Psychology Class Throughout My Studies in Psychology,

¶ … Psychology Class

Throughout my studies in psychology, I find the classes and topics on emotion and motivation interesting and educative. This is because the class touched a lot on the issues that made me understand myself better than I did before the topic was introduced. The class aided my understanding on the aspect of sexual orientation, especially homosexuality. This is due to the information that was present on the materials offered in class. There was adequacy of explanation on the issue of motivation and emotion in relation to human psychology (Weiten, 2011). The topic on motivation and emotion touched on various issues, for example, the significance of groups, power plus obedience, and the perception about us and other people.

The aspect of social psychology seemed to fascinate me most, because of information regarding how the people we interact with influence our lives. I came to understand that the perception about us, plus other people is influential to the notions we develop concerning the world (Balthazart 2012). Understanding the aspect of social psychology made me reflect on personal life in order to see if any social psychology aspects shaped my current status in terms of my sexuality (homosexual). There was much to learn including the instinct theory which asserts that motivation emanates from a biological situation (genetic programming) psychology (Weiten, 2011).

This theory created an assertion that all beings are set to have similar motivations. Some theorists, for example, McDougal believe instincts to be behavior patterns that cannot be leaned, and are uniform in terms of expression psychology (Weiten, 2011). However, this aspect of psychology did not fascinate me a lot, since; it seemed to deviate from my personal conditions of growth. James-Lange theory asserts that emotion emanates when an occurrence results to a physiological stimulation (Balthazart 2012). The human feeling of motion arises when individuals construe the stimulation that results from an occurrence (Balthazart 2012). The aspect of emotion made me understand some of the causes of homosexuality, for example, during a child's development the aspect of non-conformity may arise.

The society may depict gender roles in such a manner that the developing child will feel dissimilar from other children of the opposite gender. In such a case, psychological arousal emanates and develops later into sexual arousal. This condition describes various cases of homosexuality that arise at adult life. The causes of non-conformity may range from genetics, personality, hormonal differences and a variety of environmental issues. From the class on emotion and motivation, I was able to understand how these factors relate to nonconformity which leads to homosexuality psychology (Weiten, 2011). The class literature contained various explanations of how the environment can affect the behavior of an individual. According to James-Lange theory, people experience bodily changes due to the impact of an exciting event which is reflected in emotion. From this assertion, I was able to understand how the environment in which a child grows triggers sexual orientation. I came to understand that homosexuality is correlated to such factors, for example, family influence (Whitehead 2011).

Having grown in a family with a gay brother, a sister plus a mother and without a father figure may have influenced my current sexual orientation (homosexual). I realized that the environment and especially, the experiences during childhood can trigger one's perception and sexuality at a later age. From the research in class, it was evident that many gay individuals had difficult experiences with their fathers, or had no father figures during their early childhood. This condition made them have close associations with their mothers (Whitehead 2011). The environment influences homosexuality differently, for example, growing up in conditions where the community perceives the practice as a normal thing, can influence the perceptions of people. Studies show that several children are likely to become gay due to personal reactions on the experiences in a gay environment.