[58] Psychology, sociology and behaviorism

Hello everyone,
sorry for posting that so late, but I've caught a cold;( Autumn is definitely not my favourite season.

The post today has been requested by a girl who would like to improve and extend her vocabulary connected to psychology, sociology and behaviorism in order to prepare herself for studying abroad. I am happy to help her, that's why I invite you all to get familiar with new vocabulary and some psychological facts. Enjoy!

Mini-vocabulary

 abnormal - odstający od normy

acquired - nabyty

mental illness - choroba umysłowa

impaired functioning - niepoprawne działanie

disorder - zaburzenie

odd number - nieparzysta liczba

stimuli (pl.) -  bodźce

deferred gratification - opóźniona gratyfikacja

Let's answers a few basic questions.

What is psychology?

Psychology is both an applied and academic field that studies the human mind and behaviour. There are different types of division of psychology and branches of psychology, i. e. structuralism and functionalism, humanistic psychology or psychoanalysis. Examples:

Abnormal Psychology

Biological Psychology (biopsychology)

Clinical Psychology 

Comparative Psychology

What is behaviorism?

Behaviorism is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning.

What is sociology?

Sociology is the study of of people, how society is organized, how we experience life and how we interact with others.

What is mental illness?

"The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) explains, that mental illness refers to various mental disorders that are diagnosed. Mental disorders involve alternations in a person’s mood, behavior and thinking  (or some combination of the three). This results in distress and/or impaired functioning. Mental disorders can be categorized under organic brain disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and psychotic disorders."

Common mental illnesses and disorders:

anxiety - niepokój

depression - depresja

delirium- majaczenie

distress- rozpacz

eating disorders - zaburzenia odżywiania

obsessional behaviour - zachowania obsesyjne

phobias- fobie

psychosis - psychoza

for example:

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

"Though there’s something funny to be said about a guy who has to switch the light switch on and off an odd number of times between the number 35 and 47 dependent on the number of days in the month (it’s the start of my favorite joke, actually), OCD can be an incredibly harmful disorder. Even more worryingly, 1 in 100 adults has some form of OCD. It might be mild, but then it might also be serious, like having to open every bag of potato chips at your store before you buy them to ensure there aren’t any brown ones in your packet. "

Mental disorders facts, so did you know, that:

- The 18-24 year age group has the largest number of people with mental illness.

- One third of people who are admitted with a mental illness to hospitals are less than 30.

- Roughly 2.5 million Canadian adults, 18 and older will have a depressive disorder 

- Approximately 19.1 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 13.3 % of people in this age group, have an anxiety disorder in a given year

- Anxiety disorders frequently co-occur with depressive disorders, eating disorders, or substance abuse.

- Many people have more than one anxiety disorder

- An estimated 22.1 % of Americans ages 18 and older—about 1 in 5 adults—suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.

- One out of four American families has a relative who has a mental illness.

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A few chosen psychological experiments:

"Little Albert" experiment.

The "Little Albert" experiment was a famous psychology experiment conducted by behaviorist John B. Watson and graduate student Rosalie Raynor. The participant in the experiment was a child that Watson and Rayner called "Albert B.", but is known popularly today as Little Albert. Around the age of nine months, Watson and Rayner exposed the child to a series of stimuli including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks and burning newspapers and observed the boy's reactions. The boy initially showed no fear of any of the objects he was shown.

The next time Albert was exposed the rat, Watson made a loud noise by hitting a metal pipe with a hammer. Naturally, the child began to cry after hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly pairing the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry simply after seeing the rat"

The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a study on deferred gratification conducted in 1972 by psychologist Walter Mischel of Stanford University. A marshmallow was offered to each child. If the child could resist eating the marshmallow, he was promised two instead of one. The scientists analyzed how long each child resisted the temptation of eating the marshmallow, and whether or not doing so was correlated with future success. Although the experiment has been repeated many times since, the original study at Stanford has been considered "one of the most successful behavioural experiments".

Specialist terminology:

Innate behaviour - zachowanie wrodzone

learned behaviour - zachowanie nabyte

conditioning - warunkowanie

mental functions - funkcje umysłowe

perception - postrzeganie

cognition - pojmowanie

emotion - emocja

phenomenology - fenomenologia

behavior - zachowanie

interpersonal relationships - relacje interpesonalne

unconscious mind - nieprzytomny umysł

empirical methods - metody doświadczalne

psychosocial variables - zmienne psychospołeczne

symbolic interpretation - interpretacja symboliczna

inductive techniques - techniki induktywne

cognitive-behavioural therapy - terapia poznawczo-behawioralna

experiment - doświadczenie

observable behaviors - zachowania możliwe do obserwacji

reflex - reakcja na bodzieć

reinforcement - wzmocnienie

 punishment- kara

behavior pattern - wzorzec zachowań

behavior analysis - analiza zachowań

social behaviors - zachowania społeczne

social factors - czynniki społeczne

Alienation - alienacja

Conformity - dostosowanie

Deviance - dewiacja, odchylenie od normy

Dysfunction - dysfunkcja

Experimental group - grupa eksperymentalna

Expressiveness - ekspresywność

False consciousness - fałszywa świadomość

Resocialization - resocjalizacja

More definitions and explanation:
Sociology glossary
Psychology glossary
More about psychology

Psychology articles for everyone

Mental disorders:
Types of mental illnesses
List of mental disorders
A list of psychological disorders

Psychological experiments: 
Top 10 Unethical Psychological Experiments
Wikipedia List of Psychology Experiments 
5 Psychological Experiments That Prove Humanity is Doomed 
10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies
 

Polsko-angielski słownik psychologiczny:

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I hope you know more about psychology now and that you have learnt the basic terms which will enable your exploration of human minds. Let me know what you think about it and what is your opinion about mental disorders?