Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Psychology and sociology for Other courses

Social Marginalization: Definition and Typologies

The Concept of Social Exclusion

Social exclusion is a complex phenomenon, showing various changes over time. Alienation is defined both by its own characteristics and by reference to something that is not owned or is absent. Namely, being marginalized is to be out or outside a particular social reality.

The phenomenon of marginalization is often linked to poverty and the material environment. However, ideological marginalization can occur that does not carry conditions of poverty or indigence. Many authors define marginalization as a situation where an individual or group does not have access to a comparable average level of quality of life.

Objective and Subjective Interpretations

From this definition,...

Understanding Human Motivation

By Pablo Murillo

Motivation is a process or series of processes that initiate, manage, maintain, and finally stop a sequence of goal-directed behavior. It is the process by which stimuli, objects, mental representations, and images, as variables involved in human behavior, acquire causative value. This causative value is exercised over all behavior because motivation has intimate connections with attention, memory, learning, and other cognitive processes.

Memorandum: Conditions that cause, maintain, and regulate behavior.

These motives are not observable variables but hypothetical constructs: we can infer them from observable behaviors.

Levels of Motivation

Primary or Biological Motivation

• It is about the survival of

Cognition, Perception, and Knowledge

• Cognition: The processes a system uses to acquire, store, represent, use, and respond to signals/information from the body and environment (e.g., body signals, environmental stimuli).

• Cognition: The mental operations that support people’s acquisition and use of knowledge.

• Conscious Cognition: Thought processes we are aware of, such as reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving.

• Non-conscious Cognition: Mental processes that occur automatically, without conscious awareness, such as perception, memory retrieval, and habitual actions.

• All aspects of cognition are... INTERTWINED

• Top-down Processing: Processes (i.e., knowledge-based; e.g., thought and motivations) influence what we detect, attend to, and perceive!

Short-Term Memory

Short-term memory is the center of consciousness, encompassing all thoughts, experiences, or information within a given period. Its duration is typically 15 to 20 seconds, or a maximum of 30 seconds. After this period, information is lost if not consolidated.

Information must be consolidated from short-term memory to long-term memory. Conversely, retrieving information from long-term memory requires transferring it back to short-term memory for use.

Long-Term Memory

Long-term memory is the lifelong repository of all the information we accumulate. Due to its unlimited capacity and duration, it is the richest and most complex memory structure, but also the most challenging to investigate.

While short-term memory is based on the physical...

Phenomenology: Husserl and Heidegger

What is Phenomenology?

• Phenomenology is what shows itself: the patent, manifest.
• It is also an access method to phenomena to seek their basis.
• According to Martin Heidegger, it is through the phenomenological method that the meaning of being is revealed.
• It is a purely descriptive method based on shared experiences. From the known world and intersubjective experiences (a method of participatory research), signals are obtained, providing guidelines for interpreting the diversity of symbols. From this, it is possible to interpret social processes and structures.
• It examines all contents of consciousness to determine if these contents are real, ideal, imaginary, etc.
• Phenomenological consciousness suspends judgment

Understanding the One-on-One Interview

The most traditional job interview is a one-on-one meeting between a candidate and a supervisor or hiring manager. The interviewer will ask questions about the applicant's experience and skills, as well as their work history, availability, and the personal attributes the company is seeking in the person they will hire for the job.

What is a Behavioral Interview?

In a behavioral interview, an employer has already determined the skills needed for the position and will ask questions to assess if the candidate possesses those skills. Instead of asking how you would behave in a hypothetical scenario, they will ask how you did behave in a past situation.

Preparing for Behavioral Interview Questions

• Recall Recent

Analysis in Participant Observation

The final report will depend on a thorough job of collecting and analyzing information, in which only meaningful data are included. But to reach that point, one must pass through successive descriptive and interpretative phases, which are reflected in different types of field notes, culminating in the final report. This process can be summarized as follows:

Types of Field Notes

• Immediate Notes: These include all kinds of notes on what the observer sees, hears, or feels. They are concise, spontaneous, and sometimes include multiple keywords taken behind the observed subject. It is important to stress the verbatim record of the terms used by people observed (technical language, specific jargon, etc.), distinct

Coll Taxonomy for Basic and Secondary Education

The Coll Taxonomy applies to Basic Secondary Education (BSE) and is recommended for Middle School (MS).

First Category: Facts, Concepts, and Principles

• Facts: This involves memorizing historical events that may occur.
• Concepts: This refers to the ability to identify, recognize, classify, describe, and verify objects, events, and ideas.
• Principles: This refers to the ability to identify, recognize, classify, describe, and compare the relationships between concepts or facts mentioned previously.

Second Category: Procedures

Procedures are an ordered set of actions geared toward achieving a goal. This signifies being capable of using different situations and ways to solve problems and pursue fixed goals....

Flashbulb Memories

Flashbulb Memories refer to a very detailed memory of the moment when someone learned about a shocking or emotionally significant event.

Long-Term Memory Functions

Long-Term Memory (LTM) allows for the storage and rapid access to relevant knowledge, which helps us interpret the present and act efficiently.

LTM supports the interpretation and understanding of new situations by drawing on past experiences. It also enables us to make inferences, connect ideas, and derive new information. Additionally, LTM allows for prospective thinking, such as planning for the future and imagining future scenarios.

Finally, LTM provides a sense of self and continuity, connecting past experiences to current identity and giving structure to conscious...

1. Why is the Brain a "Miser"?

• The brain is often described as a "miser" because it strives to conserve cognitive resources and minimize mental energy expenditure. This principle, known as **cognitive miserliness**, refers to how the brain prefers using shortcuts and simplified processes to make decisions and respond to the world efficiently. It avoids complex, energy-consuming tasks whenever possible. This approach affects consumer behavior as shoppers tend to make decisions based on intuition and ease rather than through extensive deliberation.

Three Strategies of Cognitive Miserliness

• Efficiency

  Our brain uses heuristics, or mental shortcuts, to simplify decision-making processes. This includes reliance on quick judgments and familiar patterns