Topical Blog Week #15 (due Thursday)

I chose to research Eleanor Gibson further. I am interested in her because she worked with a lot of the psychologists that we have studied throughout this semester, which puts her into "how does she fit into this chapter" question. She was born in Peoria, Illinois, which interested me because that is not far from here! She is a mid-western girl. She grew up with a father that worked a blue collar job and a stay at home mother. It interested me that she ended up being so interested in psychology and learning because in chapter 13 it talks a little bit about nature vs. nurture. And well, we don't know for sure what her parents acted like around her, but often we like to use the phrase, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree". And well, in this case, I think this apple fell pretty darn far from the tree.
Gibson was a victim of early discrimination towards women. She suffered a slow academic start due to the lack of respect for women in the academic world. She She received her bachelor's degree from Smith in 1931 and her master's degree in 1933. She earned her doctorate in psychology at Yale in 1938. Although this all is very prestigious, she had a hard time looking for work. She met her husband while taking a course at Smith college. He oddly enough happened to be her professor. He was a psychology professor which made it impossible for her to get a job once they moved to New York with the silly antinepotism rules which said that husbands and wives could not work at the same place. So she worked (non-profit) as a research associate.
While she was at Yale she was very excited to do research. She wanted to work for Psychologist Robert Yerkes in his laboratory, but he strongly pushed her away saying, "I have no women in my laboratory". How rude!! She later got to work with Clark Hull.
During her years of research associate at Cornell she created what she is most known for, the "visual cliff". This is a study on depth perception. She studied all sorts of animals, and of course infants as well. She wanted to know what kind of depth perception infants had. Her experiment was set up with a glass floor. On one side there was a set of patterned paper right beneath the glass, and on the other side, the patterned paper was further away from the glass, creating an illusion that there was a cliff. She studied chicks, turtles, rats, lambs, kids, pigs, kittens and dogs. She found that most all of these except rats would chose to stand/walk on the side with the paper closer to the glass, thus indicating the dominance of our visual sensors. Rats, on the other hand use their sense of smell to travel. So they would travel on the "cliff" side with out any sense of nervous emotion.
http://www.feministvoices.com/eleanor-j-gibson/
--a good biography of her life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/04/nyregion/dr-eleanor-j-gibson-92-a-pioneer-in-perception-studies.html
--her obituary gives us all of her advances and accomplishments in her great life.
http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/0155060678_rathus/ps/ps05.html
--a great article on her visual cliff studies.

The person I chose to research more about was Gordon Allport.Gordon Allport relates to chapter 14 because he had some theories with personality psychology. I am interested in Gordon Allport because he seems interesting and I want to learn more about what he contributed to the field of personality psychology.

Gordon Allport was born in Montezuma, Indiana in 1897. He was the youngest of four boys. At the age of 18, he graduated from high school and had scholarships to attend Harvard University. He did some military duty in WWI, and at age 22 he met with Sigmund Freud in Vienna, Austria. After the meeting with Freud he found that he is interested in dept psychology. Allport got his P.H.D in 1922 from Harvard.

Gordon Allport was known for him examining prejudice, looking at personal traits, and creating personality tests. Allport developed a theory for personality psychology. His theory has seven parts. 1. Sense of Body 2. Self-Identity 3. Self-Esteem 4. Self-Extension 5. Self-Image 6. Rational Coping 7. Propriate Striving. All of these parts are a part of development psychology when a human goes through years of life.

Another theory of Allports was personality traits for each human. He developed this theory by going through a dictionary to find terms that would represent personality traits. He found three traits that are important to the field of personality psychology, and they are Cardinal Traits, Central Traits, and Secondary Traits. A Cardinal trait is a trait that dominates an individual's personality. This trait is very rare. Central traits are common traits that make up our personalities. Secondary traits are traits that are only present after a circumstance.

I learned that Gordon Allport had a lot of contributions with personality psychology, and developing traits that I didn't know there are some traits that are more dominant than others. I now know more about what Gordon Allport contributed to the field of social and personality psychology.

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/allport.html- this site gave a lot of details about his theories.
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesal/p/gordon-allport.htm- this site gave background information about Gordon Allport.
http://www.psych.westminster.edu/psy311/allport/ppframe.htm- this site gave more background information and more details about the personality traits.

I chose to write about Jean Piaget. Jean Will Fritz Piaget the Second was born August 9th, 1896 in Neuchatel in “Francophone” area of Switzerland. He spoke French, but is identified as Swiss. Piaget was not the only one in his family to be famous. Piaget’s father Arthur was a professor of medieval literature at the University of Neuchatel. As a child Piaget was interested in biology and the outdoors. Piaget also attended the University of Neuchatel and also studied at the University of Zurich for a brief time. While at Zurich he had two philosophical papers published. These paper reflect the direction of Piaget’s thinking at the early stages of his upper level education. He would later dismiss these papers as a product of his “adolescent thought.” Piaget also earned his PhD from the University of Neuchatel.
Somewhere among his studies with Alfred Binet, and his refining of the intelligences tests Piaget married Valentine Chatenay in 1923. They had three children, Jacqueline, Lucienne, and Laurent. Piaget studied his children’s intellectual development from the time they were born until they began to talk.
Piaget also held many positions or chairs in his lifetime. He held chairs in psychology, sociology and history at Neuchatel from 1925 to 1929. History of scientific thinking in Geneva from 1929-1939. He chaired the International Bureau of Education from 1929 to 1967. Psychology and Sociology at Lausanne from 1938 to 1951, Sociology at Geneva from 1939-1952. He then chaired genetic and experimental psychology department from 1940 to 1971. In the mid 50’s he created and was the director of the International Center for Genetic Epistemology until he died in on September 17th, 1980.
Piaget fits in to Chapter 14 because; he is one the applied psychologists who made significant developments in the post war period which was the focus of the chapter. His developments were in the cognitive psychology field rather than behavioral.
I am interested in Piaget because of the work he did that was not specifically done for the field of education but his research emphasized hands on learning and interaction to help with the knowledge a person could gain, and when applied to the right places it revolutionized the field of education, that is why I am interested in Piaget.

Additional instructions: For each url.(internet resource) you have listed. Indicate why you chose it and the extent to which it contributed to your post.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget I chose this website, because Wikipedia always provides a generous background of biographical, career and various other aspects of a person’s life and also provides links to other sites that may provide more information.
http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html This website provided more detailed information about his interests as a child and detailed information about degrees he obtained.
http://www.nndb.com/people/359/000094077/ This website was another website that information and biographies on various people, and I chose it for information and details that were left out of other sites I browsed.

I choose to research Edmund Jacobson. I am interested in him because of his work with relaxation techniques. Jacobson is mention in chapter 13 because of his clinical work with relaxation techniques. Jacobson’s work with relaxation focuses on relaxing muscle tension. Jacobson discovered that by first tensing a muscle and then relaxing it greater relaxation would occur. These exercises, over 200, would relieve anxiety of his patients.

Jacobson started using his relaxation techniques in 1915 with his patients. However, it wasn’t until 1924 that he wrote his book The Technique of Progressive Relaxation. Jacobson studied stressed induced disorders and found that by eliminating the stress or tension the disorders would decrease or be eliminated altogether; resulting in a connection between motor and mental functions. After developing this technique, Jacobson continued to study the motor-mental connection in schools, dentistry, and athletes.

This method is most effect with anxiety associated with muscle stiffness, for obvious reasons. This can be seen in people who appear to be uptight or tense. They often experience chronic tightness in the shoulders and neck. Along with a reduction in general anxiety symptoms, including panic attacks, tension headaches, backaches and insomnia have been reduced after using this form of relaxation. As with any relaxation technique deep breathing is important to feel the full effects.

Today the 200 exercises have been condensed into 15-20 steps. The first stars with the hands. First the patient makes a fist for 10 seconds then relaxes for 15-20. This repeats itself with different muscle groups throughout the body. While tension one needs to think of all the stress in their lives and as they relax they let it flow out of their body; an action that allows the user to gain control over their body’s stress production. Jacobson focused on the mind-body connection. He was able to prove that a connection existed between the body (muscle tension) and the mind (anxiety).

When I was younger I had anxiety issues and was taught this method of relaxation which work well for me at that time. I still automatically use this technique in during times of high anxiety for me, but until now I have forgotten about using on a daily basis, which I will start doing again since it does help me.

http://www.hypnos.co.uk/hypnomag/jacobson.htm
This was a great site explaining the symptoms of anxiety associated with muscle stiffness and effects of progressive relaxation method.

http://www.progressiverelaxation.org/
This is a good site explain the background and early information about Jacobson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Jacobson
This site was used for some basic background information about Jacobson.
http://www.deepermeditation.net/stressadviceblog/archives/indra-devi-edmund-jacobson-and-the-stress-anxiety-cure.html
This site showed ways the relaxation method is still used today and how each person can practice these techniques on their own.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/272424-jacobson-relaxation-exercises/
This site stated the steps involved in the technique as well as the importance of deep breathing and some history of the technique.

For this assignment, I chose to read about Carl Rogers. His story seemed really interesting from the book, especially his difficult upbringing. I think his ideas on client-centered therapy are also interesting and successful. I would like to learn more about how he was able to overcome adversity and where he thought of his ideas from.

Carl Ransom Rogers was born on January 8, 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Carl was the fourth of six children in his family. He was very isolated as a child, being raised in a strict, religious family. He was a very intelligent boy and craved knowledge of all kinds, especially science. He was able to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a career in agriculture, history, as well as religion.

On a trip to Peking, China, he began to doubt his religious beliefs and decided not to follow the religious path set for him. He moved on from Wisconsin to Columbia University, and received his MA and PhD there. While at Columbia, Rogers served as director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Rochester, New York. Based on his experiences of working with troubled children, he wrote The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child in 1939.

In 1940 Rogers became professor of clinical psychology at Ohio State University, where he wrote his second book, Counseling and Psychotherapy. In it, Rogers suggested that the client, by establishing a relationship with an understanding, accepting therapist, can resolve difficulties and gain the insight necessary to restructure their life. This is where he develops his client-centered therapy, where the therapy is designed around the patient. Rogers used the term “client” instead of “patient” because the individuals that he was counseling did need help but not within the same regard that a medically ill person does. The term “client” is still used today in most situations.

Many of his idea coincide with those of Maslow, on a continuous journey to get to self-actualization. Rodgers believed that for a person to grow and reach self-actualization, they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood). One of his techniques that provide this environment was reflection. During reflection, the therapist continually restates what the patient has said in an attempt to show complete acceptance and to allow the patient to recognize any negative feelings that they may be feeling.

Rogers also had theories about one’s self-concept, the perceptions and beliefs about oneself. He believed the self-concept had three parts: self-worth, self-image, and the ideal self. Someone’s self-worth is what we think about ourselves, or our self-esteem. Self-image is how we see ourselves. The ideal self is the person who we would like to be, including goals we have and ambitions. The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent we are and the higher our sense of self-worth.

Rogers became the President of the American Association for Applied Psychology in 1944, and moved on to teach at the University of Chicago from Ohio State, He then became the President of the American Psychological Association, President of the American Academy of Psychotherapists. He has also won many awards for his works, including the Nicholas Murray Butler Silver Medal, and the Distinguished Professional Psychologist Award.

Rogers' last years were devoted to applying his theories in situations of political oppression and national social conflict, traveling worldwide to do so. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, he brought together influential Protestants and Catholics; in South Africa, blacks and whites; in Brazil people emerging from dictatorship to democracy in the United States, consumers and providers in the health field. His last trip, at age 85, was to the Soviet Union, where he lectured and facilitated intensive experiential workshops fostering communication and creativity. He was astonished at the numbers of Russians who knew of his work.

Together with his daughter and other psychologists, Rogers developed a series of residential programs in the US, Europe, Brazil and Japan, which focused on cross-cultural communications, personal growth, self-empowerment, and learning for social change. Rogers was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize for his work, but the nomination arrived just days after his death of a heart attack in 1987.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers– This site gives a good biography of Rogers and discusses some of his works.

http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/rogers.htm– This resource has good information on his life and theories, and has a good timeline of events in his life.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html– This website discusses Rogers’ theories in an understandable way.

I was interested in the Hawthorne effect from chapter 13 because, as I said in class, I felt like I had some firsthand experience with this theory from my first year. I was required to look at several pictures, words and the test would record how quickly I responded to what I saw, and the idea was that the two concepts the test was trying to compare were be paired together faster. I did not know exactly what the test was going to be covered but I was aware that I was being watched and this knowledge effected how I approached the test. I did not want to stray too far to one extreme or the other so I tried to keep my answers and responses as “normal” as I could. The first video I found proved this theory almost to a tee. In the video, the student films an intersection and notices that 80 people Jay Walked in a 5-minute period. I assumed that they were then going to place a cop or something around the intersection and see how many fewer people walked along the cross walk but they didn’t even go to that extreme he simply had a sign that said he was doing a project on Jay Walking. With the sign up only 24 people was seen jay walking. Now this could be because the next 24 people were just more concerned citizens, a better test would have had the same control group, but I think that it still paints a pretty realistic picture of how people behave when they think they are being watched or acting “normal” because they simply think that’s how they should behave. The second article I came across brought up a point I thought of before, that is that it is almost impossible to avoid a bias in these situations. The results could be seriously skewed because the subjects are completely aware that they are being tested, and may not answer as honestly as they normally would. I wondered exactly how legitimate these tests are but I suppose you could make this argument for most of the experiments and tests.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_YAJtJmPLE: this is the video were an Asian student conducts the experiment at a busy intersection and notices a considerable effect.
http://www.experiment-resources.com/hawthorne-effect.html: This website brought up the whole concept of bias and ruining an experiment because the subjects are aware of the fact that they are tests subjects.

http://www.economist.com/node/13788427: This last website tries to show that there are some flaws in the theory and even references the same example in the book about the production and lighting in the factory setting.

I chose to do research on Carl Rogers. I found the section about him interesting and I wanted to see how and why he developed client-centered therapy. I also wanted to learn more about his early life. He fits into chapter 13 with his development of a new type of therapy used in clinical psychology.

Carl Rogers was born in January in Illinois. He was very intelligent as a child, and was able to read before kindergarten! He chose to explore a variety of careers including agriculture, religion, and history. He obtained a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin. Once changing his mind about the route of religion, he left the seminary to attend Columbia University. He obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. while he was there.

While completing his graduate work, he began working with trouble children. He served as a director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in New York. He lectured at the University of Rochester and then became a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Ohio. During his time at Ohio, he wrote a book in which he stated that, “the client, by establishing a relationship with an understanding, accepting therapist, can resolve difficulties and gain the insight necessary to restructure their life.”

He then moved to the University of Chicago and served as a professor of psychology, and helped to develop a counseling center associated with the school. Once the center was created, he used it to test how effective his methods were. In 1951 he published Client-Centered Therapy.

In client-centered therapy, the client does a majority of the talking. The therapist does not concern himself with creating a diagnosis, or attempting to develop a method of treatment for the patient. The purpose of this therapy is to allow the client to feel as though what they are saying is being understood rather than judged. Rogers set forth some conditions that should be put on the therapist-client relationship in order for this therapy to work. These include being genuine, congruence between emotions and expression, transparency so that nothing is hidden from the client. This therapy allows for the client to explore feelings more deeply.

At the end of Roger’s life, he worked to have his theories applied to areas of national social conflict. He traveled to Ireland, South Africa, the Soviet Union, and also did work in the U.S. He received a variety of degrees and honorary awards for his work. Throughout his life, he wrote sixteen books and more than 200 professional articles. He was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers I used this site for information about Roger’s early life.

http://www.nrogers.com/carlrogersbio.html This site gave me information about his accomplishments and later life work.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/client_centered_therapy I used this for more information about Client-Centered Therapy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjTpEL8acfo&feature=related This video gave me a visual as well as include Roger’s explaining his own theory of client-centered therapy.

The person I have decided to do further research on is Jean Piaget. Piaget was from Switzerland and was a developmental psychologist but also had an interest in sciences. As well as psychology, he also worked in physiology. Piaget really liked children and would enjoy studying them. His theory of cognitive development tied into his studies of children and this was known as genetic epistemology. Piaget once stated that,” only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether violent of gradual."

In 1955 Piaget created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology. He did this until 1980. Piaget attended the University of Zeuchatel. Piaget was brilliant and published two philosophical papers but sadly they were dismissed because they were not taken serious enough. Piaget had been told that he had childish thoughts. While in college, Piaget also had an interest in psychoanalysis. Piaget worked under Alfred Binet and his intelligence test experiments. While watching children take tests Piaget noticed that they substantially made mistakes and got a lot of questions wrong. They usually got questions wrong that adults and older children would never have missed. This led Piaget to reason that young children's cognitive processes are different than adults.

Even though Piaget reasoned that children have different cognitive processes than adults, he also made clear that this did not make them less smart. In fact, they only think differently. Once Piaget was married, he had three children and observed them for his research. Piaget then started to take notice in cause and effect by repeating their own actions. Piaget called this "object permanence." Children learn by repeating their actions.

Piaget famously theorized that there are four developmental stages of a child once they are born. The first is sensorimotor defined by movement and senses, the second are the preoperational stage which is when the child starts to think for themselves. The third stage is the concrete operational stage, which is when children start to think logically. The fourth stage is the formal operational stage ranging from age 11 until death. This is when abstract reasoning develops.

In an experiment by Piaget, he took 15 boys ages 10 to 14 and asked them to describe the relationship between a bouquet of flowers that were mixed colors and a bouquet of flowers that were all the same color. This study was intended to see the thinking processes these boys used while trying to draw a conclusion about the flowers. This was one of many researches conducted by Piaget and he referred to this research style as psychometric technique.

Although Piaget was not well known in America, it is easy to say that his work is starting to make an impact on the way we view things today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget
Information about Piaget and his research methods.

http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html
Background information on the life of Piaget as well as his family.

I decided to do my research on Carl Rogers. I found him to be very interesting in chapter thirteen and I wouldn’t mind learning more about him. This is what I found.

Carl Rogers, born January 8th, 1902 to Walter A. Rogers and Julia M. Cushing in Oak Park (Chicago) Illinois. He was the fourth born out of six. Before Rogers was in kindergarten he was reading. Once he was old enough to enter school we went a religious school called Jimpley. While there he was an altar boy. Being an altar boy put Rogers in an awkward state. He became isolated from others and was very independent. On the bright side Rogers had a special knowledge for scientific method. However, when Rogers was finally off to college at University of Wisconsin-Madison, he made the choice to study agriculture and minor in religion.

While he was in college Rogers took a trip to China. The reason Rogers went to China was for a Christian conference. The conference made Rogers think about his religion and he started to doubt his belief. Having different feelings about it, Rogers went a seminar that was called “Why am I entering the Ministry? After this he officially dropped the religion courses. Rogers earned his bachelor's here.

Two years later Rogers left UofW and went to Columbia University where he got his Master (1928) and Doctorate (1931). He became interested in children study. In 1930 he was the director for Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children which was located in Rochester New York. In 1935 Rogers transferred over to the University of Rochester were he would give lectures and he even wrote a book titled “The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child” which was published in 1939.

The following year Rogers moved to Ohio State University where he became a clinical psychology professor. While at Ohio State he wrote his second book titled “Counseling and Psychotherapy” which was published in 1942.

Rogers returned to his home town in 1945 and was now teaching at the University of Chicago. A student of his, Thomas Gordon, who was also interesting in children studies, founded P.E.T also known as Parent Effectiveness Training. It’s not stated if Rogers was a part of P.E.T or not.

Rogers was the first person to be the President of the American Academy of Psychotherapists in the year of 1956. Once again, Rogers moved to a new school to teach, this time it was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He left from Madison just a year after becoming President. Just like before, Rogers wrote another book. This one called “On Becoming a Person”. This book was published in 1961. That same year Rogers became a ‘Fellow’ in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Rogers left the University in 1963 and headed to La Jolla where he became a part of the Center for Studies of the Person. He stayed in La Jolla for the remainder of his life. He dead from a pancreas failure after a surgery in 1987, however, a different site claims that Rogers died from a heart attach. Carl Rogers will always be remembered as founder and creator of non-directive therapy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers --> This is where I would most of my information. It’s also the site the stated that Rogers died from pancreas failure.
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rogers.htm --> I didn’t get much from this site. It didn’t tell me anything different from the other two.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/rogers.htm --> This site told me Rogers died of a heart attack. Since it is from a more educated site I think this one might be right.

The person I chose to do is Jean Piaget. As I stated in my Tuesday post, I always enjoy learning new things about Piaget and Developmental psychology and cognitive development, mostly I think because I can always compare so much to my daughter and other children and teens I know. He theorized that as children interact with their physical and social environments, they organize information into groups of interrelated ideas called "schemes"
Piaget also believed that intellectual development occurs in four distinct stages. The sensorimotor stage begins at birth, and lasts until the child is approximately two years old. At this stage, the child cannot form mental representations of objects that are outside his immediate view, so his intelligence develops through his motor interactions with his environment. I can remember so many different times this happening when Ayla (my daughter) was a baby. She would touch everything, grab for everything, and try to put everything no matter what it was or where she got it in her mouth. If I went to kiss her, she opened her mouth wide. If she wanted up to see something high, she pulled the object down or tried climbing up.
The preoperational stage typically lasts until the child is 6 or 7. According to Piaget, this is the stage where true "thought" emerges. Preoperational children are able to make mental representations of unseen objects, but they cannot use deductive reasoning. This is the stage my daughter is in now, and I think this would be a good example of Santa Clause. She is not questioning a thing about how he gets to every child in the world in one night, but although has never seen him, is 100% into him. She writes him letters and I can use “him” as a reason to change any behavior.
The concrete operations stage follows, and lasts until the child is 11 or 12. Concrete operational children are able to use deductive reasoning, demonstrate conservation of number, and can differentiate their perspective from that of other people. I think this would be when children in school start to have their own opinion about things and want to explain why they have that opinion. In Kindergarten, everyone is friends with everyone, but by 3rd and 4th grade, there are different groups.
Formal operations is the final stage. Its biggest feature is the ability to think abstractly. This would happen more with older children and adults (well, some adults )
He learned and studied a lot from his own children and looked quite a bit at their behavior of imitation and play. He noticed that between the age of six to ten months, they did not possess the notion of constancy and permanency of an object disappearing from view. I also remember going through this stage with my daughter, not only in just me leaving and her crying because she didn’t think I was coming back, but even in just playing peek a boo. If I would hide behind my hands, she would laugh everytime I appeared, like I was really gone.
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/piaget.shtml
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/piaget.htm
Piagets key ideas and a good chart of the stages of cognitive development
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm#Key Ideas

While reading chapter 14, I was immediately intrigued by Leon Festinger. I was familar with this name, since some of my other classes have referred to him, but didn't really know what he stood for. I also did not know that he attended the University of Iowa. In chapter 14, I learned that Festinger developed the theory of cognitive dissonance. This theory says that people are naturally motivated to be consistent to their thoughts, feelings and emotions. Its because of this fact that when individuals having conflicting emotions choose to reduce it as soon as possible. I liked the example of smoking from the book. It says that when an intelligent person smokes, they probably feel a sense of cognitive dissonance. Because they know it has been proven that smoking has a direct effect on your health, yet keep doing it, conflicted feelings are present. I decided to take that example one step further and say that if humans naturally want to reduce the unpleasant feeling of cognitive dissonance, they would push that negative thought to the back of their mind and finish their cigarette. This is because if the individual decided to stop smoking at that moment, they would not return to a feeling of internal consistency for quite some time. The individual may wrestle with the physical need for nicotine while the brain says no. While researching Festinger online, I learned that he also developed social comparison theory, which is the process through which people come to know themselves. This is by evaluating their own attitudes, abilities and beliefs and comparing them to others. I learned that upward social comparison is when individuals compare themselves to those that they feel are better than themselves. Downward social comparison is just the opposite, comparing ourselves to those who we feel are not as good as us. Although Festinger's theory has been modified several times since he first introduced it 1n 1954, it set a basic framework for a complex idea.
Overall, I liked this chapter. Although the book is called A History of Modern Psychology, some of the material in the beginning felt a little hard to connect to, in my opinion. Now that we are getting to the later chapters, I am realizing that some of the material we are studying happened in my lifetime. I feel like I have more of a connection with that than I do with information regarding Descartes who did his work in the 1600's. Happy blogging!

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/402700/november-17-2011/the-word---the-1-
http://psychology.about.com/od/sindex/g/Socialcomp.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_comparison_theory

I decided to look into Walter Freeman further. I was interested in the section in Chapter 13 on lobotomies and I wanted to know more about the procedure he performed and the patients involved.

Walter Freeman kept record of all the lobotomies that he perform estimating to around 3,439 in total. He developed a transorbital lobotomy. This procedure started with electric shock therapy where the patient was made unconscious. Then tools were inserted into the eye area which went towards the brain and disconnect some areas. Many people who watched this being done often were disgusted. However, beside the side affects there was many willing patients. A new drug called Thorazine was then produced which reduced the need for lobotomies. He then moved to the west coast and tried to bring the lobotomies to new people and new varieties of conditions. He applied it to many people including children and for reason as simple as being over active or unruly. One of his youngest patients was just four years old. Freeman eventually lost his license after attempting to take a photograph of a patient during the procedure and causing a tool to slip and the patients death.

Walter Freeman also photographed his patients. He would take a photo before and then afterward. He would show the result and if the after photo looked more pleasant or happy the lobotomy was often considered a success for the individual.

http://www.mcmanweb.com/lobotomy.html

General information and bio of how Walter Freeman developed the lobotomy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0aNILW6ILk

Shows the lobotomy procedure and explains the process Freeman did

http://www.sciencefriday.com/arts/2010/11/walter-freemans-photographs/

Shows photographs of individuals that Walter Freeman did lobotomies on and how he used this photos as evidence to support what he was doing.

The topic that I chose for this was the Hawthorne Effect. This fit into this chapter because it was an important finding for industrial, social, and research psychology. I think that this topic is interesting because I have seen examples of this happening in my life, and it was helpful to society to show that this does actually exist. I know personally when I know I am being watched I can alter my behavior. For example, if I am running outside and I see someone out in their yard, or driving towards me, I start going faster than when I didn’t know that I was being watched. This is a study that lead to many further studies that have been conducted.

This is a famous study, that did not become famous for what it was intending to find. This study was hoping to find what light bulbs would increase productivity at an AT&T plant in Hawthorne Illinois (where the study derived its name). The employees knew that they were participating in this study, so they felt as though they were “valued”, which caused their productivity to stay constant. The researcher, Elton Mayo, discovered that the reason for the lack of results was due to “human factors” and had nothing to do with the lighting.

One of the studies that were performed involved selecting two women who were asked to select four other workers to participate with them. They were observed in a special room over a five year time span. The researcher changed different variables such as giving them two 5 minute breaks, reducing the work day by 30 minutes, along with many other things. Each change increased productivity. However, a change from a 10 minute break back to the original 5 minute break would also increase productivity. Ultimately, the variable didn’t matter, the increase was due to the fact a change of some sort was occurring and they knew their productivity was being observed.

This study is still being applied to current research that is going on today. When Into. To Psych students perform an experiment at UNI, they typically go to Psych 1 and are observed in a lab setting. They clearly know that they are being observed and tested in some way. It is likely that some students are trying to perform well to make themselves look good, or trying to figure out what answer the researcher wants, instead of just being natural. This is something that is difficult to quantify, because it is not always certain if the Hawthorne Effect is confounding the researchers results.

http://www.experiment-resources.com/hawthorne-effect.html discussed how the Hawthorne Effect, effects research today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect a good overview of the Hawthorne Effect
http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/hawthorne/09.html A good background and history

For this week, I chose to write about client-centered therapy. As I mentioned before, I was interested in reading this chapter because I am in Clinical Psychology now. When we discussed Carl Rogers’ client-centered therapy we were not given many details concerning this type of therapy so I thought that this would be the perfect chance to learn more.

Client-centered therapy is also known as person-centered therapy. This therapy is a “non-directive form of talk therapy that was developed by humanist psychologist Carl Rogers during the 1940s and 1950s.” This is the most widely used approaches in psychotherapy. Carl Rogers was a humanist thinker. He believed that people were basically good and that people have a desire to fulfill their potential and become the best people they can be. At first, Rogers’ wanted to be as non-directive as possible, but then realized that therapists do guide clients even in refined ways. That is why Rogers first referred to his therapy as non-directive therapy. However, upon realizing that clients did look to the therapists for some type of guidance or direction, that is when the therapy changed to client-centered therapy. Rogers emphasized the “client” rather than referring to people as “patients.” I really liked the reasoning behind this: “he believed that the term patient implied that the individual was sick and seeking a cure from a therapist—by using the term client, Rogers emphasized the importance of the individual in seeking assistance, controlling their destiny and overcoming their difficulties.” I never really thought of the terms that way and I believe that it has changed the way I think about individuals seeking help. I often hear both terms being used, but like Rogers, I use the term “client” more so than “patient.”

Much like Sigmund Freud, Rogers believed that the relationship between the client and their therapist could lead to insights and lasting changes in a client. However, Rogers took a different approach to his clients and reinforced therapists to stay non-directive. This simply means for the therapist not to lead the client, should not pass judgments on the client’s feelings, and should not offer suggestions or solutions. The client is the one in control. The two key components in client-centered therapy are that it is non-directive and emphasizes unconditional positive regard, both have been listed above. However, Rogers believed that client-centered therapists also needed three certain qualities. These included genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathetic understanding. By genuineness, Rogers means that the therapist needs to share his or her feelings honestly which in turn this behavior will encourage the client to do the same thing. In unconditional positive regard, Rogers’ means that the therapist needs to accept their client for who they and display support and care no matter the circumstances. Lastly, empathetic understanding, Rogers believes that the therapist should be reflective, acting as a mirror of the client’s feelings, thoughts. The ultimate goal here was for the client to gain a clearer understanding of their own inner thoughts, perceptions and emotions.

Client-centered therapy helps clients find their own solutions to their own problems just by being able to talk. By being able to talk in an environment where they are not being judged and are not expected to act a certain way, it makes finding the answers much easier. So what types of conditions is this therapy beneficial? There are actually quite a few. Client-centered therapy is helpful in conditions such as depression, poor relationships, schizophrenia, anxiety, substance abuse, personality disorders, feelings of panic, stress, eating disorders, and phobias just to name a few. The benefits include greater ability to trust oneself, decrease in anxiety and feelings of panic, healthier relationships, open to new ideas and experiences, depression recovery, increased self-esteem, ability to express personal feelings and opinions, lessened guilt over past mistakes, decreased feelings of stress, and overall healthy sense of change. I found it amazing on how many different conditions that client-centered therapy helps treat as well as the many benefits one can get from receiving this type of therapy. This definitely helped me understand why this is such a popular approach in therapy.

After doing some research, I now have a better understanding of client-centered therapy. I feel like I was able to learn about a lot of the little facts that amounted to the creation of client-centered therapy, which I find very helpful. I almost look at it like a math problem; you can’t just write down the solution, there are certain steps one must take in order to find the answer. By making this reference, I believe that I will be able to remember this type of therapy in any given situation because I have applied it to a course that each of us has been taught since the first day of kindergarten. Client-centered therapy is the most widely used therapy and as we have seen, there are many benefits in taking this approach; it could be life changing.

http://psychology.about.com/od/typesofpsychotherapy/a/client-centered-therapy.htm : This was my favorite link because it was simple and straight forward. I found this link easy to understand because it didn’t have dramatically long explanations and didn’t use a bunch of scientific terms. I was able to gain a better understanding of client-centered therapy and was able to get an idea as to why it was brought about. Overall, it was a very helpful link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person-centered_therapy : I thought that this website was okay. I was able to find some information here and there that hadn’t been mentioned before, but for the most part I did not gain much more information by reading through this site.

http://www.casapalmera.com/articles/client-centered-therapy/ : I really enjoyed this website because it talked about the different conditions that client-centered therapy would be a beneficial approach. This website also included the benefits that client-centered therapy would have on a client. I also liked that this site alone is working to help individuals and even provides a confidential helpline, which I think is amazing. This shows individuals that they are open in helping whoever, whenever; and as we’ve learned, that’s the whole idea of client-centered therapy. I really like what they are doing and hope that it is a successful approach in getting people the help that they truly need.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew8CAr1v48M : I always enjoy watching videos that go along with what I have been reading about. This helps me take what I’ve learned on paper and then apply it to real life situations. I feel like I get a better understanding this way and am able to store the information in different parts of my memory. This video was a demonstration of what client-centered therapy looks like and also the process. I noticed that the therapist nodded and made sure that the client knew that they were paying attention by, in some way, repeating what the client is saying. By making the client feel comfortable in uncomfortable life circumstances is helpful for them to search for the answers they are looking for. The therapist simply listens to the clients’ solutions rather than telling them what to do.

I decided to find out more about Carl Rogers (one of the Big Names in humanistic psychology and so-called Father of Client-Centered Therapy [CCT]), simply because (as I mentioned in a previous post) many people seem to endorse his approach to counseling and I want to be able to make an informed choice about this myself. I also think it is awesome that his middle name was Ransom. Seriously, who would name a kid that?

Goodwin (p451) and Wikipedia both discuss how Rogers was raised in a conservative Protestant family and was originally interested in becoming a minister. Wikipedia adds an ironic note to the story by relating how Rogers changed his mind regarding his career choice following a seminar titled “Why am I entering the Ministry?” To me, this seems to underscore how environment can affect an individual’s outlook and choices (but that is more of a behavioralistic view).

Rogers went on to study at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1931 (Wikipedia). Rogers was “strongly influenced in constructing his client-centered approach by the post-Freudian psychotherapeutic practice of Otto Rank,” who was considered Freud’s right-hand man for 20 years (Wikipedia). In his second book, Counseling and Psychotherapy (1942), Rogers “suggested that the client, by establishing a relationship with an understanding, accepting therapist, can resolve difficulties and gain the insight necessary to restructure their life” (Wikipedia). This is the basis for client-centered therapy, and Rogers himself acknowledged his indebtedness to Freud and Rank (1946).

Rogers described the three distinctive characteristics of client-centered therapy as: 1) the predictable pattern of the process; 2) the client’s self-discovery of the client’s own capacity (i.e., constructive forces and strengths); and 3) the relationship between therapist and client (1946). He also felt that the approach could be applied effectively to other disciplines (e.g., medicine, education, public opinion surveys) (1946).

In client-centered therapy, therapists use a non-directive approach to “create a comfortable, non-judgmental environment by demonstrating congruence (genuineness), empathy, and unconditional positive regard,” which is supposed to provide patients with “an opportunity to develop a sense of self wherein they can realize how their attitudes, feelings and behavior are being negatively affected and make an effort to find their true positive potential” (Wikipedia). Well in keeping with the psychodynamic tradition, client-centered therapy depends upon the client overcoming psychological barriers and discovering the cure within themselves. It seems like a very ‘touchy-feely’ approach to me.

Critics, however, note “the vagueness of [client-centered therapy’s] principles, its antipathy to diagnosis, and its emphasis on the client's self-evaluation as the way to judge the outcome of therapy,” and say that it “may work less well with people who find it difficult to talk about themselves or have a mental illness that distorts their perceptions of reality” (Harvard Mental Health Letter, 2005, as cited in Medical News Today). This seems to reflect the discussion in Goodwin (p451).

I can understand how Rogers’ approach can be a useful tool (say, in building trust with a client, or working through cognitive issues); given the nature of the criticism, however, I don’t see how Rogers could think that it was applicable and effective in all situations. There are some disorders (e.g., schizophrenia*, antisocial personality disorder) that seem especially incongruent with this approach.

*Though some do claim that helping patients with schizophrenia accept and adjust to their condition is an effective treatment.

Wikipedia: Carl Rogers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers
Biographical info on Rogers.

Wikipedia: Person-centered therapy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person-centered_psychotherapy
Info on CCT.

Wikipedia: Otto Rank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Rank
I actually found that Rank was much more interesting than Rogers. I will be interested in reading more about him.

Rogers, C. (1946). Significant Aspects of Client-Centered Therapy. American Psychologist, 1, 415-422. Retrieved from
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Rogers/therapy.htm
Rogers’ own description of CCT.

The Harvard Mental Health Letter. (2005). Client-Centered Therapy Under The Microscope. Medical News Today. (Author). Retrieved from
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/35545.php
Criticism of CCT.