Portfolio-General Introduction to Psychology

A. Psychology and I

1. What connection between or insight in certain topics has psychology

brought you? In your answer, use at least two aspects from, for
example, theories on learning, development, emotions and/or
personality. What specifically made you look at yourself, your
environment or maybe even the world/society in a different way?
There are a few topics that I have acquired a broader understanding of
since the beginning of my studies.
First of all, one of the most significant contributions of psychology is its
insight into human behaviour and learning. Theories on learning, such as
classical and operant conditioning, and developmental psychology, provide
valuable insights into how people acquire new knowledge and skills.
Classical conditioning (or Pavlovian conditioning) is a type of learning
where an organism learns to associate two stimuli. This learning is typically
involuntary and occurs through repeated pairings of the stimuli. The basic
components of classical conditioning include:
 Unconditioned Stimulus (US): This is a stimulus that naturally and
automatically triggers a response. For example, in the famous
experiment by Ivan Pavlov, food was an unconditioned stimulus
because it naturally triggered salivation in dogs.
 Unconditioned Response (UR): The unconditioned response is the
automatic and unlearned response to the unconditioned stimulus. In
Pavlov's experiment, salivating in response to food was the
unconditioned response.
 Conditioned Stimulus (CS): This is a neutral stimulus that, after being
paired with the unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned
response. In Pavlov's experiment, a bell ringing became a conditioned
stimulus when it was repeatedly presented before food.
 Conditioned Response (CR): The conditioned response is the
learned response to the conditioned stimulus. In Pavlov's experiment,
dogs learned to salivate in response to the bell ringing, which was the
conditioned response.
The key idea in classical conditioning is that the association between the
conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus results in the conditioned
stimulus alone eliciting the conditioned response.
On the other hand, Operant conditioning is a type of learning where
behaviour is modified by its consequences. Unlike classical conditioning,
which focuses on involuntary responses, operant conditioning deals with
voluntary behaviours. The fundamental concepts in operant conditioning
include:
 Reinforcement: a consequence that increases the likelihood of a
behaviour being repeated. Positive reinforcement involves adding a
desirable stimulus (e.g., giving a treat for good behaviour), while
negative reinforcement involves removing an aversive stimulus (e.g.,
fastening a seatbelt to stop an annoying alarm).
  Punishment: a consequence that decreases the likelihood of a
behaviour being repeated. Positive punishment involves adding an
aversive stimulus (e.g., giving a time-out), while negative punishment
involves removing a desirable stimulus (e.g., taking away a favourite
toy).
 Operant Behaviour: These are voluntary behaviours that are
influenced by reinforcement or punishment. The response that follows
the operant behaviour determines whether the behaviour will increase
or decrease.
 Shaping: a process of gradually reinforcing behaviours that are closer
and closer to the desired behaviour. This method is often used to train
complex behaviours.
Operant conditioning is based on the idea that consequences play a crucial
role in shaping and maintaining behaviour. Behaviours that are rewarded tend
to be repeated, while behaviours that are punished tend to be suppressed.
These theories have helped individuals and educators understand the
principles of effective teaching and learning, which can lead to improvements
in education and training methods. It allows us to recognize the importance of
reinforcement, positive feedback, and creating an optimal environment for
learning.
Secondly, psychological theories of personality, such as Freud's
psychoanalytic theory, provide a framework for self-reflection and self-
improvement.
Freud's psychoanalytic theory is the idea that unconscious forces and
conflicts, often related to sexuality and aggression, play a crucial role in
shaping human behaviour and personality. This theory also emphasizes the
role of defence mechanisms in dealing with these conflicts and the importance
of exploring the unconscious through psychoanalysis to alleviate
psychological distress.
These theories help individuals understand their own tendencies,
preferences, and behaviours. This self-awareness can lead to personal
growth and the ability to make informed choices about career paths,
relationships, and personal development.
All things considered, psychology provides valuable insights into various
aspects of human behaviour, emotions, and personality. These insights can
lead to a better understanding of oneself, one's environment, and society as a
whole, ultimately contributing to personal growth, improved relationships, and
a more informed approach to addressing societal challenges.

2. Revisit your answer from the first writing assignment in week one (the
one where you described your decision-making process regarding
deciding to go study psychology). Do you still stand by that decision?
Why do you still, or why not? Please use new personal insights about
yourself, or your new perspective on what psychology is. What do you
expect from your journey of becoming a psychologist?
At first, the answer to this question seemed straightforward, but after
revisiting my answer from week 1 and carefully considering the present, I
 came to a pretty contradictory conclusion. While still standing behind my
decision, I somehow doubt if it was the right choice.
On the one hand, I still believe in the importance of mental health and
would like to help guide others out of the misery that a troubling mental state
could be, while also expressing interest in human behaviour.
On the other hand, I have met great difficulties during the first two months
of my studies. First and foremost, I found that I underestimated how big of a
role biology plays in psychology. Therefore, as a person who did not
specialize in biology in high school and has not even opened a biology book
in the last 3 years, I am encountering some problems when I work on some
of the assignments for some of the courses. Secondly, I am enduring a severe
lack of motivation, which leads to procrastination and this whole spiral leads
me to my third point- my declining mental health. Ever since the beginning of
the academic year, my mental state has only been suffering-from a few
intense mental breakdowns and panic attacks a day to insomnia, to going
back to my unhealthy eating habits. I just cannot help but wonder if I would be
fit for a position that is responsible for the well-being of so many people.
Ultimately, if I commit to my decision to become a psychologist, it probably
would not involve behavioural psychology, rather it will be a sphere that will be
less triggering for me. For example, recently another field that I have found
fascinating is the topic of sports psychology, which is the part of psychology
that deals with the psychological factors that impact an athlete's performance
and motivation and for me that is quite amusing, just thinking about how big of
a role our mentality can play on our physical performance.
All in all, whether I stick to the journey of becoming a psychologist or opt for
a different path is something only time will be able to tell.

B. Concepts, theories and assignments

1. Give a short summary of three ideas that are related to the
psychological topics that we discussed during the course. You can use
both the book, lectures and knowledge clips as well as the workgroups,
writing assignments or ZAPs/InQuizitives. Explain why these ideas had
an impact on you or why you think they’re relevant/interesting.
While we have already learned about a variety of ideas during this course, I
would like to discuss the tree that had the biggest impact on my brain.
I would like to start with Classical conditioning. At its core classical
conditioning is a type of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus
comes to elicit a response when it is associated with a stimulus that already
produces that response. It has four components-Unconditioned stimulus (US),
Unconditioned response (UR), Conditioned stimulus (CS) and Conditioned
response (CR).
 Unconditioned stimulus (US)-the natural stimulus that automatically
triggers a response
 Unconditioned response (UR)-the unlearned response to the US
  Conditioned stimulus (CS)-a neutral stimulus that triggers a CR
when paired with the US
 Conditioned response (CR)-the learned response to the CS
Next, I would like to change the topic from learning to personality and talk
about The Big Five theory. It identifies five basic personality traits, each of
which represents a broader definition of a trait that consists of multiple facets
and it uses a continuum (from high to low) to determine a person's
personality. The core traits are:
 Openness to experience
 Conscientiousness
 Extraversion
 Agreeableness
 Neuroticism
Finally, I would like to point to Erikson's theory of human development. It
entails that human development occurs through stages, spanning from
infancy to old age, during which each of us is faced with an important
psychosocial challenge (or crisis) that should be completed during a particular
stage of the development process. The theory consists of eight stages:
 Trust vs. Mistrust- Infancy
 Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt-Toddler
 Initiative vs. Guilt-Preschool
 Industry vs. Inferiority-Childhood
 Identity vs. Role Confusion-Adolescence
 Intimacy vs. Isolation-Young adulthood
 Generativity vs. Stagnation-Middle adulthood
 Integrity vs. Despair-Old age
In conclusion, I chose these theories and ideas because I found them to be
the most interesting ones (out of the ones we have studied) in their respective
fields, even though some of them may lack empirical evidence.

2. Use your answer to the previous question. Do you see a main

theme or a link between the topics that you mentioned? Or are the
themes completely separate from each other? In which way do these
topics play a role in your own life or in society? Describe your line of
thought.
At first glance, it seems clear that the ideas I have mentioned in my answer
above belong to three distinct topics-learning, personality and human
development. Although, after taking a closer look we can notice that even
though the broader terms that these ideas are associated with are unrelated,
that does not mean that some of the concepts do not share a similar purpose.
For instance, while on the surface it may seem that Erikson's theory has
nothing to do with learning, when we dive in we can pinpoint that the main
objective of it is to learn to overcome difficult challenges in the different
stages of our lives. Therefore, we can say that there could be a connection
 between Erikson's development theory and Classical condition, as both are
somehow related to learning.
While I believe that all three concepts play a vital role in our lives, I would
say that the one that most often occurs in my life is classical conditioning. For
example, as a person who tends to oversleep a lot I rely on my alarm to wake
me up most of the mornings. After a while, the sound of alarm became a
conditioned stimulus which evoked my conditioned response (waking up).
When it comes to its role in society, we can turn to advertisements, which rely
on classical conditioning to elicit positive responses to their products from the
consumers.
The Big Five Theory also plays a crucial part in our lives, as without it we
would not be able to understand our personality, maintain and improve our
relationships, choose the right career or life path for us and just put a halt to
our personal development, in general.
On the other hand, while I do find Erikson's theory to be quite fascinating
and amusing, I do not see it playing such an important role in my life, but that
could be strictly individual since my belief in the theory is wavering due to the
lack of evidence supporting it.

C. Critical thinking, reflection and feedback

1. Do you feel like you’ve gained more experience in critical thinking?

Please have a look at the rubric regarding your portfolio. What have
you learned about critical thinking from the weekly writing
assignments? How has your understanding and skill regarding
“connection with relevant theory”, “depth of analysis”, “ability to
make connections” and “clarity of communication” in your writing
improved? And in what way did the feedback you received contribute
to this development? Illustrate this with an example of actual
feedback you received, and explain how it has helped you.
Without a doubt, I would say that while yet not perfect, my critical thinking
skills have undergone a massive improvement and in my opinion,and, in my
opinion, the biggest contributor to that achievement is the weekly writing
assignments.
Even though I ran into a few problems during the first week of writing the
assignments, after taking a closer look at the rubric in the course manual and
implementing the criteria, I found that my work has improved in multiple areas.
To begin with, after I started to use and connect my writing to relevant
theories, I found that it made my answers sound more complete and
sufficient. Moreover, it has also contributed to the depth of my analysis,
especially when it comes to “How?” and “Why?” questions. Furthermore, the
ability to make connections and link concepts together has led to a higher
quality of writing and has further improved my already clear communication.
The feedback has been the other fundamental building block responsible
for bettering my critical skills. The first example that comes to mind is from
week 3, where my peer mentioned that I did not elaborate enough on the
“Why?” questions, which resulted in me paying more attention to this area of
the next assignment and doing a better job. To my mind, the peer feedback
was the most helpful part of the course as it provided insight into other
students' minds and allowed us to have a safe space where we could help
one another.
All in all, without both writing assignments and peer feedback, I highly
doubt that my critical thinking skills would be anywhere nearly as developed
as they currently are.

2. Pick a theory (or process/concept) that you’re critical about. Explain

why you think the theory or parts of it aren’t completely convincing.
In making your argument, you can use both the literature as well as
your own ideas. Pay attention to all four terms of the rubric and make
use of scientific ideas or findings in your answer.
One theory that has been widely discussed and has generated significant
debate in psychology and cognitive science is the "Multiple Intelligences"
theory proposed by Howard Gardner. While this theory suggests that there
are multiple distinct forms of intelligence, such as linguistic, logical-
mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal,
and potentially more, I find several aspects of this theory not completely
convincing.
Firstly, The Multiple Intelligences theory lacks strong empirical evidence to
support its claims. Gardner's theory has not been consistently validated
through rigorous scientific research. Traditional psychometric measures of
intelligence, such as IQ tests, have shown better predictive validity for various
real-world outcomes like academic and job performance. In comparison, the
evidence for the existence of distinct intelligences proposed by Gardner is
relatively weak.
Secondly, the theory is criticized for its cultural bias and lack of universality.
Gardner's model appears to be influenced by Western cultural values and
expectations, which may not be applicable to individuals from different cultural
backgrounds. What is considered a form of intelligence in one culture might
not be recognized as such in another.
Moreover, the idea of distinct intelligence in Gardner's theory can be
criticized for not adequately accounting for the overlap and interplay between
various cognitive abilities. It's not always clear how to differentiate between
these proposed intelligences, and individuals often demonstrate competence
in multiple areas simultaneously.
Additionally, Gardner's theory lacks clear operational definitions of what
constitutes each "intelligence." This lack of specificity makes it challenging to
apply the theory consistently and reliably in research and education. For
example, the definitions of "musical intelligence" or "bodily-kinesthetic
intelligence" can be vague and subject to interpretation.
All things considered, while the Multiple Intelligences theory introduced an
interesting perspective on intelligence and has had some influence in
education, it is not entirely convincing due to the lack of robust empirical
 support, cultural bias, vague definitions, and practical limitations. Traditional
intelligence models, such as the general intelligence (g-factor) theory,
continue to be more widely accepted in the scientific community due to their
stronger empirical foundations and predictive power.

D. General Introduction in Practice

1. One of the things you’ve learned from General Introduction to

Psychology, is to look at concepts from different perspectives.
Where in the past a lot of theories revolved around just one
perspective (such as biology and genetics or childhood upbringing
and environment), the biopsychosocial model nowadays is the main
starting point. Pick one of the concepts or topics within psychology
that speaks to you the most and approach it from the perspective of
the biopsychosocial model. What is there to say about your chosen
subject from the perspective of biology? And from a psychological
and a social perspective? Which theories related to your topic are
most valuable? Or is there still a lot of unknown ground to cover? In
your answer, use at least one theory or concept for each perspective.
I would like to discuss the topic of stress, as it is the one I am most often
experiencing currently.
Before all else, from a biological standpoint, stress can be understood as a
physiological response to perceived threats or challenges. The General
Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), proposed by Hans Selye, is a valuable theory in
this context. It describes the body's response to stress in three stages: alarm,
resistance, and exhaustion. This model emphasizes the role of the adrenal
glands, hormones (cortisol), and the autonomic nervous system in the body's
biological response to stress. Additionally, research in genetics has shown
that individuals may have genetic predispositions that make them more or
less resilient to stress.
On a psychological level stress is closely linked to cognitive and emotional
processes. The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, developed by
Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman, suggests that stress is a result of the
transaction between an individual's appraisal of a situation and their coping
resources. This model emphasizes that how a person perceives and
interprets stressors plays a crucial role in determining their psychological
response. Moreover, the Psychosocial Stress Model highlights how
psychological factors such as personality traits, attitudes, and coping
strategies can influence an individual's susceptibility to stress-related health
problems.
Lastly, from a social perspective, stress is influenced by a variety of
external factors, such as social support, socioeconomic status, and cultural
norms. The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) developed by Thomas
Holmes and Richard Rahe quantifies life events and their potential for causing
stress. It illustrates how significant life changes, often influenced by social
 factors, can contribute to stress. Furthermore, The Social-Ecological Model
emphasizes that stressors are embedded within larger social systems, and
the interaction between an individual and their environment can lead to stress.
In addition, The Minority Stress Model, particularly relevant in the context of
marginalized groups, highlights how social stressors related to discrimination,
prejudice, and stigma can result in increased stress levels and adverse health
outcomes among these individuals.
While there has been significant progress in understanding the biological,
psychological, and social aspects of stress, it's important to note that stress is
a highly individualized and dynamic phenomenon. Researchers continue to
explore the interplay between these perspectives, with new studies delving
into areas such as epigenetics and the impact of chronic stress on overall
health. Furthermore, the ever-evolving societal and technological changes
create new stressors that researchers are still working to fully comprehend
within the biopsychosocial framework.

2. Which of the three perspectives of the biopsychosocial model

regarding the topic you picked in your answer above speaks to you
the most? Why?
To my mind, when considering the biopsychosocial model in the context of
stress, the psychological perspective is particularly compelling due to its
emphasis on individual perceptions, coping strategies, and the potential for
personal growth. Stress is recognized as a deeply subjective experience,
influenced by an individual's mind-set, emotions, and behavioural responses.
This perspective offers practical tools for individuals to manage and mitigate
stress, aligning with the holistic approach to well-being. While the biological
and social perspectives are crucial, the psychological perspective's focus on
individual agency and coping mechanisms often resonates with those seeking
to improve their mental health and overall well-being in the face of stress.

References
All information and references are taken from the book Psychological
Science (7th Edition).