The definition and study of human intelligence is a subject that has attracted its fair share of controversy over the years. This is largely because there’s no consensus in how intelligence is defined. For example, while some scholars attribute practical problem solving skills, verbal ability and social competence as measures of intelligence, others include adaptability…
Category: Psychology
Critical Analysis of Colleen Burke’s ‘Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: A Metaphor of Jungian Psychology’
The article by Colleen Burke titled Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: A Metaphor of Jungian Psychology is well written, insightful and instructive. The author draws on parallels between the works of two great intellectuals in the form of Joseph Conrad and Carl Gustav Jung. Although Conrad and Jung were not contemporaries, one could see striking…
The Hite Report (1976): A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality
Shere Hite is one of the most influential and controversial figures in sociology scholarship of the last half century. It won’t be an exaggeration to suggest that she is one of the most quoted authors in feminist scholarship; and her most famous work The Hite Report is even popular among lay readers. The Hite Report:…
Developmental Psychopathology in Psychological Theorizing
It was learnt in the lessons that there are three basic frameworks for understanding human behaviour. Under the systems approach to human behaviour, psychologists have so far identified two prominent frameworks. The Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model (also referred as bio-ecological model) focuses on systems and human development. The bio-ecological model is derived out of developmental psychology. …
How can Applied Psychology help make societies more peaceful?
There is tremendous scope within the field of applied psychology in making societies more peaceful. As Ian Harris’ insightful article titled Peace Education in a Violent Culture clearly illustrates, increasing rates of crime and violence in urban societies can be moderated through the dispensation of Peace Education in schools. As the recent campus shootout in…
A vignette on Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is one of the disciplines in psychology that focuses on studying internal mental processes. How individuals perceive, conceive, recall from memory, articulate their views and arrive at conclusions, etc, are all studied. As opposed to Freudian psychology, Cognitive psychology adopts a scientific analytic method rather than introspective or speculative theorizing. At the outset,…
The benefits of Tai Chi practice, especially for the aging population
Tai Chi Chuan (usually shortened to Tai Chi) is a traditional Chinese practice, that involves both physical and mental exercise. Compared to popular martial arts such as Karate and Kung-Fu, Tai Chi is a slow motion stretching and boxing routine. “Instead of focusing on quick, powerful, and vigorous movements for self-defense or attacking actions like…
Minority parents and child discipline
Parenting styles have always varied from one culture to another. And despite a degree of homogenization due to large-scale migrations in the 20th century, cultural roots of families continue to bear upon how children are raised. In the United States, for example, parents from minority ethnicities tend to hold their children to a different standard…
Key lifespan developmental issues in The Cider House Rules
Cider House Rules is a 1999 film produced by Richard Gladstein & co. Adapted from a novel of the same name by John Irving, the film garnered both commercial as well as critical success. The movie is of special relevance to American audiences, for it deals with the subject of abortion which has been a…
Piaget and Kohlberg on Moral Development
Both Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg have made vital contributions to the study of human psychology, especially pertaining to the development of children. One aspect of the child psychology elaborated by both theorists is their moral development. While Piaget is the modern pioneer in the subject, his predecessor Kohlberg extended and modified the former’s theories…