Essays: Mid-term to End of Course

Student’s Name:
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Memory
What is the self-reference effect, and how can it help you study more effectively?
1. This is the tendency of an individual to have a better memory as pertained to information relating to them, but this is not the case when we turn focus to to information which has lower personal relevance.
Which of the seven memory errors presented by Schacter have you committed? Name and provide a personal example of one or two of them.
2. Some of the memory errors I have faced are absentmindedness and transience. When it comes to absentminded, I have occasionally forgotten where I had placed several personal belongings like my phone and books. On the other hand, there is one occasion I committed the error of transience when I couldn’t put the events which occurred in my childhood in the right context.
Jurors place a lot of weight on eyewitness testimony. Imagine you are an attorney representing a defendant who is accused of robbing a convenience store. Several eyewitnesses have been called to testify against your client. What would you tell the jurors about the reliability & validity of eyewitness testimony?
Eyewitness testimony is subject to the reliability of the eyewitnesses’ memory error. If I were to advise jurors, I would ask them to make several memory tests of the eyewitnesses to ensure that their statements are precise and valid.
Lifespan
4. Which parenting style describes how you were raised? Provide an example or two to support your answer.

4. I was raised using the authoritative parenting style which means that my parents were very strict and required maximum obedience. As a child, my parents would monitor my deeds, and I was forced to rectify where I went wrong to be in good graces with my parents.
(4 pts) Explain how you would use your (educated) understanding of one of the major developmental theories (make sure you identify the major developmental theory you’re working with) to deal with TWO of the difficulties listed below:
Your infant daughter puts everything in her mouth, including the dog’s food.
Your eight-year-old son is failing math; all he cares about is baseball.
Your two-year-old daughter refuses to wear the clothes you pick for her every morning, which makes getting dressed a twenty-minute battle.
Your sixty-eight-year-old neighbor is chronically depressed and feels she has wasted her life.
Your 18-year-old daughter has decided not to go to college. Instead, she’s moving to Colorado to become a ski instructor.
Your 11-year-old son is the class bully.
5. If my young daughter or son puts everything she comes across in her mouth including dog’s food, I will understand that she is in her physical development stage and the most workable countermeasure is to make sure that I keep everything which is not edible out of her way. On the other hand, if my 18-year-old daughter doesn’t want to go to college, I will understand that she is in the cognitive development stage and the situation can be reversed by talking to her.
Social
6. What are the potential ethical concerns associated with Milgram’s research on obedience?
6. Some Potential ethical concerns revolving around obedience include disrespect for elders and failure to follow advice from seniors.
7. Provide an example of how people from individualistic and collectivistic cultures would generally tend to differ in explaining why they won an important sporting event.
7. People from an individualistic culture can explain a win to be a result of their efforts without which it could not have been possible. On the other hand, those from a collective culture view any achievement as a team effort and everyone has an equal contribution towards the success.
Why didn’t the “good” guards in the Stanford prison experiment object to other guards’ abusive behavior? Were the student prisoners simply weak people? Why didn’t they object to being abused?
8. The good guards were in a better position to object abusive behavior since they were in a position of power. Notably, if the student prisoners objected, the could have been abused even more since it would have been seen as an act of demeaning the guards
When people blame a scapegoat, how do you think they choose evidence to support the blame?
9. After blaming a scapegoat, people often look for evidence which fits the characters of the blamed person. This way, the evidence will most likely stick.
10. Provide a personal example of an experience in which your behavior was influenced by the power of the situation (can include bystander effect, obedience to authority, power effects, etc.).
10. There was one time in life when I was involved in a peaceful public riot. When the police arrived and tried to contain the situation, everyone started running in different directions, and I was also influenced to run even though I knew that I was innocent.
11. Think about your recent friendships and romantic relationship(s) and the information in the text on attraction. What factors noted in the text do you think influenced the development of these relationships? What attracted you to becoming friends or romantic partners?
11. In all my current friendships and romantic relationship, the major factors leading to the formation of these bonds are honesty and reliability.
Personality
12. Why might a prospective employer screen applicants using personality assessments?
12. Every prospective employer should seek employees who will be a positive addition to the company. By screening them, the will ensure that those selected meet all the company traits requirements
How would you describe your own personality? Do you think that friends and family would describe you in much the same way? Why or why not?
13. I think I have a reserved personality. I barely intermingle with people outside my social circle. I believe my family and friends will agree with me on this.
What are some Freudian defense mechanisms that you have used yourself or have witnessed others using? Share the circumstances/conflicts that gave rise to the use of defense mechanisms.
14. Some of the Freudian defense mechanisms I have witnessed are denial and repression. Denial is most common amongst my friends with drug addiction problems as they try to deny that fact. On the other hand, I have used repression when trying to suppress the memories of a painful heartbreak.
Disorders
Discuss why thoughts, feelings, or behaviors that are merely atypical or unusual would not necessarily signify the presence of a psychological disorder. Provide an example.
15. Some behaviors can be unusual, but they don’t qualify as psychological disorders. For a behavior to qualify as a disorder, it has to be done out of proportion. For example, washing your hands ten times a day may seem unusual, but it is not a disorder. The disorder would be when you exaggerate that to 40 times a day (Wheaton 100-124).
Think of someone you know who seems to have a tendency to make negative, self-defeating explanations for negative life events. How might this tendency lead to future problems? What steps do you think could be taken to change this thinking style?
16. By making negative and self-defeating every time you are trying to explain a negative occurrence in life you end up complicating thing further, and this may give you future regrets and neglect since no one likes being associated with a failure.
Therapy and Treatment
Which of the major theoretical frameworks (e.g., psychodynamic) for treating psychological disorders aligns most closely with your viewpoint. Why?
17. The major theoretical framework which can be used to treat psychological disorder is the cognitive therapy whereby the patient will be helped to eliminate thoughts which lead to emotional distress.
Lashawndra is a 24-year-old African American female. For years she has been struggling with depression. She knows she has a problem, but she is not willing to seek mental health services. What are some reasons why she may be hesitant to get help? What might a loved one who wants Lashawndra to seek services say to her to counter Lashawndra’s concerns?
18. Lashawndra is in denial that she has a depression problem which is the main reason she is hesitant to seek mental health services. To get her out of this situation, a loved one should encourage her to seek professional counseling services where she will receive full information about the benefits of seeking treatment.

Work Cited
Wheaton, Blair. “The sociogenesis of psychological disorder: An attributional theory.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior (1980): 100-124.