnormal Psychology The study of abnormal behavior has been a topic of debate and profound interest for nearly 100 years. Abnormal psychology outlines the differences between what is considered normal or abnormal behavior among people of all ages and walks of life. Throughout the evolution of abnormal psychology, areas of focus within the discipline have been broken down into six core concepts, which provide for more accurate definition(s) of what is considered to be normal and abnormal behavior in individuals. To fully understand the scope and significance of contemporary abnormal psychology, it is important to understand that psychopathology and its origins has evolved into a scientific discipline and are met with constant challenges to defining and classifying normal and abnormal behavior. The following will discuss the origins of abnormal psychology, how the field has evolved into a scientific discipline in addition to a brief analysis of the psychosocial, biological/medical, and sociocultural theoretical models, which directly relate to the development of abnormal psychology. Origins of Abnormal Psychology The science of abnormal psychology is still considered to be relatively young and having only existed for approximately 100 years. However, the presence of psychopathologies among people worldwide has been recorded...
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...When you think of the word empowerment, what comes to most peoples mind is power or at least that is what comes to my mind. In the American Heritage College dictionary fourth edition, it is a noun of the word “empower”, they describe it as “1.to invest with power esp. legal power or official authority, and 2. To equip or supply with an ability; enable.” (Empower, 2010, 2002, p. 460) In my research on the subject, I found that people use the word in different context in different fields of study or genres of practice but it all comes back to some person having a feeling of power therefore empowerment. In one study on ”the empowerment of youth as a strategy to reduce crime in Nigerian society” they say, “In recent years, almost all governments of countries of the world, including advanced countries have sought new approaches to harness the potential of young people and address the problems facing them. The concept of youth empowerment has gained increasing attention. Youth empowerment means involving young people in decision making processes on issues that affect them, as well as entrusting them with the knowledge and skills necessary for them to effectively and meaningfully participate.” (Olaleye, 2010, p. 104) In another article from the Journal of marketing published by American Marketing Association entitled the psychological effects of empowerment strategies on consumers’ product demand, “since the internet is here companies now utilize that as a tool to involve customers...
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...ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Name INF 103: Computer Literacy Instructor: Bonita Spight-Williams April 13, 2013 Artificial Intelligence What does our future hold in the area of Artificial Intelligence? “The goal of many computer scientists since the mid–20th century has been to create a computer that could perform logical operations so well that it could actually learn and become sentient or conscious. The effort to achieve this is called artificial intelligence, or AI.” (Bowles, 2010). AI is a branch of computer science that deals with developing machines that solve complex problems in a more human-like manner. This involves computers adopting characteristics of human intelligence. However, it has many associations with other fields of study such as Math, Psychology, Biology, and Philosophy. Many scientists believe that by combining these various fields of study they will ultimately succeed in creating an artificially intelligent machine. A lot of scientists believe that the key to figuring out artificial intelligence is to copy the basic function of the human brain. While it is certainly evident that a computer can acquire knowledge from a program or programmer, it is the new developments in AI that will enable it to apply the knowledge. The new advancements in AI will hopefully enable these machines to not only possess the knowledge, but also understand how to utilize it in a number of situations. Artificial Intelligence researchers analyze human...
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...When a parent sends their child to school, they feel a sense of security because they know where their child is and that their child will be protected. They trust in the school system that the school’s personnel will handle academic, social and behavioral problems in a professional manner. Every school is supposed to guide, respect, teach and discipline students in a way that would deter future altercations while still giving all students fair and equal opportunities to succeed in post secondary school, and future endeavors. However, our schools are not living up to these standards especially for our black males students and this causes the school to prison pipeline. The school to prison pipeline refers to the increasing ways in which students...
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...and negative emotion words generated more RB than neutral and positive words. Interestingly, neutral words demonstrated a higher RB than positive emotion words, possibly suggesting the salience of negativity over emotion. Method Participants A total of 24 students comprised of 15 females and 9 males, from an undergraduate second year psychology class took part in the experiment. The mean age was 28.8, and the ages ranged from 19-50. All participants first learned to read and write in English, and 21 also spoke English as their first language. Materials Participants used the lab computers to complete the trials. Each trial consisted of three words, which included the target words C1 and C2 and a filler word in between them. The target words were identical in the treatment group and different for the control group. There were four types of words used for the four different conditions: taboo; negative emotion; positive emotion; and neutral. Participants completed a total of 80 trials each and the words used for the different conditions can be found in Appendix A. Procedure Participants completed the trials as part of their psychology...
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...A critical review: Chickens prefer beautiful humans by Ghirlanda, Jansson, and Enquist (2002) Ghirlanda, Jansson, and Enquist (2002) used both humans and chickens as participants. With the assumption that similar processes can develop in any nervous system, a comparison of these two species’ preferences to human faces was made, with the aim of determining whether human preferences arise from general properties of the nervous systems, or from face-specific adaptations. However, several methodological issues have been encountered and are discussed below. In their design, they used a set of seven faces as stimuli. These were increasing in femininity, ranging from exaggerated male traits to exaggerated female traits. Figure 1: Set of seven faces as stimuli (Ghirlanda et al., 2002) The experiment consisted of one training period and one testing period. During training, chickens were presented with, on a screen, only the average male and female faces for 10 seconds, or until these were pecked. Hens had to peck male faces, and cocks had to peck female faces in order to be rewarded with food, so the animals were taught to prefer the opposite sex. The training period lasted until the animals learned choice preference for the opposite sex faces, more specifically, when 75% of the total pecks were directed towards the rewarded face. Human participants, on the other hand, did not receive training, but were shown the set of faces, in a random order, once, before the testing phase...
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...Architecture and the Environment Paper PSY/460 Tuesday 6, 2012 Design Paper When discussion of the design of any building, it is a balancing act with the environment and the material that will be used to build buildings. The very core of building design is to find a solution between the affects upon of the building and the environment. According to Arkkelin and Veitch, there are two basic types of buildings, commercial and residence, are designed in order to meet the needs of the clients as well: requirements, needs, and activities which are the commercial and residential (1995). Designing a commercial build needs to address the concern of serving the general public, corporate aspect, and to fulfill the needs of the needs of the society: like schools, prisons, and hospitals to name a few. Taking a closer look at the overall reasoning behind the design of a commercial building is two sided. The first is how the building needs to operate; the building must offer an easy avenue t atients, inmates, merchandise as well as the design must be to facilitate a smooth operation of the building. The second aspect is what the building is offering and maintaining security, privacy, and yet at the same time the means for the ability to interact with others. On the other side of the coin is the design of residential, strives to streamline the functioning of the private needs behind close doors of the residence. This paper will address the differences between the areas referred...
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...In a organization psychological contract is a essential part of positive employee relationship. It requires interaction & communication between employer & employee. Basically psychological contract is the`mutual beliefs, perceptions and informal obligations between an employer and employee (D.Rousseau,1989). It can be distinguished from the legal employment contract. It is the perception of both employee and employer, of what are their mutual obligations towards each others. It can be more influential than the formal written contract in affecting how employees behave from day to day, their motivations and their commitment to the organization. Levinson (1962), the father of the concept of psychological contract defined it as an unwritten contract. According to his concept psychological contract is the sum of the mutual expectations between the organization and employees. Psychological contracts are mental models or schemas that develop through an individual’s interactions and experiences (Levinson, 1962) The psychological contract is playing an increasingly important role in helping to define and understand contemporary employment relationship (Millward & Brewerton, 1999). The psychological contract tells employees what they are required to do in order to meet their side of the bargain and what they can expect from their job. It offers a valid and helpful framework of thinking about the employment relationship, especially against a background of a changing labour market and...
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...A Discussion of Leadership and Ethics Grand Canyon University LDR 800 October 13, 2010 Leadership and Ethics 2 Abstract Recognizing the importance of ethical behavior in leadership requires leaders that understand its value. Leaders must have the ability to choose the ethical values that are most important to their organization. Generally speaking ethical behavior gains significance and becomes relevant when people must enforce the laws upon themselves because of the environmental or organizational setting of their workplace; consequently, in the everyday routine of those in an organizational setting, workers are exposed to many different situations and environments that require varying codes of ethics (Wyne, 2010). Leaders are expected to not only enforce those ethical codes of behavior but to live daily by those codes in an effort to gain the trust of those working with and for them. As a result, an organization that is strong in ethical standards is formed. Educational leadership is widely recognized as complex and challenging (Woods, 2009). Building teams that are motivated to exercise ethical behavior takes the fortitude and dedication of leaders whose leadership abilities expand merely talking about implementation of these standards but open the door to action in ethical and moral awareness. The intent and discussion in this paper involves a look into leadership and its connection with ethical models...
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...Running Head: Pyschodynamic and Behaviourist Perspectives A Comparison and Contrast of the Psychodynamic and Behaviourist Perspective in Psychology Matthew Sealey – 1778013 Swinburne University of Technology Due Date: Monday 31st March Alcohol and Energy Drinks Abstract The aim of this study was to examine whether alcohol consumption increased when an individual consumed an energy drink. 172 participants completed a two part survey comprising of questions regarding alcohol consumption and completion of the Risk Taking Questionnaire 18. The hypothesis that alcohol consumption in a single sitting would be higher in the high propensity group in comparison the low propensity group was supported. The hypothesis that alcohol mixed with energy drink consumption in a single sitting would be higher than alcohol only consumption in a single sitting was rejected. It was concluded that an individual with a higher pre-disposition for risk-taking behaviour would consume more alcoholic beverages in a single sitting than an individual without the pre-disposition to risk-taking behaviour. Future research should examine the effects alcohol has on energy drinks in comparison to individual consumption in order to truly understand the effects it has. Energy drinks (ED)’s are a relatively new concept in the overall soft-drink market, but are essentially rebranding and reselling caffeine to a different target market with an entire new sense of...
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...The Relationship between Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction Research THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK MOTIVATION AND JOB SATISFACTION Nadia Ayub Department of Business Psychology Shagufta Rafif Department of Management College of Business Management, Karachi Abstract Numerous researchers investigated the relationship between job satisfaction and work motivation in diversified professions but none investigated bank managers in Pakistan. Therefore, the current study attempts to explore the relationship between work motivation and job satisfaction. Based on the literature review two hypotheses were formulated 1) There will be positive relationship between work motivation and job satisfaction, and 2) There would be a gender difference on the variable of work motivation and job satisfaction. To asses job satisfaction, “Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS; Spector, 1997)”, and for motivation, “Motivation at Work Scale (MAWS, Gagné, M., et.al, 2010)”, were used. The sample of the study consists of 80 middle managers (46 males; 34 females) from different banks of Karachi, Pakistan. A Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was calculated for the correlation between the work motivation and job satisfaction. In order to find out gender differences t test was computed. In conclusion, the findings of the study suggest that there was a positive correlation between work motivation and job satisfaction. Furthermore, there was a significant gender difference on the variable of work motivation...
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...Leadership challenge resolution Name Dr. Peter Trakas MGT 460 August 27, 2012 Leadership challenge resolution Vodafone is a multinational company which operates mostly in Africa though its main origin is Britain. This company is a telecommunications company that deals mostly with telecommunications services provision including call and SMS services and internet provision services (www.eaag.org/index.php/component/content/article/113-). This company is organized in form of teams where each team is charged with a specific task in the daily running of the business. With this company having other companies in it, it faces some problems in its organization. Most of these problems are in the operation strategies of the company which appears to be based in globalization. This challenge is mainly on one of its constituent companies, Safaricom, which is located in Kenya (www.eaag.org/index.php/component/content/article/113-). Safaricom was started in Kenya back in the year 2003 with an aim of improving the general welfare of the Kenyan citizens. Being a telecommunications company offering mobile phone services and internet data communication, it has great impact on the Kenyan citizens’ lives. The mission statement of this company is to partner with local communities to address the social economic and environmental issues to foster long lasting and positive change. Closely related to this mission statement is the vision statement which states: a prosperous Kenya, where peoples’...
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...James Geren PHI 460: Leadership Priorities and Practices Elements of Organizational Management Ann Kitchen June 21, 2010 Elements of Management Organizational management has many different aspects that need to be discussed when trying to understand its complexity. It does not justify the concept of organizational management if you do not include the many different characteristics that make up the whole picture. In this paper I will try to shed some light on the concept as a whole while still trying to include my own personal beliefs about the system itself. It will cover aspects like the history of organizational management, methods used in the study, the framework that can make up the topic, and finally the theories that have been cast from years of trial and error studies. I will then close my research by talking about how organizational management affects current business and what I feel will be affected in the future. This will consist of some of my own personal experiences in the workforce and what methods I intend to implement when I become leader of a particular organization. “Organizational studies are generally considered to have begun as an academic discipline with the advent of scientific management in the 1890s, with Taylorism representing the peak of its movement. Proponents of scientific management held that rationalizing the organization with precise sets of instructions and time-motion studies would lead to...
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