Lessons From Experimental Psychology - Essay Sample

Experimental psychology finds a variety of application in real human life. One of its implementation is in understanding why people hold onto sexist behaviors and thoughts even when they claim they have been enlightened. Psychologically, a person of any gender, race or ethnic upbringing can perform any task provided they put their sexist belief before they could perform what they must do. Having sexist thoughts or ideas would be psychologically embedded in individuals, and they would lack the knowledge of knowing that what they are doing is not in order. Most people have always fought such thoughts and beliefs by going a long way as to performing duties that are believed not be for the people of their same gender. For instance, a lady becoming a truck driver or power mechanics. These jobs are thought to belong to the male population, and in this situation, they would have challenged the modern notions of certain jobs belonging only to the male gender and natural ones being left for the females. Their involvement pricks the thoughts of several people who will either start having a different view in this matter or be involved in the process of changing the norm in the society.

Experimental psychology would also have significant application in the field of the experimental settings. It has always been realized that every decision that people are influenced somehow by certain factors beyond their control. That is to say that, no one has a free will choice. The cultures, belief, thoughts, the laws we impose on ourselves o others are somehow influenced by some past or present experience. The society, therefore, acts to shape every move we make in life despite the fact that we would wish to take full responsibility for actions. What we experience in our society either makes to have better or even worse psychological thoughts. Inwardly, it is common for an individual to start as asking questions concerning the spring of their ideas. This is a difficult mental torture that you would free yourself from only by accepting the effects of the society on your thoughts (Nesselroade & Cattell, 2013).

The effect mentioned above could be seen in the typical behavior of a trained animal. Take doctor for instance, when they are still puppies they would know only how to bark. They would yell at anyone or anything except the owner or their trainers. However, after some basic training, a dog that could only back be able to take instructions and even keep things like soda in the fridge. It is a fact that if such dog were left on their own, they would not be able to do anything apart from what the dog instincts tell them to do like bark or eat or run away. So, this explains the lesson learned that free would never exist anymore. However, environmental forces fight tooth and nail to control our thoughts and belief making us become the people were are today. This could even be seen in different societies. For example, a word that is considered obscene among the Britons is widely accepted among the Americans and has even several meanings in English (Nesselroade & Cattell, 2013).

Another lesson learned is that experimental psychology would bear no meaning without solid from proper scientific experiments. This is gotten from the view of the people on the tomato eating incidence. It is widely believed that plants are leading cause of death all over the world. However, people still keep tomatoes in their meals. This could be mainly because they are not firmly convinced or it has never sunk deeply into their minds and hearts that tomatoes could kill them the next moment. These people need an eye witness evidence to believe this claim. This a scenario I would call us doubting Thomas' situation. They only believe what they have seen and not what they have heard. A belief would only be developed by these people if they are given evidenced supported by someone they knew and when the evidence shows a strong link between eating tomatoes and death. Funny enough, some people would only believe when they are already corpses. A belief system will only be cultivated in people if they are provided by experimental support to a fact which shows strong linkage of the various hypothesis in the experiment.

Finally, psychological tests have proven that it is wrong for one individual to receive torture that is both mental and physical in the lifetime. It is believed that mental pains could be worse than physical pains imposed on people. This, therefore, means that if an individual is exposed to both at the same time, they would have the worst human experience ever in their life. Most people who have ever been exposed to this double pain system have often gone made this is because a balance between the physical stress and psychological well-being is needed for survival. The converse of the statement also holds true in most situations (Gentner & Stevens, 2014).).

Understanding of Psychology

The knowledge of psychology has proved to be very useful in my life especially with my daily routines such as work. I have realized that people do whatever they do mainly because of their upbringing lesson or their interactions with the environment. Before I got to learn psychology, I use to blame people for every single mistake they did. I believed that people make mistakes at free will and mostly to understand others. This cultivates a hatred spirit in my heart, and therefore, I ended up having a bad relationship with most of the core-workers. However, having understood the role of the environment on the behavior and functionality of people, I have learned to embrace people for who they are and only try to inform them if they do things that do not please my conscience. It is no longer about the wrong they have done but now about why could they have done such? I know most people would view my new attitude as a waste of time and energy. However, I have gained more confidence and happiness in adopting this new approach. I even have a better work relationship with my staff mates, and this makes the working environment more appealing to me than it used to be before. I remember, before adopting this new attitude, I often felt bored going to work because I knew someone eats work would make come and spoil my moods. This is in the past now, if anyone gives me lemons, I simply use it to make sweet lemonade and drink it as undergo my daily activities with a bright smiling face. The truth is most of my workmates have been impressed, and they keep asking me about my secret of being so positive whereas others conclude for themselves. My statement to them always is that it is in your minds, imploring that proper use of their psychological thoughts would help them achieve a similar or even much better behavior and state of mind.

Thinking regarding probability and evidence provides useful tips for understanding psychology. This is because they help to give meaning to every situation that occurs in our surrounding. The thoughts in line with probability contribute to give the possibility that something happens. It helps to identify and list all the possible chances of something happening. This contributes to giving a clue to the direction in which a matter undergo investigation should take. In fact, the changes help to provide probable answers to a situation that would otherwise go unanswered. However, it is important to apply lots of critical thinking in the use of probability to determine the cause of a situation. This is because there is always an underlying factor that is hidden to the eyes and can only be identified by using the third eye in the investigation (Valentine, 2015).

On the contrary, it is the evidence that proves whether the probable answers derived are true or false. The evidence gives surety beyond a reasonable doubt to a situation. One should never struggle to make the evidence correspond to their answers obtained from probability. In cases where the reply from the evidence is different from the probable response, the evidence is taken and the answer obtained from probability discarded. The evidence thus provides the surest response that any subconscious mind can trust beyond any reasonable doubt (Gentner & Stevens, 2014).

References

Valentine, C. W. (2015). The experimental psychology of beauty. Routledge.

Nesselroade, J. R., & Cattell, R. B. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of multivariate experimental psychology. Springer Science & Business Media.

Gentner, D., & Stevens, A. L. (2014). Mental models. Psychology Press.