Ronald J. Comer's 'Fundamentals Of Psychology'

During Ancient times, cure and prevention of illness and disease were not very well developed – people would blame their ill health on Gods, witches, demons or other supernatural causes. They had many theories, such as God punishing them for their sins.

October 22nd, 2012 Chapter 1- What is psychology? [pp. 1-23] LO1: Psychology as a Science (p. 4) * Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

This article is seven pages long and describes the effects of being in the psychiatry field. The article contains an autopsy of a four-year-old girl who was found dead in her parents’ home due to the wrong prescription given to her by her psychiatrist. The article is divided into six basic topics explaining the causes of what happens when given the wrong prescription. The tone of the article is serious. This article would be

In Conclusion, they began by examining two of the major approaches to psychopathology research and theory: the medical model and the biopsychosocial model. The latter has clear advantages over the former: a more sophisticated and comprehensive understanding of psychological disorder is possible. Such a biopsychosocial is really a call for interdisciplinary cooperation in the study of psychopathology, a cooperation that has not historically been a reality. Nevertheless, as they have seen, there are some criticisms that can be leveled at both the medical and biopsychosocial models. If they do indeed embody assumptions of weakness and deficits, then there may be undesirable implications for how we conceptualize and treat people with (so called?) psychological disorders.

The psychosocial approach helps us to develop a healthy questioning of the obvious. An open mind, imagination and knowledge of personality functioning, human behaviour and emotional suffering are inherent in the ideas; they assist in reaching;differential diagnoses and treatment plans. This is another way of saying that clients interact with their environments in unique ways and if we are to give service which is accurately targeted then, when appropriate, we have to comprehend underlying feelings and motives which can block people from making optimum use of such help. Freudian psychoanalytic ideas, particularly personality theory, began to feed into what became known as psychodynamic casework.

Many mental disorders vary from person to person and in its on severity. All disorders have both a physical and psychological components. Abnormal behavior is difficult to define. Behavior may also be evaluated by whether it conforms to social rules and cultural norms, an approach that avoids reproachful nonconformists as irregular for behavior that, although strange, may not violate social standards and may even be valued in their culture. What people consider a violation of norms can be affected by culture diversity; often culturally relative, understood by the culture in which it occurs (The Gale Encyclopedia

In module 1. pages 3-6, Myers discusses the different regions of psychology and also credits scientists, philosophers and students who developed psychology into what it is now. According to Myers, mental processes are subjective experiences. When a person has these mental processes such as beliefs or dreams, how do psychologists link specific behaviors to them considering these mental processes are subjective? Are there any past scientists, philosophers or students that should not be considered a psychologist anymore because our definition of psychology has changed? As psychology is always changing due to new advances of information, should past psychological theories no longer be considered as more appropriate ones are being

The treatment of mental illness dates back to 500BC. It was believed at that time that the mentally ill were possessed by demonic spirits. In some instances patients were also believed to be witches. “In ancient Mesopotamia, priest-doctors

They are different way to try to understand other people, looking at signs like facial expressions, attitudes and emotions for example. Facial expressions of emotions are when one part of the face registers one emotion and the other a different emotion.

Within “Basic Writings in the History of Psychology” by Robert I. Wilson, there is an excerpt from John Locke. John Locke was an English philosopher who was one of the first to connect mechanical principles to ideas in psychology. Locke mostly discusses how ideas are a result of both experience and reflection, and the problems with our associations of ideas. There are a number of critical aspects within the excerpt that allows one to understand his ideas and position on the topic. Each critical aspect can be discussed in terms of what has been previously discussed in class.

Pennington, D., McLoughlin, J. (2003) ' Debates in Psychology’ in (ed) Advanced Psychology. Child Development, Perspectives & Methods. United Kingdom: Hodder Education Group, pp.232.

Gail B. Peterson (2004) describes the historical process that lead Skinner to discovered shaping. At the time of the discovery, Skinner was conducting experiments on the project pigeon during WW ll. In the year 1943 Skinner and his graduate students were working on a “war-time project sponsored by General Mills, INC.” (Peterson 2004) Skinner spending a lot of time in his laboratory; Skinner and his colleagues decided to teach pigeons to bowl. The pigeon was to send a wooden ball down a miniature alley toward a set of toy pins by swiping the ball with a sharp sideward movement of the beak. (Peterson 2004) Skinner reinforcing the response the pigeons show remarkable results. These results seem to amazed Skinner because Skinner had shaped a behavior

One of the oldest methods of research is the case study, in which psychologist study one or more individuals in great depth with the hope of an accomplishment of revealing true to all persons. Sigmund Freud came up with his theory of personality from a series of case studies. Case studies can be misleading, unrepresented knowledge of the individual can lead to a false conclusion.

* Predict: Offering predictions (or hypotheses) about how a given condition or set of conditions will affect

When the news report flashes across the television informing millions around the world of the murder of a family of six, it is obvious that the initiate reaction of the civilians would be terror and hatred. This hatred, a fierce, in-tolerant force behind these people that would instantly choose the worst for whomever the suspect may be. Often, this is the reaction of the people whereas there are a few of those individuals who may decide to view this case differently. These would be psychologists. A psychologist may approach this story with a view inside of the perpetrators mind. Was he biologically, psychodynamicly, behaviorally or cognitively provoked to do such a thing? What would make someone do something