Reading Activity Week #15 (due Tuesday)

One thing I found interesting in chapter 13 was how the emergence of clinical psychology came about. After the second World War there was an increased need for the clinical psychologists. Since the war was so traumatic for the soldiers the veterans sought clinical psychologists and they welcomed the veterans as a way to put their preferred psychology on the map to stay. It is interesting that such an event could change the history of psychology forever.

I also found the technique progressive relaxation interesting. The technique was first used by Edmund Jacobson and later Joseph Wolpe. This technique was used to treat patients with nervous disorders. The technique involves creating a hierarchy of fears and anxiety and to confront these fears patients would imagine a “happy place” where they had no fears and the situation which caused them the anxiety. I find this interesting because I have always struggled with controlling my anxiety and I have used a variation of this technique. When I am in a high anxiety situation I use relaxation techniques; I imagine myself alone on a beach listening to the ocean.

Another interesting part of this chapter was Maslow’s self-actualizers. As a future educator, I have heard and studied Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but I haven’t learned about the peach experience or the attributes of those with self-actualization. Maslow was so interested self-actualizes that he did a study to find what these attributes were. He found the attributes to be: high creativity, spontaneity, independence and a high moral code.

One part of the chapter I thought was not interesting was the Hawthorne Effect. I think this was uninteresting to me because I didn’t really understand it. I understand that workers are more likely to work harder when they know they are being watched, but what I don’t understand is why the experimenters would let the workers know they were being observed. I also understand why businessmen were interested in studying worker productivity, but some of the things they were testing, like lighting which optimal output would vary between individuals.

The psychologist I found most interesting in this chapter was Maslow. I found him interesting because I was able to relate what he was saying to my past and future experiences. I also had enough background information about him to make learning more in depth information easier.

One part of this chapter that is important to the history of psychology is how psychologies focus can change depending on the era. For example when clinical psychology replaced psychiatry with the increase in post-traumatic stress disorder after WWII. Also, the emergence and popularity of humanistic psychology in the 1970s can be directly related to the times when challenges to authority and focus on the individual were supreme.

A topic from an earlier chapter includes business’ interest in psychology. This was previously brought up in chapter eight with Watson and Gilbreth. In this chapter there is still a focus on how to increase workers’ productivity, such as Gilbreth’s research from the previous chapter.

One person I found interesting in this chapter was Edmund Jacobson. I was interested in him because of his work with relaxation techniques.

I chose chapter 13 because I felt like it would be a good end-cap to this book on the history of psychology, and it was indeed! I was immediately drawn to the section on women in psychologies history. I found it really interesting because I have kept a theme throughout this semester on learning about the women of psychology. It reiterates here that women were very much looked down upon in the early years in psychology. It was very hard for women to get ahead in the working world, let alone the professional world of psychology. What really busted my buttons was in the 1920's when women were either unable to secure full-time academic postions or were limited to teaching at small women's colleges without graduate programs. Later, this was even more of a burden because these small colleges started to replace female professors with males to "enhance" their prestige. What a bite!!
Another thing that caught my eye in this chapter was that women weren't able to be in certain clubs in psychology. E.B. Titchener, who we read about earlier this semester kept women out of his Experimentalist "club". Gosh, it really made me mad because I read about him and really liked his work!
The third thing I found most interesting about this chapter was the bit on parental investment. I discussed this in my social psychology class last year and found that the idea of different investments on children via parents is pretty organic. Women are more invested because they obviously carry the baby for the first 9 months, and the baby then feeds off of her. Humans don't reproduce a whole lot of babies (compared to other mammals who have several litters), so we must pick our mate carefully to get all the greatest genes and what not.
One thing I did not find interesting in this chapter was all the talk on brain and behavior. This stuff just puts me to sleep, really. I am more interested in a philosophical approach with the mind-body arguments.
I really really enjoyed reading about Eleanor Gibson. She received the National Medal of Science from George Bush in 1992. There were only 9 people before her to get this great honor. She created the "visual cliff", which is used to study depth perception in infants. She had a really rough start with discrimination issues, but was tough through it all and I really look up to women like this.
I would say a great majority of this chapter was very useful in my understanding of psychology. It really wrapped some things up for me. It mentioned a lot of names that I have learned about this whole chapter. It gave me the sense that psychology's history is very important, and it shouldn't be left to the past.
Many topics I could relate to earlier chapters. In Eleanor Gibson's section, there are many names brought up that she worked with in her years of study like, Kurk Koffka, E. G. Boring and Harvey Carr.
I definitely want to learn more about Eleanor Gibson. She went through a lot, and just 10 years ago she received her medal. She is recent, and very interesting to me.

I chose to read Chapter 13 because I read it last week before I found out there was no reading assignment, but instead I just got a head start on this week!

The first part of the chapter I found interesting was at the beginning with the statistics on psychological problems from war and how it demonstrated the need for clinical psychologists. I was astounded after reading that 40 percent of casualties serious enough requiring evacuation were because of psychological breakdowns. Of 1.5 million soldiers given medical discharges, 675,000 were for psychiatric reasons, and after the war 40,000 soldiers were in Veterans Administration hospitals for mental disorders compared to 30,000 for physical wounds. These numbers (assuming they are accurate) blew me away and goes to show people how important therapy can be to soldiers who have been in combat consistently. It makes me wonder today if our veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are given the proper therapy that some veterans need.

The second piece of information I found to be interesting was the 'close-up' section discussing lobotomy. It was really intriguing reading about the different types and techniques for performing a lobotomy on various human and animal patients. Just reading about the operations scare me a little bit, and it seemed astonishing that the number of casualties from the operations were surprising low. It was nice to read about Egas Moniz only using the procedure on severly afflicted patients who were suicidal or just dangerous and the procedure would actually help some, but Walter Freeman didn't share the same feeling. Using an ice pick to perform the surgery seems crazy to me, and it seemed like a large number of people receiving the surgery could no longer have feelings, or very few at least, which is one of the many characteristics that make us human.

The final piece of information I found to be interesting was reading about the rise of psychological testing as well as consulting companies. I thought it was really interesting reading the how they got started as well as our discussion in class about how these companies are the ones who administer tests like the GRE and ACT. It makes me wonder if people continually question the reliability and validity of these tests than why did they flourish so much and continue to exist and grow today? Especially considering some of these businesses are raking in millions of dollars.

I found the section on the Boulder Model to be very dry and unattractive in the reading. Obviously I understand why they placed it in the text, but it just didn't appeal to me.

I found Walter Freeman to be the most interesting applied psychologist because he just seemed crazy to perform 18,000 lobotomy procedures with an ice pick. Just saying that one sentence seems fascinating. Im curious to see what he did after lobotomies had fallen out of favor, or if he had any legal charges or lawsuits filed against him.

I think learning about the rise of behavior therapy and client-centered therapy will be the most important to understanding the history of psychology because from my knowledge, although I could be wrong, these techniques are still used considerably today in treating patients so I feel it will help to know what they are and how they can help people.

Looking back to Chapter 8 with intelligence testing and psychology's entrance into the business world can be connected to this chapter because this chapter also involves intelligence testing and business. In this chapter psychology, intelligence testing, and business are all combined to create consulting firms to adminster tests to potential employees as well as current employees so they can be evaluated.

I would like to learn more about Haslow because he seems like an individual, like many other pyschologists featured in the textbook, whose range of interests only touched on psychology. I know him from Haslow's hierarchy of needs as the text says, but it makes me wonder if contributed to some other fields as well as psychology like so many others feature in the text.

I chose to read Chapter 13 because I was more intrigued by the title of the chapter and the subheadings seemed more interesting than what I briefly looked at in Chapter 14. The first thing that seemed interesting to me was the Boulder Model. I thought this was interesting because seemed like a step in the right direction for clinical care and scientific models. As we have read in almost every previous chapter, old scientific methods were rudimentary and very unsafe. Instead of performing harmful tests on themselves or their assistants/students this model ushered in a safer and more empirically based approach to the discipline. The second thing that I found interesting was what they called the Hawthorne Effect. The book states that this is the tendency to be affected because people know that they are being tested in some sort of research project. I picked this topic pretty much for one reason, I had some first hand experience with it. My freshman year i was part of a study for my psychology class for class credit. The experience was listed that we would be required to look at pictures and then answer random questions after we saw them. I knew that something was up because of the nature of the project but i didn't know what exactly so i played things pretty close to the chest and was very careful about how i answered questions and looked at everything every carefully. In the end the study was trying to see the relationship between looking at African American people and selecting words that were related to violence or anger. I don't remember what my results were,hopefully good, but the simple fact that i knew i was being tested made me very aware that something was up and to be totally honest it affected how i answered some of the questions. Not knowing what they were looking for specifically made it difficult to hone in on it, but i had a pretty good idea. The last thing i Found interesting was Carl Rogers notion of client-centered therapy. In this approach he argued that is less important to know the history of the patient or client. Instead it is more beneficial to ay attention to creating an effective therapeutic environment. As we know today it is important to view patients history to gain knowledge that can help us, but at the time i am sure this seemed like a totally valid way to conduct procedures. Carl Rogers also seemed to be a man that I would like to research more because most of his research was based in the US and his work with empathy, and reflection. As I posted above i feel like the Boulder Model is a great way to call back to the previous chapters that all touched on the improper and poorly designed tests and models that were previously used. This chapter was really pretty useful and seemed to be pretty standard compared to the rest of the book,not good but not terrible either. It had a variety of topics,people, and ideas but it was mildly difficult to get a grasp on what exactly they were trying to point out, even though the topic IS in the title.

Being completely honest, I chose to read chapter thirteen because it had significantly fewer pages to read than chapter fourteen did. First what I found to be interesting was the Eysenck study. This research, done by Hans Eysenck, evaluated the effectiveness of psychotherapies, psychoanalysis and eclectic. His research found that individuals who received no therapy at all had an improvement rate of 72 percent, eclectic therapy at 64 percent, and Freudian Psychoanalysis at an astonishing 44 percent. This proved that there was really no evidence which supported the effectiveness of psychotherapy. I found this interesting because Freud had been so important in changing psychology for the better and there was finally research which showed his methods, were in fact, not all that effective.

Second what I found to be interesting was the introduction of the Psy. D. When psychologists interested in clinical psychology went to school, it was first necessary for them to get a Ph.D. Since this program was most focused on research, not all psychologists thought that it was for the best and thought that a program which gave more instruction in the actual practice of psychology. This was first ignored but an APA committee in 1967 decided to explore alternatives to the science practitioner-model which lead to the creation of a new degree, a Doctorate of Psychology, Psy. D. The University of Illinois then implemented such a program and other universities began developing similar programs. I found this interesting because I had never heard of such a program until reading this chapter. Since psychology seems so research-based at this point in my education, it was nice to read about other alternatives.

Finally what I found to be interesting was the Hawthorne Effect. This is defined as the tendency for performance to be affected because people know that they are being studied in a research project. This is interesting to me because it did not start out this way, this being the first research question. It started with testing the productivity of workers at AT&T. Researchers would alter the lighting to see which would cause the workers to be most productive. Research found that productivity remained about the same regardless of the lighting level; it was other factors which effected productivity, for example the level of direct supervision was increased.

What I found to be least interesting was the section on the Boulder Model. I found this least interesting because there are so many specific details about what preceded and eventually lead to the development of this model.

The psychologist I found to be most interesting was Hans Eysenck. The reason I found him so interesting was because he was the one who truly questioned Freud and his ideals and sought to publish the failures in psychotherapy. I would also like to learn more about him because I had not heard of him until reading this chapter and he was so critical to psychology and the questioning f the effectiveness of psychotherapy, and especially psychoanalysis. His research is also the subject in the chapter which is most important to understanding the history of psychology. Eysenck from this chapter related back to the chapter about Freud because he debunked what was most popular and showed his methods of therapy to be essentially ineffective.

I chose to read Chapter 14 because I wanted to read more about what happened after WWII and see if any psychology has progressed since then.

The first thing I found interesting was Frederick Bartlett on Memory. I found this section to be interesting because memory is a hard subject to understand, and I thought with this section I could get a somewhat understanding of what memory is. I found by reading this section memory has a schemata- "active orgainsations of past reactions or past experiences,which must always be supposed to be operating in any well-adapted organic response." After reading this section I have a better understanding what this psychologist found out about our memory.

The second thing I found interesting in this chapter was Leon Festinger in social psychology. I found this section to be interesting because I'm interested in how people interact with others and what that has to do with the history of psychology. I found that cognitive dissonance- "occurs in a state of emotional and cognitive discomfort." Thought the section was different because I didn't know much about social psychology.

The third thing I found interesting in this chapter was personality psychology. I found this section to be interesting because there are two approaches to personality psychology, and each one is different on learning everyone's different personalities. The two approaches to personality psychology is a nomothetic- principles that affect humans in general, and idiographic is a scientific strategy concentrates on the unique individual. Personality psychology looks at humans traits against another human.

I found the section about the brain and behavior to be the least interesting because it was boring to read and I already knew how the stimulus produces changes in the body and the nervous system. I thought this section was just repeating what we have already been taught.

I thought the most interesting applied psychologist was Leon Festinger. I found him to the most interesting because he was the one who created the term cognitive dissonance, and went into detail about social psychology.

This chapter reviewed a lot of other topics in previous chapters. A couple topics that relate to previous chapters is cognitive psychology, it became more popular after WWII and behavior psychology took a back burner. In a previous chapter we talked about Jean Piaget and her theory about developmental psychology. All of this chapter was mostly review of what other chapters have talked about after WWII ended.

I would like to learn more about Gordon Allport because of his knowledge in personality psychology. I didn't know much about personality psychology.

One of the topics from the chapter that really interested me was the close up on how lobotomies started. Even though I already learned about this process through the video that was shown in class I still find it interesting. I think the reason it is so interesting is just because of the shock value associated with the fact of someone stabbing a pick in your eye in order to damage the brain in hopes of a positive outcome. What prompted this form of treatment was a noble one, in hopes of helping patients everywhere but doctors took the practice too far and the process got out of hand. Soon this process was replaced by medical drugs in order to calm patients that would have otherwise required a lobotomy.
Another topic of interest for me was how once again psychology would be applied to business. In this application the business side failed due to sound psychology. One business in hopes of selling more light bulbs tried to prove that worker productivity increased in better lit areas. The hope was there would be hard evidence to prove that light increased productivity. Unfortunately for the business the findings were inconsistent and the business was unable to sell more light bulbs.
This leads me to another topic of interest for me the Hawthorne effect. This phenomenon attempts to explain how the lighting experiment failed. The theory that was proposed is that the reason the findings didn’t really show anything conclusive is because the workers knew that they were involved in an experiment. This knowledge influenced all of the workers to work harder because they knew that they were apart from the group and doing something special. The effect of this theory is legitimate in a research context but may or may not be the reason for the inconclusive tests of the lighting experiment.
One of the topics that disinterested me from the chapter was the introduction to the section on behavior therapy. The reason I was uninterested in this particular part of the chapter is the fact that a lot of the information talked about was already covered in precious chapters. The introduction to this section went over things like Mary Cover Jones and her systematic desensitization which was cover in depth in a previous chapter.
There are many different topics that will be of great use in better understanding the history of psychology. Particularly the beginning of clinical psychology, the chapter does a great job explaining this. The section on behavior therapy directly relates to previous chapters because it talks about Mary Cover Jones who was covered in depth in previous chapters. The psychologist from the chapter who I would like to learn more about would have to be Carl Rodgers and his Client Centered Therapy.

I picked Chapter 14 to blog about, because many of my current history classes are also focusing on the post war period in the United States and Europe. Some of the issues that were going on in society are being explored and researched during this time period in Psychology which provides a new insight and perspective to some of the personalities in politics at the time. Some of the new ways that governments were dealing with disabled people, public education, and various other aspects of Psychology that were being applied in various elements of society are all coming together in this chapter for myself in what is currently going on in other classes. I am an individual who tries to make connections between learning in other classes and this chapter seemed a fitter perspective for two other history classes I am currently in.
The first thing I found interesting was the relationship between behavior and the brain which we discussed in class on Tuesday. It has been proven that individuals are not blank slates or “tabula rasa” rather we are born or hardwired to act a certain way in certain situations and that we can control the impulses to act in a certain way and behaviors can be changed and altered.
The third thing I found interesting was the effect of the social environment on behavior. As a future teacher we learn a lot about nature versus nurture and how the environment can have a huge impact on how a person acts. The social environment of an individual can make a huge difference in what is considered acceptable or appropriate behavior in many different environments. The social environment is very important to education as well as my next point that I found interesting…
I am interested in Jean Piaget’s work in the growth and development of the knowledge of an individual at different stages of their life. As a future teacher Piaget’s work is taught and discussed very extensively and is somewhat of standard or basis for what types of subjects should and can be taught at what ages so that student will learn or be able to grasps the desired concepts at a particular age. Piaget’s work was very important to the better the organization of America’s public schools and the future students learning.
Overall the 3 things I found the most interesting from the chapter were things that pertain to my major, interests in history and also provide a background on Piaget who made a difference in how education or learning is conducted for individuals know because of his work in the field.
The one thing I found least interesting was the parts of the chapter that focused on the revolution from behaviorism to cognitive psychology. It wasn’t interesting because I failed to either notice the reference to this in the chapter, and when it was discussed in class, I still was not able to grasp what the “revolution” was all about. I guess if a revolution takes place in ones field and they really cared they would risk everything regardless of consequences to pursue their point.
I find Piaget to be the most interesting because of his research in Education and the developments he made towards the way students are taught now, as well as what individuals can expect in terms of learning and their cognitive development over the years. This research can also explain the problems that may occur if ones cognitive development is delayed damaged etc.
Each psychologist works on building on previous knowledge of other psychologists and each new development allows for new knowledge to be applied to society, education, politics and the overall aspect of how individuals view or perceive things.
A topic from a previous chapter that relates to the current chapter would be the continuous focus of the work of applied psychologist throughout the history of the United States and the discoveries they have made, and the continuous improvements made to society through their discoveries.
I would like to cover more about Piaget’s personal life and how his life helped to shape his discoveries in education and psychology.

In adjusting my focus after a clarification in discussion section today, I have read further into chapter 15 of our textbook, which is the chapter that discusses minorities in psychological history. I was happy to read more about Francis Sumner of Howard University whom was mentioned in chapter 6 of our textbook and also my blog for 10/4/11. In reference to my own blog I attempted to acknowledge the individuals who seem to be overlooked because of the movement of the “masses” that these individuals may be a part of. I was interest there in the efforts of the APA to represent minorities such as the Task Force on Diversity. I wanted to reflect concerning this chapter because I feel acknowledging effort, struggle, and contribution to psychology on behalf of minorities and women was a strong theme in this textbook and a much appreciated one by me myself personally.

Secondlary, I was interested in the following paragraph discussing the stereotypes of Jewish persons by historian Andrew Wilson (1996) concerned candidates for academic positions and letters of recommendations. I become upset and frustrated with the intro phrases reinforcing a stereotype by trying to disguise a complement or something. Such as; despite the barriers of being a [Jewish Person], she ended up being successful, or what not, etc. This is very difficult not to do though, because often it can be with good intentions. Being the 1st African-American president, the 1st Iowan win a surfing competition, etc.

Thirdly, I was interest in Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark and their social scientific research relating to the issue of segregation on development and impact on monumental case of Brown V. Board of Education. I was thrilled to read that they were influenced by Francis Sumner, who helped provide opportunities for a wider range of individuals which lead to the betterment of our nation’s individuals and society.

I did not interest much in the section of “The Future: Psychology or Psychologies” as I was focusing on my interests of minority and women representation in earlier portions of the chapter.Thanks!!

I chose to read chapter 14 for this assignment (Psychological Science in the Post-War Era) because I noticed it was mainly about cognitive psychology and the major effects it has had on the field of modern psychology. I have always found cognitive psychology to be the most logical type of psychology, and from my experience, cognitive therapy is one of the best types of treatment out there. The first thing I found interesting here was the section on Bartlett and memory. The concept of schemata has always seemed pretty fascinating to me, so it was fun to read more about them. I also enjoyed reading about Bartlett's various tests on people's memories.

Another portion of the chapter I found interesting was the part on social psychology. I find the theory of cognitive dissonance to be very interesting, especially Festinger's example of an "intelligent person who smokes." The section on experimental reality seemed especially fascinating; I wanted to read more about it, but there wasn't much there. The final thing that was interesting for me was the section on Piaget. Piaget is without a doubt one of the most influential developmental psychologists in history, and his thoughts on epistemology and how children develop have always been pretty cool to me.

One thing I did not find to be the least bit interesting was actually something to do with cognitive psychology. I HATE the human-as-computer stuff. I can't really explain why, but it is just so boring to me - no appeal whatsoever. I understand that for many, it's a logical metaphor for the way our brains process information and such; I just have never been able to get my head around comparing myself to a computer.

I think Piaget was by for the most interesting of the psychologists mentioned in the text for today. He also had perhaps the biggest impact on the field of developmental psychology. We use his terms and theories today more often than we realize. I think the entire chapter was useful to know when studying the history of psychology. It's very important to know how each field of psychology came about and evolved, and that's basically what the whole chapter concerned. I suppose this chapter would relate somewhat to chapter 13 - while chapter 13 focused on different types of therapies and treatments, chapter 14 focused on the different fields of emerging psychology.

I would like to learn more about Allport. He seemed to play a pivotal role in personality psychology, yet there wasn't that much information on him.

This week, I chose to read chapter thirteen because I am actually in Clinical Psychology right now. When discussing the history of clinical psychology in class, it is just a brief description, so I wanted to read this chapter so I could obtain more information and gain a better understanding of this field and those who have contributed.

I was immediately drawn into this chapter when it discussed the emergence of modern clinical psychology. This section discusses the struggle that took place when going into clinical psychology. The likelihood of becoming an independent professional was unheard of before the war. At the time, clinical psychologists were put in mental hospitals and clinics where they would be under the supervision of psychiatrists. This gave little room for these individuals to grow until the war ended. When the war ended, that’s when there was a high demand for clinicians. Due to the massive return of veterans, clinicians were needed to help provide services to the mentally wounded. Veterans were now able to talk about what they had witnessed in the war and they were able to do this without being judged by a professional. I was shocked to read that 45 percent, of the 1.5 million solders given medical discharges, were for psychiatric reasons. After the war, there were 44,000 veterans who were in Veterans Administration hospitals suffering from various mental disorders compared to only 30,000 hospitalized with physical wounds. This just goes to show how much the demand increased; and because it increased so much, it became too much to handle and psychiatry simply was forced to back out. However, the government stepped in, seen the need, and began funding training programs at universities in order to gain help. All in all, clinical psychology emerged and was now making it easier for clinical psychologists to work as independent professionals rather than working under the orders of a psychiatrist.

Another part of this chapter that caught my attention was Abraham Maslow’s self-actualization. This humanistic approach to psychotherapy was much different than that of Freud. I like the quote that was used by Maslow to describe the difference between his approach and Freud’s: “the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology….The study of self-actualizing people must be the basis for a more universal science of psychology.” The reason I liked this statement is because I found a lot of truth in it. The way I interpreted it is, Freud looks at things in childhood whereas Maslow believes in self-actualization. This proposed that the qualities best characterizing humans are free will and a sense of responsibility and purpose, a forward-looking lifelong search for meaning in one’s life, and an innate tendency to grow towards self-actualization. Maslow created a hierarchy of needs, a model that was arranged in a pyramid, with the lower level and the more basic needs at the bottom and self-actualization at the top. Since it has been a while since I had looked at Maslow’s model, I decided to look it up so I could refresh my memory. http://theskooloflife.com/wordpress/self-actualization-in-the-maslow-hierarchy/ : This website here shows Maslow’s model as well as providing some information gained from Abraham Maslow through an interview. I enjoyed this website because it gave a lot of positive advice to help people achieve self-actualization. I just like the whole idea of self-actualization because it seems positive and allows for many possibilities. This can be summed up at the end of this section: “Maslow’s work, and his unceasing optimism about the possibilities for human existence, a movement that emphasizes mental health rather than mental illness, and examines such topics as happiness, optimism, and creativity.

One of the other parts of this chapter that I found interesting was the Hawthorne Effect. I liked the first experiment they presented where they examined the effects of lighting on worker productivity. They were in fact sponsored in part by the electrical industry, which hoped to find evidence for its belief that there was a simple correlation between lighting and productivity-the more light in the work space, the higher the productivity. Evidence of this, of course, would help sell light bulbs. However, research failed to show any relationship between lighting and work output. But, Hawthorne found that the physical environment was not as important for productivity as the “human factor.” Workers knew they were in a study and that the results were important, so their productivity remained high because they felt valued. This experiment alone is a great and simple example of how the Hawthorne Effect works; the tendency for performance to be affected because people know they are being studied in a research project. We also see this happen a lot when people are being tested. When people’s personalities are being questioned, when they start to catch on and find a trend, they tend to provide answers that will be well liked rather than stating how they really feel. There is a demand in society to be a good person and if someone doesn’t fit the bill or may be a little different, there is a chance that people will look at them differently; no one wants that kind of attention. Overall, I found the Hawthorne Effect to have some interesting studies and the idea has a lot of truth to it.

The one part of this chapter that I did not find too interesting was the section of behavior therapy. Even though I have found this interesting in previous chapters, I felt that this was just a repeat of that information and did not provide me with any new, helpful information. So this section was rather boring and I found myself already knowing what the next sentence would discuss because I’ve covered the information so many times. Other than that, the rest of the chapter was helpful in providing new information and talked about some topics, I have heard about and didn’t understand, more in depth which was very helpful.

I, like many others, found Carl Rogers to be the most interesting. I have heard about his work in client-centered therapy before, but I thought that this book did a better job of explaining Rogers. I have always taken an interest in client-centered therapy and would like to learn more about it just because I do find it to be a good approach.

This chapter, like the ones before, is helpful in understanding the history of psychology because we are seeing how the demand for clinical psychologists increased after the war. In past chapters, we have heard about the struggles that different psychologists went through because many people questioned their ideas and work. Here, in this chapter we see that people’s opinions are changing and more and more people are seeking help from psychologists. This chapter also relates to other chapters because it continues to question some old theories as well as present us with new and improved ways of using other practices. We are seeing how the field of psychology is advancing and how using past theories has helped modify or create new practices. We see psychologists from past chapters being brought into new chapters. Altogether, we are seeing how the history of psychology and through reading each of these chapters continues to make changes and advances in society; it’s an interesting thing to see!

I would like to learn more about Carl Rogers and his work in Client-Centered Therapy. I would like to know more about how he came up with this approach and a little more information regarding his background.

I decided to do my blog on chapter 13 because I had already read half of it before I knew we’d have a different blog, so I just finished it this past weekend.

My first favorite part of chapter thirteen was learning about the Hawthorne Effect. As I have said in previous blogs, one of my favorite things about psychology is explaining common sense things. The Hawthorne Effect talks about how someone’s performance will be altered if she or he knows they are being watched. I’m taking Industrial Psychology right now, and we learned that one of the number one way to motivate employees is to do performance evaluations. This is because they know they are being observed, so they try harder: The Hawthorne Effect.

Another section I found interesting was the section on lobotomies. I came into UNI as a biology major, so I love biopsychology – it’s one of my favorite fields of psychology. Therefore the brain and surgeries of the brain interest me. I also almost always love the close-up sections. This is a major surgery that had lots of controversy behind it. Obviously death was the main concern, and unfortunately fatalities did occur. However, comparing our medical advances to way back when, fatalities actually did not happen as much as one might think. I did like this section, although reading about how an ice pick was used as a surgical instrument was somewhat unsettling. It made me think of a bones episode where the killer used an ice pick to scramble his victim’s brains.

The third thing I found interesting was the all the statistics on how the war “helped” psychology. Though these are unfortunate circumstances, I believe necessary for the field of psychology. Some people don’t “believe in” psychology, and after traumatic events, like the war, I feel like it helps people see the importance of psychology and how people really do need help with their mental and emotional health problems.

The part I did not find interesting was the Boulder and Vail part. It was a LOT of information that I kept reading, but realized I wasn’t actually retaining anything. So I kept having to read it over and over to get anything out of it. It reminded me of my Applied Psychology class when we learned about the difference between a Ph.D and a Psy.D. It is a lot of knit picky details that don’t interest.

My favorite psychologist was Carl Rogers. I really like client-centered therapy. It gives me warm fuzzies. It was fun to read about the development of this. This is also the psychologist I would like to learn more about. I’ve learned about him in other classes and I find his work really fascinating.

I chose this chapter because I am interested in clinical psychology, so it was more interesting to me than the cognitive chapter was. What I found interesting in this chapter is the Hawthorne Effect. This was a study done to see if lighting effected productivity. However, the problem in this study was that the workers knew that they were being observed, so they altered their performance. I think that this theory is very true. If I know someone is watching me do something, I feel a lot more pressure to perform well, so I typically do my best. An example of this in my life is when I am studying or doing homework with someone else around, I tend to do it faster and not get distracted by facebook, because I know they can see what I am doing, and I don’t want them to think that I am lazy.

The second thing that I found interesting was Carl Rogers’ client centered therapy. I liked how Rogers saw something that was not working in therapy and he decided to make a change and come up with his own way of doing things. I think he laid out his therapy in a very practical way with three components that are easy for other therapists to follow. I liked that one of the aspects is to be genuine and honest. I have heard from some people who have seen counselors and they feel like that counselor didn’t actually care about their life, so they did not effectively help them with their problem. I think this is an interesting approach to counseling.

The third thing that I found interesting was the section about lobotomy. It seems so unethical looking back at this and curious as to why people thought this was helpful. Even the doctors knew that this was turning individuals into zombie like beings, but they argued that it was better for them. A procedure like this would hopefully not be allowed today, but I am sure there are things that we are doing now that we will look back on and question.

I found the section about researchers and practitioners boring because it was kind of just a brief overview. I think Carl Rogers therapy is helpful to understanding psychology, because it shows where this type of therapy originated from. I found Carl Rogers to be the most interesting psychologist, because I feel like he genuinely wanted to help others with their problems. This chapter relates to chapter 12 with clinical psychology because they are both showing the history and progression of the treatment of the mentally ill. I would like to learn more about Carl Rogers, because I find his therapy interesting.

The reason that I chose to read this chapter was because it was the next chapter in the book. It really did not matter much to me which one I read. The one thing that did catch my attention was the title. Knowing that this chapter was going to cover those actively involved in the practice of psychology and not just in labs made me want to read it.
Mary Cover Jones was interesting to me because she did the work that I think Watson and Rayner should have done. She found a way to remove the fears that people have. I think that is of much more worth than to just figure out how to make individuals fear. Her case in which she gradually move at rabbit close to a young boy really sticks out in my mind.
Another person that I thought was very interesting was Carl Rogers. I thought that the creation of client centered therapy was a genius idea. At first it kind of sounds like you just sit around and let your patient ramble and takes their money. Rogers knew how to be supportive of his patients however. He stated that it was the therapist job to model the stability that the patient should have in the way that they interact. I thought I was interesting that he emphasized empathy and reflections.
In my opinion it was about time that more psychologist have non Academic jobs. Although the psychologist in academia did not like this shift I think it was for the better. There are lots of people in the world who need clinical help and psychology has the means to do so, so it is necessary that they give individuals help. To just stay in academia would have been to limit the good that the field could do.
The section about Eysenck was not really that interesting to me. I think that I was pretty turned off to it because he made accusations about the practice of psychotherapy, but the research he had in support was not good. In fact his evidence had a lot of methodological problems. I always like it when individuals are inspired to add good to the field by improving on current practices that are bad, but when damage is done to a current strategy for no reason at all I feel that it is a waste of time.
The psychologist that I found to be most interesting was Abraham Maslow. I found him interesting because he started off like a lot of psychologist. Being trained as a research psychologist he did a lot of work with animal. I was glad to read that he thought that there was something better that he could be doing so he chose to take a humanistic approach. His most well known work is the hierarchy of needs. I think that the hierarchy of needs is a great way to look at life because when individual’s satistfy needs in their lives they do develop more and more as a person.
I think that the most important thing in this chapter was the fact that the majority of psychologist were finally working outside of academic settings. I think that psychology’s strength is its application so it was good to see that they were finally doing this. It was also good to see the growth of clinical psychology. The work done by psychologist was finally seeking to improve people’s quality of life first and foremost, that is what I believe is the most important thing.
Systematic Desensitization is a topic that was discussed in earlier chapters. In this chapter it was brought up to discuss the work that Joseph Wolpe was doing. This type of technique is said to be the best behavior therapy technique. In the work that Wolpe was doing he studied cats and their phobic reactions which he later applied to humans. He called that progressive relaxation in which he was able to decrease anxiety in nervous individuals.
Carl Rogers is the psychologist that I would like to learn more about. First of I am just really interested in the humanistic approach to psychotherapy. Client centered therapy is also very interesting to me. I think it probably works well because sometimes the best thing for people who are having issues is just to talk without receiving advice. I think it would be very cool to find some of his research or case studies and see exactly how the therapy affected some of his patients.

I read both chapters, but I’ll pick Chapter 13 since it comes first. No other reason.

I thought the discussion of the “Humanistic Revolt” in psychology was interesting, because it really seems to be overstating the case. I read about Kuhn’s concept of ‘paradigm shift’ in a Philosophy of Science class, and the ‘Humanistic Revolution’ does not seem to meet the criteria. There was no clear and immediate shift in the paradigm (behavioralistic vs. humanistic); The behaviorists simply died out, allowing others to express long-held (and long held only privately) dissenting opinions. And there was no comprehensive paradigm that filled the void: humanistic psychology’s supporters had different ideas about what it meant.

I thought that Maslow was interesting, because he claimed that a humanistic approach to psychology (re- self-actualization) would “produce a healthier psychology” (Goodwin, p449). Yet it seems to me, we don’t cure most diseases by looking at healthy people.

It was interesting to me that Rogers’ approach was criticized as being “relevant only for articulate people with mild problems” and that Rogers was unsuccessful in his attempt to counter these claims (Goodwin, p451). I think that many people have this image of scientists as coldly objective, dispassionate researchers who are seeking to arrive at the Truth (with a capital T); but studying the history of psychology suggests that many (Watson and Titchener come to mind, from earlier chapters) are more interested in their careers and personal ambitions than they are the ‘truth’. Not that the same couldn’t be said of most groups -- but still, holding steadfast to an idea despite valid criticism simply out of self-interest is unlikely to yield accurate results.

I was also interested in how clinical psychologists fought with psychiatrists for professional recognition and rights, and how this battle still continues (re- prescribing meds). Since I will probably be pursuing my Mental Health certification, this issue seems relevant to me. (Personally. See how they get you? That’s why I think it is worthwhile to study history.)

I found it more distasteful than disinteresting, but I think that the Hawthorne Studies demonstrate a number of things that can be wrong with research studies, the need for double-blind conditions, and the importance of eliminating researcher self-interest as a factor. Otherwise, you will only find the answer that you are looking for -- not necessarily the correct answer.

I would like to find out more about Carl Rogers, simply because many seem to endorse his approach to counseling and I want to have enough info to make an informed choice about this myself.