Sunday, August 27, 2006
After reading Best of the Century, this is what I think are the most important developments of psychology that occured during the 20th century.
1.The first one is Ellen Langer's discovery of mindlessness shortening peoples' lives. From my perspective, I think that this discovery is important because most people would think that being mindless is supposed to be the most relaxed state of one's life and would increase the lifespan if you don't really think much. With Langer's discovery, it proved what most people believe to be wrong. (Also, it might it people thinking and working more!)
2. The discovery of stress by Hans Selye is the second most important discovery on my list. I think stress is a really big issue in a person's life. People nowadays live the "stressful" lives as they have to be concerned with everything around them. We go out to movies, listen to music to relieve stress. The whole entertainment business has their profits (that's a lot of money!) from "stressed" people. Therfore, the understanding of stress and its impact should be something that everyone is aware and Selye should clearly be credited and supposedly praised for this discovery.
3. As stress in important, so is depression. Martin Seligman's theory of helplessness and depression have added a lot of knowledge. Depression has been considered the disease of the 1970s. It has been around every since the days of Hippocrates. It has ended lives of many people. After 2,500 years, we can finally protect and understand the effects and impact of depression.
4. The 1971 Standford Prison Experiment is what I find really shocking. It proves how the surrounding environment can be so influencial and have so much impact. The thought of college students being agressive and dangerous is beyond my imagination. With this experiment, I think I should refer back to my parent's advice on "choosing" who I hang out with.
5. Last but not least, is the discovery by Matina Homer. During her experiment, she tested honor students, Phil and Monica, both alone and together. When they were tested by themselves, Monica scored higher but when they were together, Phil scored higher and Monica was nervous. I found this very suprising. Like in the Standford Prison Experiment, the surrounding environment affects on how we act. Also, I can say that males have more confidence in achieving than women, which is odd when you see how many sucessful businesswomen nowadays.
1.The first one is Ellen Langer's discovery of mindlessness shortening peoples' lives. From my perspective, I think that this discovery is important because most people would think that being mindless is supposed to be the most relaxed state of one's life and would increase the lifespan if you don't really think much. With Langer's discovery, it proved what most people believe to be wrong. (Also, it might it people thinking and working more!)
2. The discovery of stress by Hans Selye is the second most important discovery on my list. I think stress is a really big issue in a person's life. People nowadays live the "stressful" lives as they have to be concerned with everything around them. We go out to movies, listen to music to relieve stress. The whole entertainment business has their profits (that's a lot of money!) from "stressed" people. Therfore, the understanding of stress and its impact should be something that everyone is aware and Selye should clearly be credited and supposedly praised for this discovery.
3. As stress in important, so is depression. Martin Seligman's theory of helplessness and depression have added a lot of knowledge. Depression has been considered the disease of the 1970s. It has been around every since the days of Hippocrates. It has ended lives of many people. After 2,500 years, we can finally protect and understand the effects and impact of depression.
4. The 1971 Standford Prison Experiment is what I find really shocking. It proves how the surrounding environment can be so influencial and have so much impact. The thought of college students being agressive and dangerous is beyond my imagination. With this experiment, I think I should refer back to my parent's advice on "choosing" who I hang out with.
5. Last but not least, is the discovery by Matina Homer. During her experiment, she tested honor students, Phil and Monica, both alone and together. When they were tested by themselves, Monica scored higher but when they were together, Phil scored higher and Monica was nervous. I found this very suprising. Like in the Standford Prison Experiment, the surrounding environment affects on how we act. Also, I can say that males have more confidence in achieving than women, which is odd when you see how many sucessful businesswomen nowadays.
posted by naoru @ 2:33 PM
