Notes, abstracts, papers, exams and problems of Psychology and Sociology

A] Creative Imagination

The Imagination and Fantasy

Fantasy, as opposed to reality, is a fundamental element of our psyche. Freudian psychoanalysis emphasized the importance of the pleasure principle, and his disciple, Roheim, highlighted the role of fantasy in this principle, particularly the fantasy of magic. This magical thinking appears to be the earliest form of imagination in children and is crucial for development. Fantasy plays a significant role not only in the structure of imagination but also in personality development. Kant referred to fantasy as the imagination's unintentional production of images.

B] Definitions

• Evocation: The ability to reproduce past situations or states of consciousness without specific reference to past time.
• Eidetic

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... Continue reading "Understanding Memory: Short-Term, Long-Term, and Disorders" »

Psychology

Psychology is the science of behavior and activity of organisms and also because of the internal mechanisms...

a) Basic Psychology:

A part of psychology is devoted to the study of basic psychological processes (perception, tension, feeling, emotion...) general memory.

b) Applied Psychology:

Those aspects of psychology take inf. Psicol. basic, applied knowledge to solve specific people's problems.

1.3 Evolutionary Psychology (Study of Human Development):

Concept: Science that collaborates in different stages: adolescence, maturity. Areas: - Biosocial: development of physical and social effects that affect - Cognitive: mental processes, thinking subject, learning, communication. - Psychosocial: emotions, personality traits, relations with... Continue reading "Psychology: The Science of Behavior and Human Development" »

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own culture is the center of the world, in the sense that all other cultures are classified according to their degree of approximation to the mainstream culture. Ethnocentrism has sometimes been presented as a scientific doctrine, as the Nazis attempted to establish rigorous biological criteria to distinguish different races. A graphic illustration of the critique of ethnocentrism is provided by the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss when he says that "The savage is he who calls another savage."

Although ethnocentrism is a critical concept, not all human cultures are comparable because there are significant differences between their cultural traits. While no culture... Continue reading "Ethnocentrism and Cultural Evolution: Understanding Differences" »

Cognitive psychology is a discipline that studies processes such as perception, memory, language, attention, and other processes involved in the handling of information by the subject.

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget is known for his genetic theory of cognitive development, which proposes that children actively construct their understanding of the world through interaction.

Intelligence, according to Piaget, is the ability to maintain a constant adaptation of the subject's schemas to the world in which they operate.

Adaptation explains the development process of learning and is divided into two sub-processes:

• Assimilation: Integrating new information or experiences into existing schemas. For example, understanding a new concept

Understanding Heterosexuality

Heterosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by sexual attraction, love, or sexual desire for people of the opposite sex. This contrasts with homosexuality and is usually distinguished from bisexuality.

Besides referring to sexual orientation, the term heterosexual also refers to sexual behavior between individuals of the opposite sex. Many animal species (those that engage in sexual reproduction and internal fertilization), including humans, reproduce through heterosexual sex. This is unlike hermaphroditic species, in which all individuals possess both sexes.

Homosexuality

Homosexuality (from the Greek ομος, homo, meaning 'equal', and the Latin sexus, meaning 'sex') is a sexual orientation defined... Continue reading "Understanding Heterosexuality and Related Sexual Practices" »

Faculties of Psychological Knowledge

Perception

Perception involves capturing external elements through the senses. The mechanism of perception follows this sequence: stimulus, touch, sensations, and brain (linguistic, motor, pathological). Attention focuses on a specific stimulus while diminishing others.

Memory

Memory encompasses capturing, storing, and reproducing information received through the senses or intuition. A memorization technique involves understanding, synthesizing, internalizing, and applying the information.

Imagination

Imagination involves capturing and saving ideas, but also altering and combining them, such as envisioning a giant mountain of gold. Without imagination, there would be neither science nor art.

Intelligence

Intelligence... Continue reading "Understanding Psychological Knowledge, Ethics, and Cognitive Development" »

The Need for Culture in Human Beings

The closed world of animals contrasts with the open world of human beings. While animals are governed by instincts to solve particular problems within their habitat, humans barely retain any instincts. Humans must invent strategies to solve problems in today's world.

Humans are not born with instincts or culture, but with the ability to acquire them. This is because, during evolution, the pelvis of women became narrower, and the heads of offspring grew increasingly larger. This resulted in offspring being born at an earlier neural stage and therefore, less developed. However, in exchange for instincts at birth, humans have an ability to learn and be educated, to solve their problems with the knowledge they... Continue reading "Human Culture and Socialization: Language and Thought" »

Thought: A Comprehensive Exploration

Definition of Thought

Thought is the psychic process by which representations of abstract objects, phenomena, or events of reality are formed in the form of concepts, judgments, and reasoning.

Key Concepts

• Image: Virtual representations formed by all human beings from conception, relating to the rational, subjective, and inner processes of knowing, understanding, judging, and reasoning about objectives and actions.
• Language: The function of expressing thought in written form for communication and understanding between human beings.
• Thought: A rational, objective, and external psychological phenomenon derived from thinking to solve everyday problems.

The thought process is a means of planning and action to overcome... Continue reading "Understanding Thought Processes and Their Significance" »

Memory: Transformations Over Time

Memory refers to the transformations that occur in information over time. From the multi-store model, it is understood that memory is a complex and active system working with multiple interconnected components.

• Recording Information: Information is perceived and encoded.
• Storing Information: The encoded information is stored using multifunctional matrices selected by the individual.
• Retrieving Information: Information is retrieved from memory based on the store in which it was processed.

Three Systems of Information Fixation

1. Sensory Memory

   Information in sensory memory disappears within approximately one second.

2. Short-Term Memory

   Information in short-term memory fades within approximately 20 seconds.

3. Long-Term Memory

   Information