The Science of Psychology

Psychology and Engineers

Simply put, engineers make things. But is discovering that “new” innovation, a large psychological leap from factor A to factor B, or are there scores of unseen advanced actions in between? The University of Pittsburgh’s Joel Chan and Christian Schunn say that not enough has been done to comprehend how engineers make. Knowing the procedure, they say, may offer a street map for boosting up advancement.

Chan, a graduate student in psychology in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and his mentor Schunn, a professor of psychology as well as a senior researcher in Pitt’s Learning Research and Development Center, released a document online in the publication Cognitive Science that goes into the technicalities of the innovative technological advancement mind by analyzing the procedure in the real world. “Most organizations make all their money on new things,” Schunn says. “They hardly break even on old items. They have to innovate to be practical and that’s a hard direction to adhere to.”

In the desire of advancement, Schunn says, organizations pay big cash to professionals to help encourage creativeness. “But little of what they do is depending on research,” he contributes. So, along with Chan, Schunn used several hours of transcripts of an experienced technological advancement team’s “brainstorming” classes and split down the discussion consistently, looking for the direction by which thought A led to thought B that led to cutting-edge C. “We want to comprehend the characteristics of cognitive restrictions,” Schunn says. “Why do we get trapped (on an idea), what types of factors get us unstuck and why do they work?”

What they discovered in the classes they analyzed is that new concepts didn’t spring completely formed after large cognitive actions. Creativity is a stepwise procedure in which idea A spurs a new, but carefully relevant thought, which encourages another step-by-step step and the sequence of small psychological developments sometimes, gradually finishes with a modern concept in a team setting. Channeling Thomas Edison’s dictum that genius is 1% motivation and 99% perspiration, Schunn says that “inspiration makes some perspiration.”

Positive Psychology Studies

In An Introduction to Positive Psychology, Dr. William Compton depicts positive psychology as looking “to make typical life more satisfying.” It uses the scientific method to comprehend the positive and candidly satisfying parts of human behavior. It is the study of what actions, interests and inspirations best contribute to the good life. These interests are accessible to us paying little heed to our heritage, background or socioeconomic standing. They are uninhibitedly accessible to any individual who decides to commit their lives to them. Here are some interesting positive psychology studies done by researchers.

1. From Wealth to Well-being – Harvard Business School, 2009. While there does seem, by all accounts, to be some association between happiness and income when fundamental needs are not yet met, individuals have a tendency to overestimate the impact of riches on happiness by 100%. Money does not lead as much happiness that individuals think it will.

2. Purchasing Experiences, not Possessions, Leads to Greater Happiness – San Francisco State University, 2009. This psychology study shows that experiential buys, for example, a dinner out or theater tickets, bring about better well being than material belongings. These experiences have a tendency to fulfill higher order needs, particularly the requirement for social connectedness and a feeling of being invigorated.

3. The Science of Gratitude – University of Pennsylvania, 2005. One of the best contributing variables to general happiness in life is the amount of appreciation we show. Furthermore, an observable contrast could be experienced with as little as three words every day (“Thank you for… “).

4. Trust, Morality, and Oxytocin – Claremont Graduate University, 2011. In light of research discoveries, psychologists believe humankind’s trust, compassion and ethical quality expand as their levels of oxycotin expand.

5. For a Better Day, Smile – Michigan State University, 2011. Individuals who smile as a consequence of developing positive thoughts can fundamentally and promptly enhance their mood. Simply put, one easy approach to enhance your state of mind at this moment is to recall pleasant memories and smile about it.

First and foremost, there are no “facts” in science. The scientific method is developed in such a way that one can ever confirm anything, they can only disprove something. That is what allows us to keep looking, never avoiding at their understanding of the way the world works. That is why it’s the concept of severity and the concept of progress. A technically sound concept is falsifiable. So no, it is not the case that “hard” science has “facts” and psychology has theories; they all only have concepts. In every way, psychological science sticks to the scientific method as much as any other science. They stick to the same guidelines and strategies. They even evaluate psychological phenomena to the best of their capability.

They use calculations and analysis and even design individual actions in past analysis just like any other science. They test their concepts for reliability and credibility and they test the factors of their concepts. There is however 2 variations between their science and other sciences that have nothing to do with how they practice science, but rather what they study: They are a much more recent science and what they analysis is more complex. The first psychological lab was established by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 and you can think about how basic the devices would have been back then. While this might seem like several decades ago, keep in mind that Galileo developed his first telescope in 1609. Imagine how much larger a leg up astronomy has had on psychology. Cognitive psychology was not a study subject until at the early 1950’s during the cognitive trend, but not formally until Ulric Neisser’s Intellectual Psychology guide was already released in 1967.

They have had approximately 50 years of studying individual cognition. The study of individual knowledge contains procedures relevant to: feeling, interest, knowing, studying and memory, language, intellect, problem-solving, decision-making. Imagine the scope of phenomena and actions all that contains. Can you appreciate what a short amount of time that is for such a complex study of topic? And that is just cognitive psychology. Psychology as a whole studies every part of the individual experience, such as social, child, character, neuro and abnormal psychology.