The Scientific Attitude and Why it is Important for Critical Thinking

Scientific Attitude starts when we felt curious eagerness about something and we want to know the answer to the questions. It is important for critical thinking because in order to think critically we have to have questions that we want to answers. When we have questions that we are curious about, we will think critically how to find the answer. And we will came up with many different method that would best fit the questions. Without Scientific Attitude people may only think basically and not reasonable.

Best of the Century

1. What have been the major changes in psychotherapy this century?

• Many people are aware of their mental health and many have use psychotherapy, by talking individual or group therapy, taking workshops, seminars and intensive weekends led by therapists.

• Many different cultures are now joining the same therapy and classes.

• Psychotherapy have been using in many different field such as education, businesses, management and labor area.

• Behavior therapy and cognitive-behavior therapy are popular at present time while before are not.

• The biological and neurological improved medication for some disorder.

• Religious and spiritual issues were neglected in early 20^th century but now the research shown that it is important.

2. Twenty breakthroughs are identified. Which 5 do you think are the most important? Justify your answer. Identify what perspective is being taken by the psychologist.

• Women and Psychology: Sex, Sexism and Success by William Masters and Virginia Johnson, Interview by Mary Harrington Hall, July 1969. I chose this topic is because it is said that literature in 1954, everything said about female orgasm was written by male. I think that it could be better if the female orgasm is written by female themselves because they will know more of the feelings and the information may be more accurate. The perspective is being taken by the biological psychologist.

• Langer demonstrated that thinking--just thinking--may help you live a longer, healthier, more productive life by Ellen Langer, April 1982. She has shown us the power of mindfulness. This topic is about live and death. If we spend time and money researching the topic maybe it could be new information of how we could live longer. The perspective is being taken by the cognitive psychologist.

• Former president of Radcliffe College, Homer helped clarify sex roles in the modern era by Matina Homer, November 1969. From this article I think it is important because it is not fair for female if they are nervous in the same test room with the person that she is scared of. The perspective is being taken by the social-culture psychologist.

• A pioneer in memory research, Loftus showed how unreliable eyewitness testimony is, and how easily false memories can be implanted in both children and adults by Elizabeth F. Loftus, February 1984. This is one important breakthrough because if witnesses train to give false evidences this could lead bad people to be free and continue doing bad things. The perspective is being taken by the Personality psychologist.

• Selye was the first researcher to identify psychological "stress” by Hans Selye, Interview by Laurence Cherry, March 1978. It is one of the most important breakthroughs because many people these days are stress because of many things, and it could lead to health problems. This breakthrough taught us how to cope with stress and it could help many other people with stress problems. The perspective is being taken by the Neuroscience psychologist.

Focus: What comes to mind when you hear the word psychology. (List as many ideas as you can)

-Study of mind and brain

-Read mind

-Mentally ill

-Understanding

-Surveys

-Thinking

BIG Issue...

Today survey I have done in class is about Big Issue. Big Issue includes idea of Rationality vs. Irrationality/Stability vs. Change/Nature vs. Nurture. The score I receive for Irrationality vs. Rationality is 11, which is on Irrationality side. Irrationality is an idea telling that people most of the time don't know what they are doing, and I agree with the result because for me sometimes I say something before I think through it. For Change vs. Stability I receive a score of 4, which is on the Change side. Change is an idea telling that people changes then time passes. I agree with the result because I have change so much throughout the high school year because of many influences from the society. Lastly, the score for Nature vs. Nurture, I receive a score of 13, which is the Nature side. I disagree with my result because Nature is an idea telling that people behaviors are from their genetics. But, I say that people behaviors are from their experience and environment. I still don't understand why the result of my survey on Nature vs. Nurture came out to be Nature.

Why do we do the things we do?

Humans are born unique. We have different abilities from others. What leads to those abilities? I think that people are good at things they have fun doing it. Why do they do those things? For me people do things that they are doing is because of their minds. When their mind wants to eat ice-cream their body follows the order. When the body do what the mind wants more often it becomes a habit and daily behavior of the person.

My motivations for studying psychology....

When I listen, talk, and see other people behaviours I always ask myself: Why did they do that? What are they thinking? and What makes them do such things? And I would answers these questions with my reasons. One day when I'm browsing through the course selection sheet I plan to take normal Psychology class so that I could answer the questions I asked about others behaviours theorically, but when I asked my friend, what do you learn in that class? They said about psychologist and their theory and you need to memorize them all for exams. Then I come to think about AP Psychology, my past experience I took AP Mirco-economics and I like AP classes because it got curves and GPA bump, and another thing was when we understand the concept we could do well in the test and apply it in our daily life. So, when I finish this class I would try to understand people more, because many people wants someone that could understand them.