Experiments on concept adaptation and student reactions in psychology education

Psychology of Adaptation

Experimentation

In order to understand the concept of adaptation in psychology, I conducted a number of experiments to demonstrate this theory in the "real" sensory world.

First, I took a piece of very coarse sandpaper, the kind that is used to smooth down furniture before applying paint or varnish. The paper at first felt very uncomfortable as I rubbed it across my fingers. I rated this sensation of roughness initially at a level of 7 because the paper felt very rough as it came into contact with my fingers. There was a tingling sensation that I would not quite describe as pain, but as extreme discomfort and irritation.

After waiting several minutes, I conducted the experiment again, using the same exact testing conditions. As I rubbed the same piece of paper over my finger, I again felt a distinct sense of discomfort. However, the discomfort level was not as severe as it was during the first part of the experiment. I would rate this level is number 4 because while still an irritant, the sandpaper did not affect my skin with the level of roughness as did in the first part of the experiment, just a few minutes earlier.

Experiment 2

In order to demonstrate the experience of adaptation using a different sensation, I filled two cups, one with a solution of sugar water, the other with a solution of plain, fresh water. I took a sip of the solution of sugar water and gently swished it around in my mouth without swallowing. At first, the taste was quite sweet, cloyingly so. After discarding the sugar water, I then took a sip of fresh water. The sensation was quite surprising. The solution did not taste sweet, which I did not expect. However, it did taste almost salty, which I did not expect. It was a very strange and surprising taste. It was followed by a strong desire to brush my teeth.

Experiment 3

In this experiment, I again worked with liquid. This time, however, instead of using a liquid that would affect the sense of taste, I filled three medium-sized bowls with water of different temperatures. The first bowl contained very hot tap water. The second bowl contained the opposite, very cold tap water. In the third bowl, I poured a mixture of the very hot water and the very cold water. I arranged them so that my right hand was in front of the bowl of cold water and my left hand was in front of the bowl of very hot water, with the bowl of lukewarm water in the middle. I quickly submersed each hand into the bowl in front of it. Using a watch alarm to indicate when three minutes was up, I then transferred both hands into the middle bowl. The result was that both hands felt exactly the opposite after being plunged into the middle bowl.

Task 2: Explanation of Findings

The experiments I chose to conduct tested different sensory perceptions; in the first, the feeling of roughness on my skin was altered over time. In the second, my taste buds underwent some strange sensations as the taste of "fresh" water suddenly became rather salty after the taste of sweetness left in my mouth by the sugar water. In the third, the perception of temperature was very different when I plunged both hands into the lukewarm water after each had been exposed to opposite extremes. As these experiments demonstrated, the sensations felt and the perceptions of those sensations were two very different experiences.

According to Chapter 5 of Allpsych, "perception is the way we interpret these sensations and therefore make sense of everything around us" (Allpsych, 2011). Although the sensations I experienced did not seem to make sense to me, by understanding the concept of adaptation in its psychological context, I am able to see how these reactions came about, and how they are a form of adapting to the environment in a way that has been shown through evolution to be, in fact, normal.

How we perceive our environment is what makes us as a species different from other life forms. Our ability to see, taste, feel, hear, and smell, and to interpret those sensations, is something that has evolved over time, and it is what makes us uniquely human (Allpsych 2011).

One of the most interesting aspects of perception is our ability to adapt, both in biological terms and in psychological terms. As the experiments conducted above demonstrated, after being exposed to the roughness of the sandpaper, the sweetness of the sugar water, and the extreme temperatures of the bowls of water, my sense of perception was very different after my initial exposure to each of these sensations.