Psychology Questions Essay

In Anita’s case, the possibility that she may conclude that she will suffer from chronic depression once she grows up, may be attributed to the four psychological factors mentioned below. 1. Framing: This is a phenomenon where a fact is construed as make-believe in order to affect the mind of the listener. The listener in turn may trust the source and believe everything to be true without any validation of the facts. In Anita’s case, her parents have informed her when she was as young as ten years, about the fact that she may suffer like her sister when she grows up. This act by her parents is an instance of â€Å"framing† a myth into her mind, which she would recollect after growing up and then there are chances that she may suffer from the disorder as well. The framing nevertheless may mislead her into believing her parents and influence her mind to repeat the same deeds as her elder sister did. 2. Availability heuristic: This is a psychological phenomenon where an individual forms a final opinion based on the â€Å"currently available† data. The individual does not gather any other information but starts treating the available information to be complete. In Anita’s case, her parents have informed her that there are 40% chances of she getting into chronic depression as much as her sister when she grows up. This data is clearly insufficient as Anita, being young, will neither be able to validate the percentage nor does she have enough maturity to speculate the issue. Thus, when she grows up, this data may mislead her into trusting the data and she may experience depression. 3. Confirmation Bias: This is a phenomenon where an individual selectively believes from a present fact, what he or she already knows. For instance, in Anita’s case, she already knows what her parents have told her about 40% chances of her getting into depression. Moreover, she has observed her sister undergo the problem as well. In such a case, this preconception or hypothesis is likely to affect her and make her think all that is true when she grows up. This may lead Anita to believe that she will suffer from depression. 4. Belief Perseverance: This phenomenon is another instance of confirmation bias where an individual continues to believe what he or she already knows. In Anita’s case, her mind is fed with incorrect data when she was young. Thus, when she grows up, she may believe it to be true and initiate herself to experience chronic depression unfortunately. If not initiate, she might often get depressed by thinking of her childhood. ? Answer 2 In this case study, Tony’s dual behavior at work and with friends is a result of two psychological factors, person-situation controversy and reciprocal determinism respectively. In a person-situation controversy, an individual exercises his or her abilities to control the situation with the help of changing personality and behavior. This is a psychological attitude, which individuals develop in order to survive in the society. This could be analyzed based on Sigmund Freud’s Ego, Super-ego and the Id. The Ego is the external projection of an individual in front of others. In this situation, the individual assimilates what others want and then gives it to them. The Super-ego is the agent between the ego and the id, acts as a mediator between the two, and validates the communication between the two as well. The Id consists of the deepest, private thoughts of the individual. In Toni’s case, he acts true self in front of his friends, by being boastful and outgoing with his friends. This is because he knows they are his friends and he can act like himself. However, in an office environment, he needs to project a business-like personality according to the varying situations. That is why he acts polite and sincere always. In both his personal life and professional life, he exerts his ego but as the situations are different, he modifies his behavior accordingly. Reciprocal determinism is a condition where an individual clearly segregates what is needed when! This is a process, based on Albert Bandura’s theory, of determining how to behave based on personal choice and social factors. In Tony’s case, his behavior can be equated with a child’s behavior; one that projects the ego according to his personal wishes also takes into careful consideration, the social factors. However, Tony is smart enough to understand the necessity in a particular situation and condition his inner self according to the situation. Whether he accepts his dual behavior or not, he definitely projects his behavior is in accord with what the situation demands of him. This question refers to the slaughter of Jews by Nazis under Hitler’s rule and then the impact it had on the minds of Germans. David’s supposition that all Germans had become cruel and merciless with twisted personalities is debatable, as he seems to have come to an exuberant psychological conclusion based on a historical study without speculating the nuances of the events. Mr. Stanley Milgram, psychologist at Stanley University in his findings on obedience states the role of what one may call a pseudo- authoritarian or pseudo-leader to be influencing individuals by giving them political and psychological shocks. This was the case with the Nazi holocausts where the Nazis under the Hitler regime murdered thousands of Jews. Considering the expanse of Hitler’s operations, he had several Nazi followers obeying him as if they were blindfolded due to his firm command and tyrannous authority. This is one of the significant reasons why David senses tyranny and cruelty amongst the people of Germany in following Hitler’s orders and their assisting him in slaughtering the Jews. In actuality, both the subjects and objects of Hitler’s tyranny were the Germans themselves! By supporting their leader, they were giving themselves false hopes of achieving a world free of opposition and religious beliefs to conflict theirs. This is also a classic example of Jung’s â€Å"collective psychology† where an entire society construes a belief through a leader and influences one another to justify acts such as murder and slaughter under the pretext of religious defiance. Because of the propensity of human beings to depend on somebody and obey the person to satisfy one’s own conscience, such historical mistakes probably, take place. Reference â€Å"Milgram Experiment† on http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Milgram_experiment