Essay Sample on Psychology Final Exam

You are a counselor and a couple comes to consult with you. They are worried that their high school age child is homosexual. They want to know how this might have happened. What might you tell them, based on psychological research about factors that determine sexual orientation?

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According to research done in the past, about 3 or 4 percent of men and 2 percent of females in Europe and the United States are believed to be gay. Most of this people go through criticism, rejection, and stigma. Most young people who are gay struggle with their attractions and if rejected by parents or peers or otherwise lack support socially, they face risks like low self- esteem, depression, suicidal attempts.

The explanation I would give these parents is that gay people have different brain patterns from those of their fellow gender people who are straight. Results from a research carried out by Qazi Rahman and Simon Levay reveal that gay men appear to have a brain pattern response similar to women and lesbians are more male-typical. They need to understand that what is happening to their son is something in their brains and how it reacts to similar gender causes the attraction. Levay found out that the brain anatomy influences sexual orientation. He realized that the hypothalamus of gay man reacted similarly to that of women when exposed to men scents.

There is Proof that about a third of sexual orientation is influenced by genetic factors. The possible existence of gay relatives in the family may cause a mother to give birth to gay children. Gay men genes are believed to be transmitted from the mother's side. Other factors may include altered prenatal hormone exposure and influence from maternal immune- system reaction causing younger male siblings to be gay.

Describe the role of brain structures, neurochemistry, and genetics in the development of personality. Which of these roles do you believe has influenced your own personality the most? Why?

The hippocampus and the frontal lobes are processing areas for explicit memories. The storage of implicit memories created by classical conditioning is done by Cerebellum. These brain activities help formulate and transmit information in the brain that helps create feelings. Information acquired and skills learned during infancy are explicated in future because they are stored in the brain. When these brain parts are damaged, information is lost and therefore personalities are lost.

Personality formation is influenced by what we experience on a daily basis. A part of the called amygdala is responsible for emotion-related memory formation. When we experience a traumatizing event, this part of the brain stores it and can affect our thinking for the rest of our lives.

Some of the traits we possess are genetically acquired (Myers & DeWall, 2018). A parent is likely to pass their genetic traits to their children causing behaviors, feelings, and actions similar to other relatives either close or distant. The uniformity of the brain, genetics and the neurochemistry of an individual defines who they are and what they do when.

Among all these influences genetics and brain functions have influenced my personality the most. I share quite a number of traits with my father and having a functional mind influences my feelings.

According to the attribution theory, the explanation we create for our behavior and the behaviors for others generally fall into two categories. Describe these categories. In your essay, discuss the key concepts in attribution theory such as the fundamental attribution error.

When an unexpected event happens, people act differently and we want to understand why they act the way they do. Fritz Heider's attribution theory suggests that we put this behavior into dispositional attribution and situational attribution.

Situational attribution explains the behavior of persons in a particular event as having been influenced by situations and events happening outside an individual's control on the other hand disposition describes behavior based on internal factors.

Fundamental attribution error is a situation where we overestimate the impact of personality and undervalue the influence of situations.

You are the commissioner of a state lottery system that sponsors daily and weekly drawings. Lottery tickets have not been selling well over the past few months. Describe four ways you could take advantage of people's use of the available heuristic to boost sales. Explain why you would judge your tactics to be fair or unfair to your customers.

Available heuristic activates when we estimate how common an event is based on mental availability. In marketing taking advantage of social media platforms and blogs that talk about drawings for the lottery to provide solutions will help prime for product outcome. Reacting out where there is a problem and providing a solution will always make people believe in you. This way people will see the need to engage in the sale.

Advertising the achievements that have previously benefited other people will create an image of usefulness and benefit to the public making them anchor on the past successes of those giving testimonies and this increases sales.

Helping people visualize the outcome by showing results gives the crowd eagerness to want to try and they end up participating.

Talking about the future benefits of the state lottery gives people hope and anticipation of what will be offered and leads to more individuals wanting to be part of future achievements.

This strategy will be fair to the customers because it actually benefits participates in this case. It might be unfair to that person who will take part based on rushed judgment following the advertisement.

Andrea is furious because her steady boyfriend spent half an hour talking with his former girlfriend at last night's school dance. A friend suggested that Andrea ought to get the anger out of her system by repeatedly pounding her pillow while she imagines that she is hitting her boyfriend. Explain why this might be an ineffective way for Andrea to reduce her anger. Suggest at least two better ways.

According to Myers & DeWall, (2018) anger is "a short madness" quoting the sages. The effects could be more devastating than the cause. Anger can be very harmful especially to an individual's health. Research proves that it causes heart diseases particularly when it is chronic. Certain cultures encourage people to vent out anger by finding a way to express it. Such people believe that anger is a threatening factor to the harmony of the group. Andreas hitting the pillow to release anger may not be effective. It only leaves us feeling more anxious and guiltier with relieving offered being short lived. This act creates aggressiveness instead of leaving the person with more negative energy and emotions that can cause more harm.

When we allow anger to burn up in us we become physically or verbally aggressive and might regret later. Outbursts of anger like in the case of Andrea may become reinforcing and therefore habit-forming (Myers & DeWall, 2018). Anger, when used wisely and effectively, can communicate strong point and aptitude. This happens when anger is managed the right way. In the case of Andrea, it is more effective to find healthy distance or support. This will help her to slowly understand her feelings and give more insight to reasons why she became angry. Talking to a friend would be a wise idea. When we go through an agitating situation, talking it out helps us make sense of our feelings.

She could also distance herself from the situation. Talking to her boyfriend while in that mood would cause her to be verbally aggressive. Psychologists suggest that moving away from such situations reduces rumination, anger, and aggression.

According to a number of distinguished psychologists, a major purpose of the defense mechanism described by Freud is the protection of self- esteem. Give an example of how repression, reaction, formation, projection, rationalization, displacement, and denial could each be used to protect or even enhance a positive self- image.

Repression according to Freud banishes anxiety and raises feelings and wishes in the subconscious mind. He says that repression signs may appear in dreams and other times unintentional words from individuals. He says that our mind automatically represses unpleasant and painful events to protect our self- concept and reduce or avoid anxiety. Freud believed that traumatic memories are repressed by clients but may be recalled during therapy. He holds that these kinds of events become a threat to an individual's self- esteem so the hind them or tend to forget.

Reaction formation entails developing conscious self- concepts meant to cover negative and unpleasant self- concept. According to Freud, people use reaction formation to protect their self- esteem and improve the perception by public or even family members. A wife who does not care for the husband may pretend to do so to defend her self- esteem.

Another type of defense mechanism is the rationalization. This is when a person who has done a mistake defense herself or himself and why they do not need to be judged by others for what they have done. These people mostly will find circumstantial events to blame for their actions.

Projection is attributing or blaming others of one's undesirable self- concept. When for example a child is mad at her parents for something wrong they did. She may not directly tell them that she is mad, but rather blame them for being mad at her.

Displacement is the release of aggressive feelings and anger to a vulnerable target simply because the person doing it is not able to direct the anger to the actual target due to their negative self- concept or feeling of inferiority. Crooked anger and dumping are examples.

Denial, on the other hand, is the conscious or the subconscious meant by which people blind themselves to various undesirable behaviors and events. People may shut their eyes to negative behavior, events, or even places and fail to accept the reality about such issues.

Nineteen-year-old Latitia reported "although I was not at all sure I really loved my boyfriend, he coaxed me into sleeping with him. After that, I convinced myself that I really did love him" use your understanding of cognitive dissonance theory to explain why Latitia developed such positive feeling for her boyfriend. What could Latitia do in the future to ensure that her sexual behaviors are guided by her own true attitudes and desires?

According to the dissonance theory, individuals often pursue consistency in their cognition. Any time there is a conflict between behavior and attitude, change must occur to bring agreement. Most times when such a thing happens, the individual's attitude changes to accommodate the behavior. Factors that encourage dissonance are the number of dissonance belief and the particular significance attached to the belief.

It more often than not arises when an individual has to choose between attitude and behavior. In this case, Latitia faces a conflict because her behavior does not agree with her attitudes. The situation puts her in a position to change her attitude towards her boyfriend in order to live in harmony with her behavior. This is wrong and in the future it is wise that her decisions be influenced by her true feelings.

References

Myers, D. G., & DeWall, C. N. (2018). Psychology 12th Edition. New York: Worth Publishers.