1,055 words

Resisting social norms: an experimental day of discomfort

My day of resistance began unsuccessfully, because I greeted my neighbors in the elevator with a polite "Hello" and then held the door open for a woman as we left the building.

~6 min read

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2,076 words

Familiar names and speech segmentation in infant language acquisition

In their article, Mommy and Me: Familiar Names Help Launch Babies Into Speech-Structured Segmentation, Bortfeld, Morgan, Golinkoff, and Rathbun discuss infants' grammatical development with a specific emphasis on sentence construction.

~11 min read

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636 words

Biological and behavioral approaches to substance abuse cravings

Compare and contrast biological and behavioral approaches to explain cravings for substances. Throughout much of the 20th century, psychologists, criminologists, and social theorists debated the relative influence of biology (i.e. nature) and early formational experiences (i.e.

~4 min read

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599 words

Freud's theory of personality structure: the id, ego, and superego

Explain Freud's views on the structure of personality and the functions of each of the structures he proposed.

~3 min read

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1,054 words

The Milgram and Stanford prison experiments: authority and social conformity

Human behavior reflects a complex interrelationship between elements of individual psychological development and external circumstances. In that regard, social situations involving other people is among the most significant external circumstances that influence the behavior of the individual.

~6 min read

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685 words

Personal intervention with smoking cessation and stages of change

Literature that helped my intervention included health information from various Web sites, such as the American Cancer Association.

~4 min read

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802 words

Psychological trauma and family dysfunction in "Ordinary People"

The 1980 film Ordinary People presents psychological issues of repressed rage, displaced and internalized anger, clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and survivor's guilt, as well as social themes of maintaining external appearances that conflict sharply with the realities of…

~5 min read

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1,159 words

Tracing personality traits to genetic and environmental influences in my life

Looking at my life retrospectively, it is relatively clear how much specific aspects of my personality are traceable to my parents' personalities.

~6 min read

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783 words

The distinction between superficial and meaningful friendships

WHAT IS a FRIEND? Generally, a friend is person with whom we choose to maintain a social relationship because we value their inclusion in our life. A friend may also be a relative, but not all family relations are necessarily friends and friends are not necessarily related to us.

~4 min read

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493 words

Myth, existentialism, and personal constructs in psychological practice

The power of myth lies in the mechanism of its transmission from parents and society elders to children at an impressionable age where they accept any belief without question.

~3 min read

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