Question

Theories of psychology are, in many ways, a product of the context that they come from. We have discussed the role of culture, cohort, and environment in identifying factors that create differences in behavior and thought. A robust theory of psychology can address universal (culture free) and individual (culture specific) differences in explaining the HOW and WHY of behavior. For this assignment, you will be addressing the following cultural scenarios and will need to evaluate psychological theories from this new point of view:  

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Television images, movies and glamour magazines promote the elderly as role models. Your sense of self- esteem is tied to how “old” you are perceived as, with success in work and relationships based on age related criteria. Younger members of a group are marginalized and clear messages about the value of age are communicated with even very young members of society (children). There are industries in your society dedicated to helping provide society with valued markers of age (think hair dye and plastic surgery to age individuals). Imagine what your experiences would have been growing up and how your sense of identity would be like as a college student.

For this assignment, please reflect on what ways such a situation might affect their personal experiences. (What would be different, specifically?) Next, speculate how the theories in the field of psychology might be changed as a result. Describe this in terms of at least three approaches or theories in psychology (Freud, Piaget, Social Learning, Milgram, Zimbardo, etc.) You will need to discuss why these changes would impact their experiences and the world at large (ex., would Freud be more widely accepted without the changes in access to education for women in the 30s and 40s that gave women more status and would current theories of personality be different due to this change. Think about if these changes in the world would have altered the theories of psychology and what a specific alternate theory would look like.

Students will need to discuss this hypothetical change using the
WHAT, HOW, AND WHY
format.
o
WHAT is different based on the change (in terms of your personal experiences and
culture).
o
HOW is psychology different? (What in the research that we have discussed holds
true and what does not? Would we still find the same results? Would research or
theories look different? Would a different cultural norm produce a different
explanation of thought and behavior and what does that say about the role of culture
in how we explain behavior or thought?)

Answer 1

Theories in psychology:

Sigmund Freud:

Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) was the founding father of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and also a theory which explains human behavior.

Freud believed that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality. For example, anxiety originating from traumatic experiences in a person's past is hidden from consciousness, and may cause problems during adulthood (in the form of neuroses).

Thus, when we explain our behavior to ourselves or others (conscious mental activity), we rarely give a true account of our motivation. This is not because we are deliberately lying. While human beings are great deceivers of others; they are even more adept at self-deception.

Freud's life work was dominated by his attempts to find ways of penetrating this often subtle and elaborate camouflage that obscures the hidden structure and processes of personality.

Jean Piaget:

Piaget's (1936) theory of cognitive development explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world. He disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait, and regarded cognitive development as a process which occurs due to biological maturation and interaction with the environment.Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a stage theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.

Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults.According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge are based.

Piaget's Theory Differs From Others In Several Ways:

? It is concerned with children, rather than all learners.

? It focuses on development, rather than learning per se, so it does not address learning of information or specific behaviors.

? It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc.

Bandura - Social Learning Theory:

In social learning theory, Albert Bandura (1977) agrees with the behaviorist learning theories of classical conditioning and operant conditioning. However, he adds two important ideas:

1. Mediating processes occur between stimuli & responses.
2. Behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning.

Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways. Individuals that are observed are called models. In society, children are surrounded by many influential models, such as parents within the family, characters on children’s TV, friends within their peer group and teachers at school. These models provide examples of behavior to observe and imitate, e.g., masculine and feminine, pro and anti-social, etc.

Children pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode their behavior. At a later time they may imitate (i.e., copy) the behavior they have observed. They may do this regardless of whether the behavior is ‘gender appropriate’ or not, but there are a number of processes that make it more likely that a child will reproduce the behavior that its society deems appropriate for its gender.

First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as similar to itself. Consequently, it is more likely to imitate behavior modeled by people of the same gender.

Second, the people around the child will respond to the behavior it imitates with either reinforcement or punishment.

Third, the child will also take into account of what happens to other people when deciding whether or not to copy someone’s actions. A person learns by observing the consequences of another person’s (i.e., models) behavior, e.g., a younger sister observing an older sister being rewarded for a particular behavior is more likely to repeat that behavior herself. This is known as vicarious reinforcement.

The term identification as used by Social Learning Theory is similar to the Freudian term related to the Oedipus complex. For example, they both involve internalizing or adopting another person’s behavior. However, during the Oedipus complex, the child can only identify with the same sex parent, whereas with Social Learning Theory the person (child or adult) can potentially identify with any other person.

Identification is different to imitation as it may involve a number of behaviors being adopted, whereas imitation usually involves copying a single behavior.

WHAT is different based on the change (in terms of your personal experiences and
culture).

Living in a culture that is different from your own can be both an exciting adventure and a challenging process. Regardless of what country you are from, it is common for all international students to go through a period of cultural adjustment. Understanding this adjustment process and getting support through this transition will help you to have a more fulfilling experience, both academically and personally.

The values, social norms, and traditions in the U.S. may be very different from beliefs about "how things should be" in the country where you grew up. When individuals move to another culture, they naturally carry their own background and life experiences with them, and these shape how they perceive and adjust to their new environment. For example, some of you may find American classroom culture easy to adjust to, while others may struggle significantly in this area. "Culture shock" is a common experience that describes the feelings of confusion, stress and disorientation that occur when entering an unfamiliar culture. Keep in mind that not everyone has the same reactions to cultural adjustment and may experience the symptoms of culture shock in varying degrees, and at different times. Common reactions to culture shock include:

• extreme homesickness
• avoiding social situations
• physical complaints and sleep difficulties
• difficulty with coursework and inability to concentrate
• becoming angry over minor irritations
• significant nervousness or exhaustion

HOW is psychology different?

In psychology, theories are used to provide a model for understanding human thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

A psychological theory has two key components:

1. It must describe a behavior
2. It must make predictions about future behaviors

Throughout psychology's history, a number of theories have been proposed to explain and predict various aspects of human behavior. Some of these theories have stood the test of time and remain well-accepted today. Others have not held up under close scientific scrutiny and may have been rejected altogether or only partially accepted by researchers today.

Each theory has helped contribute to our knowledge base of the human mind and behavior. Some theories such as classical conditioning are still well-accepted today. Others, like Freud's theories, have not held up so well and have been mostly replaced by new theories that better explain human development.

The overall strength of a scientific theory hinges on its ability to explain diverse phenomena.

What makes a theory so different from a mere guess or hunch is that a theory is testable. As new evidence and research is added, a theory may then be refine, modified, or even rejected if it does not fit with the latest scientific findings.

Would a different cultural norm produce a different explanation of thought and behavior and what does that say about the role of culture in how we explain behavior or thought?

Human behavior is the responses of individuals or groups of humans to internal and external stimuli. It refers to the array of every physical action and observable emotionassociated with individuals, as well as the human race. While specific traits of one's personality and temperament may be more consistent, other behaviors will change as one moves from birth through adulthood.

Culture as an influence of behaviour takes the “nurture" side of the argument about influences of behaviour. culture looks at the totality of any given society's belief system, laws, mores, practices, language and attitudinal variables which makes a people unique from others. As you know, it is transmitted from one generation to the other. What happened when you are groomed in the ways of a particular culture?

You start acting and behaving in ways that are seen as appropriate to such a culture. Your dress sense, grooming, language, belief system and attitude become molded to fit into that society which makes you become accepted by them.

Hence, culture plays a big role in determining how an individual behaves in any given environment. Take for example, in some places, baring the breasts is seen as normal, while in some places it is forbidden. Some places allow males and females to mingle freely in public places: others do not. This has a tremendous impact on behaviour, and is evident when these persons go to a place that has a different culture comparsd to theirs. They encounter what is known as “culture shock", and it is most evident from their reactions and behaviours to certain unique stimuli which they come in contact with in a new place.

So yes, culture plays a big role in influencing behavior.