The Vastness of Psych

2007-44172
Corrina P. Azarcon
From love surveys to bargains up to sterilized cockroaches – This group sharing made me realize how much Psychology can encompass. While I was listening to my group mates, I could not help but notice how different were the kinds of articles each of us discussed. Mine was the one about the relationship of threats and good bargains. I told them that I chose that article because I was particularly interested in bargaining. Actually, when I clicked the link to the article in the Internet, I was thinking of bargaining as something people do whenever they’re buying. I was actually thinking of a scenario in Greenhills or in 168. In fact, I was secretly hoping that I could get some tips on how to bargain so that I could make better deals whenever I’m shopping. After I read it, I realized that I don’t just bargain in malls and stores – I bargain every time and everywhere. The researchers mainly used the descriptive and experimental methods. There was no problem with the operationalization, also, the variables were easy to measure. I think the main limit of this study is the number of participants. The research only involved a few participants. When I was sharing it to the group, I mentioned the analogy made in the article – If a neighbor asked me to water her plants while she’s away, then it would be perfectly fine with me; however, If she threatens to destroy all my plants if I won’t water hers, then that would be a different thing. Threats indeed result to resentment. Ponyang chose her article for the same reason as mine. The title “why we get disgusted” made her curious. Actually, I, too, found her article interesting. A glass of orange juice with a sterilized cockroach dipped in it… I’d certainly hesitate if I were asked to drink from that glass! It turns out from the study that people usually think that clean things become dirty when put beside a “dirty” thing. I think the experiment was performed systematically, and the naturalistic observations seem to be valid. I have observed this phenomenon a lot of times already. Thus, the conclusion makes sense to me. Lee, meanwhile, chose a more cliché topic, and that is – love. “How do I know that I’m in love?” It’s a question that a lot of people have already asked, and Lee found it interesting. He even joked that he wants to confirm if he’s in love. However, as the researcher openly admitted, it is very hard to quantify love. The study was conducted by asking people who are in love about how they feel. The interviewees gave out really interesting answers, but I somehow doubt whether the conclusions are valid enough to be published. I think that love is a very vague and complicated feeling that can’t be quantified. Also, different people may experience it in very different ways. In contrast to the aforementioned articles, the article that Eira has chosen was more on the serious side of Psychology. It’s about the likelihood of college students to develop alcohol-use disorder in relation to the history of their families’ alcoholism. She said she chose it because she could relate to the topic. It was conducted using surveys answered by college students, and the relationship of the factors was determined. I think this is the best method that could be used to answer the research question, because the factors can’t be controlled in an experiment. This study is very relevant, especially for the lives of young college students. Research studies such as this must be often conducted in order to understand students more, thus enabling their respective schools and peers to help and assist them. Camille, meanwhile, brought an article that I found quite too technical. The research problem was, in fact, “why are there systematic differences between people?” Honestly, it appeared somehow boring to me. I’d like to know the results, but the research article was quite hard to read. The terms were too scientific. Camille, however, expressed her interest in that study. Perhaps, she has the makings of a hardcore psychologist. The descriptive and correlational methods were both used to facilitate the research. I think the problem is that they interviewed only psychiatrists about military patients. The fact that the interviewees were all psychiatrists and the other participants were patients may have distorted the generalization. All in all, I’d say that each of us in the group has found our own interests within Psychology. We were all curious in the behavior of people in very different situations. All of us found really nice articles that were filled with new knowledge. Indeed, there’s always a lot more to discover about human behavior. It is important, however, to be careful of what we are reading. While we were searching online, a lot of articles popped out, but many research articles did not seem to have sufficient evidence to prove their claims. Our group realized that we have to be responsible readers so that we could find the right knowledge that we are seeking for. I also learned the importance of choosing the right method carefully for each experiment. For Lee’s love survey, for example, experimental and correlational methods would not have been appropriate. At all times, researchers have to thoroughly think about what kind of data they to obtain in the experiment so that they could identify which methods they should follow.
Based on how each of the members shared his or her article, it’s easy to say that all of us enjoyed researching and learning new ideas that are all related to Psychology. The next things that we discussed were the studies that we were willing to participate in and the research groups that we wanted to be part of. Camille said that she’s willing to research about anything, but will only participate in a study similar to that conducted in her and my article. Lee, meanwhile, said that he’s only willing to participate in the love survey. He even added that it’s a bit scary to join the other experiments. Like Camille, it’s okay for him to be part of any research group. I, also, am willing to be part of any of the research groups, but I won’t be willing to participate in all. It’s easy for me to give my personal answer on how it feels to be in love. It’s also fine with me to be part of the percentage of students who would not drink from the glass of orange juice with a cockroach. It also won’t be hard to answer a questionnaire about how many alcoholics we have in the family. However, I won’t be as eager to participate in studies that would ask me to reveal a lot of personal information about myself. I admit that I am not as comfortable as the others whenever I answer standardized tests that require me to reflect seriously and deeply. I honestly don’t like answering questions about my own personality and behavior. Perhaps my other group mates felt the same way, that’s why we all carefully thought about which studies we would be willing to participate in. We all seem to treasure our own privacy. It is interesting, though, that we all want to learn about other people, but we refuse letting other people to know us more. Maybe, this is another thing that could be explained by Psychology.
In our group brainstorming, we tried to look for an interesting topic that we’d like to research on. I suddenly remembered a question that I have always wanted to explore before – “Do people’s knowledge about the fact that they’re drinking an alcoholic beverage affect how they would behave and act after drinking the said beverage?” It’s similar to the placebo effect used in the study of the effectivity of drugs. This topic interests me a lot because I have observed people behave after drinking. Though some appear to be really drunk, some others seem as if they’re just acting. I’d like to understand if it’s just my thinking, or maybe I could be right. Aside from naturalistic observation, this research could be done using an experimental method. Participants would be told that they would be tested to see how strong the effect of a new alcoholic beverage is. Then, they would undergo an initial physical test (counting, walking on straight lines) that will serve as the reference of their real sober behavior. Next, they would be asked to drink a bottle of either non-alcoholic or an alcoholic beverage. Then, they would be asked to take the physical test again. The independent variable is the presence of alcohol in the drink, while the dependent variable is the comparison of the initial and final physical tests of the participants. Of course, we’d have to debrief all participants as soon as the experiment ends.
In conclusion, I’d say that this group discussion was really productive. However, the allotted time was really short to allow us to ponder deeply about the questions. I think Psychology related studies could not be performed hastily, because it requires quite some time for researchers to think and ponder deeply about the study. It was not easy for us to critique the researches done in each of the articles because we had to have enough knowledge about the studies. This discussion has broadened my knowledge about the scope of Psychology. I was amazed by the vastness of Psychology as a science. Psychology indeed encompasses many of the most interesting studies about humans.