Prompted Post #3: Exploring Writing Processes

The prompted post for this week was to interview someone who works in the profession that you are interested in going into. Since I am interested in Psychology as a whole, and still don't know what I want to do exactly, I decided to interview my Industrial and Organizational Psychology professor to get some information on her career.

I will go through the series of questions that I asked Professor Chang, an I/O Psychologist at Michigan State University, about her career, as well as the writing processes and types of communication that her job requires.

Q: 1) What made you want to become an I/O Psychologist?

A: Professor Chang told me that she knew she wanted to go into psychology because she was always interested in the interactions and relationships between people. She first tried shadowing a clinical psychologist in a hospital, but she quickly learned that that sort of work just wasn't for her. She couldn't handle the mental patients who where too far gone to make any progress with, and didn't like the environment. That's when she decided she wanted to pursue a career that was applicable to the general population of people. Since the general population of people are involved in the workplace, she decided that I/O psychology was the perfect fit for her.

Q: 2) What type of work and research do you conduct?

A: She not only is a professor of I/O psychology courses, she also conducts and publishes her own research. The main focus of her work is on occupational health. She studies how an individuals work life and experiences in the workplace relate and interact with their family and home life. She wants to find out how certain stressors in one area of a persons life can affect the other parts of their life.

Q: 3) What are some benefits to your job, are you rewarded in any way?

A: Her favorite part of her job is teaching students about I/O psychology. Its quite a feeling to be able to benefit kids like that and help them grow. She loves to introduce new students to the field and get them interested in it, not only to benefit them, but to benefit and expand the new and emerging field of psychology. She also likes to interact with graduate students and work on research with them.

Q: 4) What are your primary methods of communication?

A: Since she is a professor, her biggest type of communication is oral. Most of her time is spent lecturing, in meetings, or discussing research with her colleagues. She like to meet and discuss things with her students as well. Another big part of her communication is emailing students and other researchers in her profession. The third type of communication she uses is summarizing her data and publishing it in psychology magazines.

Q: 5) How have you learned to communicate in your field, was there anything you had to adapt to?

A: The one type of communication she had to learn was the technical and professional writing of APA (American Psychological Association). The research she publishes is in a different, technical type of language. She said that the language and writing in this field changes frequently and its difficult to stay updated and adapt.

Q: 6) What are your personal long term goals and plans for the future?

A: She plans on further pursuing her research while teaching more courses at MSU. In her research she wants to further investigate the health and wellness of employees in the workplace, as well as the stress and issues they face both in their work and home lives. Something else she plans on doing is conducting interventions with the topic of stress and work on family life so she can help to solve the many issues that workers face.


I learned a lot of new things from this interview with Professor Chang. I just want to thank her again for her time to sit down and talk with me. I feel like I am in the same position that she was in when she decided this career was for her, and I feel like I have the same passions that she does. I'm starting to thing I would enjoy this career since I also enjoy learning about the interactions of people and how their health, wellness, and stress in some parts of their life can carry over to other parts. The work place is such a applicable field because much of the general population is involved in it. I am excited to finish her I/O class and get to learn more about this field. It wasn't surprising that much of her communication is oral since she is a professor, but I was surprised when she told me the only type of writing she does is her publications. Overall, I think this was a rewarding experience to get to talk with her and I'm excited to see what the future holds for me in this field.

Free Post #3: How Psychologists Are Depicted in Film

Many times when film producers try to represent careers in the movies, they represent them completely different from the truth. When it comes to representing psychologists in movies, just how accurate are they?

I started wondering about this when I started my Industrial and Organizational Psychology class this semester. I didn't know what Industrial and Organizational psychology, but from this class, I've learned a lot. The very first day of the class my professor showed us a clip from Office Space. We discussed how Industrial and Organizational Psychologists were reenacted in much of the movie, and we concluded that they were pretty accurate in doing so.

I was very curious about this because It is one of the many psychology based jobs that I am considering on pursuing. Many people have no clue what I/O psychologists even do. Here is a clip from the movie 'Office Space', which can give you an idea.

I/O Psychologists are a very unique type of psychology. It is the psychology of the business world. The two men who you just saw interviewing the worker are I/O psychologists. They are hired by companies, to identify the effectiveness of the companies workers.

The workers go through job evaluations where they get interviewed. The Psychologists do this to get an idea of what each worker actually does for the company, and how valuable they are to the company. They can then calculate and determine whether the company is over or under hiring workers, and if they are over hiring they can help the company identify which employees to keep as well as the ones they should let go. This decision is all based on the I/O's data of how effective and valuable each employee is to the company.

The goal is to save the company money by getting the most effective use of their employees. That is why the primary areas of  I/O Psychology are selection, training, organizational development, performance management, quality of work life, and human factors.

In conclusion, it is clear that the movie 'Office Space' did a pretty good job at giving the audience an inside look at I/O psychologists. I am excited to learn more about Industrial and Organizational Psychology when I interview my Professor this Friday. Stay tuned and by next week I will go through the interview with her so we can get an even closer look and real life look into the world of I/O or Business Psychology.

Sources:
 Cornhol24. "People Skills Office Space the Bobs." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Chang, C. "Lectures #1-7." Industrial and Organizational Psychology Class (PSY 255). North Kendze Hall, East Lansing, MI. Jan. 2014. Lecture.

Free Post #2: Psychology in Sports

Anyone who has played a competitive sport knows that it is a mental game just as much as it is physical. As an athlete, you cant just go out there mentally unprepared and expect to play your best.  It takes a lot of mental preparation before the game in order to compete.

After the recent MSU Rose Bowl Victory, I was curious as to whether or not there was a field of psychology behind this. Turns out there is. The people who study this mental preparation are called Sports Psychologists. They research and test different mental preparation techniques to see what best helps athletes get ready to play.

Some athletes have rituals and other techniques to get them ready to play. But for those who are unaware or are struggling to get themselves in the game, I found a list of methods from various websites, that are discovered by sports psychologists and are proven to help get athletes past mental barriers so they can be psychologically to the right place.These techniques help to build confidence in athletes, which has a positive correlation with actual performance.

1. Goal Setting :
 It is important to identify what specific goals you have before you go out on the field, court, or rink. Whether it is to score a hat trick, get the most assists, or not let anything past you, when you can give your mind some type of focus, you will be more likely to achieve that goal. It gives the mind a direction and you will be more motivated and determined to follow through with the goal when you identify it before hand.

2. Relaxation/ Increasing Intensity :
Depending on the sport and each persons preferences, some athletes like to get them selves relaxed before games, whiles others like to pump themselves up. Its whatever physiological state you preform better in. No matter which one you choose, it is still important to learn how to regulate the anxiety with relaxation techniques such as controlled breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. In order to get yourself pumped up, a great way is by moving your body to heart pumping, intensity key words such as 'Charge' and 'Hustle'. These words will generate positive thoughts and emotions. And of course music is a great way to generate energy, excitement and intensity in an athlete.

3. Self Talk :
Your thoughts control everything you do. They influence feelings and behaviors without us even being aware. Therefore it is important for the athlete to identify if these thoughts are positive or negative. The goal is to harness the negative thoughts and counteract them by replacing them with positive ones, or even re framing the negative thoughts so you can them from a different perspective and in a new light. When you can self talk your mind into thinking positively, you will be way more likely to reflect those positive thoughts through your actions on the field.

4. Imagery :
Personally, I think imagery is the most effective technique to get an athlete mentally prepared. It allows you to  retreat to a place that is calm. When you imagine what you are going to do in the game, you can mentally push your self to become stronger and better, way further then you can in actual life. You can allow yourself to visualize the game, the sounds, and the smells. When visualizing you can control every play, movement, and outcome, to end the way that you want. This can mentally get yourself to a place where you are ready to go out there and play just like you pictured yourself in your head. When athletes can visualize them coming out on top and performing how they want, confidence is built and they will be more confident to do this in the actual game.

5. Intrinsic Motivation :
An individual who is intrinsically motivated will be likely to perform the task for only the inner satisfaction of accomplishing it. When the only reason the athlete wants to go out there is for himself, and nothing else, he is more like to be more motivated, and will seek out challenges. They will more likely be maximally engaged. A good way to intrinsically motivate yourself is by identifying the reasons why you started playing the sport, and why you continue to do it. As an athlete when you recognize you are passionate about the game and that's why you play, you will be more likely to preform at your peak.

These Psychology techniques are powerful enough to determine an athletes performance in a game.
I have concluded that different methods work for different people; they just have to find what fits the best. For example, I used to play soccer, and the things that most benefited me were imagery, music, intrinsic motivation , and self talk. Sports are a mental game, and psychology can help any athlete ready to play.

Sources:

USTA. "Sports Psychology: Mental Skills for Achieving Optimum Performance | USTA."Sports Psychology: Mental Skills for Achieving Optimum Performance. United States Tennis Association, 2014. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.

Prompted Post #2: Comparing a Psychology Blog to a Scholarly Article on Psychology

Lets face it; no matter what type of source is being used, reading about Psychology is fascinating. We get to learn all about ourselves as human beings and what could be more interesting than that!

But, have you ever stopped and noticed what source this information is coming from? Was it a scholarly article written by a professional? Or was it just some blog that a random person created for your entertainment.
If you did stop and notice, you may have noticed several differences in the delivery and style of the two pieces.

I recently read an article written by a psychology professional from the American Psychological Association Website, a online database full of articles and publications by psychologists. It was an article about how to reduce anxiety by telling yourself to get excited as opposed to telling yourself to calm down. When I started reading the article, the first thing I noticed was how professional of a manner it was written in. It was strictly to the point. The tone was serious, showing no emotion or voice whatsoever. When talking about the studies that were done, the word choice was precise, using complicated language.

It is obvious that the purpose of the article is to educate with true facts and real information. It is also clear that the intended audience are other professionals, scholars, students, and the educated public.
I still learned a ton from this article, and wouldn't let the professionalism stop you from checking it out. It was very fascinating and filled with a ton of quality information.

I also happened to stumble upon a psychology blog called PsyBlog. It is an awesome website full of interesting articles about psychology. The topics they touch on in the blog are everything from how comedians have psychotic personality traits to how falling in love only takes a fifth of a second. The article I read was about how attractive students tend to get higher grades. The first difference you can notice is how the topics in the blog are much more interesting then the topics on the APA website. The next thing I noticed was that the layout, font, and word choice of the article was much more relaxed than the first one. The article in the blog did not use such complicated language either. Everything was kept more simple and easy to understand. Its written more journalistic which kept my attention much longer.

It is clear that the purpose of this article is the entertain, while also providing some facts and reasoning. The intended audience is the general public and people with minimal background in psychology, who just want to be entertained.

Both were interesting articles and I encourage you to check them out!

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/12/performance-anxiety.aspx
http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/12/attractive-students-get-higher-grades.php

Sources:
Brooks, Allison Wood. "Getting Excited Helps with Performance Anxiety More Than Trying to Calm Down, Study Finds." APA. American Psychological Association, 23 Dec. 2013. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. <http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/12/performance-anxiety.aspx>.

(“Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement,” Alison Wood Brooks, PhD, Harvard Business School; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, online)

Dean, Jeremy. "Attractive Students Get Higher Grades." Web log post. PsyBlog. Hostgator, 18 Dec. 2013. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.

Free Post #1: How The Media Uses Psychology

We are influenced by the people around us. Their actions and behaviors are partially what determines ours. This is known by many different names, but they all social influence techniques.The media does a great job to take advantage of these social influence techniques in commercials and advertisements. They use the techniques to persuade the audience and to make them think that they need to buy a product.

An example of one of the social influence techniques used in the media is a a Pepsi Max commercial from a couple of years ago that I found at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPGM4ZCwemo



As you can see, the yawn sets off a chain reaction, which influences everyone else in the commercial to yawn. They are thinking about yawning until they see someone else do it, and this triggers an yawn in them. The examples of social influence in the commercial was mirroring and conformity. Mirroring is mimicking the gestures, facial expressions, words, and behaviors of a person they are interacting with. In the commercial, everyone is mirroring each other because they are influenced to do so.

Another reason that the people in the video are influenced to yawn could be because of social empathy. When the people around us feel a certain way, we tend to feel the same way as well. Their mood rubs off on us. In this case the people are feeling tired because the people around them are too. The tiredness rubs off on them and they end up yawning because they feel the same way the other people feel.

This is an effective commercial because it uses 'priming' of the audience. When watching the commercial you are also likely to yawn. You then feel tired just like everyone else in the commercial. Then when the Pepsi Max comes on, the viewer of the commercial is more likely to go purchase it because they feel tired and need energy. The commercial primes the viewer to be tired so they need energy. This is a every effective social psychology technique and is the reason this commercial was such a success.


Source of video:
 “Diet Pepsi Max “Yawn”.” YouTube. YouTube, 9 Mar 2012. Web. 21 January 2014
Cesario, Professor J. "Social Psychology (PSY 235)." Course Lecture. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Fall 2013. Lecture.

Prompted Post #1: 10 Questions

There are 10 questions I have about the Psychology in the Professional world. I found the answers to these questions in the books and places cited at the bottom.

      1.    What jobs are there in psychology?

Many of the students who take psychology don’t go on to study it professionally. They just apply the principles they learn to their own profession. Therefore there are many career opportunities when it comes to psychology since it can relate to virtually any profession. The jobs within psychology vary as well. There are laboratory jobs, which the psychologists spend their day conducting experiments and students. There are also psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors who spend their time talking with people to help them to solve their problems. However, I am going to focus on a variety of jobs that use psychology theories within their jobs.

      2.    What is the main goal that social psychologists have
      To explain the motives and behaviors of people in everyday life. The main goal is to find the reason behind why people do what they do, which then allows them to predict what the person will do when faced in a given situations.

      3.   What types of departments are there within psychology?

The different departments in psychology each focus of their own specialty. Social psychology is the study of the interactions of people in the social world. Industrial and organizational psychology is the study of the workplace. Behavioral psychology is the study of the behaviors or people and predicting how they will act. Neuroscience psychology is the study of the chemical processes in the brain. All of these can be related to the real world.

    4.    What types of obstacles do psychologists face?

Social Psychology, as well as every other department in psychology has a lot obscurity, vagueness, and confusion. There is no set nature of elements or laws that exist. Everything is to be taken for interpretation. It is based on a classification of intellectual processes of comparison and the relationships between people. There is no right or wrong answer in psychology, everything is simply assumed which makes it difficult for psychologists to be taken seriously.

    5.    What are the qualifications in psychology?
       To just simply use psychology with your professions only takes a couple of basic psych courses, or even a minor in psychology. However, to be a psychologist it is necessary to receive a degree in psychology. The higher degree, the more money that can be made. To be a psychiatrist who prescribes medicine requires a doctoral degree in psychology.

      6.    Why is psychology useful in everyday life?

It helps us to make sense of the world around us. Without it we would have no way to explain people, their interactions or behaviors. It is useful because it can relate to so many aspects of life and it is used multiple times a day in multiple situations. 

      7.    How has psychology been used in history?

During the World War a group of psychologists from the American Psychological association developed standardized tests in order to place men in the best given job. The aptitude test identified a man’s special ability and where he should be placed in the army. These are also called vocational tests which are still used to this day.

      8.    What important qualities must you have to be a psychologist?

To be a psychologist it is important to be an understanding person. You have to be good at perspective taking in order to see things from another person’s point of view in order to understand why they did what they did. You must also have self-awareness and be able to understand yourself.

9.     Is psychology a competitive field?
Yes, psychology is a growing field. There is a high demand to explain the behaviors behind people because of the shocking events that take place in our country and around the world. There has been multiple random school shootings and terrorists attacks so people want to do know the reasoning behind why someone would do something like that.

10.   How long has the science of psychology been around for?
Psychology didn't emerge until the late 1800's. It is one of the newest sciences out there. It grew out of Philosophy since both studies are based on human thought and behavior. The first type of psychology was structuralism. This grew into several other thoughts and specialties, and has grown all the way to technological psychology in the present day of computers.


Sources:

• Evans, Richard I, and Richard M. Rozelle. Social Psychology in Life. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1970. 
• Varnum, Walter C. Psychology In Everyday Life. New York: McGraw-Hill book company, inc., 1938.
• Cherry, Kendra. "The Origins of Psychology." About.com Psychology. About.com, 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.
• Cesario, Professor J. "Social Psychology (PSY 235)." Course Lecture. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Fall 2013. Lecture.