Free «Applied Psychology» Essay Paper

Impacts of Psychology in Our Lives

In my opinion, psychology makes significant differences in our lives in various ways. Firstly, psychology equips us with problem solving skills that enable us to identify and cope more effectively with various problems that we face in our everyday lives. Through psychology, people learn how to deal effectively with challenges of life such as economic, social and political problems. For instance, family and group therapies assist us in solving family problems such as infidelity in marriages and social issues such as conflicts and racial tensions.

Secondly, psychotherapy and psychological analysis helps individuals in identifying various unique qualities, values, attributes and talents that they possess. This helps us in understanding our personalities, during decision making processes and when setting personal goals and objectives for our lives. This also helps us in understanding our behaviors and conducts, for example, behavioral therapy assist in determining the causes of drug addiction and substance abuse.

 

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Thirdly, psychology assists us in understanding the causes and effects of our emotions, for example, causes of stress, depressions, nervousness and anger. Various psychological concepts such as neuropsychology and clinical, cognitive and psychodynamic therapies are also used in management of illnesses and chronic diseases amongst people. Neuropsychology also helps in understanding the functionality of our body systems.

My choice for the subject and why I selected it

The opinion-editorial piece I chose is an article that talks about how a young woman employed by a high-profile manufacturing company has been working hard at the workplace. The article elaborates various underlying issues that have led to the high commitment and dedication of the woman to her job. For example, it is stated that the woman is married and has two children. Thus, she is obligated to provide for her family (Edgar & Geare, 2009). The article focuses mainly on employee motivation and the various factors that lead to employee motivation.

I chose this article and topic because of its in-depth analysis of employee motivation and ability to relate the motivation of workers to psychology. The article illustrates that motivation of employees is a psychological process that entails providing employees with various materials, usually in form of compensation, which helps workers in meeting their social needs. Moreover, the article adequately elucidates how employers can use compensation to modify the behavior and conduct of workers.

Concepts or Tools of Applied Psychology that I intend to Use in the Opinion-Editorial Piece

Some of the major concepts and tools of applied psychology that I intend to use in the opinion-editorial piece include behavioral therapy, intrinsic motivation and diagnosis concepts.

Behavioral Therapy

Behavioral therapy entails the study of conducts of people and use of appropriate treatment approaches to address various challenges that people face due to their behaviors and conducts. For example, behavioral therapy can be used to help a drug addict to stop abusing drugs and other substances through rehabilitation. During the behavioral therapy process, the rehabilitator would identify various causes of drug abuse and addiction and the effects of drugs on the life of the addict. For example, it may be revealed that the patient started using drugs as a result of peer pressure. Such information would then be used to formulate and develop appropriate rehabilitation approaches to assist the drug addict to refrain from drug abuse. I chose behavioral therapy because of its ability to provide greater insights on the behaviors and conducts of people.

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Intrinsic Motivation Concept

According to Goldstein (2011) and Burtt (2009), intrinsic motivation refers to inspiration and enthusiasm that is generated from within an individual. It is a concept of applied physiology that deals with how people get motivated and inspired from within. For example, students who want to be successful in the future are motivated from within, and strive to pass their examinations and get good jobs.

I chose intrinsic motivation as a concept of applied psychology because it adequately elaborates how various intrinsic factors such as the urge to succeed affect inspirations and motivations of people. The concept of intrinsic motivation is based on internal factors that drive or push people to act in particular ways. For example, the woman in the article was driven by the urge to provide for her family (Edgar & Geare, 2009). She was motivated to work harder because she wanted to meet various social needs in her life.

Diagnosis Concept

Diagnosis is a concept of applied psychology that involves evaluation and assessment of a situation or problem in order to gain insights and understanding, and to develop appropriate solutions for dealing with the problem. It involves analyzing the situation and coming up with alternative solutions. I chose diagnosis because of its ability to provide us with insightful examination and analysis of social problems and issues that we face in our daily lives. For example, through diagnosis and behavioral therapy, a family therapist would be able to establish and understand the underlying issues that cause infidelity amongst married couples.

Difficulties Experienced As I Was Doing the Assignment

One of the difficulties I experienced when doing the assignment was how to effectively choose, select and decide on a high-quality opinion-editorial piece from the local newspapers that comprehensively addresses applied psychology concepts. Although I found numerous opinion-editorial pieces in the newspapers, most of the pieces were not tackling applied psychology in greater details. Moreover, most of the pieces did not have adequate psychological tools and concepts. Thus, I had to look for a huge collection of old newspapers. I had to assort hundreds of newspapers in order to find the most suitable article to review.

Secondly, I experienced difficulties in identifying the most appropriate areas in life in which concepts and tools of applied psychology can be applied, for instance, cognitive behavioral analysis and intrinsic motivation concepts can be used to inspire employees within an organization. Despite all these difficulties, I found it interesting to tackle the assignment.

How Writing for a Local Periodical Differs From Writing for Class

In my opinion, writing for a local periodical requires good understanding of the topic to discuss or review. A person who writes an article for a local periodical must have sufficient knowledge, skills and comprehensive understanding about the topic he or she intends to discuss in the periodical. The writer must be highly conversant with the topic of discussion.

Moreover, writing for a local periodical requires high level of professionalism. For example, the writer must know various contemporary issues and emerging trends in the field of study or about the topic of discussion in the periodical. In addition, the writer must know how to effectively introduce the topic of discussion in a manner that would adequately capture, seize and compel the interests of the readers. Use of appropriate language that is not vulgar or colloquial must also be observed by the writer for a local periodical.

Last but not least, writing for a local periodical requires high levels of creativity, innovativeness and uniqueness. Each piece of article submitted for publication in a local periodical must be unique and exceptional.

Most Important Thing I Learned

The most important thing that I learned is how to apply the skills, concepts and tools of applied psychology learned in class in the real world. I also learned how to be a better writer, especially for local periodicals.