Psychology and Economics

Psychology and Memory

Psychology derives from Greek roots meaning study of the psyche, or soul. It is defined as the study of the mind and behavior. Psychology, as defined by the American Psychological Association, is an academic discipline and an applied science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific areas.

With Psychology as the study of the mind, it leads us to memory. One function of the mind is to store and remember information. Memory is the sum total of what we remember, and gives us the capability to learn and adapt from previous experiences as well as build relationships.

However, our memory is not perfect or immune to errors. Sometimes we forget things from important to mundane that, one way or another, play such a pervasive and pivotal role in our daily lives. For example, forgetting a friend’s birthday or misplacing an important document.

Daniel L. Schacter, psychologist and memory expert, presented a framework designed to outline the seven major “sins” of memory in his book, “The Seven Sins of Memory.” These seven “sins” are transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, mis-attribution, suggestibility, bias and persistence.

Schacter describes the first three sins as those of omission (the memory is lost). Our memory fades over time, is easily distracted that is why we become absent-minded, and is blocked because we struggle to remember things when we know that we know it in the first place.

The last four sins Schacter describes as the sins of commission (at least some of the memory is there, but it is either wrong or unwanted. Our memory mistakes its source, is influenced by outside factors which triggers false memories, is influence by our current beliefs, and remembers things that we would rather forget.

Although our memory is not perfect, it allows us to adapt and interact in a world full of overwhelming information.

Psychology in Medical Education

Psychologists have to acquire a much better knowledge of the fundamental biological sciences if they wish to engage in a much bigger position in educating medical students, and take part in study and treatment inside the health care process.

Health-related schools are switching from being organized on biologically based departments to multidisciplinary organizations, and that study funded by the National Institutes of Health is requiring a much more interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary strategy. These changes generate a chance for psychology to play a better role in medical instruction and health investigation.

The inability for making psychology highly relevant to the biological fundamentals of medicine can lead to psychology getting minimally highly relevant to medical education and practice. For instance, a psychologist who would like to work in an interdisciplinary treatment plan targeting cancer must provide expertise about a few of the behavioral aspects in the start of cancer – but should know something about oncology and defense mechanisms function, as well.

Definitely, in order to comprehend and educate about these topics, it is essential that we have a number of this fundamental knowledge. There’s a necessity for clinical health psychologists to understand more about anatomy, physiology and pharmacology. For college students studying to become pharmacists for example, psychology offers quite a bit to educate about patient decision-making, social support and problem management and self-care. For example, research has discovered that asking a patient, “Any questions?” when they pick up a prescription decreases the likelihood that a patient will in fact ask a question. By contrast, asking, “What questions do you have?” results in more connection between patient and pharmacist.

Psychologists may also provide important communication instruction on how to build a connection with patients – whether it’s working with children who won’t sit still in the chair or adults who become stressed when dealing with a dental appointment.

A lot more has to be completed to help make education and training possibilities readily available for psychologists within educational health centers.

Consumer Psychology

Steve Jobs popularly said “people do not know what they want until you show it to them.” Of course, Jobs was popular for presenting the globe to technology that developed whole new product groups, such as the iPod and iPad. Consequently, it was easy to understand why Jobs did not believe in customer actions. For most organizations, customer psychology is less of a wondering activity. But that does not mean promoting to customers is any simpler. Enter Michael Fishman. Michael is a New York-based professional in customer actions and customer psychology who has been assisting organizations to comprehend customer behavior for 30 years.

Fishman says organizations battle with knowing customer psychology, because many customers do not act in logical methods. “Most individuals cannot answer the simple query of why they want the things they want,” says Fishman. “That’s because our mind pushes our decision-making procedure in methods that we’re not really conscious of.” Many individuals, if asked about a particular product or service, can review on whether they want it or not, says Fishman. But there are subconscious drivers that also encourage consumers’ decision-making. “Consumer psychology is all about getting into that subconscious area where individuals are being instructed to shop for things they are not clear about,” says Fishman. When organizations work to comprehend their own consumer’s psychology, business and marketing becomes “way more foreseeable and more sympathetic in a way.”

Fishman’s interest for assisting organizations to comprehend customer psychology was one purpose behind his choice to group with top promoting writer Ramit Sethi to make BehaviorCon, targeted on customer actions and customer psychology. Fishman says that BehaviorCon was inspired, in part, on the latest reputation of non-fiction guides on the subject. “There have been so many top promoting guides on customer psychology and customer behavior in the last four to five years and yet, no conference outside of the academic globe,” says Fishman. “Ramit and I made the decision to make the conference we would love to go to if there was one.”

Over thousands of years, several businesses have desired the position of science. Few have prevailed because they did not find out anything that was standing up to analysis as information. No human body of values, no issue how commonly approved or how comprehensive in chance, can ever be scientific.

Jared Bernstein [right], with a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Columbia University, is not officially an economist, but he has organized many roles that an economist would usually keep. He was chief economist and financial advisor to Vice President Joe Biden and a member of President Obama’s financial group. Before becoming a member of the Obama administration, he was a senior economist and the director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute. Between 1995 and 1996, he was the deputy chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Bernstein is engaged in equation adjusting, a frequent practice among economic experts. For Bernstein, it’s income. But what has the formula to do with reality? Economic experts believe that their equations explain truth perfectly, but no design ever comes associated with evidence that it does. As Keynes outlined, “Too huge a percentage of latest ‘mathematical’ business economics are simple blends, as obscure as the preliminary presumptions they rest on, which allow the writer to forget the reasons and interdependencies of the actual life in a labyrinth of exaggerated and unhelpful signs.” As others have outlined, the map is not the area.

So why do economists claim these? Is it because these statements explain how they themselves would act if given the opportunity? Was Bastiat amazingly lazy? Was Cruz really a selfish man? If those who create such statements would not have served in the methods they described, would not they then know that the statements were false? These all are unprovable statements about individual (or canine) characteristics. Economics as we know it is nothing but statements about how humans will act in given conditions. As such, it is nothing but armchair psychology, and the psychology is in accordance with the emotional features of the economists creating the statements. Greedy individuals believe that all individuals are. Unethical individuals believe that all individuals are. Damaged individuals believe that all individuals are. Wicked individuals believe that all individuals are. But, you know, they are wrong! John Blossom, a lecturer of psychology at Yale, says.