psychology

•Social Interaction: Sociologists use the term social interaction to refer to the ways in which people respond to one another, whether face to face or over the telephone or computer.

•Social structure: refers to the way in which a society is organized into

predictable relationships. These concepts are central to sociological study; they focus on how different aspects of behavior are related to one another.

Statuses: We normally think of a person's "status" as having to do with influence, wealth, and fame. However, sociologists use status to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society—from the lowest to the highest position. Clearly, a person holds more than one status simultaneously.

• Ascribed and Achieved Status. An ascribed status is ―assigned‖ to a person by society without regard for the person‘s unique talents or characteristics. Generally, this assignment takes place at birth; thus, a person‘s racial background, gender, and age are all considered ascribed statuses. Unlike ascribed statuses, an achieved status is attained by a person largely through his or her own effort. One must do something to acquire an achieved status— go to school, learn a skill, establish a friendship, or invent a new product.

• Social Roles. What are social Roles?

A social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status.

Role Conflict

It occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person.

Role Strain

Describe difficulties that result from the differing demands and expectations associated with the same social position.

Role Exit

Describe the process of disengagement from a role that is central to one‘s selfidentity and reestablishment of an identity in a new role.

Four stage model of role exit:

•Doubt

•Search for alternatives

•Action stage or departure

•Creation of a new identity

A role is a pattern of behavior expected of a group member.

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Practical Task

Exercise 1. What do we call…? Use the words given below.

1.a person who is very lazy______________________.

2.a person who always does everything very slowly___________.

3.an irritating person who knows everything__________________.

4.the person who is the teacher‘s favorite_____________________.

5.someone who thinks he is the best and says so________________.

6.a person who is distant, unfriendly__________________________.

7.a difficult person to deal with______________________________.

8.a person who is very exaggerated in behavior__________________.

9.a person who is absolutely crazy or mad______________________.

Exercise 2Read the text and choose the appropriate answer to the questions below it.

The cognitive approach to personality is based on idea that differences is personality stem from differences in the way individuals mentally represent information. George Kelly‘s personal construct theory focuses on the concepts that individuals use to interpret them-selves and their social world. Kelly argued that each individuals to interpret themselves and their social world. Kelly argued that each individual uses unique set of personal constructs in interpreting and predicting events. The constructs are bipolar and will vary from one person to another.

A new acquaintance is friendly or unfriendly, intelligent or unintelligent, funny or boring, and so on. But two people meeting the same individual may use different constructs in evaluating that individual. These differences lead to differences in behavior –one person will respond positively to the new acquaintance while another may avoid him or her. These differences in behavior produce differences in personality.

1.What is the cognitive approach to personality based on? a) the individual‘s subjective experience.

b) mental health.

c) the processes involved in thinking, problem solving and predicting events in the environment.

2.How do two persons evaluate the same individual while meeting him?

a)They evaluate him in the same way.

b)They use a certain set of constructs to evaluate him.

c)They use a different of constructs to evaluate him. 3. What do these differences lead to?

a)some positive responses to a new person.

b)negative responses to a new person.

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c) differences in behavior.

4.The word ―stem‖ in line 2 is closest in meaning: a) develop

b) derive c) originate d) flow

5.All these statements are in the text EXCEPT

a)The individuals use different constructs to interpret another individual‘s environment.

b)Different people respond differently to same individual.

c)The differences in behavior produce differences in personality.

d)Kelly developed a repertory grid to find out how a person‘s construct system worked.

Literature:

Eysenk, H. (1985). Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Fransella, F. (1981). Personality: Theory, Measurement, and Practice. London: Methuen.

Mischel, W. (1986). Introduction to Personality: a New Look. New York: CBS.

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Theme7: Psychological structure of the learning process

Content:

1.How People Learn

2.Cognitive Domain. Bloom's Taxonomy

3.Affective Domain Krathwohl‘s Taxonomy.

4.Psychomotor Domain. E. J. Simpson‘s Hierarchical Taxonomy

1. How People Learn

Initially, all learning comes from perceptions which are directed to the brain by one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Psychologists have also found that learning occurs most rapidly when information is received through more than one sense.

Levels of learning may be classified in any number of ways. Four basic levels have traditionally been included in instructor training. The lowest level is the ability to repeat something which one has been taught, without understanding or being able to apply what has been learned. This is referred to as rote learning. Progressively higher levels of learning are understanding what has been taught, achieving the skill for application of what has been learned, and correlation of what has been learned with other things previously learned or subsequently encountered.

Domains of Learning.Besides the four basic levels of learning, educational psychologists have developed several additional levels. These classifications consider what is to be learned. Is it knowledge only, a change in attitude, a physical skill, or a combination of knowledge and skill? One of the more useful categorizations of learning objectives includes three domains: cognitive domain (knowledge), affective domain (attitudes, beliefs, and values), and psychomotor domain (physical skills). Each of the domains has a hierarchy of educational objectives. The listing of the hierarchy of objectives is often called a taxonomy. A taxonomy of educational objectives is a systematic classification scheme for sorting learning outcomes into the three broad categories (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) and ranking the desired outcomes in a developmental hierarchy from least complex to most complex. The cognitive domain, described by Dr. Benjamin Bloom, is one of the best known educational domains. It contains additional levels of knowledge and understanding and is commonly referred to as Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives.

2. Cognitive Domain. Bloom's Taxonomy

The Bloom taxonomy is a classification system developed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom that describes various stages or levels in the process of learning new information. Bloom conducted a study of instruction and assessment practices. The study found that nearly all traditional instruction methods taught students at a simple recall and recognition level. Wrote learning was the dominant teaching model. Bloom and his researchers wanted to increase the rigor of instruction and challenge learners to reach higher thought processes in learning. Bloom'staxonomyincludedsixlevelsofunderstanding:

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Knowledge - The basic awareness level of knowing;

Comprehension - The emergence of understanding;

Application - The ability to use knowledge and understanding to perform tasks;

Analysis - The ability to think about information in a critical way with comparison, contrast, and categorization; and

Evaluation - The ability to objectively assess information and determine

its strengths, limitations, and potential improvements.

Bloom's Taxonomy refers to a hierarchy of question stems that teachers use to guide their students through the learning process.

When students are first being introduced to a new topic, teachers should use Bloom's Taxonomy to get ideas for basic questions that ask the students to recall simple facts from the material. As student comprehension grows and evolves, the questions will get more complex and demand more from the students.

3. Affective DomainThe affective domain may be the least understood, and in many ways, the most important of the learning domains. A similar system for specifying attitudinal objectives has been developed by D.R. Krathwohl. Like the Bloom taxonomy, Krathwohl's hierarchy attempts to arrange these objectives in an order of difficulty.

What is Krathwol's affective domain taxonomy?

Krathwohl's affective domain taxonomy is perhaps the best known of any of the affective taxonomies. "The taxonomy is ordered according to the principle of internalization. Internalization refers to the process whereby a person's affect toward an object passes from a general awareness level to a point where the affect is 'internalized' and consistently guides or controls the person's behavior (Seels& Glasgow, 1990, p. 28)."

The taxonomy is presented in five stages:

Receiving describes the stage of being aware of or sensitive to the existence of certain ideas, material, or phenomena and being willing to tolerate them. Examples include: to differentiate, to accept, to listen (for), to respond to.

Responding describes the second stage of the taxonomy and refers to a committment in some small measure to the ideas, materials, or phenomena involved by actively responding to them. Examples are: to comply with, to follow, to commend, to volunteer, to spend leisure time in, to acclaim.

Valuing means being willing to be perceived by others as valuing certain ideas, materials, or phenomena. Examples include: to increase measured proficiency in, to relinquish, to subsidize, to support, to debate.

Organization is the fourth stage of Krathwohl‘s taxonomy and involves relating the new value to those one already holds and bringing it into a harmonious and internally consistent philosophy. Examples are: to discuss, to theorize, to formulate, to balance, to examine.

Characterization by value or value set means acting consistently in accordance with the values the individual has internalized. Examples include: to revise, to require, to be rated high in the value, to avoid, to resist, to manage, to resolve

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4. Psychomotor Domain. E. J. Simpson’s Hierarchical Taxonomy

There are several taxonomies which deal with the psychomotor domain (physical skills), but none are as popularly recognized as the Bloom and Krathwohl taxonomies. However, the taxonomy developed by E.J. Simpson also is generally acceptable.

Psychomotor or physical skills always have been important in aviation. Typical activities involving these skills include learning to fly a precision instrument approach procedure, programming a GPS receiver, or using sophisticated maintenance equipment. As physical tasks and equipment become more complex, the requirement for integration of cognitive and physical skills increases.

Following their leadership, in 1966-67 E.J. Simpson developed a taxonomy for psychomotor outcomes.

Simpson’s Plan for Taxonomy of Psychomotor Outcomes

Perception -- Becoming aware of stimulation and the need for action

Set -- Preparingforaction

Guided response -- Responding with assistance from a teacher or coach

Mechanism -- Respondinghabitually

Complex response -- Resolving uncertainty and performing difficult tasks automatically

Adaption -- Altering response to fit new situations

Origination -- Creating new acts or expression (Driscoll, 2000)

Practical Task Exercise 1 Psychological Reasoning

Do you remember the story of poor Little Albert? Psychologist John B. Watson used the principles of classical conditioning to create Albert‘s fear response to a white rat (which later generalized to other white furry things). Watson‘s explanation of this outcome was that pairing the rat (the CS) with the loud noise (the UCS) resulted in a fear response to the rat (CR).The explanation that someone like B.F. Skinner would have, however, is that the experience with the rat was punished by the loud noise and so there was a strong desire to decrease the experience of the rat.

Although the rationale for this phenomenon may not seem very important, both have implication for treatment. How would someone attempting to treat Little Albert‘s fear of rats do so if she or he believed that classical conditioning provided the best explanation for the cause of the fear? How would it be different from the treatment used by someone who believed that the fear was result of punishing Little Albert‘s experience with the rat? Can you use the appropriate terminology to explain what the treatment procedure might be?

No one knows what happened to Little Albert, although historians discuss the possibilities from time to time. What do you think might have happened to Little

Albert‘s level of fear without intervention?

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Exercise 2Blockages to Adult Learning

Personality can make some very eager to learn. Just as some organisations are uncaring and unsupportive of learning, some managers are held back in their response to learning opportunities or even the recognition of those opportunities:

―I can‘t see how training could improve that skill‖

―If I take up this opportunity will it be risky will it use my past experience‖

―I‘m too busy doing the job to think about learning‖

Following list of 9 blockages to learning based on work done by Temple and Boydell shows what holds some people back.

1.Perceptualcan‘t see a problem,

2.Culturalorganisation doesn‘t su[port learning

3.Emotional: fear or insecurity

4.Motivational: unwillingness to take risks

5.Cognitive Intellectual previous learning experience, limited learning style, poor learning skills

6.Expressive: Poor communication skills ‗

7.Situational lack of opportunities

8.Physical time and place

9.Specific environment Boss/colleagues unsupportive

Individual task

Considerthelist

What might have restricted your learning in the past?

What is holding you back right now?

References

1

Draganski, B., Gaser, C., Busch, V., &Schuierer, G. (2004). Neuroplasticity: Changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature, 427(22),

311-312.

2

Willis, J. (2008). Brain-based teaching strategies for improving students' memory, learning, and test-taking success.(Review of Research).

Childhood Education, 83(5), 31-316. 3

Chan, J.C., McDermott, K.B., &Roediger, H.L. (2007).Retrieval-induced facilitation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,

135(4), 553-571. 4

Rubinstein, Joshua S.; Meyer, David E.; Evans, Jeffrey E. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(4), 763-797.

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Theme 8: Motivation

Content

1.Definition of Motivation

2.Components of Motivation

3.Theories of motivation

4.Types of motivation

What makes people do what they do? Why do some people succeed while others fail? The answer just might be motivation. We know that from an early age motivation prompts us to want to learn and exhibit different types of behavior and stimulates us to accomplish new feats of success. As we grow and mature through the different stages of our lives, we hopefully learn what motivates us and what does not.

1. What is motivation?

Motivationis generally defined as the force that compels us to action. It drives us to work hard and pushes us to succeed. Motivation influences our behavior and our ability to accomplish goals.

There are many different forms of motivation. Each one influences behavior in its own unique way. No single type of motivation works for everyone. People‘s personalities vary and so accordingly does the type of motivation, that is most effective at inspiring their conduct.

Motivationis defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goaloriented behaviors.

Motivationis what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge.

2. Components of Motivation

There are three major components to motivation: activation, persistence and intensity.

Activation involves the decision to initiate a behavior, such as enrolling in a psychology class.

Persistence is the continued effort toward a goal even though obstacles may exist, such as taking more psychology courses in order to earn a degree although it requires a significant investment of time, energy and resources.

Finally, intensity can be seen in the concentration and vigor that goes into pursuing a goal. For example, one student might coast by without much effort, while another student will study regularly, participate in discussions and take advantage of research opportunities outside of class.

3. Theories of motivation

According to instinct theories, people are motivated to behave in certain ways because they are evolutionarily programmed to do so. An example of this in the animal world is seasonal migration. These animals do not learn to do this, it is instead an inborn pattern of behavior.

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William James created a list of human instincts that included such things as attachment, play, shame, anger, fear, shyness, modesty and love. The main problem with this theory is that it did not really explain behavior, it just described it. By the 1920s, instinct theories were pushed aside in favor of other motivational theories, but contemporary evolutionary psychologists still study the influence of genetics and heredity on human behavior.

Incentive Theory of Motivation

The incentive theory suggests that people are motivated to do things because of external rewards. For example, you might be motivated to go to work each day for the monetary reward of being paid. Behavioral learning concepts such as association and reinforcement play an important role in this theory of motivation.

Drive Theory of Motivation

According to the drive theoryof motivation, people are motivated to take certain actions in order to reduce the internal tension that is caused by unmet needs. For example, you might be motivated to drink a glass of water in order to reduce the internal state of thirst.

This theory is useful in explaining behaviors that have a strong biological component, such as hunger or thirst. The problem with the drive theory of motivation is that these behaviors are not always motivated purely by physiological needs. For example, people often eat even when they are not really hungry.

Arousal Theory of Motivation

The arousal theory of motivation suggests that people take certain actions to either decrease or increase levels of arousal. When arousal levels get too low, for example, a person might watch and exciting movie or go for a jog. When arousal levels get too high, on the other hand, a person would probably look for ways to relax such as meditating or reading a book.

According to this theory, we are motivated to maintain an optimal level of arousal, although this level can vary based on the individual or the situation.

Humanistic Theory of Motivation

Humanistic theories of motivation are based on the idea that people also have strong cognitive reasons to perform various actions. This is famously illustrated in Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which presents different motivations at different levels.

First, people are motivated to fulfill basic biological needs for food and shelter, as well as those of safety, love and esteem. Once the lower level needs have been met, the primary motivator becomes the need for self-actualization, or the desire to fulfill one's individual potential.

4. Types of Motivation Incentive

A form of motivation that involves rewards, both monetary and nonmonetary is often called incentive motivation. Many people are driven by the knowledge that they will be rewarded in some manner for achieving a certain target or goal.

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Bonuses and promotions are good examples of the type of incentives that are used for motivation.

Fear

Fear motivation involves consequences. This type of motivation is often one that is utilized when incentive motivation fails. In a business style of motivation often referred to as the, ―carrot and stick,‖ incentive is the carrot and fear is the stick.

Punishment or negative consequences are a form of fear motivation. This type of motivation is commonly used to motivate students in the education system and also frequently in a professional setting to motivate employees. If we break the rules or fail to achieve the set goal, we are penalized in some way.

Achievement

Achievement motivation is also commonly referred to as the drive for competency. We are driven to achieve goals and tackle new challenges. We desire to improve skills and prove our competency both to others and to ourselves. Generally, this feeling of accomplishment and achievement is intrinsic in nature.

However, in certain circumstances be motivation for achievement may involve external recognition. We often have a desire or need to receive positive feedback from both our peers and our superiors. This may include anything from an award to a simple pat on the back for a job well done.

Growth

The need for self-improvement is truly an internal motivation. A burning desire to increase our knowledge of ourselves and of the outside world can be a very strong form of motivation. We seek to learn and grow as individuals.

Motivation for growth can also be seen in our yearning for change. Many of us are wired by our personality or upbringing to constantly seek a change in either our external or internal environment or knowledge. We view stagnation to be both negative and undesirable.

Power

The motivation of power can either take the form of a desire for autonomy or other desire to control others around us. We want to have choices and control over our own lives. We strive for the ability to direct the manner in which we live now and the way our lives will unfold in the future.

We also often aspire to control others around us. The desire for control is stronger in some people than others. In some cases, the craving for power induces people to harmful, immoral, or illegal behavior. In other situations, the longing for power is merely a desire to affect the behavior of others. We simply want people to do what we want, according to our timetable, and the way we want it done.

Social

Many people are motivated by social factors. This may be a desire to belong and to be accepted by a specific peer group or a desire to relate to the people in our

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