The History Of Positive Psychology

Smith and Kosslyn (2007) define memory as a set of representations and processes by which information is encoded, consolidated, and retrieved. (p. 538). Models have been developed to show processes such as short-term storage that allows for problem solving and for how memory is processed from sensory input to long-term storage. Although, there are many representations of these types of processes, only a few will be discussed in this paper. As credit is due to all the theories and tasks that have been completed to give evidence that these processes do exist; at the present day moment experts still are not sure exactly how our brain works. Experiments done to study the processes built evidence neurologically that parts of the memory systems do show activity in parts of the brain. Making many of these modalities and processes valid and reliable when considering the main sections of memory. Consider the two main sections of memory: short term memory and long-term memory. Short-term memory and long-term memory both have been examined through machinery such as a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan to prove that these processes do show through brain activity thus increasing our understanding of memory. Let us begin by further discussing long-term memory then short-term memory before attempting the contrivance of working

The biological approach to the basis of memory is explained in terms of underlying biological factors such as the activity of the nervous system, genetic factors, biochemical and neurochemicals. In general terms memory is our ability to encode, store, retain and recall information and past experiences afterwards in the human brain. In biological terms, memory is the recreation of past experiences by simultaneous activation or firing of neurons. Some of the major biopsychological research questions on memory are what are the biological substrates of memory, where are memories stored in the brain, how are memories assessed during recall and what is the mechanism of forgetting. The two main reasons that gave rise to the interest in biological basis of memory are that researchers became aware of the fact that many memory deficits arise from injuries to the brain. And the other reason was that they realized that psychological processes must have a physiological basis.

There are many paradigms in psychology such as structuralism, cognitive, psychoanalysis, behaviorism which is the most common and of course humanistic psychology. These were very important to psychologists, it helped understand and identify different aspects of life. From the way one behaves to the way they think, see and hear. The way we feel and act turns out to be a big part of our mind. We think and do certain things for what reason? Humanistic psychology was found to describe and help everyone understand why we behave and sometimes need certain things. We all share characteristics such as love, grief, happiness, caring, self-love. There was a reason why we felt these certain emotions,

at people have no free will. That behaviour is determined from environment or early childhood. It ignores biological factors, that hormones could affect how a person behaves. Through the female menstrual cycle, the dip in oestrogen and progesterone can dramatically change the female behaviour. Which would not be caused by the environment but hormone level.

Life can be hard. And, not one of us is exempt from the transitions, trials and hardships. Nothing changes these facts. Along the way, we may get stuck in a cycle, flounder in a transition, struggle in relationships or face mental illness. In some ways, this is par for the course.

There are five main approaches to Psychology with each one having its own strengths and weaknesses. Each idea has its own view for the reasons why we behave the way we do and they all add something to our understanding of human behaviour.

The main aim of this assignment is to find out the strength and weakness, similarities and differences between the different approaches of psychology such as biological approach, behavioural approach and psychodynamic approach. I have chosen mental illness to evaluate these approach.

Both theories are similar in the sense that they are of the monists (physicalism) view but they do vary in many other ways that I will point out in the duration of my essay.

Negative emotions can cause a person to process information more thoroughly as opposed to being in a happier, lighter state of mind. In her article, “ Don’t

Why have more than two-thousand people exonerated for crimes they didn’t commit? Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the U.S. Memory can be influenced by anxiety, stress, reconstructive memory and other factors possibly affecting the testimony of the eyewitness and in turn, misleading the jury. I think that when subjects witness a crime they will struggle to remember important details of the event, and their recollection could be easily altered. This is because the reconstructive memory can be influenced by factors such as stress, anxiety, and verbal cues.

When Jake became highly anxious about his classes, a psychologist diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. However, the ways psychologist would look at the origin and treatment of Jakes anxiety would differ depending on the approach. A behavior approach would look at the environment around Jake, while the cognitive approach which would look at how Jake thinks. The humanistic approach would identify that Jake is not in harmony with his surroundings and look at the way he thought of himself.

Since the 1990s psychologists have changed their focus to what is called positive psychology, rather than focusing

To some extent also, incorporating a lifestyle that involves plenty of exercises can also be considered to be a value-based choice for management of unhappiness based disease conditions (Seligman, Parks & Steen 543). My concern is if empirical research performed in the area of positive psychology shows some evidence of possessing therapeutic functions on conditions such as depression or mental illnesses. Perhaps there will be some concerns on whether the medical practitioners will comfortably buy the ideology and incorporate the ideas developed from positive psychology to their medical protocols to handle mental illnesses. Of course, such a decision can only be made at an institutional level, having considered all policies that govern the medical protocols in the institution. My additional point of view is that people must be able to choose their values wisely, since according to the article this comes out as an area with an essential capacity (Seligman, Parks & Steen 543). Further developments by the positive psychologists’ movements with the creation of a tangible international community whose culture is established on strong grounds imply that there would be a need for specialized medical services for the mentally ill. Such are the specialized

Memory falls under cognitive development and we use memory every moment of the day from waking up to going to sleep. It might not seem like we are using it but it is actively on, such as when we are doing our daily chores or even sitting down to watch TV. The definition of memory by Sigelman and Rider is “our ability to store and later retrieve information about past events, develops and change over the life span”. While doing our daily chores, we use memory to recall the skills that are required to do these daily chores so in short memory is used to retrieve information from our brain that is store there. When we are sitting down to watch a TV show, we also use our memory to recall information from our brain about what had happened last episodes so we can understand the current episodes

To try and explore the ‘mind’ it is necessary to examine if the mind and the brain are separate or if the mind and body are distinct from one another? Is the mind and body separate substance or elements of the same substance? Is consciousness the result of the mechanisms of the brain, wholly separate from the brain or inextricably linked? I will explore this question by looking at how this question has developed into two key schools of thought: Dualism and Monism. Dualism states that the mind is not physical and exists separately while Monism states that the mind and body are not separate. There are arguments for both theories and these dichotomous ideas have brought to light the mind-body problem, which I will analyse below. There are sub-forms of both schools of thought and one of the key sub-schools of thought under Dualism which I will discuss is Interactionism; that the mind and body are separate but both influence each other