Applying Psychology to My Life

Student’s name

Institution

Course

Tutor

Date

Punishment, positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is simply defined as the addition of a rewarding stimulus to a behavior that enhances the chance that the activity will occur again in the future. When a favorable consequence, occurrence, or reward occurs as a result of an activity, that reaction or habit is

unpleasant stimuli enhance a response or behavior. Punishment is defined as any change that occurs after a behavior that reduces the likelihood of that behavior occurring again in the future (LaFreniere, & Newman, 2019). There are two kinds: positive and negative. Positive punishment involves adding something to decrease the chance of a behavior, whereas negative punishment involves moving something to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

Application: Punishment is used for negative reinforcement and negatively reinforcing a reaction or response to a stimulus. If someone praises you for something that you did, such as saying “Good job!” the praise is positive punishment. Example: Me scolding my child, the way she says it is negative punishment. Another reason for positive punishment is to reduce behavior.

Concepts of interpersonal relationships

Interpersonal relationship deals with the study of interactions between two or more people in an effort to understand their motives, needs and behaviors as it affects their particular dynamic. Morality and social standards are both important factors when addressing interpersonal relationships because it involves how people interact with one another and with society as a whole. A central concept of an interpersonal relationship is that one person’s actions will have a reaction from those around him/her, such as parents or friends. Interpersonal communication is said to be the cornerstone of all interpersonal connections. It’s the way individuals interact both verbally and nonverbally (Smith, 2019). Interpersonal relationships come in a variety of forms, some of which are given below:

The relationship between a child and his parents. This is a fundamental connection.

•A bond of friendship. Platonic bonding

•Persons who work in the same firm. 

• Interactions with close relatives and family members. that is Family Relationship

• Love Marriage is a connection between a man and a woman.

Personal Application; I have a friend at work and I talk to him about his problems. He feels comfortable talking to me because he knows I will not judge him.

As a manager, I helped my employee solve his personal problems. I did not offer advice because that was his problem.

I have a friend who is going through a divorce. I keep in touch with him and help him with anything he needs whether it’s his children or work related.

When someone goes through a breakup, people tend to be too judgmental when they should be there for the person who’s going through it.

Psychological disorders and other mental health issues

Psychological disorders include bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders such as social anxiety and specific phobias, personality disorders including antisocial personality disorder and borderline personality disorder among others. These different psychological disorders can occur on their own or alongside other psychological disorders (Brower, 2021). They also range in severity from moderate to severe with some of them affecting a person’s ability to continue with everyday tasks.

Mental disorders, often known as mental illnesses, are conditions that affect your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behavior. Mental illnesses are characterized by abnormal thinking, perceptions, feelings and behavior. Mental illnesses can also be classified according to their causes: genetic or environmental factors. Some mental illnesses may develop as a result of an injury or illness. Mental illnesses can also occur together with other medical conditions such as major depression in people with heart problems, diabetes in sufferers of mental health disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder after an accident or rape victims.

Application 1; I have a very good friend who is bipolar and I am helping him get to his doctor’s appointments and go shopping for food.

Application 2; I have social anxiety disorder, so I find it hard to talk in front of people or even walk past a group of people.

Memory

Our memory is the subconscious recording of sensory input from our surroundings. Memories can be influenced by past experiences and emotions. If a person undergoes traumatic experiences, the memory of that experience can become encoded in such a way so as to cause negative emotional reactions to similar situations experienced later in life (Ma, Huang, Yang, & Yang, 2018). If memories are not recalled in appropriate context, their interpretation will be distorted and a person can experience anxiety or flashbacks about the traumatic event.

Application; For example, someone who has been bullied in school presents to a psychologist for help and is asked about his experiences. If the psychologist does not ask about the bullying incident in context of the sufferer’s life, and instead asks what happened at lunchtime or what happened to him last year when he was six years old, he may get confused and begin to question himself. Example; I will have to diagnose my mother’s illness. I have to think about the symptoms and when she had them.

References

Ma, C., Huang, J. B., Yang, X., & Yang, M. H. (2018). Adaptive correlation filters with long-term and short-term memory for object tracking. International Journal of Computer Vision, 126(8), 771-796.

LaFreniere, L. S., & Newman, M. G. (2019). Probabilistic learning by positive and negative reinforcement in generalized anxiety disorder. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(3), 502-515.

Brower, K. J. (2021). Professional stigma of mental health issues: physicians are both the cause and solution. Academic medicine, 96(5), 635.

Smith, J. A. (2019). Participants and researchers searching for meaning: Conceptual developments for interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 16(2), 166-181.