6 Fascinating Theories from the Field of Psychology
The field of psychology has been a fantastic asset to humankind since it began. From that time forward, we’ve grown to bolster our understanding of the human mind and its workings. We now know the importance of maintaining good mental health and how it affects society overall. Most importantly, we realize that there’s much more to learn.
Socioemotional Selectivity Theory
Humans modify their goals as they get older
- When people are younger, they view time as an open-ended entity
- They prioritize goals based on the future
- As we grow older, we see time as a limitation
- Our goals tend to become more focused on emotional gratification and the present day
- Older people seek out more meaningful experiences
Zeigarnik Effect
During the 1920s, a Russian psychologist named Bluma Zeiarnik noticed something while sitting in a Vietnamese diner.
- Waiters could easily remember the orders for customers who had not received and paid for their food, yet, after the food was served and the check was paid, the waiters couldn’t seem to remember anything about the orders.
Recency Effect
In a 1962 paper by Bennet Murdock, he discovered that the probability of a remembered word was dependent upon where it was positioned in the list.
- While psychologists have studied this effect for several years, social psychologists are now beginning to explore the ordering of information and the effects on how we perceive others.
Elaboration Likelihood Model
This theory seeks to explain why people are persuaded to change their views about certain topics.
- Whenever elaboration reaches a higher level, people are more apt to think things over carefully than with lower levels of elaboration, where they might decide quicker with less thought.
Proximal Development Zones
Lev Vygotsky believed that standardized tests were inadequate in assessing a child’s learning readiness
- While a certain amount of knowledge is naturally gained from exposure and maturity, other knowledge depends on the social interaction with a teacher or mentor
- A potential learner was closest to developing new knowledge and skills while within the proper zone of proximal development
- When this occurs, the student only requires minimal encouragement and assistance
Mere Exposure Effect
Robert Zajonc’s hypothesis: When people are exposed to something regularly, they will eventually come to like it
- People don’t need a positive outcome or reward to like something, just exposure
- Experiments showed that words that were spoken most often were liked the most