by Amanda on July 12, 2010
A commonly held belief: Blonds are “dumb” ….but have more fun.
However, hair color clearly does not determine intelligence.
What sort of purpose must the dumb blond “phenomenon” serve?
One possibly is that “dumb blond” jokes are used by insecure individuals to comfort themselves with yet another mislead, another distraction from looking into their own psyches.
How is the underlying fallacy not obvious? There are plenty of intelligent blonds in the world…and plenty of *less intelligent* brunettes. Why then do we so easily buy into such -dumb- stereotypes?
Think of the blond girls amongst whom society asserted the belief that their purpose was anything other than to share intelligent conversation. What has the effect been? Were they not given the same opportunities as little brunette girls for learning? When the environment asserted so-called “stupidity” amongst little blond girls did they deter growth in the individuals? I doubt I can see the outcome any other way.
And what about cultural differences? In which societies is blond a hair color and not a level of intelligence? And why, I ask… it seems the differential may indeed be scarcity of natural blond hair, perhaps? For example, in Scandinavia or other Northern European countries, do blond jokes carry the same weight as they do in the U.S.?
(sharing of opinions is always welcomed here)
by Amanda on June 4, 2010
IQ is commonly disregarded as relevant. Many of my acquaintances who have 1) taken a intro to psych class, 2) psych majors, or 3) social work majors (who inevitably have been required to take several psych classes at a minimum) just don’t seem to get the importance of IQ. I’m not talking about people who say the IQ test is limited; I refer instead to those who just do not want to acknowledge or are not being taught properly. I think we seriously suffer because of the lack of understanding regarding IQ significance.
Real Life Application
Most must disregard the level of difficulty posed to the upper and lower echelon. Surely both groups struggle in different ways. Is gifted an impairment? Does it end up hurting individuals?
Teaching Comparisons: Upper, Lower 2%
Take two people of the same age: One of the upper and one from the lower echelon. Compare via interview for data about the subjective experience. Optimal presentation of the data would be in live audiovisual form. There are of course ethical concerns but the benefit would be great of teaching such concepts.
by Amanda on February 27, 2010
1. Bring up any behavioral concerns as early as possible
You may not be aware that ignoring undesirable behaviors communicates the behavior is allowed. Your team members are more likely to feel respected if you address such issues soon after they become apparent. Without proper addressing of such issues, your team may feel you are not giving them a chance to succeed.
2. Praise individual team member’s successes, as well as team successes
Praise has long been known to be an effective method in teaching and guiding behaviors. However, praise that is not sincere, genuine, based on reality, or given too often will not build your team nor build your respect as a manager. Pay attention to your team members; find strengths that set them apart from the rest of the group. Also, praising team success is equally important and builds group cohesion.
3. Believe in the power of failure and mistakes. Profess this power to your team periodically. [Read More…]
by Amanda on January 10, 2010
The more interested you are, the more the info will be burned into your brain! Find some angle that you find interesting. Additionally, those happy “interest” brain chemicals enhance learning. [Read More…]
by Amanda on December 2, 2009
Cognitive psychology involves the study of mental processes as well as how people think, perceive, remember, and learn. It is one of the many broad fields of cognitive science which also includes neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics. The main thrust of cognitive psychology is on how information is acquired, processed, and stored. There is a wide range of applications for cognitive research, such as methods on improving memory, increasing accuracy in decision making, and structuring the educational curriculum to boost learning.
During the 1950s, behaviorism was the dominant school of psychology. However, towards the 1950 to the 1970s, there was a shift in the tide against behaviorism towards attention, memory, and problem solving. This period, which was called as the cognitive revolution, created intensive research using processing models, cognitive research methods, and the first use of the word “cognitive psychology.”
Cognitive psychology traces its roots from the works of prominent psychologists such as Wilhelm Wundt, Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Koffka, and Jean Piaget. The term was coined by Ulric Neisser in his 1967 book of the same title.
There are several notable differences of cognitive psychology with other schools of thought in the field of psychology. In contrast with behaviorism,which focuses on observable behaviors, cognitive psychology centers on internal mental states. With psychoanalysis, which is heavily dependent on subjective perceptions, cognitive psychology invokes the scientific method in studying mental processes.
Cognitive psychology requires an intensive study. In general, it starts with looking at how sensory input can be converted into beliefs and actions using cognition. Compared with other fields of psychology, it is more scientific as it employs experimentation and verification.
Cognitive psychology encompasses several disciplines which is why it is often studied in other disciplines. Students who are into behavioral neuroscience, linguistics, industrial psychology, artificial intelligence, among others can benefit from taking cognitive psychology.
By learning the methods involved in processing, learning, and recalling information, teachers, educators, and curriculum designers can do their work better. By understanding internal mental states and processes, engineers, scientists, artists, and designers can benefit from their study of cognitive psychology.
Cognitive psychologists are also involved in a wide range of areas. In studying the human thought process, cognitive psychologists use applied or basic research. Aside from that, they also work in the field of the academe, government service, corporations, and private consulting. They occupy positions such as university instructor, human factors consultant, industrial manager, and usability specialist.
Interested to learn about cognitive psychology? Psychology Fitness provides helpful information about psychology online.
More: Cognitive Psychology memory tips
